Starkey emphasizes John’s failures in military campaigns—especially losing the Duchy of Normandy—and his financial exploitation of the barons to fund wars. These policies alienated the nobility and triggered rebellion.
However, Starkey also recognizes the limitations of John’s reign: the monarch was constrained by the feudal system and the complex relationships among nobles, church, and crown. The Magna Carta, therefore, was partly a reflection of John's attempts to regain control amid widespread opposition.
David Starkey and the Myth of Magna Carta
One of Starkey’s contributions is demythologizing the Magna Carta. He challenges romanticized views that portray it as the origin of democracy or the modern constitution.
Instead, he insists on placing the Magna Carta in its historical context: a feudal society with rigid hierarchies, where power was exercised through personal relationships and landholdings, not through abstract rights or popular sovereignty.
Starkey warns against projecting modern political ideals onto medieval documents. For him, understanding Magna Carta means appreciating the dynamics of power, negotiation, and survival in 13th-century England. shutdown123