Letters concerning the English Nation, Letter IX

What it is

This is Letter IX from Voltaire's Letters concerning the English Nation, in an English edition published in 1733. The letter is titled On the Government. It describes England being ruled by the Romans, Saxons, Danes and French, and then says that barons forced King John and King Henry III to grant the famous Magna Charta, whose chief design was to make kings dependent on the law.

Why it matters

Voltaire was writing about 500 years after the charter was agreed, so he is a later interpreter rather than a witness. His letter shows how Enlightenment thinkers in France and England read the charter as a step toward limiting royal power, and it helped spread that view.

Look closer

• Why does Voltaire describe the barons as he does, and what does he want readers to think about kings?
• What does the letter leave out about the charter itself?
• How could a writer in 1733 use events from the 1200s to make a point about his own time?