Hidden away in the Guisborough Chartulary is the Cleveland
Charter. It was issued by Peter de Brus when he acquired the
Langbaurgh Wapentake in 1209. In this charter he imposes
constraints upon himself, which six years later would be imposed
on King John. It is a statement about good government, a
prototype of the Magna Carta. It survived because the Knights
and free tenants of Cleveland deposited it in the Priory, under
the protection of the one who proclaimed, "he casts the mighty
from their thrones and raises the lowly", and who taught the One
who pronounced the Beatitudes. In 1216 King John marched north
and moved against the northern barons who had forced him to sign
the Magna Carta. He attacked and took Skelton Castle. In
February he met Peter de Brus in Guisborough Priory, where even
John dared not harm him. In the Magna Carta, "the realm was more
than a geographic or administrative unit. It was a community,
capable of possessing rights and liberties." It went on to
inspire the American Declaration of