Articles

December 18, 2014

Children’s Audio Guide for British Library’s Magna Carta Exhibition

We’re delighted to announce that the British Library has received a grant of £10,000 from the Magna Carta 800^th Committee to produce a children’s audio guide to be used in our exhibition, ‘Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy’, which runs from 13 March – 1 Sept 2015.

Working with the production company Acoustiguide, the British Library will develop a ‘voice’ of the exhibition designed for younger visitors aimed at 7-11 year olds. Visitors under 16 will be offered free entry to the exhibition and free use of the audio guide.

The guide will focus on 10-15 key objects from the exhibition, which traces the dramatic 800 year history of the Magna Carta.  The exhibition will draw on the British Library’s rich historical collections, as well as borrowing celebrated international documents including Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence and an original copy of the Bill of Rights.

The audio will draw on professional actors to bring the story of the exhibits to life, encouraging children to interact with the content by asking questions and re-imagining scenes from history.

Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, which is sponsored by the law firm Linklaters, marks the 800^th anniversary of the Magna Carta and will run from 13 March 2015 until 1 September 2015.

The children’s audio guide will complement a range of other resources designed to offer young people an engaging introduction to Magna Carta and the stories that surround it, including a schools programme and a new website to launch next year. The audio guide will be offered alongside a separate one for adult visitors.

Clive Izard, Head of Exhibitions at the British Library said:

“We’re lucky to have 800 years of history to work with in this exhibition, encompassing a host of characters and stories which have the potential to capture the imaginations of young people – from medieval serfs and barons, all the way through to more familiar figures like Thomas Jefferson and Nelson Mandela.

We’re grateful to the Magna Carta 800^th committee for funding this specially-designed audio guide, which will be a key way to enhance the experience of families and young people visiting the exhibition.”

December 12, 2014

Magna Carta Barons Association to provide facsimile copy to each of the principle towns.

£12,500 has been granted to provide a facsimile copy of Magna Carta to each of the towns and villages representing the principal rebel barons who secured the charter from King John in 1215.

At Runnymede, beside the Thames, the baronial army met King John in June 1215 and there, twenty four of their barons – and the Mayor of London – were chosen to ensure that the king kept to his word. Twenty of the twenty-two towns and villages that made up their chief manors in 1215 have come together to form the Magna Carta Barons Association.

A facsimile of the rare 1215 edition held by the British Library will be printed on parchment for each of the towns.

For the full article, please click here.

December 5, 2014

Trowbridge to Benefit from Magna Carta Grant.

Trowbridge Town Council is very pleased to receive confirmation from Chairman of the Magna Carta 800^th Anniversary Committee that we have been awarded a grant of £10,000 towards our year of celebrations in 2015 for the 800^th Anniversary of the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta Trust’s 800^th Anniversary Commemoration Committee is charged by the Magna Carta Trust to co-ordinate activities, raise the profile of the anniversary and deliver a number of key national and international aspirations.

Trowbridge Town Council, in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, Town Team and St James’ Church will be organising a series of events and activities relating to the 800^th anniversary next year. These include a Magna Carta Conference at the Civic Centre on 25^th April, a Flower Festival, a Business Expo, and a three Day Charter Fayre on 24^th, 25^th and 26^th July. Trowbridge was the seat of Henry de Bohun, one of the 25 Barons who persuaded King John to agree to Magna Carta in 1215.

Wiltshire is the only County where one can visit both a Baron Town and see one of the original 1215 copies of Magna Carta, at Salisbury Cathedral. We are working closely with Visit Wiltshire to ensure as many people as possible can Discover Trowbridge.

In addition the Town Clerk will be undertaking a bike ride, covering 800 miles to visit all 22 Baron Towns in June next year, from Somerset to Suffolk and London to Northumberland, raising funds for Re-Cycle Bikes for Africa and the Mayor’s charity, Dorothy House Hospice Care.

Magna Carta is the foundation stone supporting the freedoms enjoyed by nearly two billion people in over 100 countries. Magna Carta enshrined the Rule of Law. It limited the power of authoritarian rule, the ‘divine right of kings’, and it paved the way for trial by jury, modified through the ages as the franchise was extended. The original Great Charter was agreed by King John on 15th June 1215 when he acceded to barons’ and bishops’ demands to limit his powers and directed that it be sealed. This version of Magna Carta was revised several times in the 13th Century. The 1297 version became part of English law.

For information regarding other projects visit https://magnacarta800th.com/projects/.

December 3, 2014

History of Parliament Trust receives £5,000 grant for ‘Making Constitutions’ conferences.

The History of Parliament Trust is delighted to announce that the Magna Carta Trust’s 800th Anniversary Commemoration has agreed to provide a grant of £5,000 towards next year’s international conference ‘Making Constitutions, Building Parliaments: Constructing Representative Institutions, 1000-2000’.

The conference will take place under the auspices of the history of Parliament and the International Commission for the History of Parliamentary Institutions (ICHRPI: http://www.ichrpi.com/). It marks two anniversaries of enormous significance in the history of English, and British constitutional and legal history: the 800th anniversary of King John’s acceptance of Magna Carta, the great charter of liberties of the English nation in 1215; and the 750th anniversary of the Parliament summoned by Simon de Montfort in 1265, following his defeat of King Henry III in a civil war which was the culmination of a baronial revolt.

The conference will take 1215 and 1265 as a starting point for an exploration of the initiation and development of political institutions from the early Middle Ages onwards, and an assessment of their role in state formation or nation building. It will consider the significance of foundational documents and events such as Magna Carta and the de Montfort Parliament and how these – and the historiography of Parliaments – became so important in the subsequent history of parliament and political institutions.

The conference will set the foundation of the English and British constitutional tradition alongside that of other jurisdictions elsewhere; it will explore other confrontations between communal traditions and royal powers and how these were expressed and resolved; it will seek to compare the development of the English political tradition with contemporary parallel institutions in Europe, and explore their divergence and/or convergence.

For more information on the grant, click here.

November 25, 2014

Commonwealth Exhibition Wins Grant

25th November, 2014

July 15, 2014

Why Britain should go metric

October 10, 2013

British Council’s Magna Carta Materials Launched

The British Council has now launched the first of its online Magna Carta teaching English materials. These include lesson plans and worksheets on “Magna Carta, human rights and freedoms”, “Magna Carta – King John’s promises” and on “personal freedom and our rights”.

The British Council will be further developing these resources over the next few months.

Click here for more details.

August 30, 2013

Magna Carta Bell Ringing

In August’s edition of The Ringing World, Kate Flavell and Malcolm Loveday outline the plans being developed to commemorate Magna Carta with a co-ordinated peal of bells on Sunday 14th June 2015. To download a copy of the article, please click on the following link: RW Magna Carta_0001-1.

May 28, 2013

Committee Comments: A Brief Comment from Sir Robert Worcester

As I write, the 800th Committee awaits the draft “Master Plan” being developed by Surrey County Council in conjunction with the National Trust. The Committee has been promised sight of this at its next meeting, scheduled for 17th June at Royal Holloway, University London preceding the Annual RHUL Magna Carta Lecture. We know that consultants have been commissioned to come up with ideas for suitable events and public consultations have been done locally and a “Survey Monkey” questionnaire has been sent out asking people to give the ‘Local Stakeholders Group’ their views. The 800th Committee will then be able to react, and the Plan will go to the July meeting of the Surrey County Council Cabinet for its decisions on Surrey funding, both for what will happen on the 15 June 2015 at Runnymede, and for the local legacies.

