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SPECIAL VIDEO WATCH THIS PLZ. BST VDEO EVR

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Your questions on notice - Question details

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Before 1901 the Australian continent had six partly self-governing colonies which were modelled on the British Parliamentary system. When developing the Australian federation model in the 1890s, the British Parliamentary model was very influential. This influence can be seen in many aspects of the appearance and function of the two chambers of the Australian Parliament.

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language that the magna carta was written in

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language that the magna carta was written in

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the actual language.(i think)

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In 1215, King John met British barons at Runnymede to discuss limiting the king's feudal rights and his forms of justice. After a compromise was reached, many copies of the agreement were handwritten by royal scribes onto expensive parchment, using abbreviations to shorten the text. The documents were distributed to bishops, sheriffs and other important officials. As of 2014, only four copies of the Magna Carta remain.
Learn more about US History

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In Which Language Was the Magna Carta Written?

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In 1215, King John met British barons at Runnymede to discuss limiting the king's feudal rights and his forms of justice. After a compromise was reached, many copies of the agreement were handwritten by royal scribes onto expensive parchment, using abbreviations to shorten the text.

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A written agreement - the Magna Carta
Closer Look - A Short History of Parliament [PDF 3.40Mb, 13 pages]
In the early 13th century King John waged a long and drawn-out war with France, which was largely funded by taxing the feudal barons. Under feudal law, the King granted the barons land, or fiefdoms, and in exchange could demand money and troops. This, in turn, meant that the barons had to impose taxes on the people in their fiefdoms. In 1215 the barons, fed up with King John's demands and his failure to consult them, rebelled. The King's use of the justice system to suppress his opponents had also caused widespread discontent.

In June 1215, one month after the rebellion started, King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta or 'Great Charter'. It limited the King's authority by establishing he was subject to the law, not above it. The Magna Carta also regulated feudal customs, the operation of the justice system, and formally recognised that the barons had a right to be consulted and to advise the King in the Great Council.

While most of the document described the division of power between the King and the barons, it also made reference to the rights of individuals. One of the most celebrated sections is credited with establishing the principle of a right to a fair trial. It states:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

This declaration of individual rights has been seen as an important step towards the development of democracy, and has influenced documents such as the Australian Constitution and the American Bill of Rights.

Rebellion to representation

The first time the word parliament was used to describe an assembly between the King and his advisors was in 1236.

Despite the reforms of the Magna Carta, King John's successor, King Henry III, continued to clash with the barons. Many of the barons were unhappy with Henry's rule, including his failed campaigns to regain territory in France, and his choice of advisers and allies. Townspeople resented the King's tax demands and interference in their affairs.

In 1258 the barons forced the King to agree to rule with the advice of a 15-member baronial council, and to consult with Parliament more regularly. They wanted Parliament to meet three times a year and to include 12 non-noble representatives chosen from the counties. However, King Henry did not honour the agreement, and the opposing barons, led by Simon de Montfort, went to war against him.

De Montfort was a baron who believed the King's power should be limited, with more influence given to county knights and burgesses (representatives from the cities and towns). In 1264 he defeated the King and became Britain's de facto ruler.

The following year, de Montfort attempted to boost his baronial support by summoning knights of the shires and burgesses from cities and towns to attend his own parliament. This was the first time commoners had been represented at such a meeting, although their attendance would not become permanent for another 63 years. The inclusion of commoners in de Montfort's parliament has meant it is seen as the forerunner of the modern parliament.

Soon after this parliament met, De Montfort was killed in battle by Henry III's son, Edward. Unlike his father, King Edward I called Parliament to meet more regularly. Parliament also included two elected representatives from each county (knights of the shire) and city or town (burgesses), making it more representative of the people. This provided the model for the futureHouse of Commons, with members elected by, and representing, a constituency.

The emergence of a parliamentary model

From 1327 the people's representatives sat in Parliament permanently and by 1332 were referred to as the House of Commons. The British Parliament now comprised three familiar elements: the monarch, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. However, it had no formal meeting schedule and continued to be called at the request of the King.

Up until this time, the House of Lords had far more influence on the King and a greater say in the decisions of Parliament. However, in 1341 the House of Commons began meeting independently, and it was after this that its power increased.

One of the main functions of the Commons was to petition the King and the House of Lords to resolve local and national issues through new laws. These petitions often formed the basis of bills (proposed laws). As well, it became practice for the King to seek the approval of the Commons for new taxes, particularly as these taxes often had the greatest impact on the people represented by the Commons.

An ongoing conflict with France meant King Edward III (1312 -1377) was forced to summon the Parliament more frequently to secure funds to wage war. The King's need for money gave the Commons leverage (bargaining power) to request concessions in return, including that the King and House of Lords act on their petitions.

By the mid-15th century, rather than simply petitioning the House of Lords, the Commons had equal law-making powers. It was also responsible for granting the King access to money raised by taxes. Today, its law-making powers exceed those of the House of Lords. The timeline (below) details some of the key reforms achieved by the Commons in the 14th and early 15th centuries.

1362

New law decrees Parliament must approve of all taxation.

1376

Sir Peter de la Mare, a member of the House of Commons, is chosen by the Commons to act as its spokesman before the King, making him the first unofficial Speaker.

1377

Thomas Hungerford becomes the first official Speaker of the House of Commons, responsible for running its meetings and representing its views.

1407

Proposals for taxation must be initiated by the Commons, removing this power from the King.

1414

Parliament agrees that no bill can become law without the consent of the House of Commons, nor can the King or the House of Lords change the wording of any bills submitted by the Commons without its assent.

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Closer Look - A Short History of Parliament [PDF 3.40Mb, 13 pages] In the early 13th century King John waged a long and drawn-out war with France, which was largely funded by taxing the feudal barons. Under feudal law, the King granted the barons land, or fiefdoms, and in exchange could demand money and troops.

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this has all the basic answers!

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Magna Carta
Fact Sheet - Magna Carta [PDF 660kb, 2 pages]

The Magna Carta, or 'Great Charter', dates back to 1215. It is seen as an important step in the development of democracy and the British Parliament, and has influenced the creation of founding documents such as the 1689 British Bill of Rights and the 1901 Australian Constitution.

1215 edition

King Edward I (1272 - 1307) Inspeximus issue of Magna Carta, 1297. Parliament House Art Collection, Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra, ACT

The first version of the Magna Carta, written in 1215, was a peace treaty between King John of England and his barons. It established the principle that all people, including the king, had rights and responsibilities under the law.

Prior to the Magna Carta, King John had absolute power as a feudal monarch. He gave the barons their titles and estates (or lands) in return for their loyalty. King John was a cruel tyrant, who expected the barons to give him money and troops to fight a long and pointless war with France. The barons had to tax their people harshly to pay for the war and force men from their estates to fight in the ongoing conflict.

