The
Eternal Legacy of Magna Carta
By
Sharon Bennett Connolly
On 1 April 2015 Lincoln Castle reopened its doors after an extensive refurbishment.
The renovations included a new purpose-built, state-of-the-art, underground
vault for its most prized possession: one of only four surviving copies of the
original 1215 Great Charter – the Magna Carta.
The Magna
Carta’s new home cannot fail to emphasise the importance of this charter in the
history of not only England, but also the rest of the world. Two films - Magna Carta: Challenging the Power of the
King and Magna Carta: Meaning and
Myth – reconstruct the events leading up to Magna Carta and chart its
significance through the centuries, respectively.
But what is
Magna Carta? And what makes it so important?
In many ways,
the reign of King John had been a continuation of that of his father, Henry
II, and of his brother, Richard I, with one significant difference. Early in his
reign John had lost the French part of the great Angevin empire: Normandy and
Aquitaine were now held by France. In 1214 King John returned to England
following his defeat by the French at the Battle of Bouvines. The battle ended
the king’s hopes of regaining the lost empire.
Added to this
catastrophe was the character and personality of John himself. By nature John
was paranoid, secretive and distrustful. John’s cruelty is widely known. He is
accused of killing his nephew and rival claimant to the English throne, Arthur
of Brittany; he hanged 28 Welsh hostages (sons of rebel chieftains) and he
hounded William de Braose and his family all the way to Ireland and back. De
Braose’s wife and son died in one of John’s prisons, probably from starvation.
The History of
William Marshal, a biography of the great knight and statesman, states of John:
‘He kept his prisoners in such a horrible manner, and in such abject
confinement that it seemed an indignity and a disgrace to all those with him
who witnessed such cruelty’.
Although John
faced the fallout of Magna Carta, many of the injustices targeted by the barons
can be seen in the reigns of his predecessors. Heavy taxes, arbitrary fines and
the exploitation of wardships were long-established royal revenue earners.
However, where Henry and Richard had a whole empire to exploit, John’s need for
money had to be met by England alone.
Even John’s
disagreement with the Church can see parallels in the reign of Henry II and his
clashes with Thomas Becket. John opposed the election of Stephen Langton as
Archbishop of Canterbury, and refused to allow his consecration. Pope Innocent
III went so far as to excommunicate John and place England under interdict; in
1213 Philip II of France was even invited to depose him.
John finally
came to an agreement with the Church in May 1213, swearing that the liberties
established under Henry I would be strictly observed and allowing Langton to
take up his post as archbishop. However, John broke his oath almost immediately
and Langton became one of the leaders of the opposition to the king.
The barons’
objections to John were almost beyond number. He had failed to face the French
and had lost not only his family’s Continental possessions, but also those of
his barons. Few had forgotten his treachery against his brother – his attempt
on the throne whilst Richard was away on Crusade. His barons even complained
that he forced himself on their wives and daughters.
The barons had
had enough.
The rebels were
ready to fight. After occupying London they made one final attempt to prevent
war, presenting the king with a list of their demands.
Following
further negotiations a long detailed document was produced, dealing with
particular grievances of the time and with injustices in general. It touched on
the whole system of royal government. And it was granted to ‘all free men of the
realm and their heirs forever’.
Of its 63
clauses, some terms were asking for immediate remedies, such as the removal of
corrupt administrators and the sending home of foreign mercenaries. The clause
stating that fighting outside of the kingdom could not be imposed by the king
was a reaction to John’s recent attempts to force his English barons to help
him recover his Continental domains.
Others had long-term aims. The document sought to guarantee the privileges of the Church and
the City of London. Restrictions were placed on the powers of regional
officials, such as sheriffs, to prevent abuses. The royal court was fixed at
Westminster, for justice to be obtainable by all, and royal judges were to
visit each county regularly. Taxes could no longer be levied without the
consent of the Church and the barons.
Clauses included
the fixing of inheritance charges and protection from exploitation for
under-age heirs; the king was to take only what was reasonable from an estate
(although ‘reasonable’ remained undefined). From henceforth a widow was to be
free to choose whether or not to remarry and her marriage portion (dowry) would
be made available to her immediately on her husband’s death. Another clause
sought to prevent the seizure of land from Jews and the king’s debtors.
Magna Carta even
went so far as to regulate weights and measures. It also reduced the size of
the king’s forests and limited the powers of forest justices.
Although most of
the 63 clauses of Magna Carta are now defunct, three still remain as major tenets
of British law, including ‘to no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or
delay right or justice’. That no person could be imprisoned, outlawed or
deprived of his lands except by judgement of his peers and the law of the land
has remained the cornerstone of the English legal system ever since.
Magna Carta was
sealed at Runnymede, Berkshire, on 15 June 1215. John ordered that
the charter be circulated around the towns and villages.
As a peace
agreement between King John and his rebellious barons, however, it failed
miserably. By July John was appealing to the Pope for help. Pope Innocent III’s
response arrived in England in September. The treaty was declared null and
void; it was 'not only shameful and demeaning but also illegal and
unjust'. By the time the letter arrived in England, the dispute had
already erupted into the Barons’ War.
Deciding they
could no longer deal with John’s perfidy, the rebel barons invited the King of
France, Philip II, to claim the throne. Philip’s son and heir, the future Louis
VIII, accepted the offer. Having landed on the south coast, he marched for
London, where he was proclaimed King of
England on 2 June 1216.
John’s
fortuitous death at Newark in October 1216 turned the tide against Louis and
the rebels. The highly respected knight and statesman, William Marshal, Earl of
Pembroke, was appointed regent for John’s nine-year-old son, Henry III. Marshal’s
staunch loyalty was renowned throughout Europe; he was the embodiment of the
chivalric code. Many barons who had previously sided with Louis saw the
opportunity to come back from the brink, and rally around the young king.
Marshal reissued Magna Carta and faced and defeated the joint French and rebel
army at Lincoln on 20 May 1217.
Afterwards, the
English were able to dictate peace terms to Louis, and the French went home.
Magna Carta was issued a third time, along with a new Forest Charter
(also on display at Lincoln Castle). Its reissue in 1225, on Henry III
attaining his majority, is the one that made it onto the statute books.
The Legacy of
Magna Carta
It is hard to overstate
the enduring significance of Magna Carta. Although it was initially a document
conceived by rebel barons, the regents of Henry III exploited Magna Carta as a
royalist device to recover the loyalty of the rebel barons. However, once it
was issued it was used as a curb to all regal excesses. In 1265 it was invoked to
create the first parliament.
By the late
1200s Magna Carta was regarded as a fundamental statement of English liberties.
Magna Carta set
the precedent for future reform programmes, such as the Provisions of Oxford of
1258, the Ordinances of 1311, the Petition of Right of 1628 and the Grand
Remonstrance of 1641.
The influence of
Magna Carta has spread far beyond England’s shores. It can be seen in the
United States’ 1791 Bill of Rights, in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
Although a
failure in the short term, in the long term, Magna Carta established defined
limitations to royal rights, laying down that standard to be observed by the
crown and its agents.
It is the
closest thing England has to a Constitution.
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Sharon Bennett Connolly has a lifelong fascination with history, and has recently discovered a love of writing. She has combined these two in her blog, History…the interesting bits!
