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Magna Carta

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 9, 2023 | Original: December 17, 2009

By 1215, thanks to years of unsuccessful foreign policies and heavy taxation demands, England’s King John was facing down a possible rebellion by the country’s powerful barons. Under duress, he agreed to a charter of liberties known as the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) that would place him and all of England’s future sovereigns within a rule of law.

Though it was not initially successful, the document was reissued (with alterations) in 1216, 1217 and 1225, and eventually served as the foundation for the English system of common law. Later generations of Englishmen would celebrate the Magna Carta as a symbol of freedom from oppression, as would the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, who in 1776 looked to the charter as a historical precedent for asserting their liberty from the English crown.

Background and Context

John (the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine ) was not the first English king to grant concessions to his citizens in the form of a charter, though he was the first one to do so under threat of civil war. Upon taking the throne in 1100, Henry I had issued a Coronation Charter in which he promised to limit taxation and confiscation of church revenues, among other abuses of power. But he went on to ignore these precepts, and the barons lacked the power to enforce them. They later gained more leverage, however, as a result of the English crown’s need to fund the Crusades and pay a ransom for John’s brother and predecessor, Richard I (known as Richard the Lionheart ), who was taken prisoner by Emperor Henry VI of Germany during the Third Crusade.

Did you know? Today, memorials stand at Runnymede to commemorate the site's connection to freedom, justice and liberty. In addition to the John F. Kennedy Memorial, Britain's tribute to the 35th U.S. president, a rotunda built by the American Bar Association stands as "a tribute to Magna Carta, symbol of freedom under law."

In 1199, when Richard died without leaving an heir, John was forced to contend with a rival for succession in the form of his nephew Arthur (the young son of John’s deceased brother Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany). After a war with King Philip II of France, who supported Arthur, John was able to consolidate power. He immediately angered many former supporters with his cruel treatment of prisoners (including Arthur, who was probably murdered on John’s orders). By 1206, John’s renewed war with France had caused him to lose the duchies of Normandy and Anjou, among other territories.

Who Signed the Magna Carta and Why?

A feud with Pope Innocent III, beginning in 1208, further damaged John’s prestige, and he became the first English sovereign to suffer the punishment of excommunication (later meted out to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I ). After another embarrassing military defeat by France in 1213, John attempted to refill his coffers–and rebuild his reputation–by demanding scutage (money paid in lieu of military service) from the barons who had not joined him on the battlefield. By this time, Stephen Langton, whom the pope had named as archbishop of Canterbury over John’s initial opposition, was able to channel baronial unrest and put increasing pressure on the king for concessions.

With negotiations stalled early in 1215, civil war broke out, and the rebels–led by baron Robert FitzWalter, John’s longtime adversary–gained control of London. Forced into a corner, John yielded, and on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede (located beside the River Thames, now in the county of Surrey), he accepted the terms included in a document called the Articles of the Barons. Four days later, after further modifications, the king and the barons issued a formal version of the document, which would become known as the Magna Carta. Intended as a peace treaty, the charter failed in his goals, as civil war broke out within three months. 

After John’s death in 1216, advisors to his nine-year-old son and successor, Henry III, reissued the Magna Carta with some of its most controversial clauses taken out, thus averting further conflict. The document was reissued again in 1217 and once again in 1225 (in return for a grant of taxation to the king). Each subsequent issue of the Magna Carta followed that “final” 1225 version.

What Did the Magna Carta Do?

Written in Latin, the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) was effectively the first written constitution in European history. Of its 63 clauses, many concerned the various property rights of barons and other powerful citizens, suggesting the limited intentions of the framers. The benefits of the charter were for centuries reserved for only the elite classes, while the majority of English citizens still lacked a voice in government.

In the 17th century, however, two defining acts of English legislation–the Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679)–referred to Clause 39, which states that “no free man shall be…imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed]… except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” Clause 40 (“To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice”) also had dramatic implications for future legal systems in Britain and America.