By 1215, the barons were fed up with the king's behaviour and many rebelled against him. They seized the Tower Of London and demanded the king listen to them. In June, in a meadow at Runnymede, the king and the barons met and agreed on the terms of the Magna Carta. As was common practice, the document was copied out, fixed with the king's seal and sent to all parts of the kingdom to be read out to the people, many of whom were illiterate.

In return for the barons pledging loyalty to King John, the Magna Carta limited the king's power, with most of the document detailing the rights of the barons under the feudal system. However, it also described the rule of law, including the important point that the king was subject to the law, like all others. Individual rights and liberties were defined, with one of the most notable sections reading:
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
The following years

Almost immediately, King John ignored the Magna Carta and broke his agreement with the barons. He died in 1216 and his nine year old son, Henry lll, became the king. As he grew, his guardians made three more editions of the Magna Carta, in an attempt to win back the support of the barons. Some changes were made, but many of the original ideas stayed the same.

In 1225, King Henry lll issued the fourth, and heavily revised, version of the Magna Carta, in return for a kingdom-wide grant of tax. As his father had before him, the king fought with the barons. In 1264, Simon de Montford, a baron, overthrew the king and became the ruler. De Montford believed that the king's power should be limited. He called together knights and non-noble representatives from across the kingdom to meet in a parliament. Although it would be many years before parliament met regularly and included commoners in its ranks, the idea of the modern parliament had begun.

In 1265, de Montford was killed on the battlefield by King Henry's son, Edward, who succeeded his father as king in 1272. Throughout the 1200s, the Magna Carta was increasingly quoted as laws were made and petitions were prepared against the unfair use of power.

1297 Inspeximus edition

Edward l ordered that an Inspeximus edition of the Magna Carta be reissued in 1297, so called because it inspected and approved the document signed by a previous king. In this edition, King Edward declared that the Magna Carta would from then on be a part of common law and that any court judgements that went against it would be 'undone and holden for naught'.

King Edward I (1272 - 1307) Inspeximus issue of Magna Carta, 1297. Parliament House Art Collection, Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra, ACT

Legacy

Although written in medieval England, the Magna Carta's significance has extended well beyond that time and place. In its original edition, it mainly focussed on the troubled relationship between a feudal king and his barons. However, the Magna Carta's enduring legacy has been its statement of the basic rights and liberties of people under the law. This principle, first written into a document 800 years ago, has been developed and strengthened over the centuries, influencing documents as diverse as the 1776 US Declaration of Independence and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Perhaps 24 copies of the various editions of Magna Carta remain in existence, mostly held in English libraries or public collections. Parliament House in Canberra has on public display one of only two copies of the original 1297 Inspeximus edition held outside England.

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Fact Sheet - Magna Carta [PDF 660kb, 2 pages] The Magna Carta, or 'Great Charter', dates back to 1215. It is seen as an important step in the development of democracy and the British Parliament, and has influenced the creation of founding documents such as the 1689 British Bill of Rights and the 1901 Australian Constitution.

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why the magna carta matters

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Why Magna Carta still matters today | The British Library

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Why does Magna Carta matter 800 years after it was first sealed? Looking at Magna Carta as a document of historical and legal significance, Professor Justin Fisher explores the evolution of our rights and freedoms, and examines the relevance of the Great Charter today.

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CLICK ON THE COMMONWEALTH

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The Commonwealth

Magna Carta had a dual impact on the British Empire and its successor, the Commonwealth of Nations. It was used by British administrators, colonists and merchants to justify the nation's imperial ambitions but its legacy has also been invoked by Indigenous people and colonial subjects in their pursuit of justice and independence.

Britain's early overseas ambitions were mercantile and chartered companies like the East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were granted monopolies by royal decree. This upset other British merchants, who in 1690 asserted that the right to free commerce granted by Magna Carta should also apply in the colonies.

According to historian Zoe Laidlaw, from the 18th century onwards, "it was expatriate Britons and their descendants, not the imperial government, who asserted rights under Magna Carta".

When James Creassy, a British citizen living in Bengal, was denied a jury trial for beating two Indian carpenters in 1779, other British expatriates responded angrily, submitting a petition bearing 647 signatures to the House of Commons calling for the re-establishment of rights granted by Magna Carta. Similarly, philosopher Jeremy Bentham argued that the Australian penal colonies were "repugnant to Magna Carta".

In 1840, the British Crown and Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which guaranteed the Maori their "land, rights and privileges". It has been described as a 'Maroi Magna Carta' and is today considered New Zealand's foundational document.

Mahatma Ghandi referenced Magna Carta in his early campaigns for Indian rights in South Africa and Nelson Mandela said the charter was "held in veneration by democrats throughout the world" in his famous 'I am prepared to die' speech from the dock in 1964.

While the charter may not have always conferred equal rights on colonial subjects, today its influence can be seen in the bills of rights of the US, India, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Australia even retains one of the few surviving originals of the 1297 Inspeximus issue of Magna Carta. It was purchased for £12,500 in 1952 and remains on display at Parliament House in Canberra.

America

The United States has arguably embraced Magna Carta even more than Britain, and Americans are celebrating the 800th anniversary of its sealing with gusto.

And why wouldn't they? Both in spirit and substance, Magna Carta was one of the inspirations for the revolution that brought the United States into being.

The catchcry of the American revolutionaries- "no taxation without representation"-was very much in the spirit of Magna Carta. In 1766, Benjamin Franklin told Parliament that American colonists could not be taxed without their common consent, based on their rights "as Englishmen, as declared by Magna Carta".

According to the British Library's Matthew Shaw, both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Bill of Rights drew explicitly on Magna Carta, which provided a "simple symbol" for the revolutionary cause. When the state of Massachusetts chose its seal, it opted for a militiaman holding a sword and a copy of Magna Carta.

At the outbreak of World War II, the Lincoln copy of Magna Carta (named for the English town, rather than the US president) was being exhibited at the Library of Congress in Washington. It was held for safekeeping at Fort Knox for the duration of the war, alongside America's gold bullion. Winston Churchill even entertained the possibility of giving it to the US as a token of the two nations' friendship.

Today, Americans learn about Magna Carta in primary school and the Magna Carta Anniversary Committee of the American Bar Association is sending 800 lawyers to Runnymede to celebrate.

War on terrorism

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US and many other countries passed laws that gave their intelligence agencies greater powers to investigate terrorist activity, sometimes at the expense of civil liberties.

While Magna Carta did not introduce the writ of habeas corpus (the right of persons who are deprived of their liberty to challenge the legality of their arrest or detention), it did guarantee protection from unlawful imprisonment. As such, it became an important reference point in the quest to clarify the legal status of terrorism suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base.

In the case of Lakhdar Boumediene, a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina detained at Camp X-Ray, the US Supreme Court ruled that habeas corpus did apply to the detainees and that "gradually the writ of habeas corpus became the means by which the promise of Magna Carta was fulfilled". In the UK, Magna Carta was used to contest the Blair government's attempts to extend the allowable period of detention without trial to 42 days.

