King John of England (reigned 1199-1216) and the rebel barons who negotiated the charter at Runnymede in 1215
About King John and the barons of England
Magna Carta was not written by a single author but negotiated in 1215 between King John of England (reigned 1199-1216) and a party of rebel barons who had renounced their homage to him. Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, acted as a mediator and is often credited with shaping the terms, and an earlier draft known as the Articles of the Barons survives. The final text was drawn up in Latin by royal clerks and issued under the king's seal as a charter. Its clauses were later revised in the reissues of 1216, 1217 and 1225 under John's son Henry III.
“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in anyway destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
Magna Carta, the "Great Charter," is the grant of liberties that King John of England sealed in the meadow of Runnymede, on the Thames between Windsor and Staines, on 15 June 1215. It was written in Latin and issued as a royal charter, but it was really a peace treaty: a large group of barons, angered by John's heavy taxation, his arbitrary fines and seizures, and his costly failed wars in France, had renounced their allegiance and taken London in May 1215.