Magna Carta (1215)
Context
On October 14, 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, also known as William the Conqueror, defeated the recently crowned King Harold II of England at the Battle of Hastings. On Christmas Day, 1066, he was crowned King William I of England. The Norman Conquest ushered in many changes in England, particularly with respect to government. The Normans brought a more centralized style of rule than had previously existed in England. William set up the Great Council, which would eventually become Parliament. The Anglo-Saxon nobles were dispossessed of their lands, which were then given to a much smaller group of Norman barons. This concentrated a degree of power and wealth among these barons, and they were thus often emboldened to resist royal authority.
In the century that followed the Norman Conquest, power had become more centralized in the hands of the monarch, oftentimes at the expense of baronial authority. Taxes continually increased to finance numerous endeavors. The issues...
