Magna Carta (FREE PDF)

AUTHORSHIP: John of England, his barons and Archbishop Stephen Langton.
WRITTEN IN: 1215
FULL NAME: Magna Carta Libertatum (Great Charter of Liberties)
OBJECTIVE: Peace treaty. Appeasing the barons' revolt by granting them a series of liberties limiting the crown's powers.
CONSEQUENCES: First Barons' War after being annuled by Innocent III.
MAIN RIGHTS GRANTED: Protection of Church Rights, protection against illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, restrictions in feudal taxes and creation of a council.

Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), generally known as Magna Carta (also Magna Charta; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter[4][5] of rights signed by King John of England on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede, near Windsor. [b] Originally drafted by Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to broker a truce between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection from illegal imprisonment for the barons, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Because neither side kept their promises, Pope Innocent III invalidated the charter, resulting in the First Barons' War.

Following John's death, Henry III's regency administration reprinted the text in 1216, removing some of its more radical material in an unsuccessful attempt to gain political support for their cause. It became part of the peace settlement reached at Lambeth at the end of the war in 1217, when it was given the name "Magna Carta" to differentiate it from the lesser Charter of the Forest, which was published at the same time. Due to a lack of cash, Henry reprinted the charter in 1225 in exchange for the authorization of fresh levies. In 1297, his son, Edward I, repeated the process, this time cementing it as part of English statute law. The charter became a part of English political life and was regularly renewed by each king in turn, though it lost some practical value as time passed and the emerging Parliament of England approved new laws.

Magna Carta sparked renewed attention around the end of the 16th century. At the period, lawyers and historians thought that there was an old English constitution dating back to the Anglo-Saxons that preserved individual English liberties. They said that the Norman conquest of 1066 had destroyed these rights, and that Magna Carta was a public attempt to restore them, giving the charter a crucial foundation for modern parliamentary powers and legal doctrines like habeas corpus. Despite the flaws in this historical narrative, jurists such as Sir Edward Coke utilized Magna Carta widely in the early 17th century to argue against the divine right of monarchs. Both James I and his son Charles I sought to stifle debate about Magna Carta. After the "Glorious" Revolution of 1688, the political fiction of Magna Carta and its safeguarding of ancient personal freedoms remained until well into the nineteenth century. It impacted the Thirteen Colonies' early American colonists and the development of the United States Constitution, which became the highest law of the land in the United States' new republic. Victorian historians discovered that the original 1215 charter was more concerned with the feudal relationship between the king and the barons than with normal personal rights, but the constitution remained a powerful, iconic document, even after almost all of its content was repealed from the statute books in the 19th and 20th centuries. In England and Wales, three clauses (1, 9, and 29) remain in effect.

Magna Carta is still an important symbol of freedom today, frequently cited by politicians and campaigners, and is held in high regard by the British and American legal communities, with Lord Denning describing it as "the greatest constitutional document of all times—the foundation of the individual's freedom against the arbitrary authority of the despot." In the 21st century, four exemplifications of the original 1215 charter remain in existence, two at the British Library, one at Lincoln Castle and one at Salisbury Cathedral. There are also a handful of the subsequent charters in public and private ownership, including copies of the 1297 charter in both the United States and Australia. Although scholars refer to the 63 numbered "clauses" of Magna Carta, this is a modern system of numbering, introduced by Sir William Blackstone in 1759; the original charter formed a single, long unbroken text. The four original 1215 charters were displayed together at the British Library for one day, 3 February 2015, to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.

John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) reigned as King of England from 1199 to 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French holdings to King Philip II of France, causing the Angevin Empire to collapse and helping to the following rise in power of the French Capetian dynasty in the 13th century. The baronial insurrection at the conclusion of John's reign resulted in the sealing of Magna Carta, a document regarded as an early stage in the creation of the United Kingdom's constitution.

