To encourage La Rochelle to accept the new ascension, Eleanor granted a new charter and new rights to the city.  This trend continued with Eleanor's children Richard the Lion Heart and his brother and successor King John.  By the time of John's reign the trend had gotten out of hand and the barons of England went so far as to unite forces to demand a special charter for all the lords of that land.  It was a "big charter", known in Latin as the "Magna Carta" to which all modern constitutional government can be traced.

As centuries passed, La Rochelle continued in its ways of freedom.  As the Renaissance came, it was a fertile ground for that new set of religious ideas we call Protestantism.