The agreement forced upon King John by the English
barons on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede, England, that stripped many powers from the
king in favor of the barons. The barons created a group of 25 of their number, the forerunner of the first English parliament founded fifty years later. The innovation in the charter was that one of the baronâs number could make a complaint to at least four of the twenty five, who would then determine of their complaint against the king was valid. If it was found to be so, then the king had forty days to correct the âinjusticeâ, after which the barons would seize such property of His Majesty and the Royal family as deemed necessary for redress. The charter layed the foundation for the first constitutional monarchy wherein the kingâs heretofore legally limitless powers were formally checked by another political body. In ordinary
feudal systems , the power of the king was checked not by a formal political mechanism but by the power of the great Royal
Peers , whose support in political and military affairs he required to maintain authority and legitimacy.-
Complete Text