John was the youngest of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine's four surviving sons. Because he was not anticipated to inherit major holdings, he was given the moniker John Lackland. [1] Following the unsuccessful insurrection of his brothers Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey against the King in 1173–1174, he became Henry's favorite child. In 1177, John was named Lord of Ireland and awarded possessions in England and on the continent. While his brother, King Richard, was engaged in the Third Crusade, John tried an unsuccessful uprising against the royal administrators of his brother, but he was declared king after Richard died in 1199. He reached a deal with Philip II of France to acknowledge John's ownership of the continental territory at the peace treaty of 1200

When war with France erupted anew in 1202, John won early triumphs, but military resource shortages and his treatment of Norman, Breton, and Anjou nobility led to the fall of his empire in northern France in 1204. He spent the next decade trying to reclaim these regions, raising enormous sums of money, reorganizing his armed forces, and forging continental relationships. His judicial innovations left an indelible mark on the English common law system while also offering an extra source of wealth. An conflict with Pope Innocent III resulted in John's excommunication in 1209, which he eventually resolved in 1213. In 1214, John's effort to overthrow Philip was thwarted by the French victory against John's allies at the Battle of Bouvines. When John returned to England, he was met with a revolt by many of his barons, who were dissatisfied with his economic policies and treatment of many of England's most prominent nobles. Although both John and the barons signed the Magna Carta peace pact in 1215, neither side followed its terms. Soon after, civil war broke out, with the barons assisted by Louis VIII of France. It quickly devolved into a standstill. John died in late 1216 of dysentery received while on campaign in eastern England; followers of his son Henry III went on to defeat Louis and the rebel barons the following year.

His reign has been the topic of serious controversy and recurrent modification by historians since the 16th century. Historian Jim Bradbury summarized contemporary historical assessment of John's favorable traits, stating that John is now commonly regarded as a "hard-working administrator, a competent man, and an able general." [2] Nonetheless, modern historians believe that Charles had numerous flaws as king, including "distasteful, even hazardous behavioral qualities" including pettiness, spitefulness, and harshness, as historian Ralph Turner outlines. [3] These negative characteristics gave enough material for Victorian-era fiction authors, and John remains a recurring character in Western popular culture, especially as a villain in films and novels representing the Robin Hood legend.

When the first English immigrants set sail for the New World, they took with them royal charters that created the colonies. According to the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, the colonists would "have and enjoy the freedoms and immunities of free and natural people." Sir Edward Coke created the Virginia Charter of 1606, which stipulated that colonists would enjoy the same "liberties, franchises, and immunities" as persons born in England. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties has parallels to Magna Carta's clause 29; when it was drafted, the Massachusetts General Court saw Magna Carta as the supreme manifestation of English common law. The other colonies would follow in their footsteps. Maryland attempted to recognize Magna Carta as part of the province's legislation in 1638, but Charles I declined the proposal.

William Penn produced The Excellent Privilege of Liberty and Property: being the birth-right of the Free-Born Subjects of England in 1687, which included the first copy of Magna Carta printed on American soil. Penn's remarks echoed Coke's, suggesting a trust in Magna Carta as basic law. The colonists relied on English legal literature, which led them to an archaic reading of Magna Carta, believing that it promised jury trial and habeas corpus. The establishment of parliamentary supremacy in the British Isles had no constitutional impact on the Thirteen Colonies, which adhered to English common law, but it had a direct impact on Britain's relationship with the colonies. When American colonists battled against Britain, they were striving to defend liberties and privileges that they felt were inscribed in Magna Carta.

The United States Constitution became the supreme law of the nation in the late 18th century, similar to how Magna Carta came to be considered as basic law.

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution ensures that "no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law," a statement drawn from Magna Carta. Furthermore, the Constitution provided a comparable writ in the Suspension Clause, Article 1, Section 9: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus must not be suspended, except the public safety may necessitate it in circumstances of revolt or invasion."

Each of them states that no one may be imprisoned or detained until there is evidence that he or she committed a crime. The Ninth Amendment reads, "The enumeration of some rights in the Constitution must not be interpreted to reject or disparage others maintained by the people." The authors of the United States Constitution wanted to ensure that the rights they already had, such as those they felt were granted by Magna Carta, would be protected until specifically limited.

The United States Supreme Court has specifically cited Edward Coke's Magna Carta analysis as a predecessor of the Sixth Amendment's right to a speedy trial.