Hello, welcome to History here at Oak National Academy.

I'm Mr. Newton, I've got another great lesson lined up for you today, and I can't wait to get started talking about Magna Carta once more.

So let's get started.

Over the next few lessons, we will be thinking about our big inquiry question, Magna Carta, how did Magna Carta survive? It's also known as the Great Charter, and it was a very important document in English and world history.

Magna Carta starts a process which many consider to be the birth of freedom, a process that will change the power of monarchy forever.

We have seen how King John was considered to be the model of a bad king, and his actions had begun tensions, which will eventually lead to a crisis and the emergence of Magna Carta.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe the key contents of Magna Carta.

Before we begin, there are a few key words we need to understand.

Radical is believing or expressing extreme change.

A seal is a wax mould attached to written documents to prove it is from a specific person.

Magna Carta was a document that limited the power of the king and granted certain freedoms to some English people.

A clause is a particular part of a written legal document, and the rule of law is a set of laws that's everyone, including the king must obey.

So today's lesson has two parts, and we will start with John's disagreements with the church.

King John's disagreement with the church.

Now, King John had proven to be the model of a bad king.

By 1204, John had raised very high taxes for a war only to run away from the French army.

The barons were furious and John had lost a third of his lands.

It was in his disagreement with the church, however, that John caused the most fury, Pope Innocent III.

When the Archbishop of Canterbury died in 1205, Pope Innocent III nominated his old friend Steven Langton, for the position like his father, John wanted to increase his power over the church and refused to appoint Langton.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding here.

King John wanted Stephen Langton to be Archbishop of Canterbury.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was false.

So now I want you to justify your answer.

Is it false because A, John appointed Innocent III for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury, or B, John refused to appoint the Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that it was B, John refused to appoint the Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pope Innocent III was furious of John's refusal to appoint Langton.

Innocent III excommunicated John and imposed an interdict on England.

An interdict was a law which closed the church in England.

This meant that no English church, such as the church shown in the image, could celebrate religious services, baptisms, marriages, or funerals.

Church leaders in England were furious with John and English people were deeply worried because they feared this meant they would not get a place in Heaven.

Okay, let's have another check.

What action did Pope Innocent II take in response to John's continued refusal to appoint Langton? Is it A? He accepted John's refusal.

B, he made Philip II the King of England, C, he excommunicated John, pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was C.

Yes, the Pope excommunicated John.

Okay, let's have another check.

What impact did the interdict have on England? Select two correct answers.

A, It's closed the church in England.

B, it's increased religious services in England.

C, people were worried it would lead to a shortage of priests.

D, People were worried they would not get a place in Heaven.

Select two correct answers and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was A, it's closed the church in England and D, people were worried they would not get a place in Heaven.

Okay, let's continue the story.

John was ordered to publicly submit to the Pope.

Now for a while, John, actually the church, it was only in 1213 when the Pope seemed to be encouraging the King of France Phillip II to invade England that John gave in.

He was forced to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, but most humiliatingly John was ordered to publicly submit to the Pope.

Look at the image.

We can see King John surrendering his crown to the Pope's representative who is seated.

In doing this, the Pope became the overlord of John and England.

The barons were furious.

John's actions were too much for the Barons.

The combination of military failure, high taxes, arrogant leadership, and humiliation before the Pope had convinced them that only radical action could stop a king who was behaving like John.

In 1215, the Barons took up arms. They prepared to fight against their king.

Okay, here's another question.

What was humiliating about John publicly submitting to the Pope? Select one correct answer.

Was it A, the Archbishop of Canterbury became overlord of England.

B, the archbishop of Canter became overlord of John, C, The Pope became the overlord of John and England, or D, The Pope became John's personal advisor? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew the answer was C, the Pope became the overlord of John and England.

Here's another question.

How did Barons respond to John's dealings with the church? A, they accepted that John was a radical king and did nothing.

