THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGNA CARTA

THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGNA CARTA

The Magna Carta*, the charter of English liberties was granted by King John in 1215 under the threat of civil war and reissued with alterations in 1216, 1217, and 1225.

The Charter meant less to contemporaries than it has to subsequent generations. The solemn circumstances of its first granting have given to the Magna Carta of 1215 a unique place in popular imagination. Quite early in its history it became a symbol and a battle cry against oppression, each successive generation reading into it in search for protection of its own threatened liberties.

In England the Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679) looked directly back to clause 39 of the Charter of 1215, which stated that " no free man shall be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights and possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way [... ] except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. " In the United States both the national and the state constitutions show ideas and even phrases directly traceable to the Magna Carte.

Earlier kings of England, Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II, had issued charters, making promises to their barons. But these were granted by, not exacted from, the king and were very generally phrased. Later the tension between the Kings and the nobility increased. Since 1199 John's barons had to be promised their rights. It is, therefore, not surprising that Stephen

Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, directed baronial unrest into a demand for a solemn grant of liberties by the king. The document known as the Articles of the Barons was at last agreed upon and became the text from which the final version of the charter was drafted and sealed by John on June 15, 1215.

* Magna Carta – Великая Хартия Вольности

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