Opponents of the United States' program of drone strikes against alleged terrorists have also seized on the rights granted by Magna Carta. "The concept of due process has been extended under the Obama administration's international assassination campaign in a way that renders this core element of the Charter of Liberties (and the Constitution) null and void," writes Noam Chomsky.

"The Justice Department explained that the constitutional guarantee of due process, tracing to Magna Carta, is now satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch alone. The constitutional lawyer in the White House agreed. King John might have nodded with satisfaction."

Universal suffrage

Magna Carta has been invoked repeatedly throughout history by movements seeking better representation through the democratic process.

In Britain in the first half of the 19th century, the charter was a touchstone for those attempting to broaden the franchise and reform Parliament. Though 1832s Representation of the People Act, commonly known as the Great Reform Act, only granted a limited extension of the right to vote (to 'free men' who owned or leased land over a certain value), it was described as The Great Charter of 1832. Popular ceramics even depicted the Lord Chancellor pronouncing a "Second Magna Charta".

Later in the same century, the Chartists, a movement that campaigned to have the vote extended to all adult males, took its name from its own People's Charter, an obvious reference to the symbolism of Magna Carta.

Magna Carta was also invoked by the Suffragettes in the early 20th century as part of their efforts to obtain the right to vote for women. Britain's first female barrister, Helena Normanton, was the founder of the Magna Carta Society. Normanton wrote that women's rights flowed from Magna Carta and that denying women the right to vote was "expressly contrary to Magna Carta". In a 1911 article in the newspaper Votes for Women, the charter was used to justify increasingly direct action against the government.

"Since the early 18th century, the specific legal provisions of Magna Carta had been little engaged with by those who invoked it, but was rather used as a powerful symbol of liberty and legitimate political rights," writes the British Library's Alexander Lock. "Throughout this period, it was a potent symbol imbued with hundreds of years of meaning and myth."

Democracy

In 1215, a group of English barons fed up with what they saw as King John's abuse of the feudal system raised an army and forced him to agree to Magna Carta, Latin for 'great charter'.

Taken on its own, Magna Carta is not a particularly democratic document. It was very much a product of the 13th century and many of its 63 clauses refer to seemingly petty feudal disagreements, such as who should be allowed to trap fish in the Thames.

Yet for all its shortcomings, Magna Carta was one of the first, slow steps away from autocracy and towards modern democracy. It established limits to the power of the monarch, perhaps most noticeably in the area of taxation, where it was decreed that taxes could not be raised without "the general consent of the realm".

Though Magna Carta did not create Parliament (and parliaments had existed elsewhere before Magna Carta) the appointment of 25 barons to oversee the settlement pointed the way, and the power to tax was eventually used by Parliament to further diminish the power of the crown.

The charter also held that the king's subjects should be treated in accordance with the law of the land and when accused of wrongdoing they were entitled to be judged by their equals. Though this only applied to a minority of citizens who were 'free men' at the time, it was an acknowledgement of the concept of the rule of law.

The great charter was reissued in 1217, 1225, 1258, 1264 and again in 1297.

"Within society at large, the repeated and frequent reissue of the charter encouraged the growth of a belief in essential rights and liberties standing above the authority of any particular king," says Professor Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia.

"What mattered, I think, about Magna Carta was Magna Carta the idea, not necessarily Magna Carta the politics. It survived long after the tyranny of any individual king and therefore it became a point of principal rather than of practical politics."

Human rights

Perhaps Magna Carta's most obvious modern legacy is in the field of human rights. By setting limits to the power of the king and granting certain rights to his subjects, Magna Carta can be seen as the first human rights treaty.

"Magna Carta, as a precursor to universal human rights, has been an inspiration for those struggling for justice and freedoms across the world," writes professor Hugh Starkey.

As such, Magna Carta was a major inspiration for the world's most important human rights documents. It inspired the US Bill of Rights and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor Roosevelt, the first chair of the UN Human Rights Commission, described as "an international Magna Carta for all mankind". Over the years the charter has been referenced by Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi, Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela.

The influence continues today, and in 2009 the Philippines passed the Republic Act 9710, better known as the 'Magna Carta for Women', which pledged to end all forms of discrimination against women. Recently, UNSW's John Corker has argued that the legacy of the charter is a challenge to Australia to do better when it comes to the rights of asylum seekers and Indigenous Australians.

Though the rights granted by the Magna Carta were limited and only applied to a small group of people, their legacy has been enormous, even if that has often been due to ignorance of the original document.

'Those obscure Latin clauses became, in the hands of propagandists and revolutionaries decades and centuries after June 1215, a document symbolising general limits on royal power,' argues Chris Berg on The Drum.

'Anachronistic misunderstandings of the Magna Carta were themselves a force for liberal progress.'

Popular culture

With its themes of justice and good governance, Magna Carta continues to inspire musicians, artists and filmmakers today.

According to the British Library's Matthew Shaw, the charter has featured in not one but two episodes of The Simpsons. In season nine, Lisa sings the Magna Carta Song: 'In 1215 at Runnymede!/Doo dah, doo dah!/ The nobles and the king agreed! Oh, doo dah day.' In season 15, Homer plays Henry VII in a flashback and uses the charter as a napkin.

King John's association with the Robin Hood legend has also helped to keep Magna Carta in the cultural spotlight, although Shakespeare managed to write a play about the monarch without mentioning the charter once. Ridley Scott went the other way in his 2010 film Robin Hood, making the legendary hero (played by Russell Crowe) responsible for Magna Carta, mixing in the Crusades for good measure.

Perhaps the highest profile recent reference to Magna Carta was US rapper Jay Z's 2013 album Magna Carta... Holy Grail. The title may have been more of a nod to Jay Z's real name, Shawn Carter, than to the 1215 treaty, but Magna Carta enthusiasts were excited nonetheless.

The album's cover art was even displayed in Salisbury Cathedral, next to one of the remaining copies of the charter.

"Jay Z, through his album, is creating a huge awareness of this historic document and its modern significance to a huge audience in the run up to its 800th anniversary in 2015," the dean of Salisbury, June Osborne, told The Salisbury Journal. "We hope to welcome many of his fans here this summer to see the artwork in the Chapter House alongside our Magna Carta."

Net neutrality

Magna Carta has become a touchstone for campaigners for an open and neutral internet, free of interference from governments and corporations. Last year Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who invented the web as we know it, issued a call for a digital Magna Carta.

Much as the original charter limited the power of the king, a charter for the internet age would put limits on the power of governments and businesses to control access to the internet via censorship, surveillance and excessive costs.

"If a company can control your access to the internet, if they can control which websites they go to, then they have tremendous control over your life," says Berners-Lee.

"If a government can block you going to, for example, the opposition's political pages, then they can give you a blinkered view of reality to keep themselves in power.

"Suddenly the power to abuse the open internet has become so tempting both for government and big companies."

The fight for a digital Magna Carta is being spearheaded by the Web We Want initiative, which aims to support national and regional groups in campaigns to guarantee freedom of expression, affordable access, privacy and neutral networks.

