⁣Clause 61 (also known as the security clause) “….We give and grant to the barons the following security: The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter. If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us - or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice - to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon.”

This clause is probably the most radical clause in Magna Carta. It gave the barons the right form a committee of 25 who would monitor the king and take action against him if he failed to honour his agreement to them and to the freemen of his kingdom. The king hated this clause most of all.

Lord Craigmyle, one of the original Barons of the constitutional committee, gives a brief talk on his part of the invocation whilst being interviewed by Caroline Stephens from Operation Beacon.

Lord Craigmyle speaking on the 2001 invocation of Article 61.