I have just returned from a visit to St Edmundsbury Cathedral, where I joined the 800th Committee Member representing Bury St. Edmunds, Margaret Charlesworth, and others on their local Magna Carta Committee for lunch. We then attended a splendid initiative which gathered representatives of towns and villages across England with links with one or another of the 25 Barons who met at the Abbey 799 years ago this year. It included people from Thirsk, Long Crendon, Castle Hedingham and Castle Clare and Curry Mallet, Trowbridge and Skipton, Walkern and Huntingfield, amongst others, all with such wonderful and evocative towns’ names.

For the most part those attending were local councillors, town clerks and local historical societies, all coming together through the initiative of Peter Sinclair, who we are inviting onto the 800th Committee, so that he can continue his good work with full knowledge of what’s being pulled together for the Commemoration nationally and internationally, and feedback what we are doing to his ‘caputs’.

These are the sites of ancient castles, some long since in ruins and others restored. Others are the villages of the births and deaths of Barons long since forgot except by mediaeval historians and scholars such as Professor Nigel Saul, who is currently doing an inventory of the original 25 barons for our website. They are looking at questions such as why they did what they did then, how they were interlinked, who were, in effect, supporting the rule of law, and the question of the divine right of kings, the return of the ‘old ways’. The ways which had existed in one form or another in England for some 600 years before 15 June 1215 when they were obtained by force majeure, as King John saw it. Indeed he represented it as such in his petition to the Pope, Innocent III, when he appealed for the ‘Great Charter’ to be suspended.

It was heartening to meet these wonderful representatives of the towns and villages, some with populations as small as just 219 and 193, and who were excited to be a part of something that takes their histories back 800 years to link with an event that changed the world in which we live in today. Some arrived with their own plans for what they would be doing on the day, others admitting they’d not thought much about it until contacted by Peter, and others which so far as they knew had nothing to show for their link with Runnymede and were there to learn what others were doing and what might give them an idea that they could take back to their villages.

One such village, Odiham, has impressed us all with their foresight and initiative, and in this issue we highlight the commemorations being planned there already. They have truly embraced the role their village played in this momentous moment in history. They have driven their own progamme of events forward and offer a good model for other communities to mark the 800th Anniversary in their own way.

The Magna Carta Trail is building and developing, led by Visit Kent under the chairmanship of Amanda Cottrell and led by Lynette Crisp of Visit Kent, aided by a committee of some score of tourist officers and Magna Carta townspeople who are linking together tourist trail visits ranging from one day to a fortnight, to serve the interests of both domestic tourists and international visitors.

This will be featured in a travel article in the Daily Telegraph and also on the BBC Website on Saturday, 15 June, this year.

Just a week ago I was hosted by the Director of the National Archives, who are planning their own exhibition of the King’s (Henry III, John’s son) 1217 Magna Carta and Edward I’s copy of 1297 which enshrined it into law (there being no recognised Parliament in 1215 or even 1217, before the de Montford Parliament which is also commemorated in 2015 on its 750th anniversary, especially by the History of Parliament Trust and the Houses of Parliament themselves and to which the 800th Committee is collaborating).

Our aspirations list remains on the website designed by Ratio7, kindly supported by HCL, which can be viewed at www.magnacarta800th.com. We have made some notable progress since the last newsletter, and Greg Spring has kindly written here to update us on plans for a series of commemorative stamps to be produced for 2015.

Thanks also to everyone who is currently following us on Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t already, please do look for us. This is the very best place to stay up to date with the latest news and developments. Full details can be found below.

And as ever, if anyone has any thoughts on how we should be marking the anniversary, or comments on the work currently taking place, please do not hesitate to get in touch through our direct email addresses, [email protected] or [email protected].

Finally, the Master Engraver, Graham Clarke, who has researched, designed and etched the Magna Carta 800th etching, isn’t just a pretty face, but also a wit and poet. Graham has composed a poem for the 800th anniversary, which will feature in the next edition of this newsletter. Order forms for the Clarke etching can be found on www.magnacarta800th.com.

The International Angle – Canada

The International Angle – Magna Carta

Len Rodness – Chair, Magna Carta Canada
 
It is a great pleasure to be invited to write for the UK’s Magna Carta 800th Committee newsletter and report to everyone in the UK and beyond on our plans for marking the 800th Anniversary here in Canada. I know there are a great number of people across the globe who share my passion and understanding of the importance of Magna Carta to all of our lives today.

To give you a little background, Magna Carta Canada is a not-for-profit organization based in Toronto, made up of likeminded volunteers who believe the 800th Anniversary offers us a once in a lifetime opportunity to highlight the importance and relevance of Magna Carta to the people of Canada.

The focus of our plans to commemorate the anniversary is going to be ‘Magna Carta 2015 Canada’, a travelling exhibition of an original copy of Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forests. This is being arranged with the support of our wonderful colleagues at Durham Cathedral, whose copies of both charters will be touring the country for six months in 2015, beginning on July 1 in Ottawa (July 1 is Canada Day, the anniversary of the passing of the British North America Act in 1867, pursuant to which Canada became a country in its own right).

Durham Cathedral is fortunate enough to hold three copies of the Magna Carta, and the copy visiting Canada will be the 1225 version, the first document to be issued voluntarily under the seal of the reigning monarch, King Henry III, and was confirmed by King Edward I in 1297. It will be joined by one of only two surviving copies of the 1217 Charter of the Forest, the first document to include the concept of universal rights.

The intention is for the exhibition to travel across the country, visiting Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. The centrepiece will of course be the two charters, which will be displayed in jewel-like cases.

They will be accompanied by interpretative material, displayed in both English and French, focused on the key themes of ‘the History of the Charters’, ‘Beyond Britannia – how the achievements of the charters spread to the Americas’, and ‘Justice Today’, looking at how Magna Carta influences our lives today.

We will also have an 8 minute long high definition film to accompany the exhibition along with various interactive multimedia material, and a 50 page exhibition catalogue.

We are working with Lord Cultural Resources to design and interpret this important story, as well as find suitable venues and supporters for this venture.

It is hugely exciting to be a part of the programme of events marking the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta right around the world and I would welcome any support or comments you may have on our plans and how we could work together to ensure the whole world is aware of the importance of Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest to our day-to-day lives.

I can be contacted through Sir Robert and Mark Gill at the 800th Committee or directly at [email protected] and I look forward to working with everyone during the next two years to make the 800th Anniversary a success in Canada and around the world.

January 23, 2013

Magna Carta: is it relevant today?

As the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015 fast approaches, Professor Nigel Saul of Royal Holloway University of London, takes a look at its relevance to us today.

The making of Magna Carta, which was signed just down the road from Royal Holloway, in Runnymede, was a turning point in English constitutional history. The Charter’s great achievement was to place the monarchy – the executive power – under the law.

Click here to read the full article.

January 10, 2013

Magna Carta panel discussion

A Magna Carta panel discussion is being organised at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The panel will take place on 23rd January 2013 from 6pm to 8pm. Click here for more information.

November 29, 2012

The Relevance of the Magna Carta to the 21st Century

Sir Robert Worcester, Chairman of the 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee, gave a speech at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas in November 2012. Follow this link to see the Youtube video of the lecture.

August 13, 2012

The Egham Museum Secures Lottery Funding for Magna Carta-themed Events

The Egham Museum has been awarded a grant of £99,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a series of programmes and events to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. For more information about The Egham Museum click here to visit the Facebook site.

