Sir William de Mowbray sided with those who revolted against King John in 1215 and was one of the twenty-five leading barons appointed to enforce the provisions of Magna Carta. This short book, prepared for the 2015 national celebrations of the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, looks at the background, summarises the major clauses and asks whether the concept we have today really is a true reflection of what its original purpose was.

One of only four of the 1215 copies sent out to the major towns still exist, two in the British Library, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and one, the property of Lincoln Cathedral, but now kept in Lincoln Castle. Although sometimes lauded as one of the greatest statements of freedoms of all time, in its day Magna Carta was introduced as a means for the rich and powerful to protect themselves and their interests from the even richer and more powerful King John. The document offering basic rights to the common man was the Charter of the Forest of 1217; Lincoln Castle is the only place in the world where original copies of both charters are on display.

Details: 28 pages, 2 charts, 2 family trees, 15 colour photographs, bibliography

King John watched by the rebel barons at Runnymede, June 15th 1215. Magna Carta was authenticated by applying the Great Seal of England, and not by King John signing it, as is depicted in this 1864 engraving by James William Edmund Doyle. Further versions of ‘The Great Charta’ followed in the reign of John’s son Henry III in 1216, 1217 and 1225, and again in 1297 in the reign of Edward III.

King John reneged on his promises and civil war broke out before the provisions could be implemented, and when he died in 1216 the reason for the unrest should have died with him. However, Sir William de Mowbray and like-minded barons instead offered their support to Louis, the dauphin of France, who was claiming the throne, rather than to the child Henry III, King John’s nine-year-old son.

Sir William de Mowbray, one of the 25 Sureties of 1215, was among those who in May 1217 fought for the Dauphin of France in a battle in the streets of Lincoln against King John’s successor, Henry III; had the French candidate been victorious, England’s history would have taken a different course.

View from the battlements of Lincoln Castle looking towards the Cathedral. It was here in the narrow open space between the two sites that the battle was fought for the English throne between supporters of King John’s son Henry III and the Dauphin of France in May 1217. © Marilyn Roberts