An additional focus is the decentralisation of web infrastructure and the removal of the Iana contract, which gives the US control over most domain names.

"There have been lots of times that [the web] has been abused, so now the Magna Carta is about saying: "I want a web where I'm not spied on, where there's no censorship," says Berners-Lee.

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8 ways Magna Carta still affects life in 2015

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Sealed on this day in 1215, Magna Carta still has an impact on modern life. Here's how.

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the whole magna carta translated to english. THE WHOLE MAGNA CARTA!

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The Magna Carta, 1215 (translated from the Latin)

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Translation from the Latin of the original version of the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) of Great Britain, signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215. With links to glossary and Latin original text (background notes under preparation)

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Citation: C N Trueman "Magna Carta"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 5 Mar 2015. 30 Apr 2018.

King John signing the Magna Carta

The Magna Carta was signed in June 1215 between the barons of Medieval England and King John. 'Magna Carta' is Latin and means "Great Charter". The Magna Carta was one of the most important documents of Medieval England.

It was signed (by royal seal) between the feudal barons and King John at Runnymede near Windsor Castle. 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. Magna Carta was an attempt by the barons to stop a king - in this case John - abusing his power with the people of England suffering.

Why would a king - who was meant to be all powerful in his own country - agree to the demands of the barons who were meant to be below him in authority ?

England had for some years owned land in France. The barons had provided the king with both money and men to defend this territory. Traditionally, the king had always consulted the barons before raising taxes (as they had to collect it) and demanding more men for military service (as they had to provide the men). This was all part of the Feudal System.

So long as English kings were militarily successful abroad, relations with the barons were good. But John was not very successful in his military campaigns abroad. His constant demands for more money and men angered the barons. By 1204, John had lost his land in northern France. In response to this, John introduced high taxes without asking the barons. This was against feudal law and accepted custom.

John made mistakes in other areas as well. He angered the Roman Catholic Church. The pope, vexed by John's behaviour, banned all church services in England in 1207. Religion, and the fear of Hell, were very important to the people including the barons. The Catholic Church taught the people that they could only gain entrance to Heaven if the Catholic Church believed that they were good enough to get there. How could they show their goodness and love of God if the churches were shut ? Even worse for John was the fact that the pope excommunicated him in 1209. This meant that John could never get to Heaven until the pope withdrew the excommunication. Faced with this, John climbed down and accepted the power of the Catholic Church, giving them many privileges in 1214.

1214 was a disastrous year for John for another reason. Once again, he suffered military defeat in an attempt to get back his territory in northern France. He returned to London demanding more money from taxes. This time the barons were not willing to listen. They rebelled against his power. The barons captured London. However, they did not defeat John entirely and by the Spring of 1215, both sides were willing to discuss matters. The result was the Magna Carta.

What did the Magna Carta bring in?

All 63 clauses of the document can be found here.

The document can be divided into sections :

The first clauses concern the position of the Catholic Church in England.

Those that follow state that John will be less harsh on the barons.

Many of the clauses concern England's legal system.

Magna Carta promised laws that were good and fair. It states that everyone shall have access to courts and that costs and money should not be an issue if someone wanted to take a problem to the law courts.

It also states that no freeman (i.e. a person who was not a serf) will be imprisoned or punished without first going through the proper legal system. In future years the word "freeman" was replaced by "no one" to include everybody.

The last few sections deal with how the Magna Carta would be enforced in England. Twenty five barons were given the responsibility of making sure the king carried out what was stated in the Magna Carta - the document clearly states that they could use force if they felt it was necessary. To give the Magna Carta an impact, the royal seal of King John was put on it to show people that it had his royal support. This is the largest red seal at the bottom of the Magna Carta above. In detail it looked like this :

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King John signing the Magna Carta The Magna Carta was signed in June 1215 between the barons of Medieval England and King John. 'Magna Carta' is Latin and means "Great Charter". The Magna Carta was one of the most important documents of Medieval England.

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No one can say they don't have it coming. The Westminster elite, who may be just as hated as the wretched bankers, are being pounded.

Both Alex Salmond and Nigel Farage, for example, have roundly abused this clique to great effect. Salmond's biggest surge in the referendum campaign followed his attack on the Westminster parties for privatising the NHS and agreeing on austerity. With this deft move, he took big chunks of Labour's base into the yes camp.

In his conference speech at the weekend, Farage told delegates that the dominant parties look the same, sound the same, and differ on little of substance - particularly when it comes to Europe and immigration. The same message has come from two defecting Tory MPs, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless.

Both the SNP and Ukip have been banging their respective drums for years - Ukip wanting to rescue the British state from the EU and metropolitan pinko elites, the SNP wishing to inter it - but their current traction is unprecedented. Why should it suddenly be that each finds an enthusiastic audience? Why is it that Westminster increasingly appears to significant groups of voters, to not be the "cradle of democracy" as it has sometimes been vaingloriously styled, but as an occupying power? And why is this impasse of representative democracy registering as a crisis of Britain?

In a way, there is no mystery about Ukip and the SNP. They differ greatly, not just in their attitudes towards the British state, but their overall politics regarding welfare, immigration, the military and public spending. Yet each represents a form of populism - conservative and reformist respectively - that argues that the British state has ceased to be a representative and truly democratic one. Each thrives on the fact that the traditional parties are fragmenting, losing their connection to their base, and increasingly professionalised operations remote from the "ordinary hardworking families" they never shut up about.

George Monbiot wrote, at the zenith of New Labourism, that Britain had become a " captive state ". It was a society where corporations penetrated the epicentre of government, where politicians of all major parties converged on a single model of statecraft - neoliberalism - and where more and more democratic functions were outsourced to quangos and businesses. This was true enough, and its effects were registered in the ensuing sharp drop in electoral turnout and party membership - the traditional indices of popular political participation. But what we are seeing now may be a deep institutional crisis akin to the collapse of the postwar compromise in the 1970s.

The fact that this is expressed in a national form is neither accidental nor a distraction. Britain has been heading toward a crisis for years. As long as it was a multinational state at the heart of a global empire - one in which Scotland was an enthusiastic participant - Britain had a purpose. And in the postwar era, Westminster was able to deliver certain social reforms on this basis. The memory of these goods is what Gordon Brown invoked when he cautioned against the loss of the British welfare state if Scotland chose independence.

But there are generations of people who have no memory of either empire or postwar social democracy. It is they, overwhelmingly, who absconded to the yes camp; their elders who remained firmly no. This is why the demand for the reterritorialisation of political authority is gaining popular traction. Whether it is devolution in Scotland and Wales, demands for local representation in Manchester and Yorkshire, or the renewed calls for English votes for English laws, there is a recognition on all sides that the centralised power of Westminster is itself part of the democratic deadlock. It is coterminous with a spatial distribution of wealth and power, which is sometimes too simply called "the north-south divide". As Danny Dorling argues, this divide is getting worse in austerity Britain. Westminster's distance from ordinary people is physical, social and cultural as well as political, and the most effective populist responses tap into this fact.

