Answer:
Because 800 years ago this month he signed a document called the Magna Carta (the “Big Charter”). He did not sign the document out of love for liberty or equality. He signed it under duress in order to buy peace with the barons and the bishops. The barons were tyrants who treated their subjects much worse than how the king treated them. The bishops wanted power to dominate all aspects of medieval life. The Magna Carta was a religiopolitical project of the vested interests to grab power that led to many problems in medieval Europe but, ironically, it is remembered today as the harbinger of modern liberal democracies!