August 11, 2012

The American Bar Association Plans Magna Carta Commemorative Events in 2015

The American Bar Association (ABA) has begun planning to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta with a series of events in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2015.

Planning for the events is being coordinated by the Magna Carta 2015 Committee, chaired by Immediate Past President of the ABA, Stephen N. Zack.

To read more about this in the ABA Journal, click here.

March 1, 2012

Public exhibition for Magna Carta?

FAVERSHAM’S Magna Carta could be put on public display this summer for the first time since its £20 million value was revealed.

Organisers of the Faversham Festival want the rare charter to be exhibited during the nine-day music and arts event this summer.

It would be displayed in a cabinet in the Mayor’s Parlour, in Preston Street, from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, June 23, guarded by stewards from the Faversham Society.

Festival chairman Graham Gilbert, said: “The Magna Carta is an important part of our civic history.

“It would be a great opportunity to bring people from outside Faversham in, and we are very hopeful it will go ahead if we get the support of the town council.”

But at a meeting of Faversham Town Council on Monday, some councillors were concerned about the security of the valuable document.

Councillor Nigel Kay proposed buying a high security cabinet to showcase it. He said: “Because of the amount of interest in it there is a danger of something happening to it every time it goes out.

“When you think of the horrendous things people do for things of that value, haven’t we gone past the time where having one or two councillors standing by it is sufficient?”

Before its value was revealed in November, the Magna Carta was shown at the Mayor’s Parlour during the annual open house exhibition, where visitors could handle the document. Since then, security has been scaled up, with £200,000 spent on a high-tech burglar alarm.

Councillor Ted Wilcox responded: “We have a lot of charters which are valuable, but how silly are we going to get? It is great that we can show it to the town, we don’t need to go overboard and go and spend thousands of pounds protecting it.”

Councillor Cindy Davis agreed, and said the council had a special responsibility not only to protect the charter but to return it to the people of Faversham.

Officials plan to review the security arrangements before giving the plans the go-ahead.

Original Source: this is Kent – http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Public-exhibition-Magna-Carta/story-15255867-detail/story.html

February 20, 2012

Point of View: Why 2012 is a year to remember

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee festivities this summer marks one of a number of noble commemorations this year, says historian David Cannadine.

Just a few days ago, the sixth of February saw the anniversary of the death of King George VI, and the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne, inaugurating the Diamond Jubilee celebrations that will culminate during the first week of June.

These are bound to be remarkable: in part because the Queen will be only the second of our monarchs, along with Victoria, to have celebrated both a Diamond and a Golden Jubilee. And in part because she will be the only one of our sovereigns ever to have celebrated a Silver Jubilee as well.

Victoria, by contrast, was in deep mourning for her beloved Albert when she completed her first 25 years on the throne, and in any case the very idea of staging a Silver Jubilee was only invented in 1935 for the reign of King George V. Then a day later on 7 February, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, which had been anticipated even before 2011 was out, with a spate of new biographies, a Christmas adaptation of Great Expectations on television and a brilliant exhibition on him that’s still running at the Museum of London.

And this is only the beginning; for 2012 is set to be a bumper year for such commemorations. Between the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, yet to come are two significant but slightly ambiguous centenaries: the death of Captain Scott, which took place in March 1912, and the sinking of the Titanic in the following month.

These are not so easy to celebrate: Scott and his colleagues were beaten in the race to reach the South Pole by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, and they died on the way back. And the Titanic, having been proudly and hubristically described as being unsinkable, did just that on its maiden voyage having hit an iceberg.

To be sure, Scott and his colleagues demonstrated immense courage and heroism and only the meanest of spirits and coldest of hearts can be unmoved by the letters he left behind. And there were some men on the Titanic (though by no means all) who gave their lives so that women and children might go first into the lifeboats that were in limited supply.

But neither of these episodes has ever been free from controversy and recrimination and both of them are a salutary reminder that challenging Mother Nature has always been a hazardous undertaking.

If we go back another hundred years, 2012 also marks the bicentenary of an event that will undoubtedly receive less attention: the assassination of the then Prime Minster, Spencer Perceval, which took place in the central lobby of the House of Commons on 11 May 1812.

At the time when Britain was still locked in its desperate struggle against Napoleonic France, and when domestic subversion was also constantly suspected, there were fears that this murder might mark the beginning of a general uprising. But the assassin, John Bellingham, had a personal grievance against the government and had in fact acted alone.

If Perceval is remembered at all, it’s more for the manner of his death than for the distinction of his life: he was widely known as “Little P” and he remains the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. Of course, if the IRA had had its way, Perceval would have been joined by Margaret Thatcher. However she survived the bombing of her Brighton hotel at the time of the Conservative Party conference and no friend or foe would surely have been so foolish or so misguided as to describe her as “Little T”.

It’s hard to believe that the 200th anniversary of the death of Spencer Perceval will be widely noticed, but there are two other good reasons why we should remember the year 1812. The first is that it witnessed the outbreak of war between the United Kingdom and the United States: a rarely-remembered conflict, which ended in stalemate three years later but not before the British had stormed the recently established federal capital in Washington and set fire to the White House.

The second was Napoleon’s failed attempt to invade and conquer Russia, which effectively spelt the end of his imperial ambitions and would later be enduringly commemorated by Tolstoy in War and Peace and by Tchaikovsky in his 1812 Overture.

But these two episodes were also harbingers of a new world to come, not then, and not soon, but one day. For the failure of the British to defeat the Americans, and of the French to overwhelm the Russians, portended the bi-polar world dominated by the two super powers of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which would last from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

So in one way and another, 2012 is going to be a big year for anniversaries, but if we cast our eyes forward into the near future it will seem little more than a prologue to the veritable cascade of commemorations by which we shall soon be overwhelmed. In 2014, we will not only be marking the centenary of the start of WWI but also the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II.

Meanwhile, the routine business of annual commemoration will also be going on, and 2015 will be particularly crowded. For those whose appetite for military events will be insufficiently sated by World War I and II, there will also be the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt and the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, which together should be more than enough for those who like to bash the French. And those who are more pacifically inclined will also have their commemorative share: for 2015 is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and the 750th anniversary of the first summoning of an English parliament by Simon de Montfort.

If all that seems like too much, and too far off, then we can always console ourselves with another and more immediate anniversary, but of a very different sort: for in November 2012 it will be 70 years since the first showing of the Bogart-Bergman film, Casablanca.

We all have our favourite lines from it, but for me, the crucial words are spoken by Rick to the object of his love, Ilsa almost at the very end, when he urges her to go off with her husband Victor Lazlo, to help him with his war work, and to leave Rick behind, so he can get on with his. “I’m no good at being noble”, Rick tells her, “but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.

And so Rick, who is ostensibly cynical, indifferent, and always concerned with himself, turns out to be very noble indeed, as he urges the greater claims of duty before love and public obligation before private satisfaction. Such robust sentiments no doubt had a strong wartime resonance but they also recall an earlier historical episode, of six years before, where the principal character took exactly the opposite decision, namely King Edward VIII at the time of the Abdication.

“I have”, the former sovereign said in the broadcast he delivered after giving up the throne, “found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties of king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” Such was Edward’s justification for taking the alternative course of putting personal happiness before public duty but it didn’t play well with many ordinary people.

