[MUSIC] We've seen what Magna Carta said, and we've also seen how it was made and how it came to be made permanent. In the early years of the boy King Henry III. How may we sum up its achievement? And what an extraordinary document it is as we've seen. A longish document of some 63 clauses. [...] rather shorter in the later reissues. But still quite a long document. Many of those clauses rather obscure. We have to remember that it offered a solution to people's problems at the time. Magna Carta was a product of its time. And the things that bothered people then, are not the things that bother people today. So to us it seems, perhaps, rather obscure. But it lasted. It's become one of the most influential documents in the history of the English speaking world. It's become iconic. If Helen of Troy's face was the face that launched a thousand ships, Magna Carta has launched a thousand imitators, it has spawned an enormous progeny. From the Charter to the Virginia Company in the 17th century, through the American Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the 18th century. To all the constitutions of the Commonwealth countries that gained independence from us in the 20th century. All of them directly or indirectly owe something, sometimes quite directly, to the principles of Magna Carta. So how do we account for its enormous importance? Its lasting power. Well I suppose the first and most obvious thing we have to say is that amidst all the very detailed clauses which we've talked about, it affirms certain overarching principles that are fundamental to our understanding of human rights today. We've talked about the clause that lays down the principle of ascent to taxation, but the most famous clauses of course, are clauses 39 and 40. Two of the few clauses still on our statute book today. Clause 39, no free man shall be imprisoned or disseized against the law of the land or without the judgement of his peers. And clause 40, to no one shall we sell, delay, or deny right or justice. These clauses are fundamental. They are timeless. They resonate over the centuries. But there's a second point I think we need to make, and that is that Magna Carta has survived. We saw it had difficult birth pangs and let us say, it was not unique to begin with. Charters of liberties were granted by kings to their subjects in a number of other parts of Europe in the early 13th century. So there is a European context to the making of Magna Carta, it was not a uniquely English thing, but what is unique is that it survived. Eventually, all those other charters of liberties in other parts of Europe fell by the wayside. But as a result of a reissue of 1225, as a result of the events of the minority years of the reign of young King Henry III, Magna Carta survived and it became permanent. The first statute on our statute book. And it came to mean all things to all men. To high constitutionalists in later centuries, it meant the establishment of the principle of the rule of law, the foundation of every civilized state. On the other hand, to political radicals like the Diggers in the 17th century, it meant the legitimization of rebellion. Magna Carta legitimized rebellion and occupation. Whatever your position, Magna Carta could legitimize it. Magna Carta became the property of all Englishmen. And when England in the 18th century became Britain, it became the property of all Britains. And when later still in the 19th Century, Britain gave birth to a great empire, all those parts of the world colored red in the atlases of 50 to 100 years ago. It became the property of all of those people as well. It became the property of parts of the British Empire that broke away. It became the property of Americans. Magna Carta was claimed, was owned by everyone all over the world. Which is why students studying, watching this online course all over the world, are learning about Magna Carta today.