B, they were angered and radically decided to take up arms or C, they were angered, but were powerless to take action, pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, they were angered and radically decided to take up arms. Okay, let's move on to task A.

What I want you to do is write a paragraph that explains why the Barons decided to take radical action against King John.

Here's a list of things that Barons were angry about.

Interdict.

The Pope as overlord, which is very humiliating, military failures and taxes, have a go at that task and come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's check your answer against what I've written here.

Your answer may include some of these points, but you may have some of your own points.

John's disagreements with the church led to the Pope becoming the overlord of John and England.

This greatly angered the Barons, the combination of military failure, high taxes, and humiliation before the Pope had convinced them that only radical action could stop a king who was behaving like John.

In 1215, the Barons prepared to fight against their king.

Okay, so we've now covered the fact that John had a disagreement with the church and is greatly angered the barons.

Now let's move on to the second part of the lesson where we will see the emergence of this important document, Magna Carta in 1215.

The Barons were led by the radical Robert Fitzwalter.

Now, John had made it perfectly clear to his barons that he would not reduce taxes, listen to advice, or give into their demands unless he were forced to do so.

Robert Fitzwalter wanted radical action to be taken.

We can see his seal on the slide showing him to be a powerful warrior on horseback, Fitzwalter, and the other barons raised their own army and now marched upon the king in London.

This uprising against the authority of the king soon spread across England.

It became clear that John would not be able to defeat his opposition.

He was forced to make peace and compromise.

John backed down in order to reach an agreement.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Now, what I want you to do here is fill in the missing words.

Use the words below to complete the text underneath, and you can see I've given you three words and you've got a piece of text to fill in the blanks.

Have a go at that and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew these answers.

So it's the Barons led by the radical Robert Fitzwalter had raised their own army, this uprising against the king, soon spread across England.

John was forced to make peace and compromise.

Okay, let's continue the story.

John met the rebels in an open field at Runnymede.

We can see a photo of Runnymede on the slide.

Today, there is a memorial to mark the place where King John met the rebel barons.

This is not far from Windsor Castle.

There on the 15th of June, 1215, he was presented with a document.

King John sealed Magna Carta in 1215.

Now, Magna Carta was drawn up by the rebellious barons, helped by Stephen Langton, the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

The document came to be known as Magna Carta or Great Charter, largely because of its length.

It contained 63 clauses or promises, which the king would have to make to his barons.

The core requirements of Magna Carta was that the king would have to limit his powers.

A modern misconception is that King John signed Magna Carta, and you can see the image on the slide there.

The king appears to be signing Magna Carta.

However, this is untrue.

Royal documents were not signed, but they were sealed.

And you can see I've placed a seal in the king's hands.

We can also now see an example of a seal attached to Magna Carta.

King John's great seal of England.

A seal is a wax mould attached to written documents to prove it is from a specific person.

The great seal of England, when attached to a document would prove it was from the king and that he approved what was written.

Given that John was outnumbered at Runnymede and with nowhere to turn, he had no choice but to agree to the promises forced upon him by the barons, the Great seal of England, a symbol of royal authority was attached to their document and Magna Carta became law.

Let's have a look at some of Magna Carta's 63 clauses.

The first one here is the church should be free from the king's interference.

Here's another clause.

The king cannot raise taxes without the baron's agreement.

No free man can be imprisoned unless they are judged by their peers.

And the final clause that we are looking at here is if the king broke his promises, a council of baron's could take away his land, castles, and goods, and these became known as the security clauses.

So I think we can see then that these clauses or promises are essentially that the king would have to limit his powers.

Now, in some ways, the clauses represented promises already made by past kings, the first clause, for example, that the church should be free from the king's interference.

Other clauses made the king promise not to raise taxes without the advice and agreement of his barons.

Now, some historians get especially excited about the clause which stated that no free man, that is everyone who was free from feudal ties to the land and Lord, that no free man could be imprisoned or could have their possessions taken away unless they are judged by their peers.

