All 1 entries tagged History

Playing the “What If?” Game

This is a topic I absolutely love to muse on. Take a historical event e.g. D-day, and ask “what if” it had gone very differently. Of course this gets more and more complex the longer ago the event. Here’s an idea to begin with.

What if the Magna Carta wasn't signed

Ok, if the Magna Carta is not signed, this means trouble in England.
The barons essentially forced the first Magna Carta on king John and forced him to sign it (mainly by taking London). It seems obvious to me that should the king not sign we would have Civil War between the barons and the king. Given king john’s record to this point I think it’s likely he’d lose the kingdom and probably his life. The question however is what next? I’d imagine that once John was dead history would unfold mostly as it did. Prince Henry becomes king, signs a cut down Magna Carta to end the civil war. However as he is likely to be much younger he is probably more influenced by the barons and the king might end up with even less power that he had. Essentially nothing changes much, except the English king is a little more restricted.

The more restricted king might provoke other civil wars however, particularly against Henry VIII and might bring forward the English Civil War by a few years.

What other scenarios can people come up with?

: 13 Jan 2006 14:53 |  Tags: General History What-If |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem