官逼民反_人民當家

It’s 1215 in Runnymede, England. On the banks of the River Thames, King John sits nervously with a group of powerful barons. The mood at the negotiation table is tense, and the country teeters on the precipice of civil war. It’s no wonder the barons are hot under the collar--for years, the despotic King John has been doling out prison sentences with impunity, and the barons have descended upon him to demand their rights be recognized.

The ensuing negotiations would result in the sealing of the Magna Carta. For the first time, a monarch entered a written contract that limited his power and made him answerable to his subjects. This was a profound idea, and one that would inspire political thinkers in some of history’s most pivotal moments.

Despite its significance as a symbol of democracy, little of the original agreement dealt with liberty or universal freedom, and most of it was eventually changed or cut. When the dust of antiquity settled, however, what remained was one of its most important contributions: the right to due process. Protection against illegal imprisonment was one of the cornerstones of this agreement. Doodler Matt Cruickshank has captured a cartoon interpretation of the scene with today’s doodle as post-sealing an unjustly detained baron finds an unlikely ally in the King’s knight and scurries to freedom.