In 1776, rebellious American colonists looked to the Magna Carta as a model for their demands of liberty from the English crown on the eve of the American Revolution . Its legacy is especially evident in the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution , and nowhere more so than in the Fifth Amendment (“Nor shall any persons be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law”), which echoes Clause 39. Many state constitutions also include ideas and phrases that can be traced directly to the historic document.

Where Is the Original Magna Carta?

Four original copies of the Magna Carta of 1215 exist today: one in Lincoln Cathedral, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and two in the British Museum.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Human Rights — Magna Carta

Essays on Magna Carta

The importance of writing an essay on magna carta.

Writing an essay on Magna Carta is important because it is a pivotal document in the history of democracy and human rights. The Magna Carta, also known as the Great Charter, was signed in 1215 and laid the foundation for the rule of law, individual rights, and limitations on the power of the monarchy. It has had a lasting impact on the development of constitutional law and the protection of civil liberties.

When writing an essay on Magna Carta, it is important to provide a thorough historical context for the document. This includes discussing the political and social conditions that led to its creation, as well as the key players involved in its drafting and implementation. It is also important to analyze the specific provisions of the Magna Carta and their significance in shaping the legal and political landscape of England and beyond.

Additionally, it is important to consider the legacy of the Magna Carta and its influence on the development of modern democratic societies. This can involve discussing how its principles have been codified in subsequent legal documents and how it has inspired movements for justice and human rights around the world.

When writing an essay on Magna Carta, it is crucial to support your arguments with evidence from primary and secondary sources. This can include historical documents, scholarly articles, and expert analysis. It is also important to engage with different perspectives and interpretations of the Magna Carta, as it has been the subject of much debate and controversy throughout history.

Writing an essay on Magna Carta is important because it allows us to understand the historical significance of this document and its enduring impact on the principles of justice, liberty, and the rule of law. By providing a thorough analysis and engaging with a range of sources, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the Magna Carta and its relevance to contemporary issues of governance and human rights.

• The Magna Carta, also known as the Great Charter, was a document that was signed in 1215 by King John of England.
• The document was a result of a conflict between the king and his barons, who were unhappy with the king's oppressive rule.
• The Magna Carta was a significant moment in English history, as it marked the first time that a king's power was limited by law.
• The document laid the foundation for the development of modern democratic principles, such as the rule of law and the protection of individual rights.
• The Magna Carta contained a number of provisions that were designed to limit the power of the king and protect the rights of his subjects.
• Some of the key provisions included the right to a fair trial, the protection of property rights, and the limitation of the king's ability to raise taxes without the consent of his barons.
• These provisions had a significant impact on English law, as they laid the foundation for the development of legal principles such as due process and the protection of individual rights.
• The Magna Carta is often seen as a foundational document in the development of modern democratic principles.
• The document's emphasis on the rule of law and the protection of individual rights laid the groundwork for the development of legal and political systems that are based on the principles of freedom and equality.
• The Magna Carta also influenced the development of other key legal documents, such as the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• While the Magna Carta was primarily focused on limiting the power of the king and protecting the rights of his barons, the document also had an impact on the rights of women and minorities.
• The Magna Carta contained provisions that protected the rights of widows and ensured that their property rights were protected.
• The document also contained provisions that protected the rights of Jews, who were often persecuted in medieval England.
• The Magna Carta is often seen as a foundational document in the development of international human rights law.
• The document's emphasis on the protection of individual rights and the limitation of the power of the state laid the groundwork for the development of legal principles that would later be enshrined in international human rights treaties and declarations.
• The Magna Carta also influenced the development of key legal documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1948.
• The Magna Carta had a significant impact on the development of constitutional law, as it laid the groundwork for the development of legal principles such as the rule of law and the protection of individual rights.
• The document's emphasis on limiting the power of the king and protecting the rights of his subjects laid the foundation for the development of constitutional systems that are based on the principles of freedom and equality.
• The Magna Carta also influenced the development of key legal documents, such as the United States Constitution, which was influenced by the principles laid out in the Magna Carta.
• The Magna Carta had a significant impact on the development of legal and political systems in other countries, as its principles influenced the development of legal and political systems around the world.
• The document's emphasis on the rule of law and the protection of individual rights laid the foundation for the development of legal and political systems that are based on the principles of freedom and equality.
• The Magna Carta also influenced the development of key legal documents, such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which was influenced by the principles laid out in the Magna Carta.
• The Magna Carta had a significant impact on the development of legal principles in the digital age, as its principles influenced the development of legal principles that are designed to protect the rights of individuals in an increasingly digital world.
• The document's emphasis on the protection of individual rights and the limitation of the power of the state laid the foundation for the development of legal principles that are designed to protect individuals' rights in the digital age.
• The Magna Carta also influenced the development of key legal documents, such as the General Data Protection Regulation, which was influenced by the principles laid out in the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta is a foundational document in the development of modern democratic principles and has had a significant impact on the development of legal and political systems around the world. The document's emphasis on the rule of law and the protection of individual rights laid the groundwork for the development of legal and political systems that are based on the principles of freedom and equality. The Magna Carta's legacy continues to be felt in the development of legal and political systems in the digital age, as its principles continue to influence the development of legal principles that are designed to protect the rights of individuals in an increasingly digital world.

