DAVID HUME



The Great Charter is one of the most famous documents in
history. Regarded as the foundation of English civil
liberty, it also stands as the historic prototype of later
declarations of human freedom in various lands. In the Great
Charter, as observed by Green, "the vague expressions of the
older charters were exchanged for precise and elaborate
provisions. The Great Charter marks the transition from the
age of traditional rights to the age of written legislation,
of parliaments and statutes, which was soon to come."

King John of England, although compelled to submit to the
loss of his French provinces in 1204, never after lost sight
of plans for the renewal of the war with France. A bitter
controversy with Pope Innocent III began over an election
for the archbishopric of Canterbury, and resulted in a bull
deposing John, 1212, with a command to Philip of France to
execute the deposition. John made terms with the Pope by
agreeing to hold his kingdom in fief from the pontiff, and
to pay an annual tribute of one thousand marks (1213).

John then invaded France, in alliance with Otho IV, Emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire, and others, but was defeated at
Bouvines, near Lille, 1214. This ended John's endeavors to
recover his lost power in France, and he could only think
henceforth of ruling peaceably his own kingdom and
preserving, to his own advantage, his now close connection