0:00:02 > 0:00:04RAUCOUS CROWD NOISE
0:00:06 > 0:00:07Relations between estate
0:00:07 > 0:00:10and its people can all too easily break down,
0:00:10 > 0:00:15from bickering to riot, from anarchy to bloody revolution.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20The rulers, whether they call themselves kings and emperors
0:00:20 > 0:00:23or presidents and prime ministers, are arrogant,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27power-grabbing and often corrupt, while we, the ruled,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30can be disorderly, irrational and bloody-minded.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38But, 800 years ago in England, one such crisis -
0:00:38 > 0:00:41local, limited, particular -
0:00:41 > 0:00:45threw up a document that has become a kind of universal model,
0:00:45 > 0:00:47a sort of blueprint.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54They didn't get it right first time, but constantly revisited
0:00:54 > 0:00:59and readjusted, it has become a working constitution.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04Its words still retain their power to quicken the blood, with ideas
0:01:04 > 0:01:09to keep governments in check and fill autocratic regimes with fear.
0:01:10 > 0:01:17It's called Magna Carta, and it matters as much now as then.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22More indeed, perhaps, as we have forgotten so many of its lessons.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53This is the River Thames,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57and I'm travelling upstream from east to west.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00STEAM WHISTLE BLOWS
0:02:03 > 0:02:07I'm on this lovely pleasure steamer, and nowadays, indeed,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10the river is largely a tourist attraction.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19But back in the Middle Ages, it was the superhighway of England.
0:02:21 > 0:02:28It's the summer of 1215, and England is bitterly divided about how
0:02:28 > 0:02:31it should be governed and, indeed, who should govern it.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35It's what we might call a constitutional crisis.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40But it has gone beyond words to the very brink of civil war.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Back there, some 20 miles downstream,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47is the barons' main camp in London.
0:02:47 > 0:02:53And over there, some five miles upstream, is the King's camp
0:02:53 > 0:02:57in the magnificent, almost impregnable fortress
0:02:57 > 0:02:58of Windsor Castle.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04And here is Runnymede.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18"A new state of things has begun in England,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22"such a strange affair as had never before been heard,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25"for the body wished to rule the head
0:03:25 > 0:03:30"and the people desired to be masters over the King."
0:03:30 > 0:03:34So wrote a monk who witnessed the tense confrontations on these
0:03:34 > 0:03:39watery meadows between King John and his rebellious barons.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44This stand-off is the very stuff of school history lessons.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48In fact, it was just the midpoint of a bitter power struggle that
0:03:48 > 0:03:51would threaten to tear England apart
0:03:51 > 0:03:54and one that had started several years earlier.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03England in the 13th century.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08Contrary to our popular perception, this is not some dark age -
0:04:08 > 0:04:09quite the reverse.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15England is ruled by tiny strips of parchment with
0:04:15 > 0:04:17a government of writing and sealing.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24It has seen an enormous explosion in sophisticated law, offering
0:04:24 > 0:04:30justice, settling disputes, dealing with an increasingly complex world.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36But it is this almost insatiable demand for a fairer society
0:04:36 > 0:04:40that will bring people to conflict with their monarch, King John.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44To offer justice is one of the fundamental
0:04:44 > 0:04:47responsibilities of kingship.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49And it was one that John,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54whose tutor had been a leading judge, found especially congenial.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57It was also something that people wanted.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02However, law and justice are a two-edged sword.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04They're a vital necessity.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09On the other hand, they can be so easily perverted into a means
0:05:09 > 0:05:14for the King to exercise excessive and arbitrary power
0:05:14 > 0:05:18and to delve excessively into his subjects' pockets.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26And King John certainly knew how to abuse power.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31A ruthless megalomaniac, he was accused of murdering his nephew
0:05:31 > 0:05:35and dishonouring his noblemen's wives.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38By all accounts, he was a bad king.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40For most monastic chroniclers,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45John was the very measure of human depravity.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"Foul as it is," one declared,
0:05:48 > 0:05:53"hell itself was defiled by the foulness of John."
0:06:04 > 0:06:10John's many defects of character - his violent rages, his lusts
0:06:10 > 0:06:15and his shifty unreliability - also damaged relations with his barons.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20But their principal grievance was to be financial.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24John wanted to regain a great continental empire
0:06:24 > 0:06:27he had inherited but lost.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31The expenditure needed would be enormous.
0:06:31 > 0:06:37From 1206, and following the loss of most of his lands in France,
0:06:37 > 0:06:43John concentrated on England and on raising and hoarding cash.
0:06:43 > 0:06:49He targeted everybody - nobles and townsmen, Jews and the Church -
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and he used any and every means.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55He was astonishingly successful.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58He doubled royal revenue and more,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03and by 1212, he had accumulated a gigantic cash hoard
0:07:03 > 0:07:10of at least £132,000 in coin, in castle treasuries.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13And then he blew the lot.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22In the summer of 1212, John lodged an ambitious counterattack
0:07:22 > 0:07:27against King Philip Augustus to recapture his lands in France.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30But it ended in disaster.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35HORSE WHINNIES
0:07:37 > 0:07:42At Bouvines, north of Paris, in the summer of 1214,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46John's allies were comprehensively put to flight by the French king.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Very few medieval battles resulted in complete rout,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54but this was one of them.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01A weakened and impoverished King John returned home
0:08:01 > 0:08:08to find his realm in disarray, his angry barons now in open revolt.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14This is where the real novelty of 1215 began.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18There had been plenty of earlier revolts against royal misgovernment,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21but they had taken the form of rebellions in favour
0:08:21 > 0:08:23of rival claimants to the throne.
