1215 : The Year of Magna Carta

Rating:
Summary: Well written and illuminating.
Review: "1215" focuses on what life was like in early 13th Century England. It describes the diets of peasants, friars and kings, the religion that inspired them, and the politics that bound them all together. And have no fear of boredom. This book is one of the easiest reading historical books I have have ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

Ultimately, the Magna Carta is supreme object of focus in this book, and with good reason. In addition to being one of the most important documents ever created, it was definitely a product of its times, and this book does a wonderful job of illustrating just how the Magna Carta came about through the influence of all the different elements operating in Britain in 1215.

This is deep, important history that reads like a good novel, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid Book, Fascinating Subject
Review: Following the great success of his book The Year 1000, this book comes along to describe a time only a couple of centuries later. How silly, what could possibly have happened in so short a time so long ago. Well, of course there was the Magna Carta. And that's probably why this particular year was picked. One of the great documents of all time, some of its clauses are repeated almost verbatim in the US Constitution.

But then as you get a little further into it, there was a lot going on about that time. The crusades were just about at their prime Jerusalem had just been taken by Saladin. The University at Oxford was established, Cambridge just a few years later. And in 1215 Peking fell to Genghis Kahn.

The real strength in the Year 1000 was its detail on common life at the time. By 1215 a lot of this had changed. For one thing, buildings were now being built of stone rather than wood, and that means that at least some of them have lasted until today so that we have more evidence of how people actually lived.

About half the book is on the life being lived by the ordinary people. The other half covers the soap opera life that King John and his family was leading at the time. Excellent book, all but guaranteed to be a best seller.

Rating:
Summary: The Magna Carta in Context
Review: Ironically, the Magna Carta was a failed bit when first signed by King John in 1215. It truly came into prominence in 1225, and its importance grew with the passing years. It has now long been considered a landmark in the evolution of individual rights and freedoms. Danziger and Gillingham present a sweeping overview of the changes in culture, politics, and religion that led to the creation of this important document. They set the stage for understanding the purpose and meaning of the Magna Carta in the time of its origin. The full text of this significant charter is included at the end of the book.

The authors do a great job of presenting the chain of events leading up to the rebellion against King John. Land rights for the rich were clearly center stage during the writing of the Magna Carta. But because this was a new kind of rebellion (one without an alternative king to sponsor), the barons found it necessary to add the clauses protecting the rights of all men so they could feel justified in their rebellion.

The descriptions of everyday life for the rich and poor highlight the issues that the Magna Carta was meant to address. The actual clauses in the charter come alive when presented in context. Understanding the era is key, such as knowing why so much of England was designated as "forest" land, whether or not it actually contained a real forest. The authors also debunk a few common myths about the times such as the idea that people thought the world was flat.

Full of fun, interesting facts about life around the 1200s, none of the information will be new for students of the era. However, the book succeeds marvelously as a popular history. This is a relatively small and easily digestible book. The writing is clear and concise. I recommend this captivating portrayal of a fascinating time period to anyone with even a passing interest in history.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed every page!
Review: On June 15, 1215, facing a rebellion of his barons, King John of England (yep, the villain of the Robin Hood movie, but that's a different subject) was forced to the conference table, and signed an historic charter - Magna Carta. Widely believed to be the very root of Anglo-Saxon, and later World, democracy, Magna Carta is venerated by many. But, what do you really know about Magna Carta?

In this fascinating book, the authors look at England in 1215, and give the reader an wonderfully in-depth understanding of what life was like at that time, what was going on in England and the rest of Europe, and finally gives the story of Magna Carta, the myths that have grown up around it and even its wording.

Every once in a while a book comes along that surprises me with its excellence - well, this is one of those books! The authors do an excellent job of giving the reader a feel for life in the thirteenth century, really bringing it to life. I enjoyed every page of this fascinating history book, and highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys reading a good book!

