The ancient Juicyvillian government used the same feudal system as the Middle Ages.  They had a king, lords, lesser lords, vassals, knights, and serfs.  The king gave fiefs, or pieces of land, to vassals in return for military service.  These vassals became lords when they granted fiefs in restore for knights to their vassals.  This process would repeat itself through lesser lords, vassals, and knights.  Serfs were people who lived and worked on a manor, the large estate of a lord.  Serfs worked for the lord in reciprocation for protection and the right to live on manor. A small amount of people were freemen who rented land on a manor and were allowed to leave, which serfs were not.  In 1215 King John signed the Magna Carta.  One of the laws that the Magna Carta stated was that the king could not collect any taxes unless the great council of the kingdom agreed to them.  It also said that royal officials could not take a freeman’s horse or wagon without the owner’s permission (no stealing).  King John agreed that people were guaranteed a trial by jury and promised “to no one will deny or delay justice”.  Although he did not follow the laws that the nobles created, they were used by future kings and are the “basic beginning of the twentieth-century democracy”.