Magna Carta -Background information
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Magna Carta and the problems of monarchy
1. The character of
King John
· his unsuitability for the profession of a cloister was
obvious
® by the time he was six, he was brought back to be educated
at his father’s court
· John established
a fondness of reading
· He was a tough,
rather stout, energetic little man (only 5 foot and 5 inches)
· John was made up
of inconsistencies
® bursting with
energy ¹ plunged in the depths of depression
· John was very
nervous and restless, he just could not be still (even in church).
® No-one knew when
the King’s hand would turn against him.
· From his record of
daily expenses a good deal is known of his tastes and habits
2. King John and the
French King
· King Philip´s aim:
Annexation of England as a fief for his eldest son Louis
· April 1213: Council in Soisson
· May 1213: The battle off Damme
® John´s fleet
defeated the French armada
· Plans for a campaign in
® In 1214 he sailed for
· Battle between Louis and king
John in
® John was defeated and returned to
·
® King
Philip and his army defeated Otto of Saxony and his allies
3. Reasons why the conflict with the Church polarised under King John
· John tried to
plant candidates in the top jobs in Church, especially in
· A disputed
election to the see of
® The Pope’s
consecration of Stephen Langton was a provocation,
since Langton was
much closer to King Philip than to John.
® Innocent laid an
interdict on
· As a reaction John
confiscated estates of the Church
· Innocent placed
John under excommunication in 1209, which is the “most fearful and suicidal
weapon of the medieval church”, for not accepting Langton
as archbishop
· Plotting barons and Philip’s threat
to cross the Channel served to remind John that an excommunicated King was
likely to provoke rebellion among his people.
® decided to make
peace with the Church
· John had to face
on of the greatest Popes of the Middle Ages
(1198-1216)
4. King John and the barons
·
Barons conferring at Bury St Edmunds on Henry I´s
Charter
· Christmas 1214: Baronial demand that John confirms Henry´s Charter
·
·
·
Conference
with William Marshall and Langton
·
·
·
·
(probably the "Unknown Charter”)
·
·
·
Langton refuses
·
· 12 – 14 May 1215: Royal sheriffs seize rebel lands
and king begins distribution among his
supporters
·
·
·
5. Magna Carta
(0) KNOW THAT BEFORE
GOD, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the
honour of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of
our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers Stephen, archbishop of
Canterbury, primate of all England, and cardinal of the holy Roman Church,
Henry archbishop of Dublin, William bishop of London, Peter bishop of
Winchester, Jocelin bishop of Bath and Glastonbury,
Hugh bishop of Lincoln, Walter Bishop of Worcester, William bishop of Coventry,
Benedict bishop of Rochester, Master Pandulf subdeacon and member of the papal household, Brother Aymeric master of the knighthood of the Temple in England,
William Marshal earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William earl of
Warren, William earl of Arundel, Alan de Galloway constable of Scotland, Warin Fitz Gerald, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert de Burgh seneschal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz
Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny,
Robert de Roppeley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and other loyal subjects:
(1) FIRST, THAT WE
HAVE GRANTED TO GOD, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our
heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its
rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be
observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak
of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by
charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right reckoned to be of the
greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by
Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be
observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.
(6) Heirs may be given
in marriage, but not to someone of lower social standing. Before a marriage
takes place, it shall be' made known to the heir's next-of-kin.
(13) The city of
(16) No man shall be
forced to perform more service for a knight's `fee', or other free holding of
land, than is due from it.
(20) For a trivial
offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence,
and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him
of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise,
and a husbandman the implements of his husbandry, if they fall upon the mercy
of a royal
(21) Earls and barons
shall be fined only by their equals, and in proportion to the gravity of their
offence
(38) In future no
official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without
producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.
(40) To no one will we
sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
(51) As soon as peace is
restored, we will remove from the kingdom all the foreign knights, bowmen,
their attendants, and the mercenaries that have come to it, to its harm, with
horses and arms.
(52) To any man whom we
have deprived or dispossessed of lands, castles, liberties, or rights, without
the lawful judgement of his equals, we will at once restore these. In cases of
dispute the matter shall be resolved by the judgement of the twenty-five barons
referred to below in the clause for securing the peace
(54) No one shall be
arrested or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman for the death of any person
except her husband.
(62) We have remitted
and pardoned fully to all men any ill-will, hurt, or grudges that have arisen
between us and our subjects, whether clergy or laymen, since the beginning of
the dispute. We have in addition remitted fully, and for our own part have also
pardoned, to all clergy and laymen any offences committed as a result of the
said dispute between Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215) and
the restoration of peace.
(63) IT IS ACCORDINGLY
OUR WISH AND COMMAND that the
Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall
be observed in good faith and without deceit. Witness the abovementioned people
and many others.
