Many historians view the Magna Carta as one of the earliest Western legal developments in the area of human rights. Signed by King John of England in 1215, the document served as a peace agreement between the King and a group of barons who wanted to limit taxation and protect their rights. It guarantees certain individual rights, including the right to trial by jury – as long as the subject was a property-owning man.
Despite the fact that these rights were not extended to the common man, the Magna Carta remains one of the earliest examples in the West of the principle that everyone, including the monarch, is both subject to and protected by the law.
John Signs the Great Charter (via Wikimedia Commons)