Magna Carta Chapter 1 Summary

In David Carpenter commentary on Magna Carta is a contemporary work, which develops new outlooks on the over 800 year old document, Magna Carta. Carpenter, who is a leading figure in medieval British history, attempts to explain not only the document but also the factors behind the document creation in great lengths. Carpenter lays the information out in front of the reader in a way that the reader is able to grasp the ideas he presents. Carpenter writes fourteen chapters in his commentary on Magna Carta, one of which is Magna Carta, which he uses to pose many questions and put forth a vast amount of information relating to the topic. He does not, however just state the answers to those questions but he rather explains why. His ability to not only explain the story of King John, His Barons and the events that led to magna Carta but explain why they happened,

The introduction included explanations for how Magna Carta got its name which means “in English Great Charter.”(Carpenter, 3) Chapter 2 included the entirety of Magna Carta in Latin and English so the readers are able to read Magna Carta for themselves. Within Chapter 3 Carpenter examines King John and any policies that had led to Magna Carta. Carpenter takes notice of John failures in military’s campaigns, his increased taxes on the barons and knights and most of all John cruelness. What becomes apparent is that John was not a nice guy even with William Marshal while on his deathbed telling Johns son Henry III that if he “follows the path of his criminal ancestor I pray to God that he does give you long to live.” (Carpenter, 94) Chapter 4 and 5 of his commentary look at the society of medieval Britain along with who in the society would gain the most from Magna Carta and also who would gain the least. This was very obvious that the elites were those who had gained the most due to them being the ones who brought about the Magna Carta in the beginning, while peasants weren’t even mentioned in the