0:08:23 > 0:08:29In this winter of 1214-15, however, there were no such rival claimants,
0:08:29 > 0:08:34and John's opponents risked being rebels without a cause.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41Instead, they took the revolutionary step of rebelling
0:08:41 > 0:08:45not in the name of a person, but of an idea.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Led by Robert Fitzwalter,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55the self-styled Marshal of the Army of God, the barons decided
0:08:55 > 0:09:00they would demand the King restore their ancient rights and liberties.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04There were precedents, and talk turned to the
0:09:04 > 0:09:10Charter of Liberties granted by Henry I over 100 years previously.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13It seemed the perfect solution.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22Armed and ready for war, in early January 1215, the barons went to
0:09:22 > 0:09:26confront John about their grievances at the Temple Church in London.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31John was there under the protection of the immensely rich,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36immensely powerful crusading order of the Knights Templar.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42The barons entered and demanded John agree to Henry I's
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Charter of Liberties and reaffirm by oath their ancient freedoms.
0:09:48 > 0:09:49He refused.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52According to one chronicler, he angrily declared he would
0:09:52 > 0:09:56never grant them liberties that would render him their slave.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02John countered with an oath of his own, by requiring his barons to
0:10:02 > 0:10:05reswear their traditional oath of allegiance,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07but with an extra clause -
0:10:07 > 0:10:14to follow him not only against all men, but also against the Charter.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The two sides were now further apart than ever.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Both now manoeuvred for advantage.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28John appealed to Rome, the barons hit back.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32They renounced their allegiance to the throne on the 5th of May.
0:10:32 > 0:10:38And 12 days later, their forces took London. This was decisive.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43The loss of his capital forced John into serious negotiation...
0:10:43 > 0:10:45and to Runnymede.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50The watery meadows were a convenient midway point
0:10:50 > 0:10:52between the two rival forces.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57But places between two armed camps,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02each bitterly hostile to the other, risked becoming battlefields.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Runnymede was chosen precisely because it couldn't,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10as the surrounding land was and, indeed, still... Damn!
0:11:10 > 0:11:14..is too wet and too boggy.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18HORSE NEIGHS
0:11:21 > 0:11:24There wasn't just one meeting at Runnymede,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28but several, as the two sides negotiated terms.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34By 10th June, a draft document, not yet Magna Carta
0:11:34 > 0:11:37but an outline settlement, was drawn up.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44The King then confirmed the settlement, known as the
0:11:44 > 0:11:49Articles of the Barons, by ordering his Great Seal to be fixed to it.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00And here it is - the very document.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04It is headed, "These are the articles which the barons seek
0:12:04 > 0:12:07"and the King agrees."
0:12:07 > 0:12:11And to show, indeed, to guarantee that the King had agreed to it,
0:12:11 > 0:12:16here is his Great Seal, with the King sitting in majesty.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Now, most of the articles are arranged like a shopping list.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25They are written very tersely, like a telegram or a tweet,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29so that the lines are only half a dozen or a dozen words long.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33Now, the barons' demands are very prominent,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37but equally, these articles show just how much further the barons
0:12:37 > 0:12:41had had to go in appealing outside their own ranks,
0:12:41 > 0:12:46promising justice not only to the barons but to all free men.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Well, there's an article that deals with that.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53In other words, even in this sort of sketch form,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55this series of notes of a committee,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59the embryo of Magna Carta shows us that it is so much more
0:12:59 > 0:13:04than just an appeal to narrow, aristocratic self-interest.
0:13:09 > 0:13:15So what actually did happen on that famous day of 15th June 1215?
0:13:15 > 0:13:19It's the date that textbooks celebrate as the signing
0:13:19 > 0:13:21of Magna Carta.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Except that it wasn't.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26John didn't sign the Charter.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29There is no evidence that the King could write,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33and, in any case, royal documents weren't authenticated with
0:13:33 > 0:13:37the King's signature, but with his seal.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Probably, indeed, to complete the demolition
0:13:39 > 0:13:44of the traditional picture, on 15th June 1215,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47there wasn't even a charter to sign.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52No original sealed copy of Magna Carta survives
0:13:52 > 0:13:55and there is no evidence that one ever existed.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00Instead, what happened on 15th June was a binding agreement,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05solemn on both sides between the King and the barons, that the King
0:14:05 > 0:14:10would issue Magna Carta and that the barons would swear fealty in return.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23The Articles of the Barons were then quickly transformed
0:14:23 > 0:14:27from a rough shopping list into a smooth, continuous,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30unambiguous legal form to become...
0:14:32 > 0:14:34..Magna Carta, the Great Charter.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42In a dense, almost impenetrable Latin text,
0:14:42 > 0:14:48some 4,000 words were squeezed just onto one membrane of parchment
0:14:48 > 0:14:51made from dried and smoothed sheepskin.
0:14:53 > 0:14:5813 copies were produced to be circulated across the realm.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04For the barons, the clauses that really mattered in Magna Carta
0:15:04 > 0:15:09dealt with the inheritance, marriages and ownership of land.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13These may seem remote now, but they established what
0:15:13 > 0:15:17half the world, from Russia to China, still lacks -
0:15:17 > 0:15:22that the state can't help itself to private property at will.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27And then there are the famous clauses which best have come
0:15:27 > 0:15:32to symbolise the universal freedoms promised by Magna Carta -
0:15:32 > 0:15:35clauses 39 and 40.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54"or stripped of his rights or possessions,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59"or outlawed or exiled or deprived of his standing in any other way,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04"nor will we proceed with force against him or send others to do so,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"except by the lawful judgment of his equals
0:16:07 > 0:16:10"or by the law of the land.
0:16:10 > 0:16:17"To no-one will we sell, to no-one deny or delay right or justice."
