A 1297 copy of Britain's Magna Carta, the first document to limit the monarchy and enshrine the rights of the people, is to be auctioned through Sotheby's in New York in December.

The Perot Foundation, created by billionaire former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot to make philanthropic grants, is expected to earn up to $30 million US through sale of the document.

The Perot Magna Carta is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., in 2005.
(Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

The first Magna Carta, or Great Charter, was signed by King John in England in 1215. A group of rebellious barons forced him to sign the document, in which he agreed to renounce certain rights and accept that the king's will could be bound by the law.

The Magna Carta was ratified and reissued by each monarch who succeeded John in the 13th century. It's considered a foundation of democracy, forming the basis for the one that emerged in Britain and later for the U.S. Constitution.

Though the original document did more to preserve the power of the barons than establish rights for the people, the Magna Carta established the principle that no man is above the law and no one should be imprisoned without trial.

"The Magna Carta is the first rung on the ladder to freedom. This document symbolizes mankind's eternal quest for freedom; it is a talisman of liberty," said Sotheby's vice-chairman David Redden.

Perot's copy was ratified by King Edward I and enacted as law in the English parliament in 1297.

Only 17 versions of the original document still survive. The original is in London's British Library, while others are kept in the Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals.

Only two copies are outside of England and only the Perot Magna Carta is in private hands. The other is owned by the people of Australia.

Perot bought the Magna Carta for $1.5 million US in 1984 from relatives of James Thomas Brudenell, the Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War.

The document had been in the Brudenell family since sometime between the 14th and 16th century and was "rediscovered" in 1974 during an inventory of the family's estate.

It was on the market for four years before Perot bought it.