Magna Carta: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|English charter of freedoms, made in 1215}}

'''{{Lang|la-x-medieval|Magna Carta Libertatum}}''' ([[Medieval Latin]] for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called '''Magna Carta''' or sometimes '''Magna Charta''' ("Great Charter"),{{Efn|The document's Latin name is spelled either {{lang|la|Magna Carta}} or {{lang|la|Magna Charta}} (the pronunciation is the same), and may appear in English with or without the definite article "the", though it is more usual for the article to be omitted.<ref>{{OED|Magna Carta}} "Usually without article."</ref> Latin does not have a definite article equivalent to "the".{{pb}}The spelling {{lang|la|Charta}} originates in the 18th century, as a restoration of [[classical Latin]] {{lang|la|[[:wikt:charta|charta]]}} for the [[Medieval Latin]] spelling {{lang|la|carta}}.<ref>[[Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis|Du Cange]] s.v. [http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/charta#CHARTA1 1 carta]</ref> While "Charta" remains an acceptable variant spelling, it never became prevalent in English usage.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195142365|page=541|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=35dZpfMmxqsC&pg=PA541}} "The usual—and the better—form is ''Magna Carta''. [...] ''Magna Carta'' does not take a definite article".{{pb}}''Magna Charta'' is the recommended spelling in German-language literature. ([http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Magna_Charta Duden online])</ref>}} is a [[royal charter]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/magna-carta-1215|title=Magna Carta 1215|publisher=[[British Library]]|access-date=3 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.historyireland.com/volume-23/exporting-magna-carta-exclusionary-liberties-in-ireland-and-the-world/|title=Exporting Magna Carta: exclusionary liberties in Ireland and the world|journal=[[History Ireland]]|volume=23|issue= 4 |date=July 2015|author=Peter Crooks}}</ref> of [[rights]] agreed to by [[King John of England]] at [[Runnymede]], near [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]], on 15 June 1215.{{Efn|Within this article, dates before 14 September 1752 are in the Julian calendar. Later dates are in the Gregorian calendar. In the Gregorian calendar, however, the date would have been 22 June 1215.}} First drafted by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], Cardinal [[Stephen Langton]], to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel [[baron]]s, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on [[feudal]] payments to [[the Crown]], to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. As neitherNeither side stood by their commitments, and the charter was annulled by [[Pope Innocent III]], leading to the [[First Barons' War]].

After John's death, the regency government of his young son, [[Henry III of England|Henry III]], reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the [[Treaty of Lambeth|peace treaty agreed at Lambeth]], where the document acquired the name "Magna Carta", to distinguish it from the smaller [[Charter of the Forest]], which was issued at the same time.{{sfn|Carpenter|1990|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|White|1915|pp=472–475}}{{sfn|White|1917|pp=545–555}} Short of funds, Henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes.{{sfn|Carpenter|1990|p=379}} His son, [[Edward I]], repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part of England's [[Statutory law|statute law]]. However, the Magna Carta was not unique; other legal documents of its time, both in England and beyond, made broadly similar statements of rights and limitations on the powers of the Crown. The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn, although as time went by and the fledgling [[Parliament of England]] passed new laws, it lost some of its practical significance.