Comparing and Contrasting Magna Carta Vs Bill of Rights

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The Creation of Magna Carta and Its Influence on History

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Significant Principles in The Declaration of Independence (d.o.i) and English Magna Carta

"bad king john", comparative analysis of the u.s. bill of rights and other general declarations of individual rights, comparison of the circumstances which led to the signing of the magna carta and the declaration of independence.

15 June 1215

• John, King of England
• His barons: Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury

2 at British Library; 1 at Lincoln Castle and Salisbury Cathedral

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“The Magna Carta” by Stephen Langton Research Paper

Introduction, influence on past and current american law, significance of the magna carta, works cited.

The Magna Carta has become known as the first successful attempt on limiting the powers of a ruling authority by citizens under the authority. The document, signed by King John of England in the presence of witnesses, gave more freedom for the people of England in later years.

The documents in the Magna Carta set course for development of human rights and empowered parliament in the making of decisions. In the US, the founding fathers used the Magna Carta as a reference point when formulating the American constitution. This article entails a brief history on the source of the Magna Carta and details on its influence in American Law.

The Magna Carta was first drafted by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop who was perceived as one of the most influential Barons in England. The document was previously known as the “articles of the Barons’, as it was drawn to reflect the discontent of Barons in light of King John’s rule (Clanchy 141).

The document has also been referred to as the Great Charter or Magna Charter. The charter aimed to award more freedom to the non-serf community in the country, and thereby reduce the arbitrary powers of the king. It could be viewed as the first step to establish a constitution within a country. King John was reluctant to sign the charter into law since his powers would be reduced. The charter also set a foundation for the establishment of parliament.

Several events led to the signing of the Magna Carta. In the year 1205, King John of England had a disagreement with Pope Innocent III on who would be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, whereby the king swore that the pope’s candidate would never be allowed into England (Holt 107).

As a result, Pope Innocent III excommunicated the king and banned church services in England. King John also levied high taxes on the citizens of the land, whenever such money was required. The Magna Carta came into effect in the year 1215, and was reissued with a shorter version in 1227 by King Henry III (Danziger and Gillingham 278).

The statute held in the Great Charter of 1297 set the pace for the development of citizen rights in England. Due to the close connections between England and America, documents citing English liberties would also influence American liberties. Article 21 of the United States Constitution states, “That no freeman ought to be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.” As such, the US constitution has become the supreme law of the land.

The most important aspect of the Magna Carta is that it placed everybody under the rule of the law, or as stated in the document, the rue of the land. This enabled greater justice and fairness in the country since the law would be effected for all members if society, thererby abolishing the norm of the class system.

The Magna Carta contained elements of English common law and a few other new laws, which were used by Americans when designing their own constitution. In its scope, the Magna Carta later developed to recognize all English in its statement of “any freemen”, the same way as the American constitution applies to all Americans in the phrase “we the people”.