The English left has no coherent response. Whereas most of the Scottish left found a renewed purpose in the Radical Independence Campaign, English nationalism has only benefited the right. As such, only in localised situations, where a popular revolt has long been brewing against cartel politics - Tower Hamlets or Bradford, for instance - has the left made a breakthrough.

By contrast, the right is filled with energy. Farage speaks of a new constitutional settlement, and the Tories have long appropriated the language of local democracy. This is because they believe local parliaments can be made to compete with one another, thus engendering a race to the bottom over taxes and regulations. Such might have been the hope entertained for an independent Scotland, if it weren't for the "far left" and "greenies" that Rupert Murdoch warned were empowered by the campaign.

This is the problem. If the right leads the way in reorganising the British state, then the populist energies harnessed to that purpose will only be rallied behind a new elite - one still addressed at Westminster.
Topics

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The cradle of democracy? Westminster is seen by many as an occupying power | Richard Seymour

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No one can say they don't have it coming. The Westminster elite, who may be just as hated as the wretched bankers, are being pounded. Both Alex Salmond and Nigel Farage, for example, have roundly abused this clique to great effect.

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Trove search results for 'magna carta' - Digitised newspapers and more

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Find and get Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more

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Throughout most of history, governments - usually monarchies headed by kings, emperors, pharaohs and other major or minor tyrants - actually owned everything under their rule, including, believe it or not, the people. In those regimes the population was considered to be subjects, not citizens. That means that the people were treated as the underlings, subjected to the will of the ruler.
- Tibor Machan, The Orange Grove, The Orange County Register, Apr 15, 1999.

Australia is a constitutional monarchy. This means that the head of State is a monarch, or sovereign, who is governed and bound by the Constitution.

In centuries past, the monarch exercised direct political power and governed as a political and administrative figure. Absolute monarchs governed with few restraints on their power. Some monarchs claimed the divine right of kings, asserting that they were chosen by God to rule.

By contrast, the modern British monarchy is above politics. The monarch is a figurehead who performs ceremonial functions, but does not exercise political power. This power resides in the Parliament.

Australia's Head of State is Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. She is represented in Australia by the Governor-General.

Whilst the Constitution gives the monarch and the Governor-General extensive powers, our political system has evolved into a liberal democracy in which Parliament and the Executive share power and the monarch acts on the advice of the government of the day.

This is regarded as appropriate because both the monarch and the Governor-General are unelected. The monarch inherits the position through birth and the Governor-General is appointed by the government of the day.

The appointment of the Governor-General is a good example of how a constitutional monarchy works. Section 2 of the Constitution stipulates that the Governor-General is appointed by the Queen, but for the last half century and more the appointment has been made by the Prime Minister of the day.

The current Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, was chosen by Prime Minister Tony Abbott. His predecessor, Quentin Bryce, was chosen by the former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in 2008. Michael Jeffery, was chosen by Prime Minister John Howard in 2003. His predecessor, Peter Hollingworth, was also chosen by Howard in 2001. Previously, Sir William Deane was chosen by the Prime Minister Paul Keating in 1996. In 1989, the former ALP leader, Bill Hayden, was chosen to be Governor-General by the man who replaced him, Bob Hawke. In all these instances, the Queen accepted the advice of the Prime Minister in making the appointment.

Similar examples of constitutional monarchy in action is the automatic granting of Royal Assent to legislation passed by Parliament, even though Section 58, Section 59 and Section 60 of the Constitution permit the monarch and the Governor-General to refuse assent.

There is considerable debate about the extent to which the Governor-General can exercise his own initiative. The precise nature of the reserve powers is unclear, although it has been shown that the Governor-General has influence in decisions concerning:

the appointment of a prime minister in extraordinary circumstances, such as the appointment of John McEwen following the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967.

the early dissolution of Parliament, such as occurred in 1951 and 1983. In 1951, the Governor-General, Sir William McKell, accepted the advice of the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, for a double dissolution of the Parliament, even though there was some dispute about whether the requirements of Section 57 had been satisfied. In 1983, Sir Ninian Stephen demanded additional information from Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser before he would agree to grant a double dissolution.

The most notable example of the Governor-General not acting on the advice of the Prime Minister was on November 11, 1975, when Sir John Kerr dismissed Gough Whitlam as prime minister.

At the time, a letter from the Queen's Private Secretary made it clear that the monarch would play no part in domestic political or constitutional issues.

The debate about Australia becoming a republic partly centres on an argument about whether the system of constitutional monarchy is working adequately, whether its operations need clarification, and whether the monarchy, constitutional or otherwise, is any longer relevant in a modern democracy.

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Throughout most of history, governments - usually monarchies headed by kings, emperors, pharaohs and other major or minor tyrants - actually owned everything under their rule, including, believe it or not, the people. In those regimes the population was considered to be subjects, not citizens.

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The Westminster System

In NSW, government has been based on the Westminster System since the mid nineteenth century. The Westminster System is also the basis of government in the Australian Commonwealth, the Territories and the other States. It is founded on the British Palace of Westminster model of responsible government which comprises:

A head of state, being the Sovereign or his/her representative (or, in a republic, the president)

An elected Parliament, with one or two Houses

A Government formed by the political party, or coalition, with majority support in the Lower House

A Prime Minister or Premier, who heads the Government

A Ministry, drawn from members of Parliament - usually Government members - exercising executive authority and accountable to the Parliament

An independent Judiciary.

At the heart of the system is the concept of the separation of powers between the three branches of government:

The Legislature: the Parliament, which makes the law

The Executive: the Governor, Prime Minister/Premier, Ministers, departments and agencies, which implement the law

The Judiciary: the courts, which interpret and apply the law.

Another key feature of the Westminster System is an apolitical, professional public service providing impartial advice to the Government of the day and implementing the Government's policies and programs. ln addition, as was first proposed in the Northcote-Trevelyan report to the UK House of Commons in 1854, a core requirement of the Westminster System is that the recruitment and promotion of employees in the public service is on the basis of merit.

Further advice on the NSW system of government and its history is available at www.parliament.nsw.gov.au

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The Westminster System - Public Service Commission

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In NSW, government has been based on the Westminster System since the mid nineteenth century. The Westminster System is also the basis of government in the Australian Commonwealth, the Territories and the other States.

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Westminster System, lesson one | Cap that!

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In part one of this two-part lesson, the Westminster System is introduced through word association and explanation of some common governmental terms. Two captioned videos are played and students complete a worksheet based on what they learn from the videos and from the Australian Government's Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) glossary.

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ClickView Online allows you to watch your ClickView videos on the go. Empower teachers and students with 24hr off campus access to your school's video resources.

