CHARACTER OF MAGNA CARTA
Magna Carta does not profess to be a charter of liberties for all Englishmen. Most of its sixty-three clauses merely guarantee to each member of the coalition against John—nobles, clergy, and commons—those special privileges which the Norman rulers had tried to take away. Very little is said in this long document about the serfs, who composed probably five-sixths of the population of England in the thirteenth century.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MAGNA CARTA
But there are three clauses of Magna Carta which came to have a most important part in the history of English freedom. The first declared that no taxes were to be levied on the nobles—besides the three recognized feudal aids [10]—except by consent of the Great Council of the realm. [11] By this clause the nobles compelled the king to secure their consent before imposing any taxation. The second set forth that no one was to be arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way, except after a trial by his equals and in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply that to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These last two clauses contained the germ of great legal principles on which the English people relied for protection against despotic kings. They form a part of our American inheritance from England and have passed into the laws of all our states.
185. PARLIAMENT DURING THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
HENRY III, 1216-1272 A.D.
The thirteenth century, which opened so auspiciously with the winning of the Great Charter, is also memorable as the time when England developed her Parliament [12] into something like its present form. The first steps in parliamentary government were taken during the reign of John's son, Henry III.
THE WITENAGEMOT AND THE GREAT COUNCIL
It had long been the custom in England that in all important matters a ruler ought not to act without the advice and consent of his leading men. The Anglo-Saxon kings sought the advice and consent of their Witenagemot, [13] a body of nobles, royal officers, bishops, and abbots. It approved laws, served as a court of final appeal, elected a new monarch, and at times deposed him. The Witenagemot did not disappear after the Norman Conquest. Under the name of the Great Council it continued to meet from time to time for consultation with the king. This assembly was now to be transformed from a feudal body into a parliament representing the entire nation.