Justice and Freedom: How ordinary folk almost missed out
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Magna Carta: What did it do for ordinary folk? is part of the 2016 Contextual Lecture Series: Taking Liberties.
The common people in the twelfth century gained nothing from Magna Carta. Nine out of 10 of them were serfs, slaves in all but name, tied to the fields and often subject to the whims of brutal masters. Women's rights were actually curtailed the the 1215 Great Charter. But town life was blossoming – though not of a kind that we'd relish. The battle to extend to ordinary people the promise of justice and freedom made in the original Magna Carta was fought out over many centuries and across the world in America and the nations of the former British Empire.
Derek Taylor
Author: Magna Carta in 20 Places (2015, the History Press)
