Dates You Should Know: The Magna Carta
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Image of the First Barons’ War, King John of England vs. Prince Louis of France. from the British library.
We’ve got another Date You Should Know: June 15, 1215.
Sure, I could give you a long, drawn-out explanation of one of the most significant days in the development of the British legal system. Or I could summarise the whole thing with a clip from The Simpsons.
It’s an easy decision, really.
The Simpsons, Season 9, Episode 9: “Realty BItes” Via frinkiac.com.
What Lisa is singing about is, of course, the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is one of the single most important documents in history. It’s particularly important to the development of English Common Law. Which means the Magna Carta is important to the people of Canada, given our place in the Commonwealth and as loyal subjects of HRH The Queen.
The Simpsons, Season 15, Episode 4: “The regina monologues” via frinkiac.com. With apologies to her majesty.
Man, there really is a Simpsons clip for everything. And to clear up any lingering misunderstandings, HRH is “Her Royal Highness”.
Mo Barons, Mo Problems
The Arms of Robert Fitzwalter, first Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church and leader of the rebellion against King John.
The Magna Carta of 1215 was ratified at a place called Runnymede, not too far from London, as King John’s (1166-1216) attempt to placate his rebellious vassals.
If King John is at all familiar to you, that’s because he’s the Bad Guy of Medieval England. This is the King John who’s the bad guy for Ivanhoe and Robin Hood, and the scenery-chewing villain of the movie Ironclad - played by Paul Giamatti, for some reason.
The historical King John wasn’t quite the super-villain he is in most fictional accounts. The biggest part of his bad reputation comes from the inevitable comparisons arising from having the legendary Richard the Lionheart for a brother - though it should be noted that beloved paragon of chivalry Richard had a nasty habit of brutally murdering captive enemies and met an untimely end pointlessly laying siege to a castle in French with no provocation.
While the historical John wasn’t a particularly bad king, he was clearly an unpopular king. Thanks to the loss of his family’s ancestral holdings in Normandy and subsequent failure to reclaim them, being excommunicated by the Pope and having many of his barons owing him substantial debt, John eventually found himself facing a rebellion from the so-called Army of God and Holy Church. The signing of the Magna Carta was the last-ditch attempt to avoid all-out war.
Which is exactly what didn’t happen.
Neither side seriously upheld the terms of the charter. The barons started revolting in earnest. The French got involved, with Prince Louis (the eventual King Louis VIII) invading at the barons’ behest. The Scots and Welsh both got involved, capitalising on the turmoil in England. The Pope started handing out excommunications like Oprah.
Things really only started calming down when John went the way of many Oregon Trail players and died of dysentery in 1216. His young son Henry was installed king and his regents reinstated the Magna Carta, though the French army continued its campaign in England for another year.
Laying Down the (Common) Law
Although the Magna Carta is recognised as one of the most important legal documents of all time, the original charter of 1215 didn’t actually accomplish much, failing to avoid the rebellion it was signed to prevent.
It’s also worth noting that the provisions of the original Magna Carta only applied to the barons and the nobility. Under the law as set out by the charter, commoners (i.e. the vast, vast majority of people at the time) did not have the same rights as the barons.
Even so, despite the limited scope, the provisions laid out by the Magna Carta became many of the guiding principles of modern legal rights, and included things like the right to swift and impartial justice; the right to call witnesses at trial; the right to monetary compensation; limitations on taxation and debts; restriction on the seizure of property and the establishment of permanent courts of law.
Cotton MS Augustus II.106, one of four copies of the original Magna carta of 1215 to survive to the present. Via the British Library.
The Magna Carta not only acknowledged that people (though “people” here was limited to nobility) had the right to be consulted on matters of law, but also that they had the right to use force to compel a king who denied this right. In 1215, in a time when the idea of the God-given divine right of kings to rule with absolute power was essentially taken for granted, that was a hugely radical idea.
And, in hindsight, it’s probably exactly because of how radical that concept was that led King John to promptly ignore the terms of the charter.
The Magna Carta of 1215 wasn’t exactly an “everyone lived happily ever after” situation (especially not King John, who promptly went and died), but it cannot be overstated how important the document is to the development of the Common Law system that is the basis of our own legal system, along with laying the foundations of the legal rights we all enjoy today.
And that is precisely why June 15, 1215 is a Date You Should Know.
Of course, if there’s one major takeaway from this whole enterprise, it’s this: go watch Ironclad.
No, seriously, it’s awesome.
Read More Here:
https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-and-human-rights
https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/videos/the-legal-significance-of-magna-carta-today
Joel Balkovec
Joel Balkovec has an MA in Classics, so he knows a thing or two about history. When he’s not professionally writing at Algonquin, he’s writing family-friendly Fantasy stories at home as J.B. Norman. Visit his website at www.realmgard.com
