Message:24231 In: TODAY.WW
From: KF5JRVDate: Mon, 15 Jun 26 09:28:00 Z
Newsgroups: TODAY.WW
Subject: Today in History - Jun 15
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Following a revolt by the English nobility against his rule, King John puts his royal seal on Magna Carta, or “the Great Char
ter,” on June 15, 1215. The document, essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed that the king would
respect feudal rights and privileges, uphold the freedom of the church, and maintain the nation’s laws. Although more a react
ionary than a progressive document in its day, Magna Carta was seen as a cornerstone in the development of democratic England b
y later generations.
John was enthroned as king of England following the death of his brother, King Richard the Lion-Hearted, in 1199. King John’s
reign was characterized by failure. He lost the duchy of Normandy to the French king and taxed the English nobility heavily to
pay for his foreign misadventures. He quarreled with Pope Innocent III and sold church offices to build up the depleted royal
coffers. Following the defeat of a campaign to regain Normandy in 1214, Stephen Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury, called o
n the disgruntled barons to demand a charter of liberties from the king.
In 1215, the barons rose up in rebellion against the king’s abuse of feudal law and custom. John, faced with a superior force
, had no choice but to give in to their demands. Earlier kings of England had granted concessions to their feudal barons, but t
hese charters were vaguely worded and issued voluntarily. The document drawn up for John in June 1215, however, forced the king
to make specific guarantees of the rights and privileges of his barons and the freedom of the church. On June 15, 1215, John m
et the barons at Runnymede on the Thames and set his seal to the Articles of the Barons, which after minor revision was formall
y issued as Magna Carta.
The charter consisted of a preamble and 63 clauses and dealt mainly with feudal concerns that had little impact outside 13th ce
ntury England. However, the document was remarkable in that it implied there were laws the king was bound to observe, thus prec
luding any future claim to absolutism by the English monarch. Of greatest interest to later generations was clause 39, which st
ated that “no free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victim
ised…except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This clause has been celebrated as an early gua
rantee of trial by jury and of habeas corpus and inspired England’s Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679)
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