John Yowan

Mr. Coate

CC English

1 March 2006

The Magna Carta’s influence

Although the Magna Carta was a very important and influential document in English history, it's success was limited by the quarrelling among the barons who wrote the document, King John's failure to follow the rules and procedures set forth by the Magna Carta, and the annulment of the document by Pope Innocent III due to it's "illegal and immoral invasion of royal governance."

Originally, The Magna Carta was supposed to change the rights and responsibilities of the people of England. There were many events leading up to the Barons, Nobles, and Church Officials of England reason to revolt against King John. These events started in 1205 when John and Pope Innocence III had a disagreement over who the Archbishop of Canterbury should have been. Several factions selected different candidates. The monks of Canterbury elected one of their own to be archbishop and sent him to Rome to seek the Pope’s approval. During this time one of John’s nominees, John de Grey, was elected without the Pope’s approval. The Pope then requested that a new candidate be nominated. The monks obeyed the Pope and Cardinal Stephen Langton was eventually elected as the 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 almost a year the Pope continued to argue with the king. In the end, since he had not made any progress, the pope excommunicated King John in 1209. Since King John was excommunicated nearly all of the churches in England were forced to close. 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 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 more influential barons of England decided that they no longer wished to be ruled by a king like 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” (Hartman 244) 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,”(Hartman 225) and 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. On June 15, 1215 John unwillingly signed the Magna Carta, which the nobles had prepared.

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. 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. After 1215 nobles had to be tried before a jury. 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 made by the Magna Carta 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.

The main problem with the Magna Carta was the fact that the king refused to follow the laws stated in it. The only reason King John signed the Magna Carta was to stall the rebels. The baron's attempt to implement the Magna Carta resulted in armed conflict. The situation became serious but in John's eyes, not hopeless. Nevertheless, he withdrew all his royal symbols and jewels from the monasteries.

By November 1215, John had nearly defeated the rebels. He had recaptured Rochester Castle, which had been surrendered to them in September, and was ready to attack London. The nobles then offered the crown to the King of France whom sent reinforcements to London. Instead of attacking London in one final battle King John decided to attack other places, which gave King Louis of France a chance to gather an army together.

The Magna Carta’s failure was also caused by the fighting between the barons and nobles. Many of them only helped with the Magna Carta as a way to gain power. They ended up quarrelling over what should be added to the Magna Carta.

One of the other evens that lead to the Magna Carta’s failure was when Pope Innocent annulled the Magna Carta. He described it as a conspiracy against, and persecution of, his vassal, King John of England. The Pope then ordered Stephen Langton to excommunicate all of the baron involved with the making of the Magna Carta. On September 24th 1215 Pope Innocent excommunicated all the rebellious barons because of Langton’s refusal to do so.

            Even though it did not have very much influence when it was first made it ended up having a lot of influence of modern governments. The Magna Carta become very influential in the late 1700’s when the people of the United States wrote the Constitution.

Work Cited

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: Brace and World, INC., 1976.

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., 1947

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

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

 “The Magna Carta” History Learning Site  23 Feb. 2006 <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/magna_carta.htm>

“Events in English History” Tripod 7 May 2003.  21 Feb. 2006 <http://www.members.tripod.com/~walterik/EVENTS5.html>