The story of Magna Carta is the essential prologue to the story of Australian democracy. When William Wentworth demanded that our convict stain must not rob us of the ‘British right’ to self-government, he was making a conscious and effective appeal to centuries of conflict and collective memory. More than this, he was directly emulating the barons of 1215, who themselves had claimed liberties based on a semi-mythical Anglo-Saxon past. This is the tale of the importance of history and culture in securing rights, and how the Great Charter is an indelible symbol of freedom.