Charter to which King John of England was forced to subscribe on June 12, 1215, in which basic limits were set on the King's powers. King John had ruled tyrannically and his barons rebelled, committing themselves to war with the crown unless the King agreed to the Charter. It is held to be the precursor of habeas corpus, among other things, for Article 39 of the Magna Carta held that no man shall be "imprisoned, exiled or destroyed ... except by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land".