Magna Carta

Magna Carta (Latin: Great Charter), written in 1215, is an English charter which limited the power of English Kings, specifically King John, from absolute rule. In effect Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights and respect certain legal procedures, to accept that the will of the king could be bound by law. It is the first step in a long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law.

Background

After the Norman Conquest of 1066 and advances in the 12th century, by 1199 the English king had become the most powerful monarch Europe had ever seen. This was due to a number of factors including the sophisticated centralized government created by the procedures of the new Norman rulers combined with the native Anglo-Saxon systems of governance, as well as extensive Anglo-Norman land holdings in Normandy. However, after King John took power in the early 13th century a series of stunning failures on his part led the barons of England to revolt and place checks on the king's unlimited power.

The failures of King John were threefold. First, there was a general lack of respect for King John because of the way he took power. When the previous king Richard Lionheart died in 1199 there were two candidates to take his place, John and his nephew Arthur of Brittany in Normandy. John captured Arthur and imprisoned him and he was never heard from again. Although Arthur's murder was never proven it was assumed, and many saw it as a black mark against John that he would murder his own family to be king.

After Philip Augustus, the king of France, seized most of the English holdings in France, the English barons demanded of their king that he retake the land, and while he attempted to do so 8 years later, the effort came to failure at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. Because King John is blamed for the loss of a large part of English land he would be known as John "Lackland".

The third failure of John was when he became embroiled in a dispute with the Church over the appointment of the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. John wanted to appoint his own Archbishop and the Church wanted to appoint Stephen Langton, this struggle went on for several years during which England was placed under a sentence of interdict and finally John was forced to submit to the will of the Church in 1213.

By this time the barons of England had enough, and in 1215 they banded together and took London by force, forcing King John to sign Magna Carta in the meadow at Runnymede on June 15, 1215.

Magna Carta

Magna Carta guaranteed certain English political liberties and contained clauses providing for a church free from domination by the monarchy, reforming law and justice, and controlling the behaviour of royal officials.

A large part of Magna Carta was copied, (nearly word for word), from The Charter of Liberties of Henry I, which granted civil liberties to the English nobility.

Magna Carta is composed of 63 different clauses or articles, the majority of which are very specific to the 13th Century and of temporary importance. For example, it repealed certain royal taxes that were unpopular and reduced the amount of hunting land that was royal and thus off-limits to most people.

One of the most important clause that would have the longest lasting effect was Article 39:

No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor shall we go against him or send against him, unless by legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land.

This meant the King must judge individuals according to the law, and not according to his own will. This was a check on the power of the king and the first step in the long road to a constitutional monarchy.

Magna Carta was not considered a particularly important document during the medieval period, during which the power of the English crown grew. Indeed, in his historical play King John, William Shakespeare did not mention Magna Carta. However, the charter became increasingly important in the 17th century as the conflict between the Crown and Parliament grew. As English society continued to grow and develop, Magna Carta was repeatedly revised and other documents created such as the Provisions of Oxford, guaranteeing greater rights to greater numbers of people, thus setting the stage for the British Constitutional monarchy.

King John had no intention of honouring Magna Carta as it was signed under extortion by force, and as soon as the barons left London he renounced it. However he died within a year in 1216 and the next king, King Henry III was more willing to accept it. Henry III ruled for 56 years until 1272 by which time Magna Carta had become a settled part of English law.

Significance

Many later attempts to draft constitutional forms of government, including the United States Constitution, trace their lineage back to this source document. Numerous copies were made each time it was issued, so all of the participants would each have one. Several of those still exist and some are on permanent display.

Magna Carta is still part of English law. However, the only part that has not been repealed or superseded are the introductory sentences, so it has no practical use and is retained only because it has been such an important historical document. Despite this, it is still used in arguments about reform of the jury system.

Notes

In 1984, Ross Perot bought one of the original copies of Magna Carta. This is the only copy to leave the United Kingdom. It is now on loan to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where it is on display with the American Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution.

As there is no definite article in Latin, the document is referred to as simply Magna Carta rather than the Magna Carta.