Certain provisions in the Magna Carta required for the preservation of the rights awarded to citizens. In this case, the Magna Carta specified that subsequent alterations of the law should not cancel out rights of the English citizens. America uses such provisions from the Magna Carta in the formulation of laws by ensuring that new laws do not negatively affect the rights of the citizens.

This fact is entrenched in the Ninth amendment to the constitution, stating, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” The Magna Carta limited the slightest of changes in its wording, just as the American constitution requires that only a majority vote can amend a previous law.

Another key influence of the Magna Carta is evidenced in the Bill of Rights, for instance in the Fifth Amendment (the Suspension Clause), which states, “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

The Magna Carta had previously declared,”No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned…or in any other way destroyed…except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice.” This was therefore the reference point of the Fifth Amendment.

Although the Magna Carta was not intended to be universally democratic by the barons who designed it, the document became an integral part of the British constitution, and later the American constitution. By limiting the power of the king to raise taxes, the founding fathers adopted this idea when developing a revenue system that would suit the country. The president of the United States of America is not allowed to arbitrarily raise taxes or spend money at his discretion. The President has to explain to congress why the government should implement certain policies while congress votes on the proposed policy.

The Magna Carta set a foundation for an appropriate legal system. Just as the king of England was under the rule of the land, the American president would also be under the rule of the new constitution. The Magna Carta imposed that crime offenders be fined according to their capacity to pay such fines, and that no one should be condemned without through judgment of peers and law.

The American constitution requires that suspects be tried in a court of law before they are declared guilty or otherwise, in the presence of a group of peers, or trial by jury as interpreted from the Magna Carta.

The American revolt against the British was as a result for what the Americans believed was an infringement of the rights awarded to them by the Magna Carta. An interpretation by Sir Edward Coke argued that the Magna Carta provided the same rights for all Englishmen, whether in England or in America (Linebaugh 113-114).

Another justification for the rebellion was as an argument against the taxes imposed by parliament in England, to which the Americans argued that it was taxation policy without representation. Americans believed that they should be free to rule themselves, just as the Magna Carta had enabled then formation of parliament in Britain, thereby allowing for self governance.

The Magna Carta was the first written document citing the laws of the land and their application. Governments around the world have established written constitutions which specify the governing and application of law n their jurisdictions. The Magna Carta also gave way for the development of the basic human rights as championed by organizations such as the United Nations and the United States (Flood 31).

The notion of a speedy and unbiased trial, as stipulated by the Magna Carta, called for an effective judicial system. Another great contribution of the Magna Carta was the idea of majority rule. This has allowed for good governance of the United States by allowing citizens to vote their leaders and the elected leader will be the one with majority votes. This concept also dominates the Congress in the development of new laws.

The Magna Carta made a couple of significant contributions to the United States constitution. As noted, the chapter on the Bill of Rights draws heavily from the Magna Carta by emphasizing on the equality of the citizens (Turner 39-40). All Americans, including the President are liable under law for breach of the constitution.

The American constitution is the Supreme Law of the land. While individual states within the United States of America may enforce their own laws, such laws should not contravene provisions in the United States of America Constitution.

The Magna Carta was the source of English law, and later American law (Thompson 9-10). It also provided protection of the citizens from adverse policies formulated by people in authority while its legacy lies in the empowering of individuals by its protection of human rights. The provision of “due process” of law was previously aimed at providing checks on powers of the king, while the same currently implies checks within the government system.

The supremacy clause, embedded in the constitution, provides that there is a higher law that applies to everyone in the country, including the executive and the legislature, just as the king could be liable for breach of common law as implied by the Magna Carta. The bill of rights and other provisions that are based on the Magna Carta are enforced by the Supreme Court.