Rating:
Summary: Back to the Fundamentals
Review: One of the many documents that we honor without paying much importance to what it really was in its time is the Magna Carta. There is a meadow at Runnymede, near Windsor in England, where in 1215 King John was forced to sign the document, and among other memorials there now is a little temple placed by the American Bar Association. The American Founding Fathers reverenced the document, and indeed parts of the Constitution may be easily traced to sentences within the Magna Carta. But the Magna Carta in its time was a bust; it did not bring peace between King John and the barons suing for their share of liberty and was soon trashed in civil war. _1215: The Year of Magna Carta_ (Touchstone) by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham puts the document in context. We are right to hold it in reverence, but the authors make clear that the barons were looking after their property rights easily as much as the abstract values of freedom which have inspired patriots through history, and that the document enabled serfdom rather than actual freedom.

The surprising part about this book is that the Magna Carta does not really show up until the final chapters. The title is correct; the book is largely about the year and how people in England lived at that time. There are chapters on schools, families, tournaments, trials, the church, and other important aspects of life under King John, with mere hints in each about how the Magna Carta might have affected them. The details of life in that year come thick throughout the main part of the book. Astrology was promoted, but some monks and teachers thought it was bunk. People took part in religious rituals, but one prior wrote, "There are many people who do not believe that God exists" and said the universe was ruled by chance, not providence. No one knows how many the "many people" were. There were English colonies as far away as Alexandria. Summers were warmer by one centigrade degree than they are now, with milder winters and lower rainfall. If you were right handed, you would write with a quill from the left wing of a goose (and vice versa) so that the feather would curve outwards when you wrote. Wolves roamed the forests which covered nearly a third of England. Men wore underwear but women didn't. Hay was used for toilet paper. Chess was played with enthusiasm but with simpler rules than now. Adulterers would be whipped naked through the streets. This is a lively history, and fun to read.

The book concludes with the actual signing of the Magna Carta itself and its effects. The rebellion by the barons in 1215 was quite different from the many rebellions against previous kings. Those involved fighting to restore a particular monarch to the throne. The barons had no such champion; the focus of their revolt was simply a program of reform. The document itself consists of 63 clauses, the first ten of which (and many of the subsequent ones) have only to do with maintaining the barons' property rights. There are ringing, lofty expressions of principle, but they are late in the charter, and while they are what we revere it for, they were evidently not uppermost on the minds of the barons. This does not matter, really; "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice" and that no one will have action against him "... except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land" were important principles then and now. The Magna Carta was intended as a peace treaty, but John was eager to wiggle out of it any way he could, and was helped by the Pope, who declared the Magna Carta null and void. The all-out civil war that followed was capped by John's death a year later from dysentery. The Magna Carta was reissued, as it was again in 1225, and it is the 1225 text that entered the statute books. It was this version that bad kings had to reaffirm; public cries after royal infringements, for instance, forced Edward I to confirm the charter in 1297. This spirited introduction to thirteenth century history shows that the Magna Carta thus may be more eternally important not as a foundation for specific rights, but as the primal symbol for struggle against tyranny.

Rating:
Summary: Back to the Fundamentals
Review: One of the many documents that we honor without paying much importance to what it really was in its time is the Magna Carta. There is a meadow at Runnymede, near Windsor in England, where in 1215 King John was forced to sign the document, and among other memorials there now is a little temple placed by the American Bar Association. The American Founding Fathers reverenced the document, and indeed parts of the Constitution may be easily traced to sentences within the Magna Carta. But the Magna Carta in its time was a bust; it did not bring peace between King John and the barons suing for their share of liberty and was soon trashed in civil war. _1215: The Year of Magna Carta_ (Touchstone) by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham puts the document in context. We are right to hold it in reverence, but the authors make clear that the barons were looking after their property rights easily as much as the abstract values of freedom which have inspired patriots through history, and that the document enabled serfdom rather than actual freedom.

