A copy of Magna Carta, the document with which King John of England put himself, his heirs and all of England’s future sovereigns under the rule of law, was sold at auction at Sotheby’s last night for $21 million.

It dates to 1297 and was issued as part of Edward I’s Confirmation of the Charters. One of 17 known to exist, it is the only one in the United States and it has been on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The Magna Carta was a basis for the U.S. Constitution. As the National Archives Web site notes: “the American Constitution is ‘the Supreme Law of the Land,’ just as the rights granted by Magna Carta were not to be arbitrarily canceled by subsequent English laws.”

And it gives this comparison:

Here are the Fifth Amendment guarantees in the Bill Rights:

“No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Here is Magna Carta:

No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned…or in any other way destroyed…except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice.”

The copy had been owned by Ross Perot’s Perot Foundation. It was bought by David Rubenstein, a founder of the private equities firm The Carlyle Group. He told reporters that he would leave it at the National Archives, according to Reuters.

You can find more information “here”:http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta on the National Archives Web site. There’s a translation too.

PHOTO: The copy of the Magna Carta on display at the National Archives