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A great charter issued in AD 1215, which among other things, limited the power of the English king and guaranteed rights to the nobles.
MAGNA CARTA was a charter of liberties, both personal and political, granted to the barons by King John of England on the island of Runnymede in the Thames in June 1215.
A draft document was presented to him on 15 June to which the King was forced to put his seal. After negotiations the final form was fixed and sealed, “freely granted”, on 19 June.
It was, in effect, a negotiated peace between John and his barons following a period of great unrest, and many of its clauses cover the barons’ seeking redress for recent erosion of their perceived liberties; however it contained items establishing liberties affecting all, such as the concepts of habeas corpus and of trial by one’s peers, and banned the selling, denial, or delay of justice to anyone. Because of these these the Magna Carta is seen as a document enshrining personal liberty.
John had no intension of honouring it – to him it was a breathing space in his fight with the barons – however he was dead a year or so later, and it was reissued with some changes under the seal of his son, the 9 year old King Henry III. Other amended versions were issued in 1217 and 1225, and this last version became part of English Statute Law; many of its clauses remaining there through the centuries to become integral parts of the legal systems of the English speaking world and beyond.
A translation of the 1215 document can be found at: http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/translation.html
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:History]]