John Yowan

Mr. Bruner

World History Cultures Hour 2

7 May 2003

The Magna Carta

            The Magna Carta was supposed to change the rights and responsibilities of the people of England in many ways. There were many events that helped give the Barons, Nobles and Church Officials of England reason to revolt against King John. The events started in 1205 when John and Pope Innocence III had a disagreement over who should be the Archbishop of Canterbury[1]. Several factions selected different candidates. The monks of Canterbury elected one if their own to be archbishop and sent him to Rome to seek the Popes approval. During this time one of John’s nominees, John de Grey[2], was elected. The Pope did not give his approval and requested a new candidate be nominated. The monks obeyed the Pope and Cardinal Stephen Langton was elected Archbishop of Canterbury. When King John heard about this he sent his soldiers to Canterbury and drove the monks out of the kingdom and refused to allow Langton to take up his appointment.

For about a year the Pope tried to argue with the king. At the end of that time since he had made no progress he excommunicated[3] the King in 1209. Since King John was excommunicated nearly all of the churches were closed. Then finally in 1213 John gave in and accepted Langton as Archbishop.

During the five years following King John made many enemies among the nobles and his Barons, by demanding large sums of money. Enemies of the king were thrown into prison. Land and goods were illegally seized and nobles had to pay fines and taxes.

Finally the important barons of England decided to no longer be ruled by John. Stephen Langton became a leader in the revolt against King John. One day Langton called together several barons who were in the Cathedral and according to a chronicler of the time Roger of Wendover a monk of St. Albans said, “There has been found a charter of Henry I by which if ye will ye may recall to their former estate the liberties ye have so long lost”[4] and then he read the document to them. Henry I had drawn up a charter in which he had promised to rule his people justly according to the old Anglo-Saxon customs.

John tried in every way to avoid struggle with the barons but he was unable to do so. Finally the king sent a messenger to the Barons asking what liberties they wanted. The barons sent back a list of demands when these demands were read to John he said,

“Why amongst all these unjust demands, did not the barons ask for my kingdom also?
I will never grant liberties that would render me their slave,”[5] and he refused to grant the demands. The messenger carried the king’s refusal back to the nobles and the Church united against King John. King John’s followers including his most trusted, abandon him.

            Runnymede on the Thames River not far from London was chosen as a meeting place for King John to agree with the new laws.

            On June 15, 1215 John unwillingly signed the Magna Carta, which the nobles had prepared. The Magna Carta was supposed to change the rights and responsibilities in many ways.

            The following are fourteen of forty-nine of the main points of the Articles of the Barons that were converted into the royal charter now known as the Magna Carta.

“{5} The king or bailiff shall not seize any land for debt so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be detained so long as the principal debtor shall fail to pay, if the sureties so desire let them have the land of the debtor until the debt is fully paid, unless the principal debtor can show proof that he is discharged thereof as against the sureties.

            {16} If any freeman shall die in testate his goods shall be distributed by the hands of his nearer kinsfolk and friends and under the supervision of the church

            {20} No sheriff or bailiff of the king, or any other person, shall take the horses or carts of any freeman for transport duty against his will.

{21} Neither the king nor his bailiff shall take another’s wood for his castle or for any other work, except with the consent of the owner of that wood.   

{22} The king shall not retain the land of those who have been convicted of felony for longer than a year and a day, and the land shall thereafter be handed over to the lord of the fief.

{25} If anyone has been disseised of his lands, liberties, or right, or exiled by the king, without judgment, let them at once be restored to him; and if a dispute arise over this, let it be decided by the judgment of twenty-five barons, and those who were dispossessed by the father of the brother of the king shall have justice without delay by the judgment of their peers in the king’s court, and if the king is to have the usual term of other crusaders then the archbishop and bishops shall make a decision on a fixed day from which there can be no appeal.

{30} Justice is neither delayed nor sold, nor denied.

{31} Merchants shall have safe exit and entry for buying and selling, quit from all evil tolls, by the ancient and right customs.

{33} It shall be lawful for anyone to leave the realm and return, reserving always the allegiance due to the king, except for a short period during time of war on grounds of public policy.

{36} If anyone holding of some escheat, such as the honor of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats, which are in the hands of the king and are baronies, shall die, his heir shall give no other relief and shall perform no other service to the king than he would have done to the baton, and the king shall hold it in the same manner in which the baron held it.

{37} All fines made wrongfully and against the law of the land for dowers, marriage portions, inheritances, and amercements shall be entirely remitted, or let it be done by judgment of the twenty-five barons, or the majority of the same, together with the archbishop and such others as he may wish to call for the purpose, so that if one of some of the twenty-five are in a similar suit they shall be removed and others substituted in their places by the rest of the twenty-five.

{41} The king shall remove foreign knights, mercenaries, crossbow men, and soldiers and sergeants who have come with horses and arms to the kingdom’s hurt

            {42} That the king shall appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs and bailiffs only such as know the law of the land and mean to observe it well.

{44} If the king has disseised or removed Welshmen from lands or liberties or other things in England or Wales, the shall be immediately restored to them without plea; and if they were  disseised or removed from tenements in England by the father or brother of the king without the judgment of their peers, the king shall grant them justice without delay, so that he do justice to them with respect to their English tenements according to the law of England, and their tenements in Wales according to the law of Wales, and their tenements in the marches according to the law of the march; the Welsh shall do the same to the king and his.”[6]

The following are the main points of the Magna Carta. The king could not start new taxes unless the nobles agreed. So the King began to call his nobles together to discuss taxes. Soon nobles were meeting all of the time. Soon they became known as the Parliament. This gave more rights and responsibilities to the nobles to stop the king from making bad taxes. Also twice in the Charter it said the English church shall be free to run its self.

Nobles had to be tried before a jury. Before 1215 the king could hold a secret trial if he thought the noble was getting too strong. The king would find the noble guilty and have him beheaded. Other rights were given to the people, one was the right to have bail set by a judge this allowed a person to wait for a trial at home. Englishmen were also given the right of privacy. This meant that police must have a search warrant signed by a judge before entering a home. An accused person had the right to have a lawyer speak for him. This gave an accused man a better chance at trial. Some other changes that the Magna Carta made were people could not marry people from a lower class. Another one is if someone is in debt, their land will not be taken away from them if what they own is worth more than the debt. If a married lady is widowed she does not have to remarry. Heirs who were under age will get their inheritance when they come of age without being fined. Other changes that the Magna Carta brought about was that punishment for crimes will match the crime and all unfair fines will be canceled. No village shall be forced to build a bridge over a river.

In my opinion the 1215 Magna Carta failed to achieve its purpose at the time because the barons quarreled among themselves and because John did not keep his promises. Another reason I believe the 1215 Magna Carta failed was because Pope Innocent III annulled the Charter as an “illegal and immoral invasion of royal governance.”[7]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Dunham, Jennings, Kurland, and Thorne. The Great Charter New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.

 Harlman, Gertrude. Medieval Days and Ways New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938

Hoyt, Robert. Europe in the Middle Ages New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and Harcourt: Brace and World, INC.

Howard, Dick. Magna Carta Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1998.

Platt, Colin Medieval England. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978.

Rickard. An Outline of the History of England. New York: Barnes and Noble INC.

Roberts, Clayton and Roberts, David. A History of England prehistory to 1714. Volume 1 New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1980.

The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, and Sydney: Cambridge University Press.

          Unknown author.http://www.historylearrning site.co.uk/magnacarta.htm

 

          Unknown author. http:// www.historylearrning site.co.uk/magna_carta.htm

           

Unknown author. http:// www.members.tripod.com/~wawatterik/EVENTS.htm