No Longer Above The Law: The Magna Carta
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter” — to which England’s King John affixed his seal June 15, 1215, 810 years ago Sunday — was essentially a peace treaty that was intended to end a civil war between the monarch and the barons of his country and officials of the church.
The agreement didn’t last long before John tore through it and attempted to run over his barons. And the freedoms it guaranteed weren’t nearly as widespread as most of us have believed over the centuries.
Still, the Magna Carta has served as inspiration for generations of those seeking freedom ... including those who would write the U.S. Constitution.
Reigning in The King
What happens when the ruler of a country disregards the rights, wishes and property of the people over whom he rules?
The people either have to suffer through authoritarianism. Or they can rise up and oppose it, demanding laws and limits be established for even the rulers.
Those of us who have studied the American Revolution and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution have a pretty good idea of how this can come about.
But what about old England, more than half a millennium before the Constitution was drafted? Yes, it happened then, too ...
1066–87
William I conquers England and sets up himself — and his successors — with unlimited power over the country, the barons who helped him rise to power and the clergy who supported him.
1100
William’s son, Henry I, takes the throne and eases growing concerns among the nobility and the clergy by issuing, upon his coronation, the Charter of Liberties in which he makes concessions in the power of the crown.
1136
England‘s next king, Stephen, issues another charter making even more generous promises to the nobility and to the church.
1154
Henry II issues yet another charter reaffirming the liberties and customs promised by his grandfather, Henry I.
1189–99
Richard I, known as Richard the Lionhearted, becomes king and decides to personally take part in the Crusades in the Middle East. He’s captured and England is compelled to pay an enormous ransom. Richard returns, spends five years at war with France and pays for all this by raising taxes on England’s nobles.
1199
Richard dies and the barons select his brother, John, to be their king.
1202
War breaks out again with France. Within two years, John has lost Normandy and most of the other territory England controlled in France.1206
John disagrees with Pope Innocent III over the appointment of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury. 1209
The pope excommunicates John and forbids most religious services in England.
1212
John relents and officially recognizes the new archbishop. The next year, Langton absolves John’s excommunication.
1214
John launches a military campaign against France but fails to win back any territory. John pays for his war in France by raising taxes. This broadens the gulf between him and the barons of England. The barons demand John confirm Henry I’s Charter of Liberties.
King John is seen by some as an unfit — even cowardly — leader.
Here’s an illustration of King John from 1864 ...
... and here he is in the 1973 Disney movie “Robin Hood.”
May 1215
John doesn’t comply with those demands and instead begins recruiting mercenaries in France to prepare for the Civil War that breaks out soon afterward.
June 1215
The rebellious barons capture London. A weakened King John asks Langton to help negotiate peace with the barons. A Great Charter is written, requiring the king and other royal officials to follow the law. The charter also reforms some laws and guarantees legal rights for barons.
John is compelled to meet the barons at Runnymede to affix his seal to the charter. The barons, in return, renew their loyalty oaths to John.
August 1215
The pope issues a letter declaring the charter is “not only shameful and demeaning but also illegal and unjust” and, because John had been forced to sign it, declares it “null and void.” He also excommunicates the rebel barons.
September 1215
John ignores the charter, leading a newly recruited army through the north of England and laying waste to the estates of barons who had opposed him.
November 1215
The barons request help from Prince Louis of France — the future Louis VIII — who sends troops and, the next May, launches a full-scale invasion of England.
October 1216
Losing castle after castle to rebel barons and to Louis’ army, and having lost much of his luggage — including the English Crown Jewels — while crossing an estuary, John dies of dysentery. John’s son, Henry III — who is only 9 years old — becomes king.
John’s death makes it possible for royal officials to make peace by restoring the rights and property of the rebel nobles and the withdrawal of Prince Louis and his forces. A month later, the crown reissues the Great Charter in the name of Henry III.
1217
Henry’s government attempts to solidify peace by reissuing the Great Charter, with a few alterations aimed at strengthening rights of barons.
At the same time, a second charter is issued aimed at pardoning offenses committed in forested areas of the country where commoners were limited in where or what they could farm or hunt. This charter becomes known as the Charter of the Forest. This is the point where the original 1215 charter finally becomes known as the Great Charter of Liberties, or simply the Magna Carta.
1225
Questions arise over the agreements put into place by the charters. Henry III reaffirms his commitments by issuing the Great Charter of 1225 — in exchange for a tax increase.
1258
Despite the updated charters, a number of barons are unhappy with what they see as a discarding of the principles behind the Magna Carta. They depose Henry III and launch another civil war.
1267
With the Second Barons’ War put down, a restored Henry III issues the Statute of Marlborough in which he once again commits to the Magna Carta.
1297
King Edward I reissues the Charters of 1225 in the Great Charter of 1297. He does this in return for a new tax.
Facts About The Magna Carta
3,500 - Roughly, the number of words (in Medieval Latin) in the original Magna Carta
4,478 - Words after the Magna Carta was translated into English
63 - Clauses in the Magna Carta
3 - Clauses that are still in effect today
4 - Original copies of the Magna Carta still in existence
- Details liberties and rights of the English church
- Confirms certain liberties and customs to London and other cities
- Outdated clauses included outlawing fishing weirs and dictating the width of bolts of cloth used to make robes for monks
The catch here: “Free man” referred to wealthy landowners or barons — not “unfree” peasants, who answered to whoever owned the land on which they worked.
“Unfree” peasants in those days were called “villeins.” Which tells us a lot about the thinking in 1215.
One of four surviving copies of the 1215 Magna Carta, written in irongall ink on parchment in medieval Latin, in the British Library in London. British Library
Influenced By The Magna Carta
1791
The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution
1948
The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1950
European Convention on Human Rights