England, in the 13th Century, the barons and people were drawn together
against the King. They framed a Charter, its provisions securing
protection and justice to every freeman in England. On Easter Day,
1215, the barons, attended by two thousand armed knights, met the King
near Oxford, and demanded his signature to the paper. John was awed,
and asked them to name a day and place. "Let the day be the 15th of
June, and the place Runnymede," was the reply.

A brown, shrivelled piece of parchment in the British Museum to-day,
attests to the keeping of this appointment. That old Oak at Runnymede,
under whose spreading branches the name of John was affixed to the
Magna Charta, was for centuries held the most sacred spot in England.

It is an impressive picture we get of John, "the Lord's Anointed," when
this scene was over, in a burst of rage rolling on the floor, biting
straw, and gnawing a stick! "They have placed twenty-five kings over
me," he shouted in a fury; meaning the twenty-five barons who were
entrusted with the duty of seeing that the provisions of the Charter
were fulfilled.

Whether his death, one year later (1216), was the result of vexation of
spirit or surfeit of peaches and cider, or poison, history does not
positively say. But England shed no tears for the King to whom she owes
her liberties in the Magna Charta.




CHAPTER IV.