A Source Book of Mediæval History / Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance

by Unknown

No document in the history of any nation is more important than the Great Charter; in the words of Bishop Stubbs, the whole of the constitutional history of England is only one long commentary upon it. Its importance lay not merely in the fact that it was won from an unwilling sovereign by the united action of nobles, clergy, and people, but also in the admirable summary which it embodies of the fundamental principles of English government, so far as they had ripened by the early years of the thirteenth century. The charter contained almost nothing that was not old. It was not even an instrument, like the Constitution of the United States, providing for the creation of a new government. It merely sought to gather up within a single reasonably brief document all the important principles which the best of the English sovereigns had recognized, but which such rulers as Richard and John had lately been improving every opportunity to evade. The primary purpose of the barons in forcing the king to grant the charter was not to get a new form of government or code of laws, but simply to obtain a remedy for certain concrete abuses, to resist the encroachments of the crown upon the traditional liberties of Englishmen, and to get a full and definite confirmation of these liberties in black and white. Not a new constitution was wanted, but good government in conformity with the old one. Naturally enough, therefore, the charter of 1215 was based in most of its important provisions upon that granted by Henry I. in 1100, even as this one was based on the righteous laws of the good Edward the Confessor. And after the same manner the charter of King John, in its turn, became the foundation for all future resistance of Englishmen to the evils of misgovernment, so that very soon it came naturally to be called Magna Charta—the Great Charter—by which designation it is known to this day.

King John was in no true sense the author of the charter. Many weeks before the meeting at Runnymede the barons had drawn up their demands in written form, and when that meeting occurred they were ready to lay before the sovereign a formal document, in forty-nine chapters, to which they simply requested his assent. This preliminary document was discussed and worked over, the number of chapters being increased to sixty-two, but the charter as finally agreed upon differed from it only in minor details. It is a mistake to think of John as "signing" the charter after the fashion of modern sovereigns. There is no evidence that he could write, and at any rate he acquiesced in the terms of the charter only by having his seal affixed to the paper. The original "Articles of the Barons" is still preserved in the British Museum, but there is no one original Magna Charta in existence. Duplicate copies of the document were made for distribution among the barons, and papers which are generally supposed to represent four of these still exist, two being in the British Museum.

The charter makes a lengthy document and many parts of it are too technical to be of service in this book; hence only a few of the most important chapters are here given. Translations of the entire document from the original Latin may be found in many places, among them the University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. I., No. 6; Lee, Source Book of English History, 169-180; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents Illustrative of English Constitutional History, pp. 42-52; and the Old South Leaflets, No. 5.

Source—Text in William Stubbs, Select Charters Illustrative of English Constitutional History (8th ed., Oxford, 1895), pp. 296-306. Adapted from translation in Sheldon Amos, Primer of the English Constitution and Government (London, 1895), pp. 189-201 passim.

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy, Aquitane, and count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs, governors, officers, and to all bailiffs, and his faithful subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, and for the salvation of our soul, and the souls of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement of Holy Church, and amendment of our Realm, ... have, in the first place, granted to God, and by this our present Charter confirmed, for us and our heirs forever:

1. That the Church of England shall be free, and have her whole rights, and her liberties inviolable; and we will have them Liberties of the English Church guaranteed so observed that it may appear thence that the freedom of elections, which is reckoned chief and indispensable to the English Church, and which we granted and confirmed by our Charter, and obtained the confirmation of the same from our Lord Pope Innocent III., before the discord between us and our barons, was granted of mere free will; which Charter we shall observe, and we do desire it to be faithfully observed by our heirs forever.[425]

2. We also have granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, for us and for our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and holden by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever. If any of our earls, or barons, or others who hold of us in chief by military service,[426] shall die, and at the time of his The rate of reliefs death his heir shall be of full age, and owe a relief, he shall have his inheritance by the ancient relief—that is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl, for a whole earldom, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a knight, for a whole knight's fee, by a hundred shillings at most; and whoever oweth less shall give less, according to the ancient custom of fees.[427]

3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, and shall be in ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without relief and without fine.[428]

12. No scutage[429] or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless The three aids by the general council of our kingdom;[430] except for ransoming our person, making our eldest son a knight, and once for marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall be paid no more than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be concerning the aids of the City of London.[431]