0:16:18 > 0:16:24There was, indeed, there is, something here that really matters.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28The sense that Magna Carta protects
0:16:28 > 0:16:33and defines those three key fundamental freedoms of the
0:16:33 > 0:16:39Anglo-Saxon world - life, liberty and property - is spot on.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49With the 800th anniversary, the British Library is mounting
0:16:49 > 0:16:51a special Magna Carta exhibition.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54The centrepiece - one of the original 1215 copies,
0:16:54 > 0:16:58of which only four still survive.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02This is a document which is in Latin, a language which,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05nowadays, very, very few people can read readily.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07Do you think this has an irretrievable
0:17:07 > 0:17:12effect of distancing, of separating and making it feel remote?
0:17:13 > 0:17:15Well, it is written in medieval Latin
0:17:15 > 0:17:18and it is written in medieval handwriting as well, of course.
0:17:18 > 0:17:19Which is even worse, yes!
0:17:19 > 0:17:22And here it is on this parchment made from sheepskin
0:17:22 > 0:17:26- and it isn't the most...- In fact, it is an actual sheep, isn't it?
0:17:26 > 0:17:28We should see the head there, we should see the legs
0:17:28 > 0:17:31- on either side and the tail sticking out there.- Absolutely.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34And nobody could say that it is the most beautiful collection item
0:17:34 > 0:17:37that we have, but I never fail to be amazed
0:17:37 > 0:17:42by the impression that it makes on visitors to the library
0:17:42 > 0:17:48and how much people value the opportunity to be in proximity to this incredibly...
0:17:48 > 0:17:49The sacred text, yes!
0:17:49 > 0:17:51..incredibly famous document.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54And people do almost treat it with the sort of reverence that you
0:17:54 > 0:17:56might expect of a sacred text.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01But, back in 1215,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06Magna Carta came close to becoming an obscure footnote in history.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Publicly, John had accepted Magna Carta
0:18:11 > 0:18:13and reconciled himself with his subjects.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18Privately, he burned with resentment and threw a characteristic
0:18:18 > 0:18:23fit of rage, gnashing his teeth, as a chronicler reports,
0:18:23 > 0:18:29scowling with his eyes and gnawing on the very twigs and branches.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33He would not keep his word a second longer than he had to.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41John immediately appealed to Rome
0:18:41 > 0:18:46and to Pope Innocent III to have Magna Carta annulled.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50One clause in particular was difficult for John to stomach.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56Clause 61 set out how Magna Carta was to be enforced.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02It set up a committee of 25 barons to hold John to every last jot
0:19:02 > 0:19:07and tittle by any and every means, including the levying of war.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13Now, the idea was seductive but it proved to be disastrous,
0:19:13 > 0:19:17because it tried to protect Magna Carta by effectively
0:19:17 > 0:19:19destroying royal sovereignty.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24And no king, least of all John, could possibly agree to that.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Pope Innocent responded swiftly to John's request to have
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Magna Carta quashed.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36He immediately spotted the threat it posed to all autocrats,
0:19:36 > 0:19:37himself included.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41He sent a firm reply in a papal bull.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Magna Carta, the bull says, had been "extorted by force
0:19:47 > 0:19:52"and violence, such as would've affrighted the most courageous man.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56"It was unjust, illegal, harmful to royal rights
0:19:56 > 0:19:58"and shameful to the English people."
0:20:00 > 0:20:06So, a mere ten weeks after those heady June days at Runnymede,
0:20:06 > 0:20:11Magna Carta had been declared null and void and of non-effect
0:20:11 > 0:20:15by the highest earthly authority known to medieval man.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20And, do you know, it made not a jot of difference
0:20:20 > 0:20:23to the behaviour of anybody involved.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Both sides now prepared for civil war.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32John recruited mercenaries, whilst the barons resorted
0:20:32 > 0:20:34to the traditional tactic of backing
0:20:34 > 0:20:37an alternative claimant to the throne.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40In a measure of their desperation,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44they offered the crown to a Frenchman, Prince Louis.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Louis had a vague hereditary claim
0:20:47 > 0:20:54but his real strength was that he was the anybody-but-John candidate.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59In the invasion we rarely talk about,
0:20:59 > 0:21:04Louis arrived in London with 7,000 French troops.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Whilst John travelled north to places like here at Headingley,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11to recapture the castles of his rebellious barons.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16The fate of Magna Carta now hung in the balance
0:21:16 > 0:21:21and it was fate that would deal the decisive blow.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23THUNDERCLAP
0:21:26 > 0:21:31On 19 October 1216, during a violent storm,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34John died unexpectedly.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35THUNDERCLAP
0:21:35 > 0:21:38At Newark Castle in Nottinghamshire -
0:21:38 > 0:21:41his enemies alleged from a surfeit of peaches.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46BIRDSONG
0:21:50 > 0:21:54His nine-year-old son was crowned Henry III.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57As he was underage, the real power lay
0:21:57 > 0:22:01with his regent, William the Marshal, himself a baron.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06He immediately re-issued Magna Carta, but with a difference.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13This is the tomb of William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17He was the most successful jouster of the age
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and arguably the man who, as regent for the boy king Henry,
0:22:21 > 0:22:27saved England, the Plantagenet dynasty and Magna Carta itself.
0:22:29 > 0:22:35William the Marshal wisely saw the clause for a committee of barons to
0:22:35 > 0:22:40enforce Magna Carta was dangerously unworkable and stripped it out.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44The result was an astonishing reversal of fortune.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Henry, burdened with none of his father's political baggage,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53proved to be a much more attractive king than John.