The surprising part about this book is that the Magna Carta does not really show up until the final chapters. The title is correct; the book is largely about the year and how people in England lived at that time. There are chapters on schools, families, tournaments, trials, the church, and other important aspects of life under King John, with mere hints in each about how the Magna Carta might have affected them. The details of life in that year come thick throughout the main part of the book. Astrology was promoted, but some monks and teachers thought it was bunk. People took part in religious rituals, but one prior wrote, "There are many people who do not believe that God exists" and said the universe was ruled by chance, not providence. No one knows how many the "many people" were. There were English colonies as far away as Alexandria. Summers were warmer by one centigrade degree than they are now, with milder winters and lower rainfall. If you were right handed, you would write with a quill from the left wing of a goose (and vice versa) so that the feather would curve outwards when you wrote. Wolves roamed the forests which covered nearly a third of England. Men wore underwear but women didn't. Hay was used for toilet paper. Chess was played with enthusiasm but with simpler rules than now. Adulterers would be whipped naked through the streets. This is a lively history, and fun to read.

The book concludes with the actual signing of the Magna Carta itself and its effects. The rebellion by the barons in 1215 was quite different from the many rebellions against previous kings. Those involved fighting to restore a particular monarch to the throne. The barons had no such champion; the focus of their revolt was simply a program of reform. The document itself consists of 63 clauses, the first ten of which (and many of the subsequent ones) have only to do with maintaining the barons' property rights. There are ringing, lofty expressions of principle, but they are late in the charter, and while they are what we revere it for, they were evidently not uppermost on the minds of the barons. This does not matter, really; "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice" and that no one will have action against him "... except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land" were important principles then and now. The Magna Carta was intended as a peace treaty, but John was eager to wiggle out of it any way he could, and was helped by the Pope, who declared the Magna Carta null and void. The all-out civil war that followed was capped by John's death a year later from dysentery. The Magna Carta was reissued, as it was again in 1225, and it is the 1225 text that entered the statute books. It was this version that bad kings had to reaffirm; public cries after royal infringements, for instance, forced Edward I to confirm the charter in 1297. This spirited introduction to thirteenth century history shows that the Magna Carta thus may be more eternally important not as a foundation for specific rights, but as the primal symbol for struggle against tyranny.

Rating:
Summary: Well written, great read!
Review: There is a type of history book that, no matter how interested the reader may be in the subject, is difficult to get through. Written in an acedemic style that's hard to plod through, there have been some that I've just given up on. I'm glad to say this book is not one of those.

Written in a style that's easy to read and understand, this book delves into not only the life lived by royalty and the priviledged in the year of Magna Carta (hence the title of the book), but the lives of various social strata of the time.

If you have an interest in medieval history, especially English medieval history, then I would say you would enjoy this book.

Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview of a fascinating time
Review: What is really great about this book is not that it gives you an insight into the Magna Carta, one of the most famous documents of all time, but that it looks at the time in which it was written. And this is rich fodder for some really great story telling. Of course the Magna Carta is discussed in context, and written in its entirety at the back of the book (the first time I have read it), but it is the story of how it came to be that is the real meat in this fabulous book.

First we have the Plantagenets, and what a fascinating family they were. John was on the throne in 1215, but his mother, father, and assorted siblings were among the most interesting people English history have to offer. The entire family provided the greatest soap opera scripts ever written!

Then we have the local aristocracy. Driven by John's fickle nature (and who could blame him with such a family!) they were faithful, faithess, loyal and treacherous all, some all at once.

And then we have the local times themselves. There are chapters on the church, justice and how the everyday people lived their lives. The aristocracy lived exceptionally well of course, perhaps better than we in the 21st century realise.

All in all this is an absolutely fascinating snapshot of an interesting year in a turbulent time. And it is even more interesting to speculate how events so long ago impact on the way we live our lives today. This is a great book - entertaining, thoughtful and fascinating. What more could you ask?