The Most Shocking Tax Cheats in Our History

13TH-CENTURY ENGLISH NOBLES

The Magna Carta of 1215 is one of the most important legal documents in history, and it stemmed directly from people not wanting to pay taxes. In the early 1200s, King John of England was subjecting his barons to a series of expensive taxes to fund his wars to reclaim land in France.

This ultimately led to a group of rebel barons forcing King John of England to sign the Magna Carta — Latin for “The Great Charter” — that prevented the king from collecting taxes beyond his normal feudal levies without the consent of the royal counsel, which evolved into what we now know as a parliament.