Magna Carta

Abbey Church, Bury St. Edmunds

King John

I referred earlier to the historically-important claim that the Barons of Northern and Eastern England met in the Abbey Church in Bury St Edmunds in 1214 to swear an oath that they would make King John accept the Charter which they had drawn up. The barons had long-standing grievances against the King. John’s wars, fought to retain, and later, to recover, the continental possessions of the House of Plantagenet, had been a constant drain on the wealth of the country and his methods of raising revenue to fund these wars, had caused bitter resentment. The fines and dues under feudal law were set at exorbitant rates and for failure to pay, men were imprisoned, their lands seized and pillaged, their possessions confiscated.

John’s last campaign leading to the loss at Bouvines in 1214 proved to be a disaster too far. All hope of recovering Normandy for the English crown had vanished together with the expected spoils of victory to compensate for the financial cost of the expedition. The Barons had suffered most and they were determined to secure themselves against future arbitrary demands for money, against any future infringements “of their liberties” as they styled it. They sought a pledge that John would be powerless to break, one protecting their rights to enjoy their lands and property without arbitrary interference.

King Henry 111
1216-1272

The armed Barons met John at the Temple in London in January 1215 demanding he grant a charter guaranteeing ‘their ancient liberties.’ John temporised, promising an answer in Northampton in April and when he failed to appear there, the barons renounced their fealty to the Crown and seized London, including the Exchequer. John was forced to capitulate. Under the expert guidance of Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury who acted as lead negotiator, John conceded the formal grant of the ‘liberties’. “In the meadow which is called Runnymede between Windsor and Staines,” half way between the two opposing camps, a formal grant of the liberties was made, reinforced by ceremonial pomp and flourish. Letters were issued to sheriffs and bishops throughout the land informing them of the terms on which peace had been concluded; copies of what came to be called Magna Carta were distributed, and the barons renewed their homage to their King.

Stephen Langton 1150-1228.

Stephen Langton, a distinguished theologian and canon lawyer had lived in exile during a long dispute between King and the Pope. On his return to England in 1213, and his elevation to the Archbishopric, he had cannily demanded the King’s reaffirmation of his coronation oath which guaranteed the liberties of the Church. Thus, his leading role in the definition of the rights of the secular barons, accepted by both sides, proved crucial and led to the final version of the Magna Carta, embodying the principle that the King was bound by law in the exercise of his monarchical power. The barons were equally bound in the exercise of their powers and this gave protection to all ‘free’ men.

John quickly obtained a release from his ‘promises under duress' from the Pope while the barons wisely kept their hold on London and civil war inevitably ensued, stopped only by events after John’s death from dysentery in 1216. The Magna Carta was issued as the Coronation Charter of John’s nine year old son and successor, Henry, thanks to Stephen Langton’s foresight, and led to the end of the civil war in the following year. However, throughout the thirteenth century, six demands for the re-issue of the Magna Carta, [the Great Charter] were made as the struggles between monarch and barons ebbed and flowed. Not until 1297 at Edward 1’s coronation was the Magna Carta finally placed on the Statute Book to become part of the law of the land.

Serfdom

“Wherefore it is our will, and we firmly enjoin, that the English Church be free, and that the men in our kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights and concessions, well and peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respects and in all places for ever, as is aforesaid.”

Ref: 'Magna Carta' by W.S.McKechnie. 1914

The original Magna Carta referred to the 'men in our kingdom' but these were the so-called free men, not the serfs. Gradually, over time, however, this limited class of men expanded to include every citizen. In the seventeenth century, under the Stuarts, under the tyranny of the perceived 'absolute monarch', the Magna Carta was used as a statement of the primacy of the rule of  law over the power of the Crown.

Interestingly, when rebels in America fought to establish a free and independent state in which the law would defend citizens against oppression, their Declaration of Independence consciously embodied the concepts of the Magna Carta and eventually, became the Constitution of the United States of America in August 1776.
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The Plantagenets: 14 Anglo-Norman monarchs from 1154-1485

Part of the Salisbury Magna Carta.

Four attested copies of the Magna Carta have survived. Two are in 
the British Library; one is in Lincoln Cathedral and one
in Salisbury.


Ref: 'Magna Carta' by Daphne I. Stroud 1980