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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 88, About the Magna Carta:
November 29, 2004:
Now, this Magna Carta (Great Charter) was not the only or even the first document of it's kind in England. In 1101 King Henry I had issued a document called the Charter of Liberties. This was supposed to put an end to some of the bad behavior of the throne as concerns taxes and property. Of course it did nothing of the kind, but it was a first step. The big difference is, this Charter of Liberties was granted by Henry rather than extorted from him. It is fair to say this Charter of Liberties did set the stage for the development of the rule of law in England. It also became the model for the Magna Carta signed by John in 1215.
Later Henry II issued another document called the Constitutions of Clarendon. In part of this he was attempting to take jurisdiction concerning crimes by clerics away from the Pope, but there were other provisions. The Constitutions of Clarendon was an attempt to codify English custom and bring the resolution of all legal matters into the jurisdiction of the royal courts. Recall that this argument with the Church got so extreme that the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket was murdered.
So this Magna Carta was, in a way, a continuation of the legal changes that were taking place in England. Looking at it that way and comparing we find the Magna Carta is, to some extent, taken from the earlier Charter of Liberties. Another thing we should notice is, this Great Charter was not an all encompassing document. We tend to overlook that fact. The Magna Carta applied not one wit to the peasant class. It was an agreement between members of the ruling class and so called free men. It had much to do with property rights, religion, and the political situation of 1215. The subsequent rights of the citizens, though often based on this document, came much later in the game. Habeas Corpus, for example, was not enacted until 1679. That's about one century before it became part of the American Constitution.
The actual charter consist of a preamble and 63 clauses. The preamble is what we would expect of bureaucrats, be they Englishmen of yore or Americans of the present. In a rather verbose way it says the Charter is given from the king to a whole bunch of Englishmen. For sure, it does not say anything about extortion or why he was so generous.
In the first clause, they get right to the point. It says the Church of England is and ought to be free. It also grants all of the liberties listed in the remaining 62 clauses. After he had signed the document, John brought it to the attention of Pope Innocent III and appealed to him for help. This first clause and several of the following clauses really made the pope pop his cork. He immediately excommunicated everyone involved except John. Of course, he declared the Magna Carta null and void.
The pope's chagrin notwithstanding the Magna Carta did eventually become the basis for much of English and American law concerning human rights. This took a while because the pope was a force to be reckoned with, but the concepts embodied in the document were not to be forever denied. There is an inherent drive in the human being for freedom and equality which was beginning to insert itself into the flow of events in England. In fact, the Charter was reaffirmed by Henry III in 1216 and was reissued again by Henry III in 1225. To be sure, the regency actually did this acting in Henry's name. Other affirmations came later in 1264, again by Henry, and in 1297 by Edward. It is still considered to be a reference document for basic principles of law.
Besides the freedom of religion points, the Charter deals with the rights of landholders and tenants. Merchants and trade is also discussed and there is a great deal of discussion on justice and law reform embodied in the document. There were also guidelines for the behavior of officials of the court when dealing with subjects of the crown. Some of the document only deals with issues relevant at the time but not of historical significance. For example, the king was to dismiss his foreign mercenaries. In addition the return of hostages was agreed to.
There were also provisions to have a council of 25 barons who would see to the kings fidelity in observing the articles of agreement. If he got too far over the line, they reserved the right to wage war against the crown. Now, that's pretty heavy stuff, but they meant every word. When John began to renege, the fighting began and it did not end until he died and Henry III ascended the throne.
For those who are interested, I will put the English translation of the text in the History and Evolution archives. The original text was in Latin. As to this translation, I have found hundreds of copies posted on the internet that are identical word for word and comma for comma, Yet, most of them have claims of copyright protection for different individuals. I have no idea how a person could have the unmitigated arrogance to claim copyright protection for a document that has been in the public domain since 1215, but they do. For reference, the copy I will post is a translation of the Latin text taken from Britannica 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM edition.
For reference and comparison, I am also posting the Charter
of Liberties granted by Henry I and the Constitutions of Clarendon
issued by Henry II, both with proper credits of course.
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