Magna Carta

:This article follows the usual academic style and refers to the document as "Magna Carta" rather than "the Magna Carta".

History of Magna Carta

After the Norman Conquest in 1066 and advances in the 12th century, the English king had by 1199 become the most powerful monarch Europe had ever seen. This was due to a number of factors including the sophisticated centralised government created by the procedures of the new Norman rulers combined with the native Anglo-Saxon systems of governance, as well as extensive Anglo-Norman land holdings in Normandy. However, after King John took power in the early 13th century, a series of stunning failures on his part led the barons of England to revolt and place checks on the king's unlimited power.

Related Topics:
Norman Conquest - 1066 - 12th century - 1199 - Monarch - Anglo-Saxon - Anglo-Norman - Normandy - 13th century - Baron

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The failures of King John were threefold. First, there was a general lack of respect for King John because of the way he took power. There were two candidates to take the place of the previous king, Richard the Lionheart, when he died in 1199: John, and his nephew Arthur of Brittany in Normandy. John captured Arthur and imprisoned him and he was never heard from again. Although Arthur's murder was never proven, it was assumed and many saw it as a black mark against John that he would murder his own family to be king.

Related Topics:
Richard the Lionheart - Arthur of Brittany

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Secondly, after Philip Augustus, the King of France, seized most of the English holdings in France, the English barons demanded of their king that he retake the land, and while he attempted to do so 8 years later, the effort came to failure at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. John was given the nickname of "Lackland" not because of this loss, but because he had received no land rights in the continental provinces, unlike his elder brothers.

Related Topics:
Philip Augustus - King of France - Battle of Bouvines - 1214

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The third failure of John was when he became embroiled in a dispute with the Church over the appointment of the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. John wanted to appoint his own Archbishop and the Church wanted to appoint Stephen Langton. This struggle went on for several years during which England was placed under a sentence of interdict and finally John was forced to submit to the will of the Church in 1213.

Related Topics:
Archbishop of Canterbury - Stephen Langton - Interdict

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Runnymede and afterwards

By 1215, the barons of England had had enough: they banded together and took London by force on June 10, 1215. They forced King John to agree to a document known as the 'Articles of the Barons', to which his Great Seal was attached in the meadow at Runnymede on June 15, 1215. In return, the barons renewed their oaths of fealty to King John on June 19, 1215. A formal document to record the agreement between King John and the barons was created by the royal chancery on July 15: this was the original Magna Carta. An unknown number of copies of this document were sent out to officials, such as royal sheriffs and bishops.

Related Topics:
London - June 10 - 1215 - Great Seal - Runnymede - June 15 - Fealty - June 19 - Chancery - July 15 - Sheriff - Bishop

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The most significant clause for King John at the time was clause 61, known as the "security clause", the longest portion of the entire document. This established a committee of 25 Barons who could at any time meet and over-rule the will of the King, through force by seizing his castles and possessions if needed. This was based on a mediæval legal practice known as distraint, which was commonly done, but it was the first time it had been applied to a monarch. In addition, the King was to take an oath of loyalty to the committee.

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King John had no intention of honouring Magna Carta, as it was sealed under extortion by force, and clause 61 essentially neutered his powers as a monarch, making him King in name only. He renounced it as soon as the barons left London, plunging England into a civil war, known as the First Barons' War. Pope Innocent III also immediately annulled the "shameful and demeaning agreement, forced upon the king by violence and fear." The Pope rejected any call for rights, saying it impaired King John's dignity.

Related Topics:
Civil war - First Barons' War - Pope Innocent III

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John died in the middle of the civil war, of dysentery, on October 18, 1216, and it quickly changed the nature of the war. His nine year old son, King Henry III, was next in line for the throne. The royalists believed the rebel barons would find the idea of loyalty to the child Henry more palatable, and so the child was swiftly crowned in late October 1216 and the war ended. On November 12, 1216, Magna Carta was reissued in Henry's name by his regents with some of the clauses, including the contentious clause 61, omitted; Magna Carta was again reissued by Henry's regents in 1217. When he turned eighteen in 1225, Henry III himself reissued Magna Carta a third time, this time in a shorter version with only 37 articles.

Related Topics:
Dysentery - October 18 - 1216 - King Henry III - November 12 - Regent - 1217 - 1225

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Henry III ruled for 56 years (the longest reign of an English Monarch in the Mediæval period) so that by the time of Henry's death in 1272, Magna Carta had become a settled part of English legal precedent, and more difficult for a future monarch to annul as King John had attempted nearly three generations earlier. Henry III's son and heir Edward I's Parliament reissued Magna Carta for the final time on 12 October, 1297 as part of a statute known as Confirmatio cartarum (25 Edw. I), reconfirming Henry III's shorter version of Magna Carta from 1225.

Related Topics:
English Monarch - Mediæval - 1272 - Edward I - Parliament - 12 October - 1297 - Statute

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