Magna Carta, or The Great Charter

1215

Document granted by King John at Runnymede, on the River Thames, to the barons in 1215; was viewed in later times as the basis of English liberties, though it is now recognised that its compilers were little concerned with the liberties of the common people and were simply trying to maintain their own rights. Some historians have gone as far as to call Magna Carta a reactionary document. The supreme importance of Magna Carta lies in the legal interpretations made of it in succeeding centuries, based on its underlying principle that the king must keep the law. John's arbitrary actions had aroused the barons to take up arms to redress their grievances, their demands being based on Henry I's Charter of Liberties. In addition it contained 63 clauses embodying provisions for the protection of the rights of feudal proprietors and against the abuse of the royal prerogative. Its principal provisions were the redress of a number of grievances connected with feudal tenures; provisions regarding the relief of heirs, wards, and marriage of widows of tenants-in-chief; the inviolability of the liberties of the city of London and other ports and towns; freedom of commerce to foreign merchants; the strict administration of justice; the permanent abode of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster; the holding of assizes in the different counties, and the establishing of assizes; the abolition of extraordinary taxation; the protection of life, liberty and property; one standard of weights and measures; no banishment or imprisonment save by judgment of peers.

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