0:22:53 > 0:22:54Whilst Magna Carta,
0:22:54 > 0:23:00hitherto discredited as the occasion of civil war, factional strife
0:23:00 > 0:23:03and foreign intervention, was suddenly transformed
0:23:03 > 0:23:08into the squeaky-clean manifesto of an optimistic new regime.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Not all the barons were convinced by the regime change
0:23:15 > 0:23:17and some fought on.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19STEEL CLASHES
0:23:19 > 0:23:23But Marshal, famed not only for his political acumen but also
0:23:23 > 0:23:28for his prowess in combat, routed them at the Battle of Lincoln Fair.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35Louis and his troops fled back to the safety of France.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Peace and stability were restored to the realm.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46Then, in 1225, when Henry III was old enough to assume
0:23:46 > 0:23:51full executive power, Magna Carta was reissued it its definitive form.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56This time, the charter emphasised that it was granted
0:23:56 > 0:24:00by the king's full and free consent.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02The taint of war and coercion
0:24:02 > 0:24:05which had dogged the first Magna Carta was gone.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11The charter had achieved something truly revolutionary
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and almost by accident.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17The great charter, despite its name,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22contained no great general statement of principle.
0:24:22 > 0:24:28However, its multitude of detailed clauses did imply one -
0:24:28 > 0:24:31that the king, however great his power,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35however much the law was his law,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38was, finally, UNDER the law.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48Not surprisingly, kings, the good ones as well as the bad ones,
0:24:48 > 0:24:50found the idea difficult to accept
0:24:50 > 0:24:54and it would be disputed for centuries in peace and war.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59However, Magna Carta quietly,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03but with enormous cumulative effect, laid the foundations
0:25:03 > 0:25:05of the two key institutions
0:25:05 > 0:25:09that in time would bridle the English monarchy.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13They were both based here in the heart of royal England,
0:25:13 > 0:25:14Westminster.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21Colloquially, we call this building here the Houses of Parliament.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Actually, it's the Palace of Westminster.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29But it was the principal and indeed the only palace
0:25:29 > 0:25:32properly so-called of the medieval kings of England.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37How it becomes a seat of Parliament is a very long story.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40But the story, like so much of our political structure,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43begins with Magna Carta.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50The demands of the great charter led to an assembly of bishops
0:25:50 > 0:25:53and barons who met to approve taxation
0:25:53 > 0:25:55and sanction its collection.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59This assembly was the embryo of the modern Parliament,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03with its two houses of lords and commoners.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07The precedent of this relatively painless way of raising taxation
0:26:07 > 0:26:10was irresistible for revenue-hungry kings
0:26:10 > 0:26:13like Edward I and Edward III,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16with their perpetual endless wars
0:26:16 > 0:26:20against the Welsh, the Scots and the French.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Parliament used the grant of taxation
0:26:23 > 0:26:26to extort concessions from the Crown.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31Kings didn't like it, but if they wanted the money -
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and they almost always did - they had to lump it.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Monarchs also found themselves grappling with the new idea
0:26:40 > 0:26:45of a legal system whose first home was Westminster Hall here.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Magna Carta called for professional judges
0:26:49 > 0:26:53and a fixed place for the law courts.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Before, kings administered justice themselves
0:26:56 > 0:27:01and the courts moved with the king. Magna Carta changed that.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05The king's law was becoming the common law of England.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12For hundreds of years, Magna Carta determined the rules of engagement
0:27:12 > 0:27:19between the king and his subjects, but it was not to last.
0:27:19 > 0:27:20FIERCE CRIES
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Four centuries on from the meeting at Runnymede, England found herself
0:27:27 > 0:27:31in another crisis more bloody and more protracted
0:27:31 > 0:27:35than even the confrontation with King John.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38On the throne was Charles I.
0:27:38 > 0:27:44The second king of the house of Stuart, his reign began in 1625,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47but it's hard to imagine two more different men.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53John, lecherous, murderous and systematically dishonest,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56was a pantomime villain, whilst Charles,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00dignified and devoted to his family, was the very model of a good man.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04All of which raises some awkward questions -
0:28:04 > 0:28:09why was such a good man such a bad king?
0:28:09 > 0:28:13And why does Magna Carta wake from slumber to play
0:28:13 > 0:28:16a key role in these tragic events?
0:28:19 > 0:28:23Those great creations of Magna Carta, Parliament
0:28:23 > 0:28:26and the common law courts still flourished,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30but the real locus of royal government had moved to
0:28:30 > 0:28:35different institutions, to the court, the council and the church.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38And to a different place, the Palace of Whitehall.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48This splendid interior now known as the Banqueting House,
0:28:48 > 0:28:53was the principal reception room of Charles's Palace of Whitehall.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58In the very latest classical style, it's designed by Inigo Jones,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01the most fashionable architect of the day.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06Whilst the ceiling is painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens,
0:29:06 > 0:29:08the most famous contemporary artist.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14But Rubens' ceiling is more than lavish decoration,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18it also has a powerful political message.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21The central oval represents the ascent to heaven
0:29:21 > 0:29:24of Charles I's father, James I.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26James declared that
0:29:26 > 0:29:30"the state of monarchy is the most supremest thing on Earth,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33"even by God himself."
0:29:33 > 0:29:35Kings are called gods.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Ruben's genius transmutes James's words into soaring,
0:29:40 > 0:29:46swirling imagery in which kings not only reign by divine right
0:29:46 > 0:29:49but are divinities themselves.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54And in Whitehall, Charles could be forgiven
0:29:54 > 0:29:58for thinking that Rubens' extravagant painting
0:29:58 > 0:30:00told no more than the simple truth.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08But only a few hundred yards away, there was another palace,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12a very different palace - the Palace of Westminster.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15Here, the king summoned and dissolved Parliament,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18but without the agreement of the Lords and Commons,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20he could do nothing.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24So, who was the real King of England?
0:30:24 > 0:30:28The Magna Carta limited king of Westminster or Charles,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31absolute monarch of Whitehall?