One cartoon of the time depicted a workman throwing down his shovel and walking off the job, explaining that he, too, could not discharge his duties as he would wish to do without the help and support of the woman he loved. And nor did Edward’s decision play well higher up the social scale, least of all with his mother, Queen Mary.

“It seems inconceivable”, she told him, “to those who made such sacrifices during the war that you, as their king, refused a lesser sacrifice.” “All my life”, she went on, “I have put my country before everything else and I simply cannot change now.”

I’ve no idea whether Queen Mary ever watched Casablanca or whether our present sovereign has seen it. But as she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee this year, amidst so many other and very different anniversaries, there can surely be no doubt that Queen Elizabeth II would side with the dutiful Rick.

Original Source: BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16963280

February 19, 2012

Magna Carta, newly restored, is back on display at National Archives

America’s only original Magna Carta, one of 17 still in existence, is back on display in a new, interactive exhibit at the National Archives after a year of restoration to the 715-year-old “Great Charter”.

Widely considered the most significant document in Western history, connections between the 1297 Magna Carta and our three “Charters of Freedom” — the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights exhibited in the Archives’ Rotunda — are explained by simply touching a virtual button on the new display.

Touch a different icon for the English translation of the medieval Latin document: “no taxation without representation”, “trial by jury”, and of course, habeas corpus.

This is the only Magna Carta in private hands, bought by Washington philanthropist David Rubenstein for $21.3 million in 2007 at a Sotheby’s auction, and loaned indefinitely to the National Archives. Rubenstein also funded the $13.5 million project to restore, repair, and re-encase it, and provide the very accessible, fascinating display.

Rubenstein was, understandably, the guest of honor at a private reception celebrating the event, followed by a panel discussion with him and historians.

“People love looking at original documents in person, although you can see everything on the Internet,” Rubenstein noted. “One million people come to the Archives to see these precious documents.”

He quoted Woody Allen’s saying, “’90 percent of life is just showing up.’ Well, 90 percent is just seeing these documents in person. And that isn’t going to go away any time soon, I hope.”

Huge applause from the audience at the free discussion, “Magna Carta and the Constitution”.

The billionaire philanthropist said, “I like buying documents that are expressions of freedom, that symbolize the great freedoms of this country. I’m delighted to (buy and lend it) as an American…I hope it inspires people to read about the history of our freedom.”

He attributes buying the Magna Carta to “serendipity.” He was invited to view the document, then owned by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, when it was displayed for the auction at Sotheby’s. The curator told Rubenstein that it was likely to be bought by someone outside of the US. He wanted to keep it in America.

“It seems a little presumptuous to buy the Magna Carta,” he confided. “I didn’t want to tell my wife, or my children, who’d say, ‘how much less money would that mean for me?'”

Rubenstein continued, “I thought it would go for a higher price. Then a man came over and said, ‘You bought it. Who are you? And can you afford it?”

Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group private equity firm, announced in January that he will donate $7.5 million to help restore the earthquake-damaged Washington Monument. In December, he donated $4.5 million to the National Zoo’s giant panda reproduction program.

Back to the Magna Carta, which was of, by, and for English barons. “The great American innovation” was applying the document’s principles to the common man. Even so, as we know, neither African Americans nor women were included in “all men are created equal.”

The National Archives will open the David M. Rubenstein Gallery in 2013, where the Magna Carta and its interactive display will reside. The gallery will be a “Record of Rights”, with displays explaining the centuries-old, ever-continuing struggles for all our rights, including civil rights, women’s rights, and immigrants’ rights.

Eventually, the gallery will include his copy of the Emancipation Proclamation now on loan to the Oval Office, and his copy of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, signed by President Lincoln, on loan to the New-York Historical Society until April 1.

What document is next on Rubenstein’s shopping list? He’d love to have one of only five originals that still exist of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. He estimated one would sell for $50 million — “But they won’t be for sale.”

For more info: National Archives, www.archives.gov, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

February 10, 2012

Peer’s plea for Magna Carta Day

A Liberal Democrat peer has called for an annual day of celebration of the Magna Carta.

Baroness Benjamin said many people were unaware that “our freedoms” were the “greatest legacy” of the Magna Carta.

A Magna Carta Day would help children and young people to “appreciate” the “precious gift” of freedom with “respect and responsibility”, she argued at question time on 7 February 2012.

The treaty marked peace between King John and the barons, who were in revolt against him, and set out the principles of freedom under the law.

It provided the basis for legal and political systems around the world.

Responding to Baroness Benjamin’s comments, the deputy leader of the House of Lords, Lord McNally, said he would put the idea to the chair of the Magna Carta Trust, Sir Robert Worcester.

Earlier on, Lord McNally told peers the government was keeping in “close contact” with the trust, which is making preparations to commemorate the 800th anniversary of “the signing of Magna Carta” on 15 June 2015.

But crossbench peer Lord Elystan-Morgan told peers the Magna Carta was never actually signed. “As a charter, as the name implies, it was sealed; sealed by the royal seal of King John.”

He added: “May I apologise for making such a pettifogging legal point,” prompting the chamber to erupt in laughter.

“Not at all,” Lord McNally responded. “I have long considered [Lord Elystan-Morgan] a master of the pettifogging legal point,” he quipped.

The final contribution came from Labour peer Lord Wills, who accused the government of attacking clause 29 of the Magna Carta – which enshrines the right to due process – by restricting access to legal aid.

He called on the government to scrap the plans contained in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.

“Once again confirming, never take that last question,” Lord McNally responded, to laughter from peers.

Original Source: BBC Democracy Live – http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_lords/newsid_9692000/9692470.stm

November 2, 2011

Treasures of the Bodleian exhibition: Magna Carta

An introduction to Magna Carta by Dr Hugh Doherty, British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow in Medieval History, University of Oxford.

October 24, 2011

Magna Carta Day Holiday?

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to designate Monday 15 June 2015 as a bank holiday in the United Kingdom to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta; and for connected purposes.

On 15 June 1215, the foundations of our democracy were laid when King John met his barons at Runnymede and sealed the historic document that has become known as Magna Carta. The effect of the Bill, which I now bring before the House,best replica watches would be to celebrate appropriately the 800th anniversary of that momentous occasion. The concept of celebrating Magna Carta has widespread support. Indeed, Mr Speaker, we are grateful to you for having hosted in the Speaker’s House in June this year the inaugural meeting of the all-party parliamentary Magna Carta group, many of whose members are present this afternoon.
What better way to celebrate freedom than by having a day’s holiday? I appreciate, of course, how difficult it is for businesses, service providers and schools to deal with the consequences of a day’s holiday, and I am not suggesting that 15 June should be an extra day’s holiday, but, given the current discussions about moving the May bank holiday, the perfect replacement for the first Monday in May would be 15 June: Magna Carta day.

There is something unique and very special about celebrating Magna Carta. Its significance goes far beyond these shores. Upon it are based not only our own constitutional freedoms, but those of the United States of America, most of the Commonwealth and much of the European Union. Even in Scotland, where Magna Carta never had any force, its value as a constitutional document is still appreciated.
The committee set up by the Magna Carta Trust, ably led by the inimitable Sir Robert Worcester, is proposing a Magna Carta day to the American Congress, to the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Trinidadian, Indian, South African and all Commonwealth Parliaments and to the legislatures of all countries that hold our values and suggesting that they observe the 800th anniversary and declare their Magna Carta day to share with ours.