Given by our hand in the meadow that is called
6. The influence of
the Magna Carta on today’s society
words
-cloister:
Kreuzgang
-oblate:
Opfer
-repellent:
widerwärtig
-arbitrary: willkürlich
-judicious: klug
-(be) plunged: gefangen
sein
-(to) exact:
verlangen
-dungeon: Verließ
-bishopric:
Amtszeit des Bischofs -(to) depose:
absetzen -fief: Lehen
-(to)
consecrate:
weihen
-(to) levy taxes: Steuern
erheben
-self-indulgent:
selbstgerecht
-(to) amend: ergänzen
- estuary:
Gezeitenmündung
- fealty: Lehnstreue
- dissident:
Andersdenkender
- deadlock: Stillstand
- to disperse:
sich
verbreiten
- to shelve: zu den Akten legen
- vow:
Gelübde
- tantamount:
gleichbedeutend
- pitched battle: offene Feldschlacht - relief: Ablösung
- arbiter:
Schiedsrichter
- arbitration court:
Schiedsgericht
- truce:
Waffenstillstand
- wardship: Vormundschaft
Big
Hand-out
Magna Carta
and the problems of monarchy
The character of King
John
John
had been destined by his parents for the life of the cloister. He was placed as
an oblate in an abbey when he was not more than one year old. His unsuitability
for this job must have become evident quite soon, since by the time he was
about six some clergymen brought him back and John was educated at his father’s
court and soon established a fondness of reading which lasted all his life.
Even in the critical year 1203 when John should have been absorbed in public
affairs, he had his library sent to
He is said to have been full of
contradictions, cruel and ruthless on the one hand, but self-indulgent and
judicious on the other. He was a very tough, rather stout and energetic little
man, only 5 foot and 5 inches high. Some people say that John tried to
compensate his shortness with the help of his behaviour: most of the time he
behaved in a very cruel, violent and even repellent way. His manner of coping
with others is said to have been arbitrary, greedy, genial and passionate.
As we can see from
the wide range of adjectives used in secondary literature, John was made up of
inconsistencies: bursting with irresistible energy at one moment, and plunged
in the depths of depression at the other. Showing his arbitrariness, it is said
that in 1203 John was lying in bed till lunch time and spending the rest of the
day feasting with his queen, while Philip Augustus of
But this also meant, that no-one ever knew when the King’s hand would turn
against him. From the record of his daily expenses a good deal is known of his
personal tastes and habits. He was continually moving about the country,
spending a great amount of money on his needs. His personal cleanliness was
most important to him and he arranged a bath to be prepared for him in the
towns through which he passed. He also had a decided love for splendour
possessed an immense collection of jewels and spent much of his money on
dresses. Furthermore, John loved a good table.
King John and the
French King
King Philip of
The preparations
for an attack against
Count Ferrand made an urgent appeal for English help. A council
of war chaired by King John was held and it was decided to answer the count’s
appeal for aid. On
John planned to
follow up this success by a double attack on
John sailed for
King John rapidly
strengthened his position south of the
The movements of
King Philip while John was recovering control of the country south of the
Louis met John at
King Philip met
Otto of Saxony and his allies at Bouvines. On
In September 1214
John signed a truce with Philip which lasted until 1220.
The loss of the
battle of Bouvines brought John an immense amount of
disgrace in
Reasons why the
conflict with the Church polarised under King John
Royals had
always seen ecclesiastical claim of “freedom of the Church” as a threat to
their power, and so did John. As it was already said, King John was a very
obstinate character. He, as his predecessors, tried to plant candidates in the
top jobs in the Church, especially in
John largely
ignored papal letters and instructions to intervene on one or other side during
these conflicts. He just disregarded the power of
In 1207 the Pope
consecrated Stephen Langton archbishop of
John had to face a
very difficult situation now and probably this was the peak of the culmination
process of the conflict between John and the Church. Plotting barons and
Philip’s threat to cross the Channel and invade
Innocent III took back the Interdict
and John’s excommunication, he even had annulled any
conspiracy which had arisen out of his quarrel with John. Langton
returned to
King John and the barons
There had been a conflict between the
Angevins and their barons for generations. But the
conflict reached its highest point when John became king of
Historians
described the reactions to John’s accession in the following way: "The
whole of the bishops, as well as such earls and barons as had castles,
strengthened the same with men, provision and arms."
The crisis between
John and his barons falls into two periods which are divided by the defeat of
John’s allies at Bouvines on
The time before the Poitevin campaign
John’s policy
towards his subjects, especially during the months preceding the expedition to
Financial
need. King John always emphasized the close interrelation of war and finance
by pardoning debts or postponing repayment in
return for a fixed amount of military service over and above the normal feudal
commitments of his vassals.
