Ch. 2.2. Primary Source: The Magna Carta (or Great Charter), 1215
The rapid legal development of the period following the birth of Common Law in the late 1100s culminated in the Magna Carta (or ‘Great Charter’) of 1215. Though it is worded as a grant by the king to his subjects, the Magna Carta was drafted by political leaders who were in rebellion from the king. These leaders, especially the ‘barons,’ the highest-ranking nobles, wanted both to reassert customary rights and to restrain the ability of the king to use the law to oppress his subjects. The Magna Carta thus provided a written, ‘official’ declaration of many rights and procedures that had not previously been clearly defined.
Origins. King John (1199-1216)’s reign began to falter in 1204, when he lost a major war with France. In trying to recover the French lands that had been lost, John exacted very high taxes. After many years of high taxes and other, oppressive behavior, the barons and many others rebelled, defeating John’s troops and taking him captive. In return for being allowed to hold onto his throne, he agreed in 1215 to the terms of the Magna Carta.
Limited or Constitutional Monarchy. Magna Carta’s sixty-some clauses include many promises to limit royal authority by respecting nobles’ and freemen’s traditional rights, thereby establishing a tradition of limited or constitutional monarchy. Though John himself soon disavowed Magna Carta on the grounds that his agreement had been extracted under duress, he died in 1216, leaving as his heir his nine-year-old son Henry III (1216-72). As a minor Henry III’s rule was precarious, and even after he came of age he remained a very weak king. Thus although he frequently violated its terms, in order to gain political support he often reissued the Magna Carta and its promises of just rule. By the end of Henry III’s reign Magna Carta was widely accepted as defining the king’s proper role.
Magna Carta and Common Law. Although the barons sought to limit royal power, they did not want to dismantle the legal system put into place by John’s father Henry II. Instead, they accepted the newly centralized legal and governing system as it was, but sought to ensure that they would have a voice in royal policy and that the law would be applied fairly, rather than serving as a tool of royal oppression as it did under John.
Key Guarantees: Among the Magna Carta’s most famous guarantees is the promise not to raise new taxes without the “common counsel of our kingdom” (clause 12). This basic idea sums up the key function of the new institution of representative government that emerged in England by the late 1200s, the Parliament (chapter 2.4). A second famous principle found in Magna Carta is expressed as a promise not to arrest or dispossess any freeman without a trial by a jury of his peers or by ‘the law of the land’ (cl. 39), which thus invokes an early form of due process. Many other clauses protect rights to moveable property, by requiring the king’s officials to compensate anyone whose goods (carts, horses, grain, etc.) were seized for pressing national needs (e.g., war).
John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland…, to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, greetings…
[1] In the first place we have granted…that the English Church shall be free, and shall have her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate, …[including] the freedom of elections [to church offices], which we confirmed…before the quarrel arose between us and our barons…
We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever.
[12] No scutage nor aid [types of taxes] shall be imposed on our kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our person, for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be done concerning aids from the city of London.
[13] And the city of London shall have all its ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, we decree and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs.
[14] And for obtaining the common counsel of the kingdom and the assessing of an aid (except in the three cases aforesaid) or of a scutage, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, individually by our letters; and we will moreover cause to be summoned generally, through our sheriffs and bailiffs, and others who hold of us in chief, for a fixed date, namely, after at least forty days, and at a fixed place; and we will specify the reason of the summons. And the business shall proceed on the day appointed, according to the counsel of such as are present, although not all who were summoned have come.
[18] Legal cases [specifically: inquests of novel disseisin, of mort d’ancestor, and of darrein presentment] shall not be held elsewhere than in their own county courts, and that in manner following: We, or, if we are out of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two justices through every county four times a year, who shall alone with four knights of the county chosen by the county, hold the said court sessions in the county court, on the day and in the place of meeting of that court.
[19] And if any of the said assizes cannot be taken on the day of the county court, let there remain of the knights and freeholders, who were present at the county court on that day, as many as may be required for the efficient making of judgments, according as the business be more or less.
[28] No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take grain or other provisions from anyone without immediately paying money for it, unless the seller allows a later payment.
[30] No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other person, shall take for transport duty the horses or carts of any freeman, against the will of the said freeman.
[38] No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsupported complaint, put anyone to his law [require a legal oath], without credible witnesses brought for this purpose.
[39] No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we attack him in any way, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
[40] To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.
[45] We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only those who know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well.
[62] And all the hatreds and bitterness that have arisen between us and our men, clergy and lay, from the date of the quarrel, we have completely remitted and pardoned to everyone.