The German ambassador, when asked recently about the salience of Magna Carta, responded, “Magna Carta is known to everyone in Germany as the foundation of democracy—it is in the school syllabus.” What a pity it is not in our school syllabus.

Winston Churchill was, of course, absolutely right, as ever, when said that Magna Carta was
“the foundation of principles and systems of government of which neither King John nor his nobles dreamed.”

Magna Carta established the very idea of the rule of law. It was the first formal document to insist that no one is above the law, however high his or her status. It also established that Executive power must proceed by recognised legal process, never unlawfully, when action is taken against an individual.
In the 800 years since the principle of the rule of law was thus set down, every aspect of our country’s development has been influenced by it. This is not just dry, legal doctrine; it is our dependence on the belief in this fundamental freedom that has shaped our nation’s character, fostering belief and pride in our basic liberty and giving us the confidence to question authority. What began as an agreement to give people freedom from royal interference has developed over eight centuries into a range of fundamental liberties. Now it is not the monarch who tries to interfere in the lives of our people; it is the state.
As we—Parliament—battle daily to keep the people we represent as free as possible from state interference, the replicas-shop principles of Magna Carta are every bit as important as they were 800 years ago. British people know that they have an inalienable right to freedom and to challenge the authority of Government. We have fought for that right through the ages—not only for ourselves, but for others right across the world.

Looking at the events of the so-called Arab spring over the past few months, we see how much still has to be done in trying to win those precious rights for those who still do not have them. As President Obama said when he addressed our Parliament in May:
“Centuries ago, when kings, emperors and warlords reigned over much of the world, it was the English who first spelled out the rights and liberties of man in the Magna Carta… through the struggles of slaves and immigrants, women and ethnic minorities, former colonies and persecuted religions, we have learned better than most that the longing for freedom and human dignity is not English or American or Western—it is universal, and it beats in every heart.”

Magna Carta is a rare piece of legislation, perhaps unique, that has not just endured but evolved over the centuries. Although many of its provisions have been repealed, and rightly so, by later legislation, its principles none the less echo throughout the ages and across the globe today. Today, we need to rein in the power of an overbearing nanny state just as much as our forebears of the 13th century had to restrain the power of the king.

I am not asking that we declare a bank holiday to mark the signing of some dusty old piece of 13th century paper or, indeed, the actions of an unpopular monarch some 800 years ago. We need a special holiday so that the British people can celebrate today’s freedoms on 15 June 2015—Magna Carta day. Our constitution, our civil liberties, our individual rights, the rule of law and the bedrock of our democracy are all too often taken for granted. However, we must never forget that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, so let us cherish and appreciate our freedom and let us celebrate it.
I urge the House to support the Bill to give the people a holiday to celebrate Magna Carta and all that it still stands for.

Question put and agreed to .
Ordered ,
That Mrs Eleanor Laing, Mr Graham Allen, Helen Goodman, Robert Halfon, Oliver Heald, Mr Bernard Jenkin, Mr Peter Lilley, Mrs Anne Main, Stephen Metcalfe, Mr David Ruffley, Iain Stewart and Mr Jack Straw present the Bill.
Mrs Eleanor Laing accordingly presented the Bill.

October 13, 2011

The Continuing Importance of Magna Carta

Magna Carta, or as it is properly called the Great Charter of Liberty, was born on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede when King John – Bad King John as he is more commonly known – was persuaded to accede to a number of demands made by a powerful group of his Barons. It may well have been short lived as it was swiftly declared by Pope Innocent III, at John’s urging, to be null and void. It was, perhaps not unreasonably, said to have been procured through extortion.

It was however one of those rare pieces of legislation, if not perhaps unique, which was not simply revived but has been reaffirmed on numerous occasions in the centuries since John’s death. It was, for instance, reissued three times by John’s son, Henry III. It was entered on the Parliament Rolls by Edward I on 28 March 1297. It has retained its statutory force ever since, although its application has been severely curtailed by a number of amending statutes; only Chapters 1, 9 and 29 remain in force. Of those three sections Chapter 29, or chapters 39 and 40 as it was in the original 1215 version, is the one that resonates today as recent events in Parliament have shown. I refer of course to David Davis MP’s decision to stand down from Parliament and fight a by-election on the issue of 42 day detention. For him as for so many people here and around the world Magna Carta, and chapter 29 in particular, remains an enduring symbol of freedom; of the fundamental rights that lie at the very heart of our open and democratic societies as they have developed over the long centuries from Runnymede.

To read this in full, download the PDF below:
The Continuing Importance of Magna Carta

English history: why we need to understand 1066 and all that

History is more than just isolated moments. Only with a knowledge of the complete evolution of English politics, argues Simon Jenkins, can we address the problems facing today’s society

Which “bits” of English history do we need to know? Should they be Simon Schama’s peasants’ revolt, Indian empire and opium wars, or David Starkey’s rules of chivalry? Or is the Cambridge professor Richard Evans right to dismiss “rote learning of the national patriotic narrative” out of hand, in favour of studying “other cultures separated from us by time and space”?

The answer is none of them as such. All seem static moments torn out of the context of history to suit a particular outlook on the world. Evans is the most wrong of all. His disparaging use of words such as rote and patriotic implies that facts about one’s own country are in some way irrelevant, even shameful. All history must start from the reader’s own standpoint in place and time. Otherwise it is just a blur.

The reason for learning history is not to hear stories but to follow themes that might help us understand the world about us. Without history, politics is fumbling in the dark. When Margaret Thatcher imposed a poll tax on the Scots in 1989, she seemed blind to the history of such taxes – disastrously so. When the British tried to rule southern Iraq in 2003 and to drive the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2006, they also ignored history.

The story of the nation in which we live is not a stage set crowded with isolated tableaux: the Norman conquest followed by Henry VIII, Charles I, the Industrial Revolution and finally leaping to Hitler. Sturdy tales of slavery, gender oppression and the defeat of Germany yield anecdotes that may raise the reader’s blood pressure. But they are history neutered of argument, uncreative, essentially dumb. They may make us angry, but not wise. History must be continuous, building from cause to effect and reaching a crescendo in the present day.

England’s narrative flow should be exhilarating and empowering. No country has such an eventful past, from the time when Germanic Angles and Saxons first pushed westwards across ancient Britain after the Romans withdrew in the fifth century. The English were, on any showing, a remarkable people, asserting their power and spreading their culture first across the British Isles and then round the world. They showed a confidence, sometimes an arrogance, which in the 19th and early-20th centuries led them briefly to bestride the globe, with an imperial countenance they still cannot shed.

To me, two threads run through this narrative. The first is England’s relations with its neighbours. This is so often sublimated into “British history”, or that of “the English-speaking peoples” or worse “our island story”, as if the English owned and occupied the other half of the British Isles still populated by Celtic descendants. In truth, the western and northern boundaries of England reached the line of Offa’s Dyke, Hadrian’s wall and the Irish Sea in the dark ages, and have hardly moved since.Saxons, Normans and Tudors could conquer the British Isles, but they could not suppress its people or their desire for greater self-government.

I have no doubt that England’s first empire – over the Celts – will fade in the 21st century. In 1920 Ireland had enough and most of it broke away, as eventually will Ulster. In 2000, Scotland and Wales began the same process. The reality is that these places have distinct histories of their own, as anyone knows who lives in them. As throughout Europe, provincial identities are acquiring political force. This is not good or bad, but inevitable. The same distinctiveness will apply to England. I have therefore sought to disinter England from the political homogeneity of Britishness.