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Normally, the choice never needed to be made,
0:30:35 > 0:30:40but there was one area of conflict which threatened to destabilise everything.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43Religion.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48The tension had been present ever since the Reformation
0:30:48 > 0:30:53when Henry VIII made the English king head of the English Church,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56giving the monarchy huge new powers.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01Under Charles I, it became acute, since the King
0:31:01 > 0:31:06and his leading subjects disagreed fundamentally about religion.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09The King wanted a ceremonious religion,
0:31:09 > 0:31:15that his opponents both feared and denounced as Roman Catholic.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19His subjects, on the other hand, wanted a stripped down,
0:31:19 > 0:31:24radical Protestantism that the King sneeringly dismissed as Puritan.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31With the fire fanned by this underlying tension about religion,
0:31:31 > 0:31:36relations between Charles and the House of Commons quickly broke down.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40Parliament refused to agree to taxes
0:31:40 > 0:31:43to pay for Charles' military adventures.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47Charles, desperate for money, demanded customs duties
0:31:47 > 0:31:52and forced loans and when a few brave people refused to pay,
0:31:52 > 0:31:54he imprisoned them and imposed martial law.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00But one man thought he had the solution to the impasse -
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Sir Edward Coke.
0:32:03 > 0:32:04Coke was Lord Chief Justice
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and one of the most successful lawyers ever.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11He was also a brutal prosecutor, leading the case
0:32:11 > 0:32:15against Sir Walter Raleigh and the Gunpowder conspirators.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21Coincidentally, Coke's legal practice was in the temple
0:32:21 > 0:32:23which had become one of the Inns of Court.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26Coke was the law.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Naturally, as a proud as well as principled man,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34he thought that the law should be supreme.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37So, just like the barons who confronted King John
0:32:37 > 0:32:42on this very spot long ago when it was the headquarters
0:32:42 > 0:32:45of the Knights Templar, Coke turned to Magna Carta
0:32:45 > 0:32:48to bridle another overweening king.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58On 17th May 1628, Sir Edward Coke rose in the House of Commons
0:32:58 > 0:33:03and declared that Magna Carta is such a fellow,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06that he will have no sovereign.
0:33:06 > 0:33:12The words were deliberately, dangerously, disturbingly bold.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16The sovereign was the king. Now Coke was declaring there was
0:33:16 > 0:33:19another greater sovereign, Magna Carta,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21which, as fundamental law,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24neither Parliament nor the King himself could touch.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Coke took the key principles of Magna Carta
0:33:31 > 0:33:35and tried to turn them into constitutional law,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38into what would become known as the Petition of Right.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44Charles resisted as vehemently as John had fought off Magna Carta.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47But, likewise in vain.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Desperate for a Parliamentary grant of money,
0:33:50 > 0:33:56Charles gave his assent to the petition on 7th June 1628,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59though probably in as bad faith as John.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07In 1629, Charles did away with Parliament and the law
0:34:07 > 0:34:11and lawyers, contrary to what Coke hoped, did nothing to stop him.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19Matters came to a head in the summer of 1642, when Charles
0:34:19 > 0:34:23raised his standard over Nottingham and declared war on Parliament.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29The bloody clash followed that would tear England apart.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Though it would take seven years, eventually the king was beaten
0:34:36 > 0:34:40and for the first time in history, in 1649,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43an English king would be put on public trial
0:34:43 > 0:34:47under the watchful eyes of Cromwell's New Model Army.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55Charles was brought under armed guard into the Great Hall
0:34:55 > 0:34:57at Westminster here.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00The king was dressed entirely in black,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04with the silver star of the Order of the Garter on his shoulder
0:35:04 > 0:35:06and its blue ribbon round his neck.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14He kept his hat firmly on throughout,
0:35:14 > 0:35:20as did his judges in a sartorial stand-off of mutual contempt.
0:35:20 > 0:35:26They, for his office of King, he, for their claim to be his judges.
0:35:26 > 0:35:27Worse was to come.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33As a prosecuting counsel rose, Charles tapped him on the shoulder
0:35:33 > 0:35:38with his silver topped cane and commanded him to hold.
0:35:38 > 0:35:40The counsel ignored him.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Then, as the charges were read out,
0:35:42 > 0:35:47the top fell off Charles' cane.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51The King looked round, expecting that somebody would pick it up.
0:35:51 > 0:35:59Nobody did. Instead, he, the King, had to stoop to retrieve it.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08The charge continued that he had employed a tyrannical power
0:36:08 > 0:36:11to rule according to his will and to overthrow the rights
0:36:11 > 0:36:13and liberties of the people.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19Charles' response was that a monarch was not subject to
0:36:19 > 0:36:24earthly authority and he refused to enter a plea.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29But here in the Great Hall, legalities were soon set aside.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32The show trial found Charles Stuart guilty.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36He was sentenced to death for crimes against the people.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45The place of his execution was quite deliberate,
0:36:45 > 0:36:47outside the Banqueting House.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Passing under the great Rubens ceiling,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55and his father ascending to heaven, Charles stepped from a window
0:36:55 > 0:36:59directly onto a high scaffold at the front of the building.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11This time, it had taken a civil war and the beheading of a king
0:37:11 > 0:37:13to enforce the principles of Magna Carta.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18But the resort to violence destroyed the freedom
0:37:18 > 0:37:22it sought to protect, leading to a military dictatorship
0:37:22 > 0:37:24under Lord Protector Cromwell,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28who proved just as despotic as any monarch
0:37:28 > 0:37:33and who famously denounced Magna Carta as Magna Farta.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39The restoration of the Stuart monarchy after Cromwell's death
0:37:39 > 0:37:41seemed a blessed relief.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44However, religious tensions resurfaced
0:37:44 > 0:37:49when James II secretly converted to Catholicism and then
0:37:49 > 0:37:53married a Catholic, sparking panic among the Protestant elite.
