The Magna Carta

For those of us, Dear Reader, who studied English History in school, the following terms are still familiar, even after all these years: ‘June 15, 1215,’ ‘King John,’ ‘the Runnymede.’
Today marks in the 800th anniversary of the ‘Magna Carta,’ or ‘Great Charter.’

Why was this document so important?
It is considered as the basis of the rule of law, not merely a promise made by a king but a right possessed bv the people.
In the early 13th century, King John was not England's ‘Mr. Nice Guy.’
He ruled using the principle of ‘force and will,’ and considered himself above the Law.
He kept asking for more money and soldiers from the barons, who actually ran the administration. They even had to do his work for him, by collecting the tax money and recruiting the soldiers!
In 1204, after he lost his land and northern France, he introduced high taxes without asking the barons, an action that was against feudal law and accepted custom.
He was already in a lot of trouble; he had angered the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope had banned all Church services by shutting the churches. How could the people show their love for God and, more importantly, avoid going to Hell?
The pope had even excommunicated him in 1209.
Finally, the barons had enough and started to rebel.
So John, needing their tax money and their Army recruits, met the rebel leaders at Runnymede, near the Royal fortress of Windsor Castle, in June, 1215.
‘Magna Carta’ was an attempt by the barons to stop the king abusing his power with the people of England suffering.
The document was a series of written promises between the king and his subjects that he, the king, would govern England and deal with its people according to the customs of feudal law.
It focused on the rights of free men—in particular the barons—excluding serfs and unfree labour, whose rights were included later.
According to the History Learning Site, it promised:
-protection of church rights,
- protection from illegal imprisonment,
- access to swift justice — both forming the basis of ‘due process of law,’ and ‘Habeas Corpus,’* and
- limitations on taxation and other feudal payments to the Crown.
(In time, it came to mean that the king couldn't send somebody to the tower or the dungeon on a whim, and [*Habeas Corpus] anybody put in jail had to be either charged or released within 24 hours.)
King John was not happy with having signed the charter: he had no sooner fixed his seal to it then he asked the pope to nullify it, and the pope did so!
So began the turbulent life of the charter.
Even today, it has ‘mixed reviews.’
An article in the ‘New Yorker’ magazine, called ‘The Rule of History’, claims that ‘due process’ was put in place much later than 1215, and that the importance of ‘Magna Carta’ has often been overstated, and its meaning distorted.
But there is no doubt that it influenced the early American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies and the formation of the American Constitution in 1789.
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.
We all know, from watching C-N-N, how much American leaders revere their ‘Founding Fathers’ and their Constitution!
However, it also has a very different legacy in the United Kingdom, where only four of its original sixty-some provisions are still on the books.
A story running on BBC News this week claims that scientists have identified the scribes who wrote two of the four original 1215 copies of the ‘Magna Carta.’
Copies held in Lincoln and Salisbury were found to have been written by scribes based at those cathedrals, rather than by someone working for King John.
Why, Dear Reader, do they need to know that?
Hand out awards for calligraphy?