The other thread is that of the distribution of power within England, between central authority and local consent. Almost all the great events of English history concern this struggle: Becket’s murder, Magna Carta, Henry VIII’s tyranny, the fight against the divinity of kings and the campaign for universal franchise. In each case, central power was pitted against church, baronage, parliament or people. A version of that struggle continues today in the argument over the future of the welfare state.

Running through this story is the primacy of money. From the Domesday Book to the present day, the obsession of England’s rulers was with war, first against the French and the Scots, then for an empire and then as guarantor of European and world peace. War requires money, and this was granted by taxpayers only in return for redress of grievances. Even Edward I, “hammer” of the Celts, wondered when taxes “paid to us out of liberality and goodwill … may in future become a servile obligation.” There had to be compromise or kings could not fight. The belligerence of England’s rulers was ironically the engine of early rule by consent.

In this story there was one overriding hero: parliament. Emerging from the early Saxon witans, parliament had by the 14th century already taken on the bicameral character it has today. It never lost its centrality in the constitution. It steered England through the agony of civil war. Under the Hanoverians, parliament and its “parties” took over the reins of government and was the cockpit for reform in 1832. Parliament, however “rotten” at times, never lost control of the argument. It was a creation of political genius.

These themes, like history itself, cannot be told spasmodically. Today’s debates over the electoral system and the reform of parliament are vacuous if not informed by previous ones. Britain’s ambivalent relations with Europe and its confused global policy remain opaque if they ignore the experience of Pitt, Palmerston, Salisbury and Churchill. The devolution process is absurd if typified by David Cameron’s “I will fight for the union with every fibre in my body.” And how can we grapple with the size and role of government without watching the state wax ever bigger over the centuries, to become a colossus in the 20th century?

I cannot see how any narrative can avoid starting at the beginning and running to the end, however hard it may seem to tell it that way. Reformers who have led history’s decline into “optionalism” in the school curriculum want it taught by dipping in and out, claiming that to follow events through dates is boring and hard. Yet ends come after beginnings. Causes precede effects. Time’s arrow flies through “one damned thing after another.” I am an unashamed chronologist.

Reformers also imply that England’s political evolution is only a partial reflection of its history – and neglects social, gender and cultural themes. But history must start with the framework of authority. The distribution of power within a state is its essence, as wielded by kings, generals, politicians and electorates. Their story has to start with the much-derided reigns, battles, statutes and elections. History without dates wanders aimlessly in a fog. It is chemistry without elements or physics without maths.

I have written a book that covers the main characters and events of England’s history, short enough to be read at one sitting. It is “argued history”, intended to inform and empower debate. The challenges faced by England today remain as they have always been: relations with its neighbouring peoples, and the internal tension between state power and personal freedom. To be in ignorance of how these challenges were met over 1,500 years not only misses a great story. For a democracy, it is dangerous.

Simon Jenkins’s A Short History of England is published this week by Profile books, price £25, and will be serialised in the Guardian over the coming weeks.

October 12, 2011

The Magna Carta: Ideas for All Seasons

Rex no potest peccare (The King can do no wrong)

How many of you have read Unbroken, the bestseller by Laura Hillenbrand about Olympic runner Louis Zamperini ‘s experiences in World War II? Perhaps you will remember the part when Louie and his friends are in a particularly brutal Japanese prisoner of war camp where the Geneva Conventions are ignored and the rule of law is only a memory. In effort to distract themselves from mind numbing cold and starvation, the prisoners take to discussing the Magna Carta and its effect on medieval history. How amazing that in the midst of such deprivation, men on the edge of death focused on the Magna Carta. What a poignant example of the power and durability of the ideas in the Magna Carta. Powerful ideas – those that resonate within the human spirit — endure despite the historical accidents of their creation. The origin of this magnificent heritage was not promising. On the one side was an incompetent reckless King and on the other, a small group of landed hereditary nobility who were tired of the King’s endless demands.

We venerate the idea of the Magna Carta — that freedom is secured under the rule of law and that no person is above the law — even though the Magna Carta or The Great Charter as it later came to be called, was literally nullified within weeks of its sealing. The creation of the Magna Carta was a revolutionary response by a ruling class of barons who were not much different from the despotic monarch they despised. The Magna Carta gave life to the concept that individuals had rights against the previously unlimited power of the state. On June 15, 1215, on a beautiful meadow in Runnymede, halfway between London and the still royal palace at Windsor, 25 of England’s most powerful barons presented a document to King John essentially requiring the King to follow certain rules in dealing with English nobility and, especially, with their property. As was the custom with royal edicts, the King “sealed” the document, signifying approval.

Within days, seven copies of the document sealed by King John were issued from Runnymede and circulated throughout the kingdom; within weeks, six more were issued from Oxford. Even as these Magna Carta copies were being circulated, King John dispatched his envoys to Rome to complain to Pope Innocent III that he had been compelled by “force and fear” to seal the document. By mid-September, 1215, King John’s envoys had returned with papal edicts declaring the Magna Carta contract to be null and void. The Magna Carta had been in effect less than 90 days. Although reissued three times during the reign of John’s son, Henry III, and confirmed by the Crown more than 30 times thereafter, the provisions of the 63 specific “chapters” of the 1215 Magna Carta have largely been repealed and, in any event, never again existed in precisely the form presented to King John at Runnymede in June, 1215.

Remarkably, even though the Magna Carta’s specific provisions were abandoned or repealed, this was no 90 day flameout. Today, somewhere between a quarter and a third of all mankind is governed according to the principles it enshrined. We trace our written constitution, our right to equality and due process under law, our right to a jury trial and our habeas corpus rights to the document presented to King John on June 15, 1215.

The Magna Carta really represents two separate meanings, one literal and one symbolic. The literal meaning arises from the circumstances of 13th Century England and the dispute between and among a tyrannical and foolish monarch, a powerful Church based in Rome and a largely independent group of hereditary noblemen who were increasingly impatient with the personal cost to them of the King’s bad decisions. The symbolic meaning developed over time and is reflective of an ever changing political landscape. The literal meaning came to reference the rights enforced against a monarch by the English nobility; it was the resolution of a power struggle. The symbolic meaning became, and is, increasingly associated with a concept we call the “rule of law”, defined as an impartial justice system which is predictable and fair and which treats all people equally. It might be useful to take a few minutes to review the historical context in which the Magna Carta arose since it does help us to understand the symbol which the Magna Carta became.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of
things. Machiavelli

Historians now think that there was probably very little pomp and ceremony attendant to the proceedings at Runnymede. King John clearly did not want to be a participant but had little choice. The 25 Barons were angry mostly about a seeming never ending increase in royal taxes and required payments but also had little choice. Unlike other times of feudal rebellions in English history, there was no readily identifiable royal replacement for the reigning king. King John believed, probably correctly, that he would be killed if he did not agree to the Barons’ terms.

Much of the language of the 1215 Magna Carta had been smoothed by Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury whose appointment by Pope Innocent III King John had initially opposed. The document which emerged from this turmoil was the product of three competing judicial traditions: royal, ecclesiastical and baronial.

The royal justice system involved all matters that affected the King’s “peace,” whether directly or indirectly. Needless to say, these courts broadly interpreted matters affecting the King’s peace and were often seen as arbitrary and unfair. The Catholic Church, headquartered in Rome, ran the ecclesiastic courts which maintained jurisdiction not only over matters involving the Church’s clergy and religious offenses but most moral, marital and testamentary matters. Barons were given their titles and their large tracts of real property by the Crown; in turn, a Baron, as Lord of the Manor, was given authority to hear disputes involving his tenants who had agreed to work the land in exchange for shelter and security.

