Oil Drum Lane

  History is a compendium of stories, many of which melt into the mist on closer inspection. Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, agreed between King John and his Barons at Runnymede in  June 1215, is cited ad nauseam as a foundation and guarantee of the rights of the individual against authority in the English-speaking world. Some claim, even more ambitiously, that it was a triumph in the fight between democracy and European feudalism. In fact, it was neither of those things. The Charter was just one in a long series of accommodations between the Crown and the Barons. But the events that soon followed were indeed pivotal in our history.  It is partly a tale of myth-making and derring-do. And this is a narrative, as all histories are, and other narratives are available. I have tried hard to rescue it from dry lists of Kings and dates. I have tried hard to rescue it from dry lists of Kings and dates. I know the illustrations are sub-standard. Frankly, they are sometimes jus...

  Alfred The Great  This post is about the development of the English Constitution, in the context of the long arguments over the role of the Crown. I am trying to capture the bigger picture here and thus have omitted finer detail. Most people see the pivotal event as Magna Carta. I disagree, but to avoid extending this post, I have described why and the medieval mayhem that followed it in more detail here: Link:  Magna Carta & The Greatest Knight Theoretically, an early English Monarch was responsible for the collective well-being of the (n.b. not 'his' ) Kingdom and its people. In practice, this was usually shaped and compromised by personal greed and ambition; it didn’t involve very many of the people but required collaboration with the powerful aristocracy. To rule, you needed to communicate. In Saxon times, this was achieved by having an itinerant royal court, shuffling around (and living off) the local warlords. This could turn into political whack-a-mole when...