Magna Carta and the of Amiens

In the 1260s, in the wake of arbitrating disputes between King Henry III of England and his barons, King Louis IX of France expressed the opinion that the limitations the barons had imposed on the English king’s authority were improper and even immoral. However, he was careful to exclude Magna Carta (1215) from this blanket condemnation. Limitations on royal authority deriving from it had been intended to resolve the issues that had led to the baronial rebellion against King John. Louis IX resolutely honored the memory of his father, Louis VIII, by reaffirming the validity of the Great Charter in his arbitration judgment of 1264, the