Author(s): Danny Danziger, John Gillingham, Danny Danziger

Non-Fiction

On the 15th June 1215, rebel barons forced King John to meet them at Runnymede. They did not trust the King, so he was not allowed to leave until his seal was attached to the charter in front of him. This was Magna Carta. It was a revolutionary document. Never before had royal authority been so fundamentally challenged. Nearly 800 years later, two of the charter's 63 clauses are still a ringing expression for freedom of mankind: "to no-one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice" and "no free man shall be taken or imprisoned or in any way ruined, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land". This title explores what it was like to be alive in that momentous year. Political power struggles are interwoven with other issues - fashion, food, education, medicine, religion, and sex. Whether describing matters of state or domestic life, this title gives an insight into the medieval world.