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Infosheet 20 - The Australian system of government - Parliament of Australia

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Infosheet 20 - The Australian system of government

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InfoUSA 中文版 (2010-2011) 光碟片旨在增進對於美國價值與多元化社會進一步的認識。其內容涵蓋美國社會，政治，文化，及經濟等各方面豐富的資源。係根據美國國務院國際信息局所提供的權威性的資訊開發的。InfoUSA 中文版光碟片是由美國在台協會 美國資料中心 於2010年所製作，本線上版僅提供查閱，光碟內容美國國務院已不再提供更新。

線上網址位於 https://web-archive-2017.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/

熱門查詢

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InfoUSA 中文版 (2010-2011) 光碟片旨在增進對於美國價值與多元化社會進一步的認識。其內容涵蓋美國社會，政治，文化，及經濟等各方面豐富的資源。係根據美國國務院國際信息局所提供的權威性的資訊開發的。InfoUSA 中文版光碟片是由美國在台協會 美國資料中心 於2010年所製作，本線上版僅提供查閱，光碟內容美國國務院已不再提供更新。 線上網址位於 https://web-archive-2017.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/ 熱門查詢

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In essence, Westminster is the name given to the system of parliamentary democracy used in countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Key Features of the Westminster System

The essential features of the system are:

The Government is chosen by the democratically elected lower house. The government requires the continuing support of a majority of members of that chamber to stay in office.

The head of government is the Prime Minister, who leads a Cabinet which is responsible to the lower house.

A loyal Opposition exists, led by the leader of the party or parties with the second largest number of seats in the lower house.

A constitutional monarch, if one exists, who is "above politics" and acts on the advice of the prime minister.

There is a career public service which impartially serves the government of the day.

The armed services are outside of politics and act on the instructions of the government.

The rule of law prevails, with an independent judiciary, subject to the Constitution.

The Westminster system is otherwise known as Responsible Government. The term should not be confused with "behaving responsibly". It refers instead to the concept of a government being responsible and accountable to parliament.

Westminster Variations

The Westminster system varies from country to country, depending on local conditions and history.

For example, Britain has a second chamber of Parliament, known as the House of Lords, whose members are either hereditary Lords or Lords appointed for life. The Blair Labour Government instituted reforms to the system of appointment, notably abolishing further hereditary positions.

By contrast, Australia has a second chamber of Parliament, known as the Senate, whose members represent the States of the Commonwealth, in fulfillment of the concept of federalism.

New Zealand, however, has a unicameral, or single-chamber, Parliament. Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory also have unicameral parliaments.

All these variations follow the principles of the Westminster system, in that governments are derived from the popularly-elected lower house.

Origins of Westminster

The word derives from the London municipality of Westminster which is home to the Houses of Parliament. The House of Commons and the House of Lords both meet in the Palace of Westminster.

Originally, the Palace was the principal residence of the kings of England from the middle of the 11th century until 1512. Much of the original building was destroyed, following a major fire in 1834.

Westminster Hall is the only part of the original building that remains. It narrowly missed destruction during the German bombing of 1941.

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In essence, Westminster is the name given to the system of parliamentary democracy used in countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The essential features of the system are: The Government is chosen by the democratically elected lower house. The government requires the continuing support of a majority of members of that chamber to stay in office.

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Our American Government | Congressman James E. Clyburn

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The purpose of our Federal Government, as found in the Preamble of the Constitution, is to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

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By 1215, thanks to years of unsuccessful foreign policies and heavy taxation demands, England's King John was facing down a possible rebellion by the country's powerful barons. Under duress, he agreed to a charter of liberties known as the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) that would place him and all of England's future sovereigns within a rule of law. Though it was not initially successful, the document was reissued (with alterations) in 1216, 1217 and 1225, and eventually served as the foundation for the English system of common law. Later generations of Englishmen would celebrate the Magna Carta as a symbol of freedom from oppression, as would the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, who in 1776 looked to the charter as a historical precedent for asserting their liberty from the English crown.

Background and Context

John (the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine) was not the first English king to grant concessions to his citizens in the form of a charter, though he was the first one to do so under threat of civil war. Upon taking the throne in 1100, Henry I had issued a Coronation Charter in which he promised to limit taxation and confiscation of church revenues, among other abuses of power. But he went on to ignore these precepts, and the barons lacked the power to enforce them. They later gained more leverage, however, as a result of the English crown's need to fund the Crusades and pay a ransom for John's brother and predecessor, Richard I (known as Richard the Lionheart), who was taken prisoner by Emperor Henry VI of Germany during the Third Crusade.

Did you know? Today, memorials stand at Runnymede to commemorate the site's connection to freedom, justice and liberty. In addition to the John F. Kennedy Memorial, Britain's tribute to the 35th U.S. president, a rotunda built by the American Bar Association stands as "a tribute to Magna Carta, symbol of freedom under law."

In 1199, when Richard died without leaving an heir, John was forced to contend with a rival for succession in the form of his nephew Arthur (the young son of John's deceased brother Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany). After a war with King Philip II of France, who supported Arthur, John was able to consolidate power. He immediately angered many former supporters with his cruel treatment of prisoners (including Arthur, who was probably murdered on John's orders). By 1206, John's renewed war with France had caused him to lose the duchies of Normandy and Anjou, among other territories.

Who Signed the Magna Carta and Why?

A feud with Pope Innocent III, beginning in 1208, further damaged John's prestige, and he became the first English sovereign to suffer the punishment of excommunication (later meted out to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I). After another embarrassing military defeat by France in 1213, John attempted to refill his coffers-and rebuild his reputation-by demanding scutage (money paid in lieu of military service) from the barons who had not joined him on the battlefield. By this time, Stephen Langton, whom the pope had named as archbishop of Canterbury over John's initial opposition, was able to channel baronial unrest and put increasing pressure on the king for concessions.

With negotiations stalled early in 1215, civil war broke out, and the rebels-led by baron Robert FitzWalter, John's longtime adversary-gained control of London. Forced into a corner, John yielded, and on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede (located beside the River Thames, now in the county of Surrey), he accepted the terms included in a document called the Articles of the Barons. Four days later, after further modifications, the king and the barons issued a formal version of the document, which would become known as the Magna Carta. Intended as a peace treaty, the charter failed in his goals, as civil war broke out within three months.

After John's death in 1216, advisors to his nine-year-old son and successor, Henry III, reissued the Magna Carta with some of its most controversial clauses taken out, thus averting further conflict. The document was reissued again in 1217 and once again in 1225 (in return for a grant of taxation to the king). Each subsequent issue of the Magna Carta followed that "final" 1225 version.

What Did the Magna Carta Do?

Written in Latin, the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) was effectively the first written constitution in European history. Of its 63 clauses, many concerned the various property rights of barons and other powerful citizens, suggesting the limited intentions of the framers. The benefits of the charter were for centuries reserved for only the elite classes, while the majority of English citizens still lacked a voice in government. In the 17th century, however, two defining acts of English legislation-the Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679)-referred to Clause 39, which states that "no free man shall be...imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed]... except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." Clause 40 ("To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice") also had dramatic implications for future legal systems in Britain and America.