A common belief is that Magna Carta was a unique and early charter of human rights. However, the majority of historians see this as a myth created centuries later.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=R. H.|last1=Helmholz|title=The Myth of Magna Carta Revisited|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/nclr94&div=44&id=&page=|journal=North Carolina Law Review|date= 2014|pages=1475|volume=94|quote="The latter, a negative opinion that a majority of professional historians seem to share, regards Magna Carta’s exalted reputation as a myth. In its origins, historians say, the Charter did little or nothing to promote good government. Nor, they add, did it serve to protect the legal rights of the great majority of English men and women. It served only the baronial class. Its glorification was a later invention, attributable to myth-making lawyers like Edward Coke in the seventeenth century and William Blackstone in the eighteenth."}}</ref> As [[James Holt (historian)|J. C. Holt]] said, the "Magna Carta was far from unique, either in content or in form".{{sfn|Holt|2015|pp=50–51}}<ref>{{harvnb|Blick|2015|p=39}}: "It was one of a number of such sets of concessions issued by kings, setting out limits on their powers, around this time, though it had its own special character, and subsequently it has become the most celebrated and influential of them all."</ref> At the end of the 16th century, there was an upsurge in interest in Magna Carta. Lawyers and historians at the time believed that there was an ancient English constitution, going back to the days of the [[Anglo-Saxons]], that protected individual English freedoms. They argued that the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman invasion of 1066]] had overthrown these rights and that Magna Carta had been a popular attempt to restore them,{{sfn|Hindley|1990|p=188}}{{sfn|Turner|2003b|p=140}}{{sfn|Danziger|Gillingham|2004|p=280}} making the charter an essential foundation for the contemporary powers of Parliament and legal principles such as ''[[habeas corpus]]''. Although this historical account was badly flawed, jurists such as Sir [[Edward Coke]] used Magna Carta extensively in the early 17th century, arguing against the [[divine right of kings]].{{sfn|Danziger|Gillingham|2004|p=280}}{{sfn|Breay|2010|p=46}} Both [[James VI and I|James I]] and his son [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] attempted to suppress the discussion of Magna Carta.{{sfn|Hindley|1990|p=189}}{{sfn|Danziger|Gillingham|2004|pp=280–281}} The political myth of Magna Carta and its protection of ancient personal liberties persisted after the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688 until well into the 19th century. It influenced the early American colonists in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] and the formation of the [[United States Constitution]], which became the supreme law of the land in the new republic of the United States.<ref name="NARA-legacy" /><ref name="NARA-Magna Carta" />

Research by [[Victorian era|Victorian]] historians showed that the original 1215 charter had concerned the medieval relationship between the monarch and the barons, rather than the rights of ordinary people,{{sfn|Pollard|1912|pp=31–32}}. butThe majority of historians now see the interpretation of the charter as a unique and early charter of universal legal rights as a myth that was created centuries later. Despite the changes in views of historians, the charter has remained a powerful, iconic document, even after almost all of its content was repealed from the statute books in the 19th and 20th centuries.{{sfn|Danziger|Gillingham Magna Carta still forms an important symbol of liberty today, often cited by politicians and campaigners, and is held in great respect by the British and American legal communities, [[Alfred Denning, Baron Denning|2004|p=278}}Lord Denning]] describing it in 1956 as "the greatest constitutional document of all {{sfn|Breaynot a typo|2010|p=48times}}—the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot". In the 21st century, four [[Exemplified copy|exemplifications]] of the original 1215 charter remain in existence, two at the [[British Library]], one at [[Lincoln Castle]] and one at [[Salisbury Cathedral]]. There are also a handful of the subsequent charters in public and private ownership, including copies of the 1297 charter in both the United States and Australia. The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015 included extensive celebrations and discussions, and the four original 1215 charters were displayed together at the British Library. None of the original 1215 Magna Carta is currently in force since it has been repealed; however, four clauses of the original charter (1 (part), 13, 39, and 40) are enshrined in the 1297 reissued Magna Carta and do still remain in force in England and Wales.{{efn|These were 1 (aspart), 13, 39, and 40 of the 1215 charter, being clauses 1, 9, and 29 of the 1297 statute).<ref>{{Cite webAlthough |title=Thescholars contentsrefer to the 63 numbered "clauses" of Magna Carta, |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/magnacarta/magnacartaclauses/#:~:text=Only%20four%20of%20the%2063this is a modern system of numbering,%2C%2013%2C%2039%20and%2040. |url-status=liveintroduced |access-date=2022-08-28by Sir |website=[[UKWilliam ParliamentBlackstone]]|archive-date=2022-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828101448/https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/magnacarta/magnacartaclauses/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite webin |title=Magna1759; Cartathe 1297original atcharter Legislation.gov.uk|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw1cc1929/25/9/section/Iformed |access-date=2022-12-08a |website=[[Legislationsingle, long unbroken text.gov.uk]]}}</ref>

