Revered around the world as the founding document of Western liberty, the Magna Carta has inspired the constitutions of hundreds of countries and its language can be found in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Dan Jones takes us back in time to the turbulent year of 1215, when the Magna Carta was just a peace treaty between King John and a small group of self-interested and violent barons. The agreement aimed to force the king to obey his own laws, but failed within two months of its confirmation at Runnymede. It was later condemned by the Pope, who threatened to excommunicate anyone who observed it. So how did it gain such legendary status? MAGNA CARTA takes readers on a dramatic journey through the year in which the Magna Carta was conceived, drafted, rewritten, and cemented into law. When the rebel barons seize London, we are taken with them on a street-by-street tour of the capital. When King John besieges them in Rochester Castle, we feel every jolt of the...