Clanchy, Micheal. A History Of England: Early Medieval England . New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1997. Print

Danziger, Danny and John Gillingham. 1215: The Year of Magna Carta . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Print

Flood, Patrick James. The effectiveness of UN human rights institutions. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. 1998. Print

Holt, James Clarke. The Northerners: A Study in the Reign of King John . New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Print

Linebaugh, Peter. The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All . Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008. Print

Thompson, Faith. Magna Carta – Its Role in the Making of the English Constitution. 1300–1629 . New York: Read Books, 2008. Print

Turner, Ralph V. Magna Carta: through the ages . New York: Pearson/Longman, 2003. Print.

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Magna Carta – 800 years on

Nelson Mandela appealed to it; the US founding fathers drew on it; Charles I’s opponents cherished it. David Carpenter considers the huge significance of the 13th-century document that asserted a fundamental principle – the rule of law

T his year, 2015, is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. It was on 15 June 1215 that King John, in the meadow of Runnymede beside the Thames between Windsor and Staines, sealed (not signed) the document now known as the Magna Carta. Today, jets taking off from London Heathrow airport come up over Runnymede and then often turn to fly down its whole length before vanishing into the distance. Yet it is not difficult to imagine the scene, during those tense days in June 1215, when Magna Carta was being negotiated, the great pavilion of the king, like a circus top, towering over the smaller tents of barons and knights stretching out across the meadow.

The Magna Carta is a document some 3,550 words long written in Latin, the English translation being “Great Charter”. Much of it, even in a modern translation, can seem remote and archaic. It abounds in such terms as wainage , amercement , socage , novel disseisin , mort d’ancestor and distraint . Some of its chapters seem of minor importance: one calls for the removal of fish weirs from the Thames and Medway. Yet there are also chapters which still have a very clear contemporary relevance. Chapters 12 and 14 prevented the king from levying taxation without the common consent of the kingdom. Chapter 39 laid down that “No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or diseised [dispossessed], or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go against him, nor will we send against him, save by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.”

In chapter 40 the king declared that “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.”

In these ways, the Charter asserted a fundamental principle – the rule of law. The king was beneath the law, the law the Charter itself was making. He could no longer treat his subjects in an arbitrary fashion. It was for asserting this principle that the Charter was cherished by opponents of Charles I, and called in aid by the founding fathers of the United States. When on trial for his life in 1964, Nelson Mandela appealed to Magna Carta, alongside the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights, “documents which are held in veneration by democrats throughout the world”. Chapters 39 and 40 are still on the statute book of the UK today. The headline of a Guardian piece in 2007 opposing the 90-day detention period for suspected terrorists was “Protecting Magna Carta”.

The anniversary has inspired a great deal of scholarly work. The Magna Carta Project has made many new discoveries, and numerous public events are planned. In February all four surviving originals of the 1215 Charter, are being brought together for the first time, and will be displayed first at the British Library and then in the Houses of Parliament. The British Library is putting on an exhibition, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy , which traces the history of the document from its origins to the present day. Apart from numerous documents and artefacts from the Charter’s first century, the exhibits will include the first printed edition of Magna Carta published in 1508, so small that it can fit into the palm of your hand, Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the Delaware copy of the United States Bill of Rights (1790). On the anniversary itself, there will be a great ceremony at Runnymede. If members of Her Majesty’s government attend, let us hope they remember that the Charter was aimed at the activities of their forebears.

In 1215 there was nothing new in the ideas behind the Charter. They were centuries old and part of general European heritage. Strengthened in the 12th century by the study of Roman and canon law, they can be found in legislation and constitutions promulgated in Spain, Hungary and the south of France. It was in England, however, that they led to the most radical and detailed restrictions on the ruler. That was because in England the ruler was uniquely demanding and intrusive, thanks to the pressures of maintaining a continental empire, which stretched from Normandy to the Pyrenees. By the time of John’s accession in 1199, there was already outcry at the level of the king’s financial demands. They were to become far worse.