This promise is what many believe was the start of basic human rights.

Other clauses still were shockingly radical.

Clauses 52 and 61 came to be known as the security clauses.

If John broke any of his promises, a council of 25 barons was given the power to take away his land, castles and goods.

This was extraordinary because it suggested that real power lay not with the king, but with the barons.

Magna Carta granted freedoms to barons, bishops and freemen, but not to peasants.

However, it represented a genuinely radical step in the development of the English justice system.

As the system of laws which aim to treat people fairly for it declared that no individual, not even the king, was above the law.

This is often termed the rule of law that everyone must obey the rule of law even the king.

Have a look at the feudal pyramid on the left.

Here, we can imagine the rule of law like this.

This was very radical.

The feudal system meant the rule of king, but Magna Carta suggested the rule of law that it was the rule of law, which is at the top of the pyramid and not the king.

Magna Carta and the rule of law set a standard or an example for freedom going forward.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding true or false.

King John forced the barons to agree to Magna Carta in 1215.

True or false? Pause the video and have a thing.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was false, but why is that false? What is your justification for that answer? Is it because A, Steven Langton persuaded John to agree to the barons' demands or was it B, that John was forced to agree to the barons' demands or face defeat by their army? Pause the video and have a think and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, John was forced to agree to the barons demands or face to defeat by their army.

Okay, let's have another question here.

Magna Carta included a clause which many considered a birth of what? A, basic feudal rights.

B, basic human rights, C, basic mono rights.

Pause the video, have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, basic human rights.

Okay, let's have another question here.

Why were the security clauses seen as radical? Was it A, they granted the king extra powers which could be used against the barons.

B, they granted the king extra security, but gave little to the barons.

Or C, they granted the barons extra powers, which could be used against the king.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was C, they granted the barons extra powers, which could then be used against the king.

Okay, let's move on to the first part of task B.

What I want you to do here is match the correct words to complete the sentences, so you can see the sentences are on the right, need to be completed by the words that are on the left.

Pause the video, have a go at the task.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's have a look at those answers.

So the first sentence was, in total the number of clauses Magna Carta contained was 63.

The next sentence, the first clause was that the church should be free of the king's interference.

The next sentence, clause 52 and 61 are known as the security clauses.

And the last sentence there, John met the barons at Runnymede in 1215.

Okay, let's move on to the second part of task B.

Also, I want you now to do is complete the following sentence starters.

So you can see I've given you four sentences which are incomplete, and I want you to complete them.

Pause the video and have a go at the task.

Okay, welcome back and well done for having a go at that task.

So there are many ways you could have completed the sentences.

Let's have a look at what I've got here.

For sentence A, the Magna Carta clause is generally aimed to limit the powers of the king.

Okay, let's look at sentence starter B.

Many believe Magna Carta was the starter of basic human rights because of the clause, which stated that no free man could be imprisoned unless they are judged by their peers.

Okay, let's move on to sentence starter C.

The security clauses were radical because if John broke any of his promises, a council of 25 barons was given the power to take away his lands and castles.

This suggested that real power laid not with the king, but with the barons.

And the last sentence here is the rule of law is the idea that no individual, not even the king, was above the law.

That everyone must obey the rule of law, even the king, it sets a standard for freedom going forward.

Okay, let's summarise today's lesson 1215 and Magna Carta.

John's dealings with the church angered the barons.

The barons rose up against John, led by Robert Fitzwalter.

John was forced to accept the Barons demands set out in Magna Carta.

The 63 clauses of the Magna Carta included one which many consider the start of basic human rights.

Another clause protected the church from interference by the king.

Magna Carta included a radical clause which suggested power lay not with the king, but with the barons.

Well done on a brilliant lesson and thank you for joining me for this fascinating story of the emergence of Magna Carta.

I'll see you next time when we investigate how this great charter can survive.

See you in the next lesson.