of Canterbury was too high for any turning
back from the work he had set himself to accomplish. The rights of election
in the Church were important, but the restoration of justice and order and
the ending of tyranny were, in his eyes, hardly less important. John, who
had been at war in France, returned defeated from his last attempt to
recover for the Crown the lost Angevin provinces, to face a discontent that
was both wide and general. The people, and in especial the barons and
knights whom for fourteen years John had robbed, insulted, and spurned, and
whose liberties he had trampled upon, were ready at last under wise
leadership to end the oppression.

In November, 1214, the Archbishop saw that the time was come for action,
and again the barons met in council. Before the high altar in the Abbey
Church of St. Edmundsbury they swore that if the King sought to evade their
demand for the laws and liberties of Henry I.'s charter, they would make
war upon him until he pledged himself to confirm their rights in a charter
under royal seal. "They also agreed that after Christmas they would go all
together to the King and ask him for a confirmation of these liberties, and
that meanwhile they would so provide themselves with horses and arms that
if the King should seek to break his oath, they might, by seizing his
castles, compel him to make satisfaction. And when these things were done
every man returned to his own home."[11]

John now asked for time to consider these requests, and for the next six
months worked hard to break up the barons' confederacy, to gain friends and
supporters, and to get mercenaries from Poitou. It was all to no purpose.
As a last resource he took the Cross, expecting to be saved as a crusader
from attack, and at the same time he wrote to the Pope to help his faithful
vassal. The Pope's letters rebuking the barons for conspiracy against the
King were unheeded, and the mercenaries were inadequate when John was
confronted by the whole baronage in arms.

THE GREAT CHARTER

In May a list of articles to be signed was sent to John; and on his refusal
the barons formally renounced their homage and fealty and flew to arms.
John was forced to surrender before this host. On June 15th he met the
barons at Runnymede, between Staines and Windsor, and there, in the
presence of Archbishop Stephen and "a multitude of most illustrious
knights," sealed the Great Charter of the Liberties of England.

This Great Charte