This week I ask you to look at the Magna Carta, the single most important political
document of the Middle Ages.  The Magna Carta, or Great Charter, was signed
between King John and his noble barons in 1216.  Although there is no specific
assignment on the Magna Carta, it is important that at some time you read it to see for
yourself its significant political impact.  It has long been assumed that the Magna Carta
was the first step on the evolution of England toward a constitutional monarchy, with
political power divided between a representative parliament and the king of England. 
In actual fact, that evolution was already well underway by the thirteenth century, and in
many respects the Magna Carta was not a democratic document, or a document of
political liberties, but was simply the epitome of a feudal charter, or agreement,
between lords and their king over how the kingdom should be run in accord with feudal,
medieval, principles.