Magna Carta
John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, 1215, signed the Great Charter in the presence of assorted heavily armed peers of the realm, who assured him it was the right thing to do.
The British Library has pictures of the Magna Carta available, and Wikipedia has a nice discussion of the document.
The Magna Carta of 1297 is permanently residing in the US National Archives.
The Avalon Project’s translation of the 1215 version with an index and definitions.
John abided by the charter for several months, before he returned to business as normal, but the principle was established – no one is above the law.
2 comments
… “but the principle was established – no one is above the law.”
You mean the document doesn’t contain a prescient exception to be applied centuries later to U.S. presidents? /snark
That copy in the U.S. National Archives actually was sold by Ross Perot to a member of the Carlyle Group. Now there’s irony you can
live withlaugh at!They are trying to buy up and eliminate all evidence of the concept, Steve, or edit them to include an exemption for ‘chartered merchant establishments’.