|title=Magna Carta|publisher=British Library|access-date=16 March 2016}}</ref>{{efn|The Runnymede Charter of Liberties did not apply to [[Chester]], which at the time was a [[Earl of Chester|separate feudal domain]]. [[Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester|Earl Ranulf]] granted his own [[Magna Carta of Chester]].{{sfn|Hewit|1929|p=9}} Some of its articles were similar to the Runnymede Charter.{{sfn|Holt|1992b|pp=379–380}}}} Its style and content reflected Henry I's Charter of Liberties, as well as a wider body of legal traditions, including the royal charters issued to towns, the operations of the Church and baronial courts and European charters such as the Statute of Pamiers.{{sfn|Vincent|2012|pp=61–63}}{{sfn|Carpenter|2004|pp=293–294}} The Magna Carta reflected other legal documents of its time, in England and beyond, which made broadly similar statements of rights and limitations on the powers of the Crown.<ref>{{harvnb|Helmholz|2016|p=869}} "First, the formulation of Magna Carta in England was not an isolated event. It was not unique. The results of the meeting at Runnymede coincided with many similar statements of law on the Continent."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Holt|2015|pp=50–51}}: "Magna Carta was far from unique, either in content or in form"</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Blick|2015|p=39}}: "It was one of a number of such sets of concessions issued by kings, setting out limits on their powers, around this time, though it had its own special character, and subsequently it has become the most celebrated and influential of them all."</ref> <!--this point about contemporary comparisons could be expanded on -->

{{hidden begin|title====={{center|Lists of participants in 1215|style=====border:solid 1px #aaa}}}}

This view also became popular in wider circles, and in 1930 [[Sellar and Yeatman]] published their parody on English history, ''[[1066 and All That]]'', in which they mocked the supposed importance of Magna Carta and its promises of universal liberty: "Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and thus a ''Good Thing'' for everyone (except the Common People)".{{sfn|Barnes|2008|p=23}}{{sfn|Danziger|Gillingham|2004|p=283}}

Radicals such as Sir [[Francis Burdett]] believed that Magna Carta could not be repealed,{{sfn|Burdett|1810|p=41}} but in the 19th century clauses which were obsolete or had been superseded began to be repealed. The repeal of clause 26 in 1829, by the [[Offences Against the Person Act 1828]] ([[9 Geo. 4]]. c. 31 s. 1){{efn|I.e., section 1 of the 31st statute issued in the 9th year of George IV; "nor will We not" in clause 29 is correctly quoted from this source.}}<ref name=UKStatute/> was the first time a clause of Magna Carta was repealed. Over the next 140 years, nearly the whole of Magna Carta (1297) as statute was repealed,<ref>{{cite web|title=Magna Carta|url=http://www.sagamoreinstitute.org/library-article/magna-carta/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105004655/http://www.sagamoreinstitute.org/library-article/magna-carta/|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 November 2014|publisher=Segamore Institute|access-date=4 November 2014}}</ref> leaving just clauses 1, 9 and 29 still in force (in England and Wales) after 1969.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The contents of Magna Carta |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/magnacarta/magnacartaclauses/#:~:text=Only%20four%20of%20the%2063,%2C%2013%2C%2039%20and%2040. |url-status=live |access-date=2022-08-28 |website=[[UK Parliament]]|archive-date=2022-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828101448/https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/magnacarta/magnacartaclauses/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Magna Carta 1297 at Legislation.gov.uk|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw1cc1929/25/9/section/I |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=[[Legislation.gov.uk]]}}</ref> Most of the clauses were repealed in England and Wales by the [[Statute Law Revision Act 1863]], and in modern [[Northern Ireland]] and also in the modern [[Republic of Ireland]] by the [[Statute Law (Ireland) Revision Act 1872]].<ref name=UKStatute/>

