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KNOW IT ALL: THE MAGNA CARTA

Magna Carta2

It’s 800 years this month (the actual date is 15th June) since the unpopular English King John put his seal to the Magna Carta (Great Charter in English) at Runnymede in England. DAVID ADAMS takes a closer look at the document and its history 

It’s 800 years this month (the actual date is 15th June) since the unpopular English King John put his seal to the Magna Carta (Great Charter in English) at Runnymede in England. Long lauded as a key document in the advancement of the protection of individual liberties and against the arbitrary use of power, its influence can be seen all around the world today not to mention in documents ranging from the US Bill of Rights (1791) to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). We take a closer look…

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Detail of one of the 1215 Magna Carta documents held by the British Library. PICTURE: British Library

• King John (1166-1216) agreed to the terms of the document in an attempt to put an end to a rebellion which had broken out among his barons over a long list of grievances concerning everything from taxation to land ownership and oversight of the justice system. The conflict had escalated in early 1215 and when the barons seized London, the king was left with no real options but to open negotiations with them – the result of which was the Magna Carta.

• The idea for the Magna Carta came from an earlier document – the Coronation Charter which was issued by King Henry I in 1100 to address some of the abuses of his predecessor, King William (Rufus) II. It was apparently the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton – himself in a long-running dispute with King John – who presented the document to the barons, led by East Anglian lord Robert FitzWalter, and thus gave them the idea of writing their own charter (there’s a copied version of King Henry’s charter complete with additional clauses mentioning King John’s name held in the national archives of France which is clearly a precursor of the Magna Carta).

• The Magna Carta was preceded by a document known as the Articles of the Barons which sets out the clauses to which King John had agreed with the barons upon but which was not yet the formal charter issued in his name.

• Runnymede, where King John met with the barons to negotiate is a water meadow located between Windsor and Staines, some 32 kilometres west of London. It was apparently chosen as the meeting place due to its proximity to London (in the hands of the barons) and Windsor (where was where the king had his headquarters). Historian Dr David Starkey suggested in an interview earlier this year that the fact it was a watery bog would also have made fighting tough and put a dampener on the whole idea of using it as a battlefield (not a bad thing when you’re trying to negotiate). The Magna Carta Memorial – a rotunda, created at the behest of the American Bar Association, and unveiled in 1957 – is one of a number of memorials now in the area.

• King John didn’t “sign” the Magna Carta in the sense of picking up a pen and signing his name. Rather his seal was affixed to it in recognition of his agreement to its terms. And while he granted the charter on 15th June, it was four days later, on 19th June, that the barons formally made their peace with him and renewed their oaths of allegiance.

• The original 1215 charter contained 63 clauses (as well as some spelling mistakes) but only a few of them now remain part of English law – they include one defending the rights of the church, another confirming the liberties and customs of London and other towns, and another, the most famous, which states that no man shall be seized, imprisoned, stripped of rights or possessions, outlawed, exiled or “deprived of his standing in any other way…except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land” before adding: “To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice”. 

• Among the Magna Carta’s original clauses which have been repealed or become obsolete are those dealing with everything from the rights of widows not to be forced into marriage and the establishment of common measures for ale, wine, corn and cloth through to forest laws and rules concerning what happens if someone dies “owing a debt to the Jews”.

• Just a couple of months after he had granted the charter, King John asked Pope Innocent III – then overlord of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland  – for the charter to be annulled. The Pope agreed and on 24th August, 2015, he issued a papal bull declaring it “null and void of all validity for ever”. Civil war broke out in the aftermath with effectively only ended when King John died of dysentery on 18th October, 1216.

• The document was almost immediately revived following the accession to the throne of King John’s son, King Henry III, who was then only nine-years-old. A revised version was issued in November, 1216, just a month after the death of John. Further revised versions were to follow with one issued by King Henry III in 1225 in return for a grant of taxation becoming what the British Library call the “definitive version of the text”. The Australian Parliament holds one of four surviving copies of the 1297 Magna Carta, issued by King Edward I, son of King Henry III – again in return for taxation rights – which, for the first time, he also had written into the English law statutes (it was this action which saw it officially become part of British law, to be interpreted, referred to and quoted from, in courts and the parliament of Britain as well as countries that adopted British law, such as Australia).

• There are only four surviving copies of the original 1215 Magna Carta (although up to 13 copies were apparently made) – one is held at Lincoln Cathedral, one at Salisbury Cathedral and two are in the possession of the British Library.

Sources: British LibraryMagna Carta 800thAustralian ParliamentUS National Archives and Records Administration

 

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