Magna Carta

The Large Charter or Magna Carta is a charter of 63 articles torn off by the English baronnage with the king Jean without Ground on June 15th, 1215 after a short civil war in particular marked by the catch of London, the May 17th, by the rebels.

The barons were exceeded military and financial requirements of the king and his failures repeated in France with Bouvines and the Rock-with-Monks.

This text limits the arbitrary royal one and establishes in right the Habeas corpus which prevents, inter alia, the arbitrary imprisonment. It guarantees the feudal rights, freedoms of the cities against the arbitrary royal one and institutes the control of the tax by the Great Council of the Kingdom. The archbishop of Canterbury, Langton defends ardently the barons, his name remaining the first to be affixed in the capacity as witness of the Large Charter. When the pope excommunicates the barons, Langton refuses to publish the interdict and is suspended by the pope.

This charter is the oldest important demonstration of a historical long process which led to the rules of constitutional legality that we know today. that it actually limited the capacity of the king (it hardly did with the Middle Ages); and that it is a single document in its kind (this kind of documents is indicated by a general name).

The Large Charter was renewed during all Middle Ages and later at the time of Stuarts, that of Tudors and with. At the beginning of the 19th century the majority of the clauses had been repealed in the English law. The influence of the Large Charter out of England can be noticed in the American Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights. Indeed, about each country of Common Law which has a constitution was subject to the influence of the Large Charter, which in fact perhaps the legal document most important in the Histoire of the democracy.

The events which led to the Large Charter

After the conquest of England by the Norman ones in 1066 and the territorial acquisitions carried out at the 12th century, the English king had become in 1199 the most powerful monarch of Europe. It was due to a certain number of factors of which a very studied governmental centralization, created according to the procedures of the new Norman Masters combined with the systems of government of the Anglo-Saxon natives and the extension to England of feudality Norman. But after the crowning of King Jean, at the beginning of the 13th century, a series of resounding failures that it sudden led the barons of England to revolt and to place under monitoring the capacity of the king.

France

An important cause of dissatisfaction in the kingdom was the action of Jean in France. At the time of its accession to the throne after the death of Richard, there did not exist any precise rule to define the heredity of the crown. Jean, like younger brother of Richard, was crowned by évinçant the nephew of Richard, Arthur of Brittany. But Arthur always had claims on the territories angevins and Jean thus needed the agreement of king de France, Philippe Auguste. To receive it, it gave him vast territories of French language of the empire angevin.

Then Jean Maria with Isabelle of Angouleme whose old one been engaged, one of vassal of Jean, called upon Philippe, who then confiscated all the possessions of Jean in France, including the Normandy rich person. Philippe declared Arthur like the true lord of Anjou which it invades in the middle of 1202 for giving him. Jean had to act to save the face, but at the end of the day its action did not serve it, and after it had killed Arthur in suspect circumstances, it lost the little of support which it had in France among his barons, which saw there like a black spot on Jean, able to kill the proper members of its family to be a king.

After the failure of combined of Jean to the Battle of Bouvines, Philippe kept all the territories of Jean in France of North, including Normandy (Aquitaine was to remain with the hands of the English for some time). Jean was not in vain a fine policy, he was obliged to understand that not only one had seen his little of value as military chief, but that he had also lost of the important incomes, so that he should tax even more his Barons who started to see his weakness.

Note: one gave to Jean the nickname “without ground” not because of his losses in France, but because with the difference of his older brothers it had not received (with its birth) any stronghold in the continental provinces.

The Church

At the time of the reign of Jean a great controversy remained as for the way of electing the archbishop of Canterbury, although it had become traditional that the monarch named a candidate with the approval of the monks of Canterbury.

However, at the beginning of the 13th century, the bishops started to want to say their mot. to keep control, the monks elected one as of theirs as archbishop. To this Jean blow, irritated that the procedures had not proceeded in the order, sent to Rome the bishop of Norwich as that which it had chosen. The pope Innocent III declared the two nominations invalid and persuaded the monks to elect Stephen Langton, which in fact was probably the best choice. But Jean refused this decision and exiled of his kingdom the monks. Exasperated, Innocent threw the interdict on England in 1208 (prohibition of the public worship, the mass, the marriages, the ringing of bells to the church, etc); it excommunicated Jean in 1209 and supported Philippe-Auguste in his attempt to invade England in 1212.