After John had lost Normandy and Anjou to the king of France in 1204, he spent 10 years in England amassing the cash needed to recover his empire, in the process tripling his revenues. In 1214 the eventual campaign of recovery ended in total failure. John returned to England, his money spent and his prestige in tatters. Next year his baronial enemies rebelled and forced him to concede Magna Carta. Their grievances were not just financial. Although paying lip service to the principles of custom and consent, John’s rule had been lawless. He took hostages at will, deprived barons of lands and castles without legal process, and demanded large sums of money to assuage his rancour and recover his goodwill. In a chivalrous age, which expected noble captives to be treated with courtesy, he was cruel. He murdered both his nephew Arthur and the most famous woman of the age, Matilda de Briouze. She and her eldest son were starved to death in the dungeons of Corfe castle. As a contemporary writer put it, John was “brimful of evil qualities”.

In 1215, John was, therefore, placed beneath the law, but the Magna Carta of 1215 was very far from giving equal treatment to all the king’s subjects. Socially it was a divided and divisive document, often reflecting the interests of a baronial elite a few hundred strong in a population of several millions. Having asserted that taxation required the common consent of the kingdom, the assembly giving that consent was to be attended primarily by earls, barons, bishops and abbots. There was no place for London and other towns, although the Londoners thought that there should be. There was no place for knights elected by and representing the counties, although the Charter elsewhere assigned important roles to elected knights. In other words, there was no equivalent of the House of Commons.

At least, in the chapter on taxation, the good and great of the realm could be seen as protecting the rest of the king’s subjects from arbitrary exactions. But the king’s subjects were far from sharing equally in the Charter’s benefits. Indeed, the unfree villeins, who made up perhaps half the population, did not formally share in those benefits at all. The liberties in the Charter were granted not to “all the men” of the kingdom, but to “all the free men”. It was likewise only freemen who were protected from arbitrary imprisonment and dispossession by chapter 39.

As far as Magna Carta was concerned, both king and lords remained perfectly free to dispossess their unfree tenants at will. The threat of doing so was a vital weapon for control of the peasant workforce. Chapter 40’s “To no one will we deny, delay or sell right or justice” seemed more inclusive. But this was less helpful to the unfree than it seemed. It was the law itself that laid down that villeins had no access to the king’s courts in any matter concerning their land and services. These were entirely for the lord to determine. As one lawbook put it, “a villein when he wakes up in the morning, does not know what services he must perform for his lord by night”. The one chapter in the Charter which specifically protected the unfree was less than it seemed. Under chapter 20, fines imposed on villeins were to match the offence and be assessed by local men. During the negotiations at Runnymede, this chapter was redrafted to make it clear that the fines in question were those imposed by the king. In other words, they did not apply at all to fines imposed by lords.

Magna Carta also reflected the inequalities between men and women, and in particular the way women played a very limited part in public affairs. The Charter gives the names of 34 men. Three women are mentioned: John’s queen, and the sisters of King Alexander II of Scotland. Not one was named. It is true that “man” could be understood at the time of the Charter to mean simply “human being”. The “no freeman” of chapter 39 thus protected free women. Indeed, the chapter owed something to the way John had “destroyed” Matilda de Briouze.

But the chapter also demonstrated the inequalities between the sexes. If a free woman secured judgment of her peers (that is social equals), under its terms those peers would have been entirely male for women did not sit on juries. Chapter 39 also forgot about women altogether when it spoke of outlawry, for women were not outlawed they were “waived”, which meant left as a “waif”. This had the same effect. A waived woman could be killed on sight just like an outlawed man. But the distinction showed how subject women were to men. Women took no oath of allegiance to the king because in theory they were always under the protection of a man – father, husband or lord. They were, therefore, never “in law” and so could not be “oulawed”, hence they were “waived” instead.

