Magna Carta Clause 61, Explained

What clause 61 said

By June 1215 England's leading barons had renounced their allegiance to King John and taken London. The charter they forced him to accept at Runnymede listed dozens of promises, from fair fines to the famous guarantee of lawful judgement. The barons had no reason to trust John to keep any of them, so the charter ended with a mechanism to enforce them. Historians call it the security clause.

Under clause 61 the barons would choose twenty-five of their number to watch over "the peace and liberties" granted in the charter. If the king or his officials broke any of its terms, four of the twenty-five could bring the complaint to the king and demand that it be put right. If nothing was done within forty days, the full council of twenty-five, "with the support of the whole community of the land", could seize the king's castles, lands and possessions until the wrong was corrected. The king, the queen and their children were not to be harmed, and once redress was made the barons were to return to their normal obedience.

Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends.

That line is why clause 61 still fascinates people. The power sat with the twenty-five barons, not with the public at large, but ordinary people could swear to support them. Our A Right and a Duty T-Shirt is built around exactly that idea: holding a ruler to the law was framed as a shared responsibility.

Why it was so radical

Medieval kings were not used to being told that their own subjects could lawfully press them to keep a promise. Clause 61 put that into writing and sealed it with the king's great seal. It is the clearest statement in the charter of the principle that the ruler, too, is under the law, the idea behind our People Over Power T-Shirt.

It was also unworkable. John had no intention of being governed by a committee of his opponents. He appealed to Pope Innocent III, who declared the charter null and void in August 1215. Within months England was in the civil war now called the First Barons' War. The charter that was meant to make peace had failed in less than three months, a reminder printed on our Freedom is Never Free T-Shirt that rights were won at a cost.

Why clause 61 disappeared

King John died in October 1216. His supporters, governing for his nine-year-old son Henry III, reissued Magna Carta in November 1216 to win the barons back. The new version kept much of the 1215 text but left out the security clause entirely. It was not restored in the reissues of 1217 or 1225, or in Edward I's confirmation of 1297, the version that entered the English statute book.

The rest of the charter had a long life. Clause 39, the promise that no free man would be imprisoned or stripped of his rights "except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land", survived the reissues and became a foundation of due process. That clause inspired our Freeman T-Shirt.

Does clause 61 apply today?

No. Clause 61 appeared only in the 1215 charter, and it has no legal force in England, Australia or anywhere else today. Only a few clauses of the 1297 version remain law in England and Wales, and the security clause is not one of them. It does not give anyone a legal right to ignore laws, courts or governments. Its value now is historical: it is one of the earliest written attempts to make power answer to an agreed set of rules. (This page is history, not legal advice.)

Why we wear it

Lawful Rebellion Co. takes its name from this clause, and from the conviction that a right you don't know about is a right you can't use. The Knowledge is Power Chapter 61 T-Shirt carries both ideas on one shirt. Read the charter, learn what it really says, and start the conversation.

See the designs inspired by clause 61: Knowledge is Power Chapter 61 and A Right and a Duty.

Tees inspired by Magna Carta

Knowledge is Power Chapter 61 T-ShirtA Right and a Duty T-ShirtPeople Over Power T-ShirtFreedom is Never Free T-ShirtFreeman T-Shirt