Q 01/05

In what year did King John seal the Great Charter at Runnymede?

A) 1215

B) 1066

C) 1265

D) 1297

Answer · why

A) 1215

The date was 15 June; formal copies were issued four days later when the rebels renewed their oaths of loyalty.

Q 02/05

Runnymede, where the charter was agreed, is a water-meadow on the bank of which river?

A) the Severn

B) the Thames

C) the Trent

D) the Avon

Answer · why

B) the Thames

It sat on neutral ground between the royal fortress at Windsor and the rebel base at Staines, so neither side risked an ambush.

Q 03/05

Which Archbishop of Canterbury drafted the charter to make peace between John and the barons?

A) Thomas Becket

B) Anselm of Bec

C) Stephen Langton

D) Hubert Walter

Answer · why

C) Stephen Langton

The pope's commissioners suspended him from office that September for his part in the affair.

Q 04/05

The rebel barons demanded that John confirm the Charter of Liberties issued by which earlier king?

A) William the Conqueror

B) Stephen

C) Henry II

D) Henry I

Answer · why

D) Henry I

That century-old coronation charter supplied much of the language of the barons' first draft, the so-called Unknown Charter.

Q 05/05

Which pope annulled the 1215 charter, calling it 'null, and void of all validity for ever'?

A) Innocent III

B) Honorius III

C) Gregory IX

D) Clement V

Answer · why

A) Innocent III

John had made himself a papal vassal in 1213 and argued the charter infringed the pope's rights as his feudal lord.