essay on the magna carta

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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.

How Did Magna Carta Influence the U.S. Constitution?

The 13th‑century pact inspired the U.S. Founding Fathers as they wrote the documents that would shape the nation.

6 Things You May Not Know About Magna Carta

Six fascinating facts about the Great Charter's story and its significance.

How the US Constitution Has Changed and Expanded Since 1787

Through amendments and legal rulings, the Constitution has transformed in some critical ways.

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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The Meaning and Legacy of the Magna Carta

2010, PS: Political Science & Politics

The six essays of this symposium address different aspects of the meaning and legacy of the Magna Carta—“the Great Charter” in Latin. Although social scientists and legal scholars routinely describe the Magna Carta as foundational for concepts of justice and liberty, the charter itself is rarely assigned in political science classes or scrutinized by political theorists. The aim of the symposium is twofold: first, to affirm the document's historical rootedness and intellectual richness, and, second, to explore the ways in which the Magna Carta's text and reputation have informed the development of common law and modern politics. The Magna Carta was the product of times very different from our own, yet it continues to be cited by jurists and human rights activists around the globe. This symposium makes the case for why political scientists should take an interest in the Magna Carta, not just as a cultural icon, but as a durable political text.

Related papers

One of the great turning points in political and social history occured on a field near Runnymeade in 1215, when John of England put his seal to a charter granting liberties to every free land-holding man in England. Originally meant to pacify his rebellious barons, this Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest have been the driving force of revolutions, civil wars and unending political debates in Britain and the United States. How did the privileges demanded by a handful of angry English nobles become the basis for constitutions and modern natural rights, such as habeus corpus? This paper traces Magna Carta's evolution from Runnymede across the Atlantic to the floor of Congress and the Supreme Court, while analyzing the relevance of the Great Charter's tenants on current issues.

Journal of Law and Religion, 2015

This Article examines the influence of the Magna Carta on the development of rights and liberties in the Anglo-American common law tradition, especially in the seventeenth century. Originally issued by King John of England in 1215, the Magna Carta set forth numerous prototypical rights and liberties that helped to shape subsequent legal developments in England, America, and the broader Commonwealth. The Magna Carta served as an inspiration for seventeenth-century English jurists like Sir Edward Coke and Puritan pamphleteers like John Lilburne who advocated sweeping new rights reforms on the strength of the Charter. It also inspired more directly the new bills of rights and liberties of several American colonies, most notably the expansive 1641 Body of Liberties of Massachusetts crafted by Nathaniel Ward, which anticipated many of the constitutional rights formulations of 18th and 19th century America.

Daniel B. Magraw, Andrea Martinez, Roy E. Brownell, eds, Magna Carta and the Rule of Law, , 2014

Throughout the English-speaking world, Magna Carta is still celebrated eight hundred years after it King John agreed to it in 1215 as the first attempt to impose limitations on a monarch’s power and to guarantee fundamental rights to his subjects. Today multitudes of Americans are aware that it has some connection with the civil liberties that they enjoy as United States citizens. King John’s opponents were familiar with doctrines of the supremacy of the law, but no effective means of subjecting a tyrannical ruler to the law had been devised. The English barons’ problem of defining and limiting what later became known as the royal prerogative lies at the heart of their rebellion of 1215-17, and Magna Carta would become periodically the focus of struggles against the despotic rulers in England and later in eighteenth-century North America. Obviously, much myth surrounds a document still hallowed after eight centuries, and grasping its meaning requires placing it in its historical context.

Magna Carta became applicable to Singapore in 1826 when a court system administering English law was established in the Straits Settlements. This remained the case through Singapore’s evolution from Crown colony to independent republic. The Great Charter only ceased to apply in 1993, when Parliament enacted the Application of English Law Act to clarify which colonial laws were still part of Singapore law. Nonetheless, Magna Carta’s legacy in Singapore continues in a number of ways. Principles such as due process of law and the supremacy of law are cornerstones of the rule of law, vital to the success, stability and well-being of Singapore and Singaporeans. The story of Singapore constitutionalism is also one of legacy, adaptation and innovation.

The Concept of Constitution in the History of Political Thought

In this paper, I will attempt to answer both sides of this historical query. A considerable portion of this paper will deal with analyzing the context in which Magna Carta was forged. This will place the document in its proper context, giving us a glimpse of the intentions of the nobles who wrote it and allowing us to better understand each individual clause. Answering the initial question “Did Magna Carta end despotism?” will provide the necessary foundation for addressing the secondary question: “Is Magna Carta the birth certificate of modern democracy?” To answer the first half of the equation, I will consider the nature of Magna Carta's re-emergence in Elizabethan England, and eventually its use in modern democratic writings. The most important methodological step in this investigation will be to distinguish Magna Carta, the legal letter forced on King John by rebellious barons at Runnymede, from the Magna Carta envisioned retrospectively by barristers, historians and revolutionaries from the 16th century on. In the end, it is this consideration of the differences between the historical and mythological interpretations of Magna Carta that will address Schama's claim.

Human Rights in the Media: Fear and Fetish edited by Michelle Farrell, Eleanor Drywood and Edel Hughes (Routledge), 2018

In this chapter we argue that the antipathy towards human rights, and the Human Rights Act in particular, that is evident in certain sections of the media and political establishment, lies partly in its relationship with the European, and, therefore, foreign or 'alien', system of human rights protection. Somewhat paradoxically though, those who are most trenchant in their criticisms of the Human Rights Act nevertheless stress that Britain is a nation founded upon human rights. Through the lens of the Magna Carta we examine the invention of the tradition of British rights and how the Charter has been co-opted by those who seek to foment opposition to the Human Rights Act and, albeit to a lesser extent, by those who seek to defend the Act by demarcating a clear line of history between the Charter and the Act. Both approaches, we suggest, serve to crowd out the space required for a rational critique of rights.

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