John was a thoroughly nasty piece of work. He was a murderer, a womaniser, he was always trying to put people in their place, to get them down – do them down. You never knew where you stood with him if he put his arm around your shoulder, he was going to stab you in the back, but he was more complex than that and that’s what made him so dangerous. He was highly energetic, he was a master of detail and that’s what made his manipulation of people so devastating.

The barons rebelled against King John for a variety of reasons, some of those reasons were long term. They went all the way back to the 1150s, they went all the way back to the reign of King John’s father who had slowly whittled away the privileges of the barons. He’d taken away their castles, he had taken away their lands and above all he’d established a new sort of law court presided over by the king to which business that previously had gone to the courts of the barons now went.

In 1215 Magna Carta asserted the fundamental principle that the king was subject to the law. He couldn’t just simply say ‘off with your head’, into prison – he had to go through some sort of proper legal process. But it also asserted that principle in certain key areas.  One was money, it was trying to prevent the king taking your money in lawless ways and it was also asserting that principle in the area of justice. The king’s justice was to be fair and available to all free men.

The most important thing about Magna Carta is that it places the sovereign under the rule of law, that’s the first and fundamental principle here. And although it failed as a peace, and although it actually survived as law for less than 12 weeks – it was annulled by the Pope by the beginning of September 1215 – it was reissued thereafter in an attempt to buy baronial support continually throughout the 13th century and it acquired a totemic status. It said that kings of England could not misbehave without there being consequences.

Magna Carta is in Latin, the official language of record, and that’s only understandable by an elite.  The nobility speak French and very, very quickly, to make the charter accessible to them, it was translated into French. There’s no evidence that it ever was until much later in its history. I think probably though, it was read and translated into English at meetings of the county court, so people could hear it in English even if they couldn’t read it.

This may look like a plain, unassuming piece of parchment, but it’s actually one of the most famous documents in the world. Magna Carta, meaning ‘the Great Charter’, has inspired people across the centuries, from Thomas Jefferson to Mahatma Gandhi. 

Let us take you back to medieval England. It’s the year 1215, and the ruler is King John. Many people believe that King John was one of the worst kings in history. He imprisoned his former wife; he starved his opponents to death; he allegedly murdered his own nephew, and pulled the beards of the Irish Chiefs.

King John had imposed heavy taxes on his barons in order to pay for his expensive foreign wars. If they refused to pay, he punished them severely or seized their property. The barons demanded that King John obey the law; when he refused, they captured London and John was forced to negotiate.

The two sides met at Runnymede in June 1215. The result of the negotiations was written down by the king’s clerks in the document we know as Magna Carta. Although most of the charter’s clauses dealt with medieval rights and customs, Magna Carta has become a powerful symbol of liberty around the world.

The most famous clause, which is still part of the law today, for the first time gave all ‘free men’ the right to justice and a fair trial.

‘No man shall be arrested or imprisoned except by the judgment of their equals and by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.’

However, this clause was not as liberal at it sounds. The Charter only applied to ‘free men’, the vast majority of people in 1215 were unfree peasants who were ruled over by their landowners.

And although, Magna Carta was intended to create peace between King John and his rebellious barons, England was plunged into civil war after the Pope declared the Charter invalid.

When King John died of dysentery in 1216, nine year old Henry III took to the throne. To keep the peace, Magna Carta was reissued several times during the 13th century, until it was finally made part of English law.

 

This is the story of an 800 year old medieval document known as Magna Carta, or the ‘Great Charter’. It’s one of the most famous documents in the world. 

Magna Carta was granted in 1215 and established for the first time that everyone, even the king, had to obey the law. When Magna Carta was printed for the first time, it became the first law that all English lawyers studied. But many people didn’t realise its significance. Shakespeare wrote a play about King John in which he failed to mention Magna Carta.

In the 1600s, English lawyers used Magna Carta to challenge King Charles I. At this time, the king could ignore parliament and imprison anyone who opposed him. Inspired by Magna Carta, Sir Edward Coke wrote the Petition of Right, which set out to limit the king’s powers.

Around the same time, Magna Carta was taken overseas to America by the first British settlers. Many American colonies based their own laws on Magna Carta. Then, in the 1770s the Americans fought for independence from Britain. Magna Carta became a symbol of American liberty, and its principles were echoed in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

In 18th century Britain, Magna Carta was used to protest against the censorship of the press. At this time, people could be imprisoned without trial for criticising the king. When newspaper publisher John Wilkes was arrested for insulting King George III, he used Magna Carta to fight for his freedom. He claimed that ancient English liberties were under threat.

In the 1800s, very few people had the right to vote in Britain. A nationwide movement of working people known as the Chartists, inspired by Magna Carta, created a ‘People’s Charta’ to fight for all men to have the vote. Then, in the early 1900s the Suffragettes used Magna Carta to argue that all women should have the right to vote too.

Increasingly, people across the empire argued for rights equal to those of British citizens. Gandhi fought successfully for greater freedom for the Indian settlers in South Africa. He described the resulting document as ‘the Magna Carta of our liberty in this land.’ In his famous speech from the dock, Nelson Mandela declared his admiration for Magna Carta and for Western democracy, which he contrasted with the oppressive South African regime.

Perhaps the most significant influence of Magna Carta today is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Written after the atrocities of World War II, the declaration states that people around the world are protected by fundamental human rights, regardless of their citizenship, race, gender or beliefs. Eleanor Roosevelt famously said that the Declaration may well become ‘the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere’.

Although very few of Magna Carta’s original clauses remain valid in English law, it continues to inspire people worldwide. Not a bad legacy for an 800 year old document!

He had a notable dressing sense. 

Not so fan of the church, he thought often about god during the day, when injustices happened. His bulb face was so little in comparison with his 1.80 m body, watching him people had to touch their chest with chin, especially his sea-woman girlfriend.

Great boy in friendship as in love, was one of the more passionate people I knew. He didn't know what it is a white lie, he was so blunt.

Talking with him was difficult, sometimes he seemed mute, sometimes he was a laughing hyena, just like me.

The books is about a french boy, Pierrot, who becomes orphan in 1936 and he’s constricted to go to an orphanage and then to go to his only relative in Salzburg, his aunt Beatrix. She works in “the house on the top of the mountain” for the Fuhrer. 

When the boy met Hitler he he remains fascinated by him and so stars to feel like a real nazist german and to idolatrate the man.

The little boy was so kind with people and so generous but as he arrives at the mountain house his character changes.

This figure and his development is very interesting, is unusual to wright about a french boy, with a jewish friend, son of a man death because of the war that suddenly 

becomes a little member of the Hitlerjugend  and treats his Aunt and others like they are nothing.  He makes his aunt be killed with his partner, Ernst, because they wanted to poison the Fuhrer.

Then, after a few time, at Eva’s party Pierrot tries to rape his friend Katarina, who more than once repulsed him.  The waitress Emma stopped him and again he made her kill from the soldier.

The little guy understanded what he have done to the only people who really loved him only after the Hitler’s death and the arrival of the Allies.

I personally think that this book narrate the story of each of us. 

We can born with many problems around us and, as child, we think that we will change the way the world goes on, but something, as adolescent, might corrupt us and we won’t be able to recognise the right thing to do until is too late.

Maybe Pierrot’s story can teach us to think by ourselves and do not ever trust somebody who doesn’t trust us.