Do you know where Churchill made this statement? “Here is a law which is above the King which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it.” —J.F.

Yes, in a book in 1956. Churchill was explaining Magna Carta, the Great Charter of Freedoms, one of the towering benchmarks of Western Civilization. In his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, vol. 1, The Birth of Britain (London: Cassell, 1956), 256-57. Churchill wrote:

King John of England signs Magna Carta (Wikipedia Commons)

If the thirteenth-century magnates understood little and cared less for popular liberties or Parliamentary democracy, they had all the same laid hold of a principle which was to be of prime importance for the future development of English society and English institutions. Throughout the document it is implied that here is a law which is above the King and which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it. The reign of Henry II, according to the most respected authorities, initiates the rule of law. But the work as yet was incomplete: the Crown was still above the law; the legal system which Henry had created could become, as John showed, an instrument of oppression.

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