Finally Jean moved back; he agreed to recognize Langton and to allow exiled to return. To complete to alleviate the pope, it gave him England and Ireland like pontifical territories and again accepted them as strongholds for: 1000 marcs per annum. The fury of the barons was only stronger because that wanted to say that they would have even less autonomy in their own territories.

Taxes

Despite everything, the government of England could not function without a strong king. An effective public office, established by the powerful king Henri II, had directed England during the reign of Richard Ist But the government of king Jean needed money for its troops, because during this time of prosperity the cost of the mercenaries was almost twice higher than front. The loss of the French territories, especially Normandy, had considerably reduced the public revenue and it would have been necessary to raise enormous taxes to try to reconquer them. And however it was difficult to raise taxes because of the tradition to maintain them on the same level.

New forms of income included a law on the forest, a whole of payments on the forest of the king who it was difficult of not enfreindre and who involved severe punishments. During its seventeen years of Jean reign also eleven times the scutage increased (the payment of vassal with its suzerain to replace the direct military service), eleven times to be compared with twice where it had been it during the three reigns which had preceded to it his. It created also the first income tax which rose with what was, at that time, the amazing sum of: 60000 pounds.

Rebellion and civil war

In 1215, some barons d' Angleterre met and, on June 10th, seized London by the force. Being combined with a great number of neutrals, the moderate ones which were not in opened rebellion, they forced king Jean to accept the “Articles of the Barons”, to which its Large Seal was affixed in the pre one of Runnymede on June 15th, 1215. In exchange, the barons renewed their oaths of fidelity in Jean on June 19th. A fine shape document to record the agreement was created by the royal chancellery on July 15th: it was the original of the Magna Carta . An unknown number of copies was sent by it to the agents of the king, such as the royal sheriffs and the bishops.

At this time the most significant clause for Jean was clause 61, known like “clause of safety”, which was the longest part of the document. It established a council of 25 barons who could constantly meet and cancel the will of the king, with the need by the force by seizing his castles and his goods. It was based on the seizure, practical legal medieval known and often used, but it was the first time that one applied it to a monarch. Moreover, the king was to lend to the council an oath honesty.

King Jean did not have the least intention to respect the Magna Carta , since she had been extorted to him by the force and that clause 61 neutralized in fact its capacity as monarch, leaving him of king only the name. He denounced it as soon as the barons had left London, plunging England in the civil war called First War of the Barons. The Innocent pope III, also, cancelled this “agreement to him scandalous and degrading, torn off with the king by violence and threat. ” It rejected any call to rights, applicant that lowered the dignity of king Jean. It saw there an affront against the authority which the Church had on the king and untied Jean of the oath which it had made obey there.

New promulgations of the Magna Carta

Jean died of dysentery during the war, on October 18th, 1216 and the nature of the war changed some immediately. His/her nine year old son, Henri III, was his successor on the throne and its partisans included/understood that the rebellious barons would prefer to be honest towards a child, this is why the young boy was quickly crowned towards the end of October 1216 and the war ended. The regents of Henri promulgated once again the Magna Cart has on its behalf on November 12th, 1216, by omitting some clauses, like clause 61, and once again in 1217. When it had 18 years, in 1225, Henri III itself promulgated it, this time in a shorter version with only 37 articles. Henri III reigned during 56 years (the longest reign of an English king to the Middle Ages) so that at the time of his death in 1272, Magna Carta had become in England an undeniable legal precedent and it would be more difficult for a monarch from now on to cancel it, as king Jean had tried to earlier do it nearly three generations. Edouard Ier, wire and heir to Henri III, and the Parliament published last once the Magna Carta on October 12th, 1297 within the framework of a statute called Confirmatio cartarum (25 Edw. I), by confirming the shortened version of Henri III, that of 1225.

See too

Charter of the rights and freedoms

Sources

External bonds

  1. Text of the Large Latin Charter
  2. Original text of Magna Carta and French translation (version filed)

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Simple: Magna Carta Zh-classical: 大憲章 Zh-yue: 大憲章

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