Magna Carta

Magna Carta differs from the charters of Henry I and Stephen in that it was forced from the king against his will. It is, therefore, a treaty between the king on one side and the church, baronage, boroughs, and people on the other. Its great importance lies not only in the fact that it limited what the king could do, but also in the fact that it was won by all classes of England acting together. It marks the close of one period of English constitutional history, for it brings together all the most important practices and privileges of clergy, barons, burghers, and people, obtained in one way or another since the Norman Conquest. It does not contain anything new; it sums up what had been enjoyed and what needed to be restated on account of the excesses of Richard and John. Though the welfare of all classes is touched upon in Magna Carta, yet the larger portion of it relates to the privileges of the feudal lords; for, as must never be forgotten, the England of Magna Carta is feudal England, and the document itself is a feudal document.

First, the church was to be free and its rights and privileges were to be unimpaired. This concession made trouble later when a difference of opinion arose as to what these rights were, inasmuch as the church in the Middle Ages had a way of increasing its demands.

In the second place, Magna Carta, by defining in exact terms feudal customs, rendered further abuse of them difficult. It regulated matters of wardship, heirship, widowhood, and marriage, and fixed the amount of feudal dues. More important still, for John had been making heavy demands, it said that no scutage or aid should be levied save by the council of the realm, and that on three occasions only should a lord ask for aids from his vassal: namely, when his eldest son was to be knighted, when his own person was to be ransomed

No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor upon him send, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny, or delay, right or justice.

SECTIONS 39 AND 40 OF MAGNA CARTA.

from captivity, and when his eldest daughter was to be married for the first time.

In the third place, Magna Carta guarded the rights of the boroughs, especially London, and guaranteed to them their liberties and free customs. This guaranty meant much, for the boroughs of England had been receiving charters from the Norman and Angevin kings, which placed them above and outside of feudal control, and the kings knew that the rise of the cities meant the weakening of feudalism.

In the fourth place, Magna Carta promised security to the merchants;' protected, as we shall see, the property of freeholders; and said that even a villein, who legally had no right to own property, should not lose his oxen and ploughs, however heavy a fine might be imposed upon him.

Lastly, Magna Carta contains certain general clauses, the importance of which is easily exaggerated, concerning the lives and property of all freemen, that is, of all above the status of a villein. These clauses said that no freeman should be imprisoned or exiled or lose his land save by the lawful judgment of those of his own rank or by the law of the land. This privilege meant that the barons were not to be judged by any one of feudal rank lower than themselves, and seems to have been the outcome of a protest on the part of those who drafted the charter against the employment of professional lawyers as justices. The charter also says something about not selling, denying, or delaying justice, but this great legal principle was at that time only as valuable as the barons and people were able to make it.

Very important are the clauses that tell us of administration and law. Whenever the king wished advice and counsel in assessing scutages or levying an unusual aid, he was to summon his greater lords by a letter addressed personally to each one. He was to summon the lesser lords also, but by means of a general letter sent to the sheriff. All these lords were the king's tenants-in-chief, so that the council thus called was strictly a feudal council. It is not likely that the lesser lords often went to the council, for the journey was troublesome and expensive. We learn that the king's court (curia regis) was breaking into two parts : one to follow the king, as he moved about; the other, which was to deal with common pleas and not with pleas of the crown, to stay at Westminster. This separation was not made complete, however, till the time of Edward I. We know that the work of the itinerant justices must have been splendidly successful, for Magna Carta required that they go on circuit four times a year. This probably proved to be too often, since two years later the four times a year was reduced to once a year. The justices were to protect the lands of freeholders against the encroachment of the lords, as Henry II had already begun to do (pp. 105-106), by seeing that no freeholder lost his tenement except through testimony given to the justices by his neighbors in a formal inquiry. Lastly, Magna Carta marks the end of the sheriff's greatness by definitely saying that neither sheriffs nor coroners should hold pleas of the crown. This meant that, henceforth, both sheriff and coroner were to be of local importance only.