Empire Falls

The Rule of Law

Magna Carta, the English Charter of Liberties, didn't happen overnight. It was the culmination of a series of events, piled one on top of the other, over the preceding16 years. This episode is the beginning of that story. It is about the fall of the Angevin Empire. Henry II of England had amassed a vast empire in western Europe. It extended from the Scottish border to the Spanish border. That Empire was continued and maintained by his warrior son, Richard the Lionheart, who spent most of his life outside of England in continental battles and in a crusade. But Richard died on April 6, 1199, fatally wounded by an crossbow arrow. The new king of England was his brother John. With Richard dead and John in his place, King Philip Augustus of France began amputating the new English king's holdings in Europe, exposing his ineptitude as a military commander. This weakened him in the eyes of England's barons, most of whom refused to fight with him in Europe to defend his possessions. After King John lost his father's lands on the continent to Philip Augustus, his vulnerability was apparent for all to see. This is the story of the Fall of the Angevin Empire and with it begins the serpentine tale of Magna Carta, an epic that changed the history of the world. In the age of absolute monarchs, after Magna Carta, England became the only monarchy in which a king's powers were limited by a charter that granted liberties to the English people, boundaries that the king could not cross. The first chapter in the story was the awakening of the barons to the realization that King John was vulnerable. Added to this knowledge was the fact that King John is commonly regarded as the worst king in English history. As Winston Churchill said, "England has been blessed with many bad kings." Those blessings, however, were entirely man made. They were gained through bold action by the English, when confronted by a "bad king." Magna Carta was the extraction of freedom by force from a despot. King John's actions, dictatorial and many dissolute and despicable, were inflicted upon the barons and their families, and those acts became the spark that exploded England into civil war. The details of that war, its prelude and its aftermath, unknown to most today, would involve the King of France and many other players, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and one man who regarded all, kings, barons and bishops, as pawns on his chessboard. That story begins in this episode, "Empire Falls."