Suspicion
of treachery. In January 1205 king John revealed his fear of
treason by demanding the renewal of the oath of fealty by all those present at
a council in
Up to the Poitevin campaign John was exploiting his customary rights
as financial and political weapons. He disciplined his subjects by the threat
or fact of imprisonment, by the exaction of hostages, by the surrender of
castles, by the pledging of land and by financial pressure.
One of the prime
objectives of the Charter was to prevent such confusion of the routine exercise
of justice and other rights of lordship with important matters of policy.
The time after the Poitevin campaign
The French triumph undermined John’s
credibility in
From this point
onwards the crisis can be described in terms of a timetable.
October 1214. Magnates from
Christmas
1214. John was
confronted by a group of dissidents whose demands were the confirmation of the
laws of Edward the Confessor and of the laws and the charter of Henry I. King
John and his advisors who were playing for time proposed a postponement of full
negotiations to a
Both parties
appealed to
5 May 1215. The barons
reacted to John’s statement by sending a letter in which they renounced their
homage and fealty.
6 May 1215. John offers a
compromise settlement which contains a reform of any evil customs of his own
and his brother’s reign. This gesture came probably too late and apart from
that it was also unconvincing because John merely repeated the formula which
had been rejected by the barons at Christmas. The king also was acting in bad
faith because only two days after the offer of a compromise settlement, he
required Langton to excommunicate the barons. Langton refuses and John writes to the pope to enforce the
request.
9 May 1215. King John issued
a charter which proposed that the issues and articles in dispute should be
submitted to eight barons. The pope was chosen by John as arbiter. This issue
could hardly be serious because such an arbitration court would have taken
month.
10 May 1215. A royal letters
patent affirmed that the king "would not arrest or disseize
his opponents or their men expect by law of the land and by judgement of their
peers in his court". This date can be seen as the end of the phoney war.
12 May 1215. Writs were
dispatched to the sheriffs to seize the lands and chattels of the king’s
enemies.
14 May 1215. John was
assigning rebel territories among his supporters.
Hostiles broke out
throughout the country. The rebel forces seized
17 May 1215. The rebel barons
took
To sum up we could
say that Magna Carta reflects two distinct
circumstances.
It emerged from
· the increasing maturity of European political thought and
practise.
· the concept of rule according to law.
· the demand of the preservation of the rights of the subjects
within a feudal and
ecclesiastical hierarchy
· routine patterns of government which went with more
disciplined and sophisticated forms
of administration
Apart from the
points mentioned above, Magna Carta was also a
product of political crisis and sprang directly from
· the flexibility and severity of Angevin
methods of government under the ruthless and
capable direction of John.
· urgent requirements imposed by foreign wars for the defence.
· the financial collapse of John’s military and diplomatic
schemes on the fields of Bouvines
in July 1214.
The Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is a product of many hands,
therefore it contains 63 clauses and is quite inconsistent as to its contents.
Most of the clauses deal with specific, and often long-standing, grievances
rather than with general principles of law. Magna Carta
was a failure as a peace treaty, but it was always taken seriously as a
statement of law. It was amended and reissued in 1216, 1217 and 1225. Because
the reissue of 1217 was accompanied by the publication of a second, smaller
charter, dealing with the forest law, it became known as the “Great Charter”
Magna Carta. It was signed at Runnymede, Surrey, in
June 19, 1215 and secured to the English people many liberties which had before
been invaded, and provided against many abuses which before rendered liberty a
mere name. All that we today understand as safeguards of liberty was not in the
charter: Consent to taxation, trial only by jury, independence of judiciary,
contract between King and nation. But some of the provisions of our civil
liberty, mainly in the interest of individual rights, are plainly present. The
Magna Carta is divided into thirty-eight chapters:
1. To the which relate as
follows, namely: freedom of the church and ecclesiastical persons. 2. To the
nobility, knights' service, etc. 3. Heirs and their being in
ward. 4. Guardians for heirs within age, who are to commit no waste. 5. To the land and other property of heirs, and the delivery of
them up when the heirs are of age. 6. The marriage of heirs. 7. Dower of women
in the lands of their husbands. 8. Sheriffs and their bailiffs. 9. To the ancient liberties of
Pictures
![[photo of plaque]](background_magna_carta-Dateien/image002.jpg)
Sources
Bibliography
· Fryde, Natalie.Why
Magna Carta?: Angevin England revisited/Natalie Fryde.
– Münster:
LIT, 2001
· Holt, J.C.Magna Carta and Medieval Government. – (History series; 38),
published by The
Hambledon Press, 1985
· Holt, J.C.Magna Carta. – published by The Syndics of the Cambridge
University Press,
1965
· Hindley, Geoffrey.The
book of Magna Carta. – published by Constable and
Company
Limited
·
· www.birtannia.com/monarchs/mon28.html
·
www.infokey.com/hon/magna.htm
·
classes.maxwell.syr.edu/his311/Maxims1.html
·
www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/magna.html
·www.britannia.com/history/johncon.html