0:37:53 > 0:37:58It seemed as though the bad old days of the Civil War had returned.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03But James II, in contrast with his father,
0:38:03 > 0:38:09Charles I's iron resolve, lost his nerve and fled abroad.
0:38:09 > 0:38:15The royal family indivisibly united in the Civil War split
0:38:15 > 0:38:19with James' daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange,
0:38:19 > 0:38:21leading the resistance.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30The result was a bloodless coup which opened the way to a radically
0:38:30 > 0:38:35new political settlement, an updated version of Magna Carta called
0:38:35 > 0:38:40The Bill of Rights in deference to Coke's Petition of Right.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42The crown was offered to William
0:38:42 > 0:38:45and Mary on condition that they accepted its terms.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50On the 13th February 1689,
0:38:50 > 0:38:54it was back to the Banqueting House for the denouement of what became
0:38:54 > 0:38:57known as the Glorious Revolution.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04William and Mary took their place under the canopy on the dais,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08the Lords, to the right, and the Commons, to the left,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12led by their respective speakers, approached the steps of the throne.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15The clerk read out the Bill of Rights
0:39:15 > 0:39:19and a nobleman offered William and Mary the crown.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23William accepted it and the pair were proclaimed King
0:39:23 > 0:39:27and Queen to the sound of trumpets.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Nothing would ever be quite the same again.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39England or Great Britain as it would soon become
0:39:39 > 0:39:45with union with Scotland, had exchanged the sovereignty of kings,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49not, as Coke would have wished, for the sovereignty of the law,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53but for another sovereignty, that of Parliament.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06However, Coke's dream for Magna Carta as fundamental law didn't die.
0:40:06 > 0:40:12It was to change its identity and move far away from its birthplace.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Runnymede is the most English of places
0:40:18 > 0:40:22and Magna Carta, the most English of events.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24But what perhaps is most English of all,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27is that there is nothing much to mark the spot
0:40:27 > 0:40:31of one of the most famous events in human history.
0:40:31 > 0:40:37Nothing English, but there is this.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42It's erected in 1957 by the American Bar Association
0:40:42 > 0:40:47to commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of freedom under the law.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53It's here because Magna Carta matters in America, too.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58It's our very first English export there, because Magna Carta was
0:40:58 > 0:41:02carried in the minds of the English colonists themselves.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27The settlers came here to this wild
0:41:27 > 0:41:31and untamed land for many different reasons.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Some were economic migrants,
0:41:34 > 0:41:38some were escaping religious persecution back home.
0:41:38 > 0:41:44But they all thought of themselves as English, bringing with them
0:41:44 > 0:41:48the rights of Englishmen as they set up their Little Englands
0:41:48 > 0:41:49across the sea.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56From the beginning, the idea was formally written into their laws.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58Starting with the Charter of Virginia,
0:41:58 > 0:42:03drafted by Edward Coke himself in 1606,
0:42:03 > 0:42:07the settlers were given the same rights as if they had been abiding
0:42:07 > 0:42:11and born within this, our realm of England.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14And the Ark of the Covenant of those English rights
0:42:14 > 0:42:19was Magna Carta, which retained all its old subversive power
0:42:19 > 0:42:21as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28But these rights were to be turned on their colonial masters
0:42:28 > 0:42:32in one of the great upheavals in world history.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38In 1765, the government of King George III
0:42:38 > 0:42:41imposed a tax on the sale of paper.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48The notorious Stamp Act produced an immediate outcry that it was
0:42:48 > 0:42:52against Magna Carta and the natural rights of Englishmen.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56Tensions between the governed and the governors
0:42:56 > 0:43:02escalated into a demand for independence, soon all-out war.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10As the conflict raged, one American patriot, George Mason wrote,
0:43:10 > 0:43:14"We claim nothing but the Liberty and Privileges of Englishmen,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18"in the same degree as if we continued among our brethren
0:43:18 > 0:43:20"in Great Britain."
0:43:20 > 0:43:22Soon it became clear to those
0:43:22 > 0:43:25who would become known as the Founding Fathers
0:43:25 > 0:43:28that they would have to draft their own Magna Carta.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42This elegantly understated Georgian building,
0:43:42 > 0:43:45built as the seat of government of Pennsylvania,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47is America's Runnymede.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54And it is here America's Founding Fathers, principal among them,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58Thomas Jefferson, whose cane still rests across a desk,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02ratified that most precious of American documents -
0:44:02 > 0:44:05the Declaration of Independence.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10But alongside the Declaration's thrillingly new
0:44:10 > 0:44:12or at least newish claim,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15that all men are created equal
0:44:15 > 0:44:19and endowed with certain inalienable rights,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22the declaration also uses a much older language,
0:44:22 > 0:44:28as old, indeed, as Magna Carta which Jefferson consciously invokes.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34Like another King John, Jefferson accused George III
0:44:34 > 0:44:38and his government of taxing without consent,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42interfering with freedom of trade and punishing in life,
0:44:42 > 0:44:46limb and property without due process of law.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50The Founding Fathers sat at these tables
0:44:50 > 0:44:52and being 18th-century gentlemen,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56they wore powder, wigs and knee breeches,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00but they were also substantial landowners,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03masters of dozens of slaves, and so,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06like the great land-owning barons at Runnymede,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10they saw themselves as cutting a tyrant down to size.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19Today, Americans still take their history, and therefore ours,
0:45:19 > 0:45:20very seriously.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24Magna Carta was not only to provide much of the rhetoric
0:45:24 > 0:45:26of the American Revolution,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29the Great Charter also remains fundamental
0:45:29 > 0:45:32to the American Constitution
0:45:32 > 0:45:35and the everyday conduct of American government itself.
