Magna Carta

I

Introduction

Magna Carta (Latin, “Great Charter”), document sealed by King John of England on June 15, 1215, in which he made a series of promises to his subjects that he would govern England and deal with his vassals according to the customs of feudal law (see Feudalism). It has since been considered the basis of English constitutional liberties (as well as those of countries influenced by English tradition) and a key event in the history of medieval Britain.

II

Origins of Magna Carta

In England, feudal relations between kings and their vassals, called barons, dictated the rights and duties of each. The barons provided military and other services to the king, and the king provided protection and grants of land, called fiefs, to the barons. In theory, the king was supposed to consult his barons before raising taxes or demanding large amounts of military service.

For many years the kings of England had used English men and money to defend English territory in France. King John acted similarly but he was relatively unsuccessful in his military campaigns. As a result, John demanded greater taxes and additional military service from his barons in order to continue fighting in France. By 1204, however, he had lost his possessions in northern France, including his family’s ancestral lands in Normandy and Anjou, to the French king, Philip II Augustus. Consequently, John imposed high taxes without the barons’ consent, which was a violation of feudal law and custom.

John also alienated the Roman Catholic Church by quarrelling with Pope Innocent III over the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The pope responded by placing England under an interdict in 1207 that halted all public church services there. In 1209 John was excommunicated, or denied the services of the Church. Facing rising unrest he attempted to strengthen his position by making peace with the Church. In 1213 John accepted the pope’s nominee, Stephen Langton, as Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1214 he issued a charter granting concessions and liberties to the Roman Catholic Church in England. As a further pledge of loyalty, John also became a vassal of the pope and surrendered England to him. The pope then returned the kingdom to John as a feudal fief.

John lost any advantage he might have gained by his reconciliation with the Church when he lost the Battle of Bouvines, in Flanders, in 1214. He had spent the years since the loss of Normandy and Anjou in preparation for a large-scale military campaign to recover those lands from Philip II. To raise money for the campaign, John demanded more taxes and services from his subjects than ever before. In addition, he ruled them very harshly because he feared disloyalty from the English barons. But his campaign to recover his lands in France failed disastrously. When John returned to England to collect even more money, many of the English barons revolted. The rebel lords captured London but did not defeat John’s forces decisively. By the spring of 1215 a stalemate approached and the two sides began to negotiate. Magna Carta was the result of these discussions; John agreed to it in 1215 at Runnymede, near Windsor.

III

Contents of the Charter

Magna Carta of 1215 contains 63 clauses. The first restates the charter that John issued in 1214, which had granted liberties to the Church. In many clauses John promises to be less harsh in enforcing his feudal rights on the barons, and another clause states that the barons must grant to their tenants all the feudal concessions that the king has made to them. Many clauses concern the legal system; in these John promises to provide good and fair justice in various ways. The last few clauses concern enforcement of the document.

The two most important clauses of Magna Carta are among the legal clauses. Clause 40 promises: “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.” This clause establishes the principle of equal access to the courts for all citizens without exorbitant fees. In clause 39, the king promises: “No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This clause establishes that the king would follow legal procedure before he punished someone. Historians have debated at length the meaning in 1215 of “by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land”, and who exactly was covered by the term “free man”. By the later 14th century, however, statutes interpreting Magna Carta equated “judgment of his peers” with trial by jury (which did not exist in criminal cases in 1215). Other statutes rephrased “by the law of the land” as “by due process of law”. These later statutes also substituted “no one” or “no man of any sort or condition” for “no free man”, which extended the protections of the clause to all the king’s subjects. These protections were later cited in many founding documents of the American colonies, and were also incorporated into the Constitution of the United States.

By most accounts only clauses 39 and 40 of Magna Carta remain valid law in England. Eventually, the other clauses became outmoded and some were repealed. Nonetheless, Magna Carta remains a major document in the history of individual liberty. The document establishes the principle that no person, not even the king, is above the law. More specifically, this means that the government must follow its own laws in its dealings with its citizens, just as citizens must obey the law in their dealings with other citizens. See also British Constitution; Human Rights and Civil Liberties.

IV

History of the Charter

Enforcement of Magna Carta was entrusted to 25 barons who were authorized by the document to use force if necessary to make the king obey the agreement. Despite this measure, Magna Carta was valid for only a very short time. Almost immediately, John applied to the pope in Rome to invalidate the document. John argued that his promise to uphold the agreement had been extorted by force. The pope agreed and nullified Magna Carta. The significance of Magna Carta lies in its revival—not once but several times—during English history.