Imagine telling the most powerful person in the country that he must follow the same rules as everyone else. On June 15, 1215, a group of English barons did exactly that. They forced King John to seal a document called the Magna Carta, which means "Great Charter" in Latin. King John had been raising taxes without asking his nobles first. He threw people in prison without trials. He took land and property whenever he wanted. The barons had enough. They gathered an army and marched to London. Faced with rebellion, King John agreed to meet at a meadow called Runnymede, near the River Thames. The Magna Carta contained 63 clauses, or sections. Some of the most important ones said that no free person could be put in jail without a legal judgment. The king could not demand money without the agreement of his council. These ideas were revolutionary for their time. Though King John tried to cancel the Magna Carta just weeks later, the ideas survived. Over the centuries, the Magna Carta inspired the writers of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.