In 1776, rebellious American colonists looked to the Magna Carta as a model for their demands of liberty from the English crown on the eve of the American Revolution. Its legacy is especially evident in the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, and nowhere more so than in the Fifth Amendment ("Nor shall any persons be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law"), which echoes Clause 39. Many state constitutions also include ideas and phrases that can be traced directly to the historic document.

Where Is the Original Magna Carta?

Four original copies of the Magna Carta of 1215 exist today: one in Lincoln Cathedral, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and two in the British Museum.

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By 1215, thanks to years of unsuccessful foreign policies and heavy taxation demands, England's King John was facing down a possible rebellion by the country's powerful barons. Under duress, he agreed to a charter of liberties known as the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) that would place him and all of England's future sovereigns within a rule of law.

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What is Magna Carta? Why was it created? What does it say, and why has it become one of the most celebrated documents in history?

Narrated by Monty Python's Terry Jones, this animation takes you back in time to medieval England in 1215 under the reign of Bad King John. Why was the charter originally created? And what does it actually say?

What is Magna Carta?

Magna Carta, meaning 'The Great Charter', is one of the most famous documents in the world. Originally issued by King John of England (r. 1199-1216) as a practical solution to the political crisis he faced in 1215, Magna Carta established for the first time the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law. Although nearly a third of the text was deleted or substantially rewritten within ten years, and almost all the clauses have been repealed in modern times, Magna Carta remains a cornerstone of the British constitution.

Most of the 63 clauses granted by King John dealt with specific grievances relating to his rule. However, buried within them were a number of fundamental values that both challenged the autocracy of the king and proved highly adaptable in future centuries. Most famously, the 39th clause gave all 'free men' the right to justice and a fair trial. Some of Magna Carta's core principles are echoed in the United States Bill of Rights (1791) and in many other constitutional documents around the world, as well as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the European Convention on Human Rights (1950).

Usage terms

Public Domain in most countries other than the UK.

Why does Magna Carta matter today?

In 1215 Magna Carta was a peace treaty between the King and the rebel barons. In that respect it was a failure, but it provided a new framework for the relationship between the King and his subjects. The 1225 version of Magna Carta, freely issued by Henry III (r. 1216-72) in return for a tax granted to him by the whole kingdom, took this idea further and became the definitive version of the text. Three clauses of the 1225 Magna Carta remain on the statute book today. Although most of the clauses of Magna Carta have now been repealed, the many divergent uses that have been made of it since the Middle Ages have shaped its meaning in the modern era, and it has become a potent, international rallying cry against the arbitrary use of power.

Usage terms

Public Domain in most countries other than the UK.

What does Magna Carta say?

Although Magna Carta contained 63 clauses when it was first granted, only three of those clauses remain part of English law. One defends the liberties and rights of the English Church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, but the third is the most famous:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

This clause gave all free men the right to justice and a fair trial. However, 'free men' comprised only a small proportion of the population in medieval England. The majority of the people were unfree peasants known as 'villeins', who could seek justice only through the courts of their own lords.

Buried deep in Magna Carta, this clause was given no particular prominence in 1215, but its intrinsic adaptability has allowed succeeding generations to reinterpret it for their own purposes. In the 14th century Parliament saw it as guaranteeing trial by jury; in the 17th century Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) interpreted it as a declaration of individual liberty in his conflict with the early Stuart kings; and it has echoes in the American Bill of Rights (1791) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Much of the remainder of Magna Carta dealt with specific grievances regarding the ownership of land, the regulation of the justice system, and medieval taxes with no modern equivalent (such as 'scutage' and 'socage'). It demanded the removal of fish weirs from the Thames, the Medway and throughout England; the dismissal of several royal servants; the standardisation of various weights and measures; and so on.

Magna Carta stated that no taxes could be demanded without the 'general consent of the realm', meaning the leading barons and churchmen. It re-established privileges which had been lost, and it linked fines to the severity of the offence so as not to threaten an individual's livelihood. It also confirmed that a widow could not be forced to remarry against her wishes.

Why was Magna Carta created?

In 1214, a mercenary army raised by King John was defeated by the French at the Battle of Bouvines in northern France. This army had been paid largely by the tax known as 'scutage', a payment made to the Crown in place of providing knights for military service, and the focus of much baronial discontent.

King John's reign was also marked by his strained relationship with the Church. John had rejected the election of Stephen Langton (1150-1228) as Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1208 the Pope issued a decree (known as an 'Interdict'), prohibiting people in England from receiving the sacraments or being buried in consecrated ground. King John was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III (1161-1216) in 1209, and the Interdict remained in place until John surrendered his kingdom to the overlordship of the Pope in 1213.

In 1213, a party of rebel barons met with Archbishop Stephen Langton and the papal legate (a representative of the Pope) to air their grievances against the King. They also urged that John should agree to confirm the coronation charter issued by his ancestor, King Henry I, in 1100, which had promised 'to abolish all the evil customs by which the kingdom of England has been unjustly oppressed'. In early 1215, the dispute escalated when King John refused to meet the barons' demands. In May many barons renounced their oaths of allegiance to him, choosing Robert fitz Walter (1162-1235) as their leader. Their capture of the city of London that same month was a turning point in their campaign.

Once London was in the barons' hands, John had no option but to negotiate with them. The two sides met at Runnymede, on the River Thames near Windsor in the south of England, in June 1215. The demands of the barons were recorded in the document known as the Articles of the Barons. Following further discussions with the barons and clerics led by Archbishop Langton, King John granted the Charter of Liberties, subsequently known as Magna Carta, at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. On 19 June the rebel barons made their formal peace with King John and renewed their oaths of allegiance to him.

The King's clerks set about drawing up copies of the agreement for distribution throughout the kingdom. It is not certain how many copies of the 1215 Magna Carta were originally issued, but four copies still survive: one in Lincoln Cathedral; one in Salisbury Cathedral; and two at the British Library. Like other medieval royal charters, Magna Carta was authenticated with the Great Seal, not by the signature of the king.

Usage terms

Public Domain in most countries other than the UK.

Was Magna Carta effective in the short term?

Although King John agreed the terms of Magna Carta and the barons renewed their oaths of allegiance, the settlement did not last long. Aggrieved by the manner in which Magna Carta was to be enforced, John sent messengers to the Pope (the overlord of the kingdoms of England and Ireland) in the summer of 1215, requesting that the charter be annulled. In turn, the barons refused to surrender the city of London to the King until Magna Carta had been implemented. Pope Innocent III was alarmed by the charter's terms, and on 24 August 1215 he issued a document known as a papal bull, describing Magna Carta as 'illegal, unjust, harmful to royal rights and shameful to the English people', and declaring the charter 'null and void of all validity for ever'.

In September 1215, civil war broke out between King John and his barons. The King raised an army of mercenaries to fight his cause, while the barons renounced their allegiance to him, and invited Prince Louis (1187-1226), son of the King of France, to accept the English crown. Louis invaded England in 1216, and England was still at war when John died of dysentery on the night of 18 October 1216.