In 1215 itself both John and his enemies would have been astonished had they known that the Charter would live on and be celebrated 800 years hence. Especially as within a few months of its promulgation, Magna Carta seemed a dead letter. John had got the pope to quash it. (The magnificent papal bull in which he did so is a star exhibit in the British Library exhibition.) The barons, likewise abandoning the Charter, deposed John and elected another king in his place, none other than Prince Louis, the eldest son of the king of France. The Charter only survived because, after John’s death in October 1216, the minority government of his son, the nine-year-old Henry III, accepted what John had rejected. In order to win the war against Louis, and, having won the war, consolidate the peace, they issued new versions of the Charter. Then, in 1225, in order to secure a great tax, they issued what became the final and definitive Magna Carta. It is chapters of Henry III’s Charter of 1225, not John’s of 1215, which remain on the Statute Book. Indeed in the 13th century, it was Henry’s Charter of 1225 which was called “Magna Carta”; John’s Charter of 1215 was more often called just “the Charter of Runnymede”. The name Magna Carta itself had only appeared in 1218 to distinguish the Great Charter from the smaller Charter dealing with the royal forest which Henry III issued alongside it. It was not till the 17th century that John’s Charter recovered its place centre stage and became called Magna Carta. That, however, was fair enough for in its essence and in much of its detail the Charter of 1225 replicated that of 1215. Without John’s Charter, there would have been no Charter of Henry III.

In 1215 Magna Carta was an elitist document, yet by the end of the 13th century it had become known across society, and all sections of society, legitimately or not, were laying claim to its benefits. The originals issued between 1215 and 1225, and subsequent confirmations, spawned numerous copies, thanks in large part to the activities of the church whose liberty was protected in chapter one. Such was the thirst for knowledge of the Charter that many of the copies were of unofficial versions derived from drafts made at Runnymede. Already in 1215 itself the Charter had been translated from Latin into French, the vernacular language of the nobility. By the end of the 13th century the Charter was being proclaimed in English, the language of everyone else.

In around 1300, the peasants of Bocking in Essex (later a centre of the 1381 peasants’ revolt) appealed to Magna Carta in a struggle against their lord’s bailiff. In the 1350s, legislation defined the “no free man” as “no man of whatever condition”. The Charter seemed increasingly to have a universal application. It had established the base from which it would go around the world. Its appeal lay not in its precise details, but in its assertion of the rule of law. Everything is of its own time, but only some ideas are taken up and spread. When human rights are still trampled on in many parts of the world, what happened in a meadow by the Thames 800 years ago retains its significance. Let us hope Magna Carta will still be celebrated 100 years from now.

• History books
• British Library

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Magna Carta: 800 years on, we need a new people’s charter

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Magna Carta

About this collection.

Magna Carta (1215) is one of the core documents of Anglo-American legal and constitutional liberty. The books in this collection contain various copies of the charter (in both Latin and English) as well as essays about its significance.

To explore this topic further we suggest that you also look in the Forum under Key Documents and Essays on Law .

Christopher W. Brooks

Paul Christianson

James Clarke Holt

John Phillip Reid

Corinne Comstock Weston

Titles & Essays

Political institutions and public administration (europe), united kingdom and ireland, not categorized.

Justin Champion (author)

This Liberty Matters discussion invited four leading historians to explain what Magna Carta was, why it has appealed to so many people over the years, the impact it has had on the development of Anglo-American legal and political… more

Sir Edward Coke explains one of the key sections of Magna Carta on English liberties (1642)

The legal historian Hazeltine wrote in an essay commemorating the 700th anniversary of Magna Carta that the American colonists regarded Magna Carta as the “bulwark of their rights as Englishmen” (1917)

The right to free trade under Magna Carta (1215)

Under Magna Carta the King cannot impose taxes without the approval of the “common counsel” of the kingdom (1215)

Home / Essay Samples / Literature / Books / Magna Carta

Magna Carta Essay Examples

Documents based on the principles of the magna carta: rights, freedom and independence.

The overview of my paper discusses the first ever document named the Magna Carta that helped inspire other documents known as the English Bill of Rights, the American Declaration of Independence,and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The principles of...

The Important Role of the Magna Carta and the Reign of Henry Ii

Common law also called Anglo-American law was characterized as decentralization and placed emphasis on a local court system. The reign of Henry II and the Magna Carta, English law and the English constitution gave great importance to traditions or customs of this country. A rule...

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