Just how important is Magna Carta 800 years on?

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BBC News - Just how important is Magna Carta 800 years on?

This year people in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and plenty of other nations will mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The document will be lauded for establishing one vital principle.

A new book about Magna Carta is published today which claims to offer new insights into one of the most famous documents in British history.

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the charter's first signing on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede on the banks of the Thames between Windsor and Staines.

The book by David Carpenter, professor of medieval history at King's College, London, contains a new translation of Magna Carta and more than 500 pages of historical background and commentary.

The charter was agreed between King John and a group of leading barons, led by Robert fitzWalter, exasperated at the king's arbitrary rule and high taxes. It was in effect a peace treaty designed to head off armed conflict. It failed.

Much of Magna Carta is impenetrable to modern readers, couched in medieval jargon and concerned with the detail of relations between the king and his most powerful feudal tenants. And the charter's most significant innovation, a "security clause" in which the king was subjected to the oversight of a panel of 25 barons, proved impossible to implement.

But the document quickly gained a central place in English political life and remains a touchstone of English liberties. However, few of us have actually read it.

This year's anniversary will be widely celebrated. Melvyn Bragg will present a four-part series on Radio 4 this month, and David Starkey will front a BBC Two documentary. On BBC Three you can watch Magna Carta 2.0, "a new documentary packed full of stunts, fun and comedy" and CBBC is offering a Horrible Histories on King John and Magna Carta.

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Magna Carta ? 800 years on | Books | The Guardian

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.

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The Magna Carta is one of those important bits of our island story that most of us – if we're being honest – don't know enough about.

If questioned, we might be able to mutter something about King John being made to sign a piece of paper, and that it was all to do with giving people more freedom. And, if asked what the words 'Magna Carta' actually mean, many of us would be stumped.

If that includes you, then it puts you in exalted company, as even the Prime Minister, when he appeared on the Late Show With David Letterman in 2012, had to admit he had no idea what the words meant.

But now help is at hand both for us and David Cameron in the form of David Starkey, who's presenting a programme about the Magna Carta on BBC2 this month.

The programme is part of a season produced by the BBC to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, and it acts not only as a great 'bluffer's guide' to the topic, but also shows how many political systems around the world owe a debt to the document.

More: So what did Magna Carter do for us? It's 800 years since arguably the world's most important document was signed, but David Starkey says its legacy is

Cindy

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BBC News - Did King John actually 'sign' Magna Carta?

The Royal Mint has been criticised for featuring a picture of King John signing Magna Carta with a quill on a coin celebrating its 800th anniversary. A wax seal was actually used, but does the mistake really matter, asks Justin Parkinson?

The £2 coin shows King John holding Magna Carta in one hand and a large quill in another. The meaning is obvious - he signed it.

Actually, he didn't. John, like other medieval monarchs, used the Great Seal to put his name to the document, making concessions to England's barons in 1215, following years of arguments over royal power.

The Royal Mint has been accused of making a "schoolboy error". Historian Marc Morris stated that medieval kings "did not authenticate documents by signing them" but "by sealing them".

The Mint has defended itself by saying the scene shown on the coin is not meant to give a "literal account of what actually occurred".

No quill was used, but was the Magna Carta still "signed" in a sense? The Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb "to sign" in this way: "To put a seal upon (a letter or document) as a means of identification or authentication; to stamp with a seal or signet; to cover with a seal." The first use the OED records of the verb used in this way was by King John's son Henry III, saying a document was "sened wiþ vre seel (signed with our seal)".

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Magna Carta and the Development of Parliament | Magna Carta Canada

When Edward I became King in 1272, he required a united England to support his expensive military campaigns in Wales and Scotland. To maintain a united England, Edward swore to uphold the provisions of Magna Carta throughout his reign and his 1295 "Model" parliament had a broad composition similar to the Montfort parliaments.

Even though Montfort was defeated and his Provisions were repudiated, his determination to develop Magna Carta's principles into a system of representative government endures to the present day.

Double post auto-merged: January 20, 2015, 06:55:30 PM

Shakespeare?s Missing Magna Carta | Magna Carta Canada

To modern audiences, there appears to be a missing scene in William Shakespeare's "King John." The play, which was written in the mid-1590s and first published in 1623, dramatizes key events in John's reign (1199-1216). In the first three acts, Shakespeare portrayed John challenging his nephew, Arthur of Brittany and King Philip II of France for control of his kingdom, and being excommunicated by Pope Innocent III for refusing to accept Stephen Langton, purported author of the Magna Carta, as Archbishop of Canterbury. In last two acts, Philip II's son invades England at the invitation of John's barons and John reconciles with the Papacy to fight the revolt.

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BBC News - Queen's Gloriana barge confirmed for Magna Carta river pageant

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee barge has been announced as the flagship in a "spectacular" river pageant to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta.

The Gloriana will join a flotilla of about 200 boats in June on a two-day voyage from Hurley in Berkshire.

The route, along the River Thames, will end at Runnymede, Surrey, where the sealing of the Magna Carta took place.

The £1m Gloriana led the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012.

A copy of the Magna Carta will be transported downstream, with actors telling the story of the document.

Councillor Eileen Quick, member for leisure at Windsor and Maidenhead council, said: "I am so excited that this wonderful row barge will be part of these spectacular once-in-a-lifetime celebrations."

Boat owners have until 28 February to register to take part in the event on 13 and 14 June.

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Forgotten edition of Magna Carta discovered in a Kentish town's archive | Daily Mail Online

A forgotten Magna Carta manuscript which could be worth up to £10million has been discovered in a Victorian scrapbook in a Kentish town's archive.

It has been hailed an important historical find in the week the four original copies were brought together for the 800th anniversary of the charter which established the principle of the rule of law.

The parchment, discovered in Sandwich's archive, was ripped and a third had been lost, but experts were able to establish it was issued by Edward I in 1300.

Speaking from Paris, Professor Nicholas Vincent, of the University of East Anglia, who authenticated the document, said: 'It is a fantastic discovery which comes in the week that the four other known versions were brought together at the Houses of Parliament.

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Horrible Histories New Song - Magna Carta 800 Years Song - CBBC - YouTube

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My Perspective on Magna Carta in Insights on Law and Society Magazine | Carolyn Harris: Royal Historian