0:45:36 > 0:45:41I'm here in the crypt of the American Capitol in Washington.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44Above me is one of the biggest, most impressive
0:45:44 > 0:45:47and most famous buildings in the world.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51It's the seat of the American Congress or Parliament.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54To one side is the Senate chamber, to the other
0:45:54 > 0:45:56is the House of Representatives,
0:45:56 > 0:46:02and directly above me is the central lobby or rotunda,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05with its huge, massive dome.
0:46:12 > 0:46:18Down here in the crypt is this - it's a golden copy of Magna Carta,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21complete with John's seal, also in gold,
0:46:21 > 0:46:25and it stands as a kind of intellectual foundation,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27timeless and incorruptible
0:46:27 > 0:46:30for the soaring structure of American government
0:46:30 > 0:46:32and political ambition above.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37For while the American Revolution
0:46:37 > 0:46:40rejected English political authority,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43it did not reject the authority of English law.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46And to this day, Magna Carta,
0:46:46 > 0:46:51with all its clauses, including the removal of fish-weirs on the Medway,
0:46:51 > 0:46:56stands in full on the statute books of 17 of the 50 states.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04The institutions of Magna Carta also took root.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Congress, where I've just been, is the Parliament.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12The Senate is the Lords
0:47:12 > 0:47:16and the House of Representatives is the Commons.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22Whilst the White House is the seat of the President,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26who is King George III without his wig.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31But this is novel and has no real English equivalent.
0:47:31 > 0:47:38It's the Supreme Court, and its cast bronze doors have a story to tell.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41The four panels on the left-hand door
0:47:41 > 0:47:44deal with the origins of law in the ancient world,
0:47:44 > 0:47:49but here, on the right-hand door, three out of the four panels
0:47:49 > 0:47:54represent the actual origins of the Supreme Court in English law.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Down at the bottom, of course, we've got Magna Carta - John and a baron.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03Here, we've got the great lawgiver English king, Edward I.
0:48:03 > 0:48:05And up there, on the third panel,
0:48:05 > 0:48:10we have Sir Edward Coke confronting James I,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13and it's Coke who really matters.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18Coke's attempt in 1628 to use the Petition of Right
0:48:18 > 0:48:23to make Magna Carta fundamental law inviolable by Parliament
0:48:23 > 0:48:26or by the King failed in England,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30but it succeeded in America where the Founding Fathers
0:48:30 > 0:48:34made the Constitution effectively untouchable,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38fundamental law to be interpreted not by Congress,
0:48:38 > 0:48:44still less by the President, but by the judges of the Supreme Court.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50And it is to Magna Carta
0:48:50 > 0:48:54that the Supreme Court judges turn again and again...
0:48:54 > 0:48:57From 1790 to the present,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01it has been cited an astonishing 400 times.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05But Magna Carta is not only a mantra in the Supreme Court.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10It is a ready-made banner, quickly raised in the political arena.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13As was the case when another monarch -
0:49:13 > 0:49:16only this time it was a president, Richard Nixon -
0:49:16 > 0:49:19thought he was above the law.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24I have been guided by the principle that the law
0:49:24 > 0:49:27must deal fairly with every man.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Seven centuries have now passed
0:49:33 > 0:49:38since the English barons proclaimed the same principle
0:49:38 > 0:49:43by compelling King John at the point of a sword
0:49:43 > 0:49:46to accept the great doctrine of Magna Carta.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51In 1974, facing impeachment
0:49:51 > 0:49:54over his involvement in the Watergate scandal,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58Nixon resigned rather than face the wrath of Magna Carta.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03But in more recent times, a much more threatening shadow
0:50:03 > 0:50:06has been thrown over all our constitutional liberties.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10SIREN BLARES
0:50:12 > 0:50:14With the attack on the Twin Towers,
0:50:14 > 0:50:18the Bush administration announced America was at war -
0:50:18 > 0:50:20war on terror.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23For the foreseeable future,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26the security of the Western world was paramount.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31Rights and freedoms - for which the war was ostensibly being waged -
0:50:31 > 0:50:33would have to take a back seat.
0:50:36 > 0:50:37Accusations of torture,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40waterboarding and extraordinary rendition
0:50:40 > 0:50:43hit the very heart of the United States Government.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49But there were those who were prepared to challenge the executive
0:50:49 > 0:50:52in the name of Magna Carta and the Constitution.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57As suspected terrorists were interned in Guantanamo Bay,
0:50:57 > 0:50:59lawyers, working for free,
0:50:59 > 0:51:02brought cases against the Bush administration
0:51:02 > 0:51:05for unlawful detention without trial.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09One of the key lawyers, David Remes, visited the camp.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12You were shocked by Guantanamo?
0:51:12 > 0:51:17I was shocked, I was overwhelmed... It was...
0:51:17 > 0:51:18The men were so abject.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22They were in despair and the power exercised over them
0:51:22 > 0:51:25by the prison authorities was absolute.
0:51:25 > 0:51:26Were you ashamed?
0:51:27 > 0:51:28No, I was outraged.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34You know, we come here, we see those proud phrases
0:51:34 > 0:51:38in which liberty and freedom and right and God and nature
0:51:38 > 0:51:41are plastered over these huge marble monuments.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Didn't the hypocrisy stink in your nostrils?
0:51:44 > 0:51:45Yes.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48And what did you do?
0:51:48 > 0:51:50I represented these men in court,
0:51:50 > 0:51:55I fought to have them released, and...
0:51:55 > 0:51:59I hope that the lawyers' efforts and communications
0:51:59 > 0:52:02had an influence. I believe they did.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06The Supreme Court DID rule
0:52:06 > 0:52:10that detention without trial was unconstitutional,
0:52:10 > 0:52:12repeatedly citing Magna Carta.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18But victory was short-lived.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22A lesser appeals court bypassed the ruling
0:52:22 > 0:52:28by declaring that in time of war, ordinary rules do not apply.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35The Supreme Court apparently ruled in favour of these men
0:52:35 > 0:52:38and yet nothing has been done.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Guantanamo is still there.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42The shame is still there.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44If I'd been able to sit down with one of those judges
0:52:44 > 0:52:48of the Court of Appeal, how would they have justified it?