King John, whose reputation as wretched monarch has not changed much in the last 800 years, managed to alienate both the ecclesiastical and baronial jurisdictions early in his reign as King. During the first ten years of his monarchy, King John was constantly at odds with the Church since he regarded the Pope to be subordinate to the Crown, a view not shared by the Pope. The Holy Roman Empire, as the Church was frequently known, regarded itself to be a separate and independent sovereign that had shared power with the Crown since its agreement with English King Henry I about one hundred years earlier. The agreement essentially provided that while the nomination of the archbishops serving in England would remain with the Crown, the power to confirm the bishops through the granting of their religious symbols and authority remained with the Church.

This compromise worked well until King John’s choice for Archbishop of Canterbury was rejected by Pope Innocent III who substituted his own choice, Stephen Langton, a man of “superior moral and intellectual greatness. ” King John’s response to Archbishop Langton’s appointment was to confiscate all of the Church’s property in England. This, of course, did not sit well with the Pope who excommunicated King John, suspended religious sacraments in England and declared the English empire a “forfeit from God.” King John was neither smart enough nor strong enough to withstand this kind of pressure from Rome and ultimately capitulated, giving England to the papacy and receiving it back as a “fief” which meant that the Crown was now subordinate to Rome and required to pay homage to the pope. These concessions seemed to have assuaged Pope Innocent III who became a “cautious” ally of the King.

Law and justice are not the same. Gloria Steinem

The Barons’ dissatisfaction with King John was based on systemic and increasingly abusive requirements of the royal justice system. King Henry II had created a centralized royal justice system which the King’s officials administered in a uniform manner to all English people in common and thus the phrase “common law.” Although all litigants appearing in the king’s courts theoretically would be treated the same, almost unlimited discretion was vested in the power of the Crown. It was this potential for arbitrary power that was exploited by King John and lead eventually to the Magna Carta.

King John evidenced great skills as an abuser of judicial prerogatives. He regularly sold legal rights and privileges to the highest bidder and used the judicial system to reward favorites and punish enemies. Before a matter could be heard in a royal court, the parties were required to pay “monarch fees” which were neither uniform nor fair. If the Crown was in need of revenue — which was frequently the case during King John’s reign – litigation fees were increased to cover the royal need without reference to the dispute involved. There were fees for postponements and fees for nearly every aspect of the proceedings and these fees were separate and distinct from fines imposed on losing parties or to purchase freedom in case of incarceration.

Litigants who could not afford to pay the legal fees set by the Crown were forced to borrow from the King in order to pursue a case. Not surprisingly, the terms of these loan agreements were harsh, usually requiring the debtor/litigant to pledge his estate, personal property and, on occasion, family members. Some of the provisions of the 1215 Magna Carta seem peculiar until one understands that on more than one occasion, friends and family members of a debtor were literally held hostage by King John until the loan was repaid in full.

Of course, the King could also simply “forgive” a loan because the debtor was a friend, was a necessary political ally or had provided an “invaluable” service. During King John’s reign, the “invaluable” service usually involved military duty. In the 13th century, all barons were required to serve in the King’s army as well as providing a specific number of knights for military service. As was true with most things, a money fine could be paid to the King in lieu of service and a tax, called “scutage”, could be paid in lieu of knights’ service. Since these were obligations owed to the King, the King could, and did, increase these fines and taxes at whim. King John did so frequently to finance his many military campaigns and to pay the mercenaries he hired to fight on his behalf.

King John was no better a soldier than he was statesman or monarch. With each military defeat, the economic demands on the barons caused by King John’s failures seemed more ludicrous and less justified. By 1215, many barons had renounced loyalty to King John and were actively plotting his overthrow. Of course, this was not unique to1215; almost every English King after William the Conqueror had faced rebellious nobility. This time was different, however, in that there was no “obvious replacement” for King John who had, according to some historians, murdered several potential substitutes. Consequently, the barons decided to focus on King John’s “oppressive government”, particularly the abuses of the legal system which were so costly to them. King John offered to submit the barons’ complaints to a committee of arbitration, chaired by his new best friend, Pope Innocent III. But the Barons were having none of that and, on June 10, 1215, they entered London in force through the open gates of the city. This normally would have been the signal for violent rebellion and King John, then safely ensconced at Windsor Castle, knew it.

It was out of these circumstances that the “Articles of the Barons,” later called the Magna Carta, was sealed by King John in the Runnymede meadow on June 15, 1215. In exchange for the King agreeing to their demands, the barons renewed their oaths of fealty to King John on June 19, 1215. Seen in this context, the Magna Carta is less a statement of lofty legal principles than a pragmatic attempt by the English barons to limit the monarch’s otherwise unlimited powers while protecting their privileges. Almost every one of the Magna Carta “chapters” addresses an issue arising directly from the complaints described above.

The grievances that King John promised to redress in the Magna Carta reflect both the complaints motivating the barons and, almost coincidentally, provide its subsequent symbolic importance. The 1215 Magna Carta promised that justice would not be “sold denied or delayed,” and ensured that certain rights and procedures would be “granted freely.” You now understand the importance of its guarantee of the safe return of hostages, lands, castles and family members who had been, or were being, held as “security” for military service or loan agreements. Its other provisions similarly addressed the various abuses employed during King John’s reign.

As I said earlier, however, the Magna Carta was swiftly annulled by Pope Innocent III, finding it a “shameful and demeaning agreement, forced upon the King by violence and fear” and releasing King John from his oath to obey it. That action plunged England into a civil war known at the First Barons’ War as the barons reverted to a more traditional type of rebellion, replacing a disliked monarch with one whom they liked better. In that instance, and as perhaps the best evidence of the barons’ desperation, the crown of England was offered to Prince Louis of France. As a means of preventing war or as a method of dispute resolution, the 1215 Magna Carta was a failure and was only legally valid for, at most, three months.

However, as a symbol of a written contract between the governed and the government, the Magna Carta endured to become the basis of our own written constitution. What began as essentially a peace treaty between the barons and the king evolved into the basis for constitutional government in the United States and elsewhere. Ironically, it was the death of King John in 1216 which assured that the Magna Carta would survive. At the conclusion of the civil war in 1217, the Magna Carta was reissued on behalf of Henry III, John’s young son. It is that version of the Magna Carta which is with us here today and which became part of English constitutional law, confirmed by later kings and interpreted by Parliament. The differences between and among the many versions of the Magna Carta have occupied scholars for centuries but that is a discussion for another time. What is clear, however, is that the ideas which found their first expression in 1215 in the document forced upon King John have come to us in an almost unbroken path to form the basis of much of our constitutional tradition.

No shall any person be. . .deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. United States Constitution

Everything from the phrase “due process of law” to the right of trial by jury, to the concept of habeas corpus, to the American Revolutionary slogan of “no taxation without representation” to the Equal Protection Clause which forms the basis for both the civil rights and equal rights campaigns can be found either explicitly or by inference in the Magna Carta as even a brief examination of the Magna Carta will show.

The phrase “law of the land” appears throughout the Magna Carta without ever being defined. Nevertheless, it is this phrase which forms the basis for much of the document’s symbolic meaning and modern day courts have found relevant constitutional meaning in the context in which it was used.