Magna Carta was effectively dead, but it gained new life in the early years of the reign of the next king, Henry III. Henry was just nine years old when he succeeded to the throne, and in November 1216 a revised version of Magna Carta was issued in his name, in order to regain the support of the barons. Another version of Magna Carta was granted in the following year, after the French army had been expelled from England. In 1225, on reaching the age of 18, Henry reissued a much revised version of Magna Carta which was later enrolled on the statute book by King Edward I (r. 1272-1307) in 1297.

Usage terms

Public Domain in most countries other than the UK.

What was the long-term impact of Magna Carta?

Magna Carta is sometimes regarded as the foundation of democracy in England. In fact, most of its terms applied only to a small proportion of the population in 1215, and the implementation of the charter in subsequent centuries remained open to the interpretation of the courts.

Revised versions of Magna Carta were issued by King Henry III (in 1216, 1217 and 1225), and the text of the 1225 version was entered onto the statute roll in 1297. Magna Carta had limited the circumstances under which the King could raise money without the consent of the people. The 1225 version of Magna Carta had been granted explicitly in return for a payment of tax by the whole kingdom, and this paved the way for the first summons of Parliament in 1265, to approve the granting of taxation.

In the 17th century, opponents of King Charles I (1625-49) used Magna Carta to regulate the arbitrary use of royal authority. Sir Edward Coke, declared that 'Magna Carta is such a fellow, that he will have no sovereign', and in 1628 he helped to draft the Petition of Right, which limited royal power and made explicit reference to Magna Carta. When King Charles was himself put on trial in 1649, it was argued that his attempts to halt the proceedings contravened the clause of Magna Carta which prohibited the delay of justice.

Magna Carta has consequently acquired a special status as the cornerstone of English liberties. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of its clauses have now been repealed, or in some cases superseded by other legislation such as the Human Rights Act (1998). Magna Carta nonetheless retains enormous symbolic power as an ancient defence against arbitrary and tyrannical rulers, and as a guarantor of individual liberties.

Claire Breay is Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library. She is co-curator of the Library's major exhibition Magna Carta: Law Liberty, Legacy (13 March-1 September 2015) and editor of the exhibition catalogue.

Julian Harrison is Lead Curator of Medieval Historical Manuscripts at the British Library, and lead curator of the Harry Potter exhibition. He also co-curated the Library's major exhibition Magna Carta: Law Liberty, Legacy (2015) and the Our Shakespeare exhibition at the Library of Birmingham (2016).

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What is Magna Carta? Why was it created? What does it say, and why has it become one of the most celebrated documents in history? Narrated by Monty Python's Terry Jones, this animation takes you back in time to medieval England in 1215 under the reign of Bad King John.

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Sea travel expanded the horizons of many European nations and created prosperity and the conditions for the Enlightenment. In turn, the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality, and justice helped to create the conditions for the American Revolution and the subsequent Constitution.

Democracy was not created in a heartbeat. In a world where people were ruled by monarchs from above, the idea of self-government is entirely alien. Democracy takes practice and wisdom from experience.

The American colonies began developing a democratic tradition during their earliest stages of development. Over 150 years later, the colonists believed their experience was great enough to refuse to recognize the British king. The first decade was rocky. The American Revolution and the domestic instability that followed prompted a call for a new type of government with a constitution to guarantee liberty. The constitution drafted in the early days of the independent American republic has endured longer than any in human history.

Where did this democratic tradition truly begin? The ideas and practices that led to the development of the American democratic republic owe a debt to the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, the Protestant Reformation, and Gutenberg's printing press. But the Enlightenment of 17th-century Europe had the most immediate impact on the framers of the United States Constitution.

The Philosophes

Europeans of the 17th century no longer lived in the "darkness" of the Middle Ages. Ocean voyages had put them in touch with many world civilizations, and trade had created a prosperous middle class. The Protestant Reformation encouraged free thinkers to question the practices of the Catholic Church, and the printing press spread the new ideas relatively quickly and easily. The time was ripe for the philosophes , scholars who promoted democracy and justice through discussions of individual liberty and equality.

The ideas of 18th-century philosophes inspired the Founding Fathers to revolt against what they perceived as unfair British taxation. Washington Crossing the Delaware is one of the most famous depictions of the American Revolution.

One of the first philosophes was Thomas Hobbes, an Englishman who concluded in his famous book, Leviathan, that people are incapable of ruling themselves, primarily because humans are naturally self-centered and quarrelsome and need the iron fist of a strong leader. Later philosophes, like Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau were more optimistic about democracy. Their ideas encouraged the questioning of absolute monarchs, like the Bourbon family that ruled France. Montesquieu suggested a separation of powers into branches of government not unlike the system Americans would later adopt. They found eager students who later became the founders of the American government.

John Locke

The single most important influence that shaped the founding of the United States comes from John Locke, a 17th century Englishman who redefined the nature of government. Although he agreed with Hobbes regarding the self-interested nature of humans, he was much more optimistic about their ability to use reason to avoid tyranny. In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke identified the basis of a legitimate government. According to Locke, a ruler gains authority through the consent of the governed. The duty of that government is to protect the natural rights of the people, which Locke believed to include life, liberty, and property. If the government should fail to protect these rights, its citizens would have the right to overthrow that government. This idea deeply influenced Thomas Jefferson as he drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Important English Documents

Ironically, the English political system provided the grist for the revolt of its own American colonies. For many centuries English monarchs had allowed restrictions to be placed on their ultimate power. The Magna Carta, written in 1215, established the kernel of limited government, or the belief that the monarch's rule was not absolute. Although the document only forced King John to consult nobles before he made arbitrary decisions like passing taxes, the Magna Carta provided the basis for the later development of Parliament. Over the years, representative government led by a Prime Minister came to control and eventually replace the king as the real source of power in Britain.

The ideas of the French Enlightenment philosophes strongly influenced the American revolutionaries. French intellectuals met in salons like this one to exchange ideas and define their ideals such as liberty, equality, and justice.

The Petition of Right (1628) extended the rights of "commoners" to have a voice in the government. The English Bill of Rights (1688) guaranteed free elections and rights for citizens accused of crime. Although King George III still had some real power in 1776, Britain was already well along on the path of democracy by that time.

The foundations of American government lie squarely in the 17th and 18th century European Enlightenment. The American founders were well versed in the writings of the philosophes, whose ideas influenced the shaping of the new country. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, and others took the brave steps of creating a government based on the Enlightenment values of liberty, equality, and a new form of justice. More than 200 years later, that government is still intact.

Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes said that humans are savages who need a strong leader to tell them what to do. Hard to believe he was just a stuffed orange cat.

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Sea travel expanded the horizons of many European nations and created prosperity and the conditions for the Enlightenment. In turn, the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality, and justice helped to create the conditions for the American Revolution and the subsequent Constitution. Democracy was not created in a heartbeat.