0:52:48 > 0:52:52Well, the principle would be that the courts have no function,
0:52:52 > 0:52:59no valid role to play in executive decisions in the context of war.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07At the same time that Remes was fighting his Guantanamo cases,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10Britain, too, was facing a parallel challenge
0:53:10 > 0:53:14to its legal and constitutional integrity.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17In 2008, at the height of the crisis,
0:53:17 > 0:53:18senior politician
0:53:18 > 0:53:22and then Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, resigned.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26This Sunday is the anniversary of Magna Carta.
0:53:26 > 0:53:27The document that guarantees
0:53:27 > 0:53:31that most fundamental of British freedoms -
0:53:31 > 0:53:36the right not to be imprisoned by the state without charge or reason.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38But yesterday this House decided to allow the state
0:53:38 > 0:53:41to lock up potentially innocent citizens
0:53:41 > 0:53:43for up to six weeks without charge.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50The view that the then Government was eroding piece by piece
0:53:50 > 0:53:52all sorts of our civil liberties,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55mostly through altering the structure of the law...
0:53:55 > 0:53:58How long you could be held without charge
0:53:58 > 0:54:00was the issue at point there
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and it struck me as a grotesque assault on liberties...
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Directly on Magna Carta...
0:54:05 > 0:54:08Directly on Magna Carta, directly on delay of justice,
0:54:08 > 0:54:10directly on the things that we... we believe in...
0:54:10 > 0:54:12And they're things that our country has become famous for.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19But the impact of David Davis' own little act of jihadism,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22of political suicide, was short-lived.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24We have already taken a wide range of measures,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27including stopping suspects from travelling to the region
0:54:27 > 0:54:29by seizing passports...
0:54:29 > 0:54:34Every passing month brings yet more infringement of personal liberties
0:54:34 > 0:54:36in the name of the "war on terror".
0:54:36 > 0:54:38..If we are going to deal with extremists of all sorts
0:54:38 > 0:54:42in our society and uphold our British values, that we are able to take...
0:54:42 > 0:54:45What does constitute suspicious activity that would warrant
0:54:45 > 0:54:47that phone call to you?
0:54:47 > 0:54:50Is it possible that we've become complacent
0:54:50 > 0:54:54about our long tradition of freedom from arbitrary state authority?
0:54:54 > 0:54:58Are we sacrificing more and more of our liberties
0:54:58 > 0:55:00at the altar of "security",
0:55:00 > 0:55:06and perhaps even sleepwalking towards authoritarianism?
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Why as a nation that was once so assertive,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17so sensitive about freedom, why have we become so casual?
0:55:17 > 0:55:21Why are we prepared apparently to sacrifice it without question?
0:55:21 > 0:55:27Well, it comes down to this problem that people think that security
0:55:27 > 0:55:29is more important than freedom
0:55:29 > 0:55:32and future historians will look back on our time
0:55:32 > 0:55:35and say the great success of Al-Qaeda was not the people they killed,
0:55:35 > 0:55:37it's the way they transformed the Western states,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41turned them from being incredibly freedom-orientated societies
0:55:41 > 0:55:44to being rather more introverted, nervous societies.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56So, is it time to reawaken Magna Carta from its great slumber?
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Well, on past record, perhaps not.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Magna Carta has often proved quite impotent.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08Henry VIII paid scant attention to its first clause
0:56:08 > 0:56:10to protect the freedom of the Church.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13Nor did its ringing declaration -
0:56:13 > 0:56:18"To no-one will we sell, delay or deny justice" -
0:56:18 > 0:56:22stop internment in Northern Ireland or Guantanamo Bay.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25So, in this day and age,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28is Magna Carta really little more than a myth?
0:56:29 > 0:56:33I spoke to one of Sir Edward Coke's professional descendants,
0:56:33 > 0:56:38retired Chief Justice for England and Wales, Lord Judge.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42Occasionally people will say that Magna Carta's a myth,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46it didn't make all the provisions that people attribute to it.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49And in that sense they're right, Magna Carta did not.
0:56:49 > 0:56:54But when we think that what we regard as precious to us -
0:56:54 > 0:56:57precious liberties, precious freedoms are threatened -
0:56:57 > 0:56:59we think Magna Carta.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02It's a banner, it summarises our belief
0:57:02 > 0:57:04that government should be controlled.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07It summarises our belief in equality before the law.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10Whether that's historically accurate or not,
0:57:10 > 0:57:12it means that Magna Carta is living,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15and if something is living, it isn't a myth.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23Magna Carta makes no grand, general statements
0:57:23 > 0:57:26about liberty and freedom.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28It's not got right first time.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32It has to be reworked again and again.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36And yet, the outcome of this process of trial and error
0:57:36 > 0:57:40is a profound change of political behaviour.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44Consultation and accommodation between ruler and ruled
0:57:44 > 0:57:48ceased to be exceptional crisis management and have become instead
0:57:48 > 0:57:53a matter of habit, of how we English do things.
0:57:56 > 0:58:01But in this 800th anniversary year, Parliament,
0:58:01 > 0:58:03our habits of political freedom
0:58:03 > 0:58:06and the idea of England herself,
0:58:06 > 0:58:08are all facing acute challenge...
0:58:09 > 0:58:12..perhaps the most fundamental of modern times.
0:58:12 > 0:58:18Will the memory of Magna Carta help to carry us through again?
0:58:19 > 0:58:21It would be nice to think so.