Magna Carta by Dan Jones: a review by Elleanore Vance

Thanks to Disney's "Robin Hood" animated feature, I grew up believing  John I was the "phony king of England". In Magna Carta, historian Dan Jones corrects that misconception. 

We begin with a very detailed snapshot of the Plantagenet siblings known as The Devil's Brood.  These were the sons born to Eleanor of Aquitaine and her second husband Henry II: Henry the Young King, Richard I, Geoffrey and John. 

Henry would have become the Third, but predeceased their father; a heart-breaking blow.  Geoffrey also predeceased their father, getting trampled at a joust (though that may have been a fiction to conceal a homosexual relationship he may have had with Phillip II of France) Richard spoke no English and spent much of his reign Crusading in the Holy Land. What time he was not Crusading or being held hostage, was in France. 

John, the youngest, known as "Lackland", is the one we're concerned with. See, while Richard was fanny-ing about with the Templars in the Holy Land on the orders of the Pope, John was in London, doing his best to run the country. Then as now, wars are expensive. To provide for his brother's gallivanting, John levied taxes. This was not a move that made him popular. 

When Richard died in 1199, John became the king in fact. All of those expensive wars, and later Richard's ransom , left England deeply in debt, so John raised the taxes again. And John  made sure that Rome paid its fair share toward the cost of the war they had ordered by taxing the Church. So far this lines up with Disney, as far as that goes. 

Jones goes so much deeper. We delve into medieval economics. He explains that these taxes were not laid on the shoulders of Tommy the Baker, but at the feet of Lord Muckety-Muck II, who was expected to pay out of collected rents. We get a clarification that the church tax was not on individual churches, it did not stop or impede charitable works, nor did it starve the priests. It did stop the monies intended for Rome from leaving the country. He garnished the Vatican's wages. (I super promise, they can afford it.) 

The Magna Carta was not a document drafted by the Common People of England. Tommy the Baker's life would change not a whit. It was a document drafted by the nobility, at the behest of Rome. Used as a template for our own Constitution, we want this document to be of The People. In truth, it is the 1% telling their government what they will and will not submit to. 

In 2021, I found this to be a very timely read given the state of United States politics. It kept giving me  "the more things change..." vibes. Given that this document is also displayed with our constitution this is fitting. While most of our time is spent with John, we get a great look at the life of the document itself, even an afterlife, if you will. The influence of this titular document has sent ripples through history. 

If you're feeling reflective, and want to learn something new, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Jones' style is readable and friendly. I always get the feeling that I  Lucked into a museum employee having a great day when I read a Dan Jones book. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐5/5