It also remains a topic of great interest to historians; [[Natalie Fryde]] characterised the charter as "one of the holiest of cows in English medieval history", with the debates over its interpretation and meaning unlikely to end.{{sfn|Fryde|2001|p=1}} InThe manymajority waysof stillcontemporary ahistorians "sacredhowever text",see Magnathe Cartainterpretation isof generallythe consideredcharter partas ofa theunique [[uncodifiedand constitution]]early [[Constitutioncharter of thelegal Unitedrights Kingdomas a myth that was created centuries later.<ref>{{harvnb|Helmholz|2014|p=1475}} "The latter, a negative opinion that a majority of theprofessional Unitedhistorians Kingdom]];seem into share, regards Magna Carta’s exalted reputation as a 2005myth. In its speechorigins, historians say, the [[LordCharter Chiefdid Justicelittle ofor Englandnothing andto promote good government. Wales]]Nor, [[Lordthey Woolf]]add, describeddid it asserve to protect the "firstlegal rights of athe seriesgreat majority of instrumentsEnglish thatmen nowand arewomen. recognisedIt asserved havingonly athe specialbaronial constitutional status"class.<ref name=woolfspeech>{{citeIts web|url=http://magnacarta800th.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Precedent_Recent_Constitutional_Change.pdf|title=Magnaglorification Carta:was a precedentlater forinvention, recentattributable constitutionalto change|work=Judiciarymyth-making oflawyers Englandlike Edward Coke in the seventeenth century and WalesWilliam Speeches|date=15Blackstone Junein 2005the eighteenth."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|access-dateBaker|2017|p=4 November 2014missing}}</ref><ref>{{sfnharvnb|HoltRadin|1992b1947|p=21missing}}</ref> <!--section on current historians' views could do with being expanded -->

In many ways still a "sacred text", Magna Carta is generally considered part of the [[uncodified constitution]] [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|of the United Kingdom]]; in a 2005 speech, the [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales]], [[Lord Woolf]], described it as the "first of a series of instruments that now are recognised as having a special constitutional status".<ref name=woolfspeech>{{cite web|url=http://magnacarta800th.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Precedent_Recent_Constitutional_Change.pdf|title=Magna Carta: a precedent for recent constitutional change|work=Judiciary of England and Wales Speeches|date=15 June 2005|access-date=4 November 2014}}</ref>{{sfn|Holt|1992b|p=21}} Magna Carta was reprinted in [[New Zealand]] in 1881 as one of the Imperial Acts in force there.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/imp_act_1881/mc25ei84/ |title= Magna Carta (25 Ed I) |publisher= New Zealand Law online }}</ref> Clause 29 of the document remains in force as part of New Zealand law.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/imperial/1297/0029/latest/whole.html#DLM10926|title=Magna Carta 1297 No 29 (as at 03 September 2007), Imperial Act – New Zealand Legislation|website=www.legislation.govt.nz|language=en-NZ|access-date=2018-12-03}}</ref>

! scope="col" | {{ubl|Included in later charters|{{sfn|Breay|2010|pp=49–54}}<ref name=sharples>{{cite webharvnb|last1=SharplesThomson|first1=Barry|title=Magna Carta Liberatum (The Great Charter of Liberties) The First Great Charter of King Edward The First Granted October 12th 1297|url=http://www.bsswebsite.me.uk/History/MagnaCarta/magnacarta-1297.doc|access-date=13 November 20142011}}</ref>}}

|Repealed by [[Statute Law Revision Act 1863]] and [[Statute Law (Ireland) Revision Act 1872]].<ref name=natarchives>{{cite webharvnb|title=Magna Carta (1297)|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw1cc1929/25/9|publisher=UkUK Government|access-date=15 November 20141297}}</ref>

==BibliographySources==