If you could go back in time 810 years and ask those who put their seals to Magna Carta what they thought, they'd tell you it had been a waste of time and a failure. From the moment King John and his retinue rode away from Runnymede on June 15, 1215, he was already intent on ignoring everything that the 'Great Charter' had put in place. He immediately petitioned Pope Innocent III to declare it null and void, on the grounds that he'd been coerced into putting his name to the document; the Supreme Pontiff agreed, and Magna Carta was annulled just nine weeks later

Yet here we are, not far short of a millennium later, and Magna Carta isn't just remembered as a success. It's acclaimed as one of the foundation stones of democracy, and described as 'the foundation of the freedom of the individua

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