In the American colonies, the Magna Carta’s “law of the land” phrase became equated with “due process of law,” a legal principle that has been the cornerstone of procedural fairness in American civil and criminal trials since the late 1700’s. The “due process clause” of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by itself and through its incorporation into the 14th Amendment is the foundation of both procedural fairness in American law and courts and as the basis for fundamental substantive rights, like the right to privacy. Similarly, the Magna Carta linked this “law of the land” notion with the right to a trial by jury, providing that “no free man” would be “seized, imprisoned,. . .outlawed or exiled or injured in any way. . . except by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land, [emphasis added]. In 1215, “lawful judgment of his peers” was accomplished through a proceeding in which 12 knights or landowners familiar with the subject at issue took an oath and swore to testify truthfully about what they knew based on their own observations and other first hand sources. This process, which gave rise to many of our otherwise inexplicable evidentiary rules, was a form of peaceful fact finding far preferable to the trial by battle which characterized dispute resolution before that time. This process of adjudicating disputes by a jury of one’s “peers” became embodied in the 7th Amendment to the United States Constitution as the modern day right to trial by jury by a “truly representative” cross section of the community.

The same section of the Magna Carta also contains the seeds of modern habeas corpus, a legal phrase frequently used and perhaps less often understood. Habeas corpus, which literally means “to bring the body,” is a proceeding to determine whether a person who is jailed, imprisoned or otherwise detained by the government is being lawfully held. If it is decided that the person was detained through “due process of law,” then continued detention is permissible either through trial (if it hasn’t occurred) or post conviction. The Magna Carta similarly permitted continued incarceration if the person’s initial detention was by “the law of the land.”

The United States Supreme Court has also identified the Magna Carta as an early source of the “proportionality” analysis associated with the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Magna Carta prohibited the king from imposing a fine “unless according the measure of the offense.” It further provided that “for a great offense [the defendant] shall be [punished] according to the greatness of the offense.” We now understand that this language was intended to prevent King John from raising and lowering the various fines in the royal courts at whim. The United States Supreme Court, however, found in this concept the prohibition against both state and federal governments from imposing fines and other forms of criminal punishment that are disproportionate to the seriousness of the crime for which the defendant was convicted. Some of you may remember particularly onerous fines or prison terms for a wide variety of motor vehicle offenses and misdemeanors. Challenges to these statutes have invariably raised the 8th Amendment’s proportionality argument and have often prevailed on this point.

Nor is the contemporary significance of the Magna Carta limited to criminal and civil procedure. Early versions of the Magna Carta prohibited the Crown from assessing any military tax (such as “scutage” which I described earlier), “except by the common counsel of [the] realm.” The “common counsel of the realm,” comprised as it was of representatives of English society including clergymen and nobility, was a forerunner of both the English Parliament and, later, of the US Congress.

As it evolved, the common counsel limited the monarch’s and then the government’s power to pass legislation, particularly tax legislation, without popular consent. The existence of this tradition involving tax legislation can be seen in one of our most familiar American sayings: “no taxation without representation.” The representation the Colonists knew and were describing arose from the common counsel which, by the 1770’s, had firmly established its right to be heard on tax legislation, a clear inheritance from the Magna Carta. The hated Stamp Act, passed by Parliament without any participation by the people who would be required to pay it, was opposed at the time as an illegal attempt to raise revenue in violation of the Magna Carta. Indeed, the Magna Carta was much in the mind of the colonists, some of whom contended that “the assembly of barons at Runnymede, when Magna Carta was signed [sic],” was the precedent for the convening of the Continental Congress.

What began as a peace treaty between a despotic King and his angry Barons became a lasting symbol of a written contract between the governed and their government, a contract that even included the right of rebellion when that government ruled without popular consent. The ideas in it endured and were expanded, restated and written into law governing generations of Englishmen, their colonists and, ultimately, countries around the world.

No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.
Theodore Roosevelt

Over time, the Magna Carta also came to represent the “rule of law” which, at its core, is an idea that all governments are bound by law. This distinction between a government which governs according to law and one which governs according to the will of a sovereign did not begin with the Magna Carta but certainly found its roots in the notion that no government official, not even one who claimed to rule by divine right and asserting absolute power, is above the law. This was truly revolutionary in 1215 and, as we have seen in the events around the world of the past few months, revolutionary even today.

Finally the Magna Carta has come to symbolize equality under the law. Certainly the Barons who met King John at Runnymede were a privileged class of male, often hereditary, landowners. But the Magna Carta also contained some protections for women, like the right to refuse to marry and the protection of a widow’s dower interest in one third of her husband’s property. It also, given the times and privileged class who authorized and authored the document, contained some provisions that seemingly applied to every person in the realm, whether “free” or not. For example, “no one” could be compelled to perform service for a knight’s fee. Even more importantly was the clause which provided that “justice” will be sold to “no one.” On the literal level, we can understand that this prohibition arose in response to the abuses of the royal justice system. But as the words have come down to us some 800 years later, we understand the fundamental legal principle that everyone, rich and poor, man or woman, regardless of color or ethnicity must be treated the same under law. It is this principle which found its expression in the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution and which, as interpreted by the highest court in our land, invalidates laws that discriminate or have discriminated on the basis of race, gender, national origin or religion. It is the most American of guarantees and one which still illuminates our imperfect path to the promise of America.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
Dwight Eisenhower

We can trace the profound and important Magna Carta tradition back to the Runnymede meadow nearly 800 years ago when a group of courageous Barons engaged in a revolutionary act that would resonate through the ages. It is worth remembering how much we owe to this now ancient manuscript and the ideas it represents. But we must also remember that this gift is not irrevocable and must protected and nutured in each generation. The rule of law is what separates us from every other form of government since the beginning of time and our inability or failure to recognize that is, in my view, is perhaps the biggest threat to our way of life.

On June 15, 2015, we will return again to the Runnymede meadows to recall this remarkable story. We will recognize our debt to the Barons who decided that they had had enough. Most of all, however, we will celebrate the power of the ideas that endure here and on the streets of Cairo, Tunis, Benghazi and elsewhere as students, lawyers, workers, families, soldiers and shopkeepers call for the rule of law. What a powerful and wonderful idea!

Thank you for the opportunity this has given me, a lawyer, to reflect on all we have inherited from this timeless document.

Alice Richmond
Deputy Chairman
Magna Carta 800th Anniversary 2015 Committee

October 11, 2011

Where Would We Be Without Democracy

If there is any way to make us appreciate what we have, it is by envisaging what life would be like without it. This same concept can be applied to democracy. It is a thought provoking experience, to imagine your life without something you take for granted day by day. To aid you in that experience and to hopefully offer a new appreciation for the liberties we are granted today, here are some examples of how life would be different.

Without democracy, the demographic of Britain today would be entirely different. Some might argue that without documents such as the Magna Carta, or the English Civil War, democracy would have inevitably emerged as the dominant political form. This owes to movements such as the Enlightenment, which represented a drastic shift in philosophical thought. It was at the time of the Enlightenment, for example, that the French Revolution took place – the monarchy was disposed and many in Britain felt its influences would spread. However, consider if neither this change in philosophical thought nor such rebellions occurred – it is possible that the English Civil War might have never taken place.

If, for example, Oliver Cromwell had not led the parliament after the execution of King Charles I, we would not have the parliament we have today. It is worth extensive consideration; the stepping stones that lead to a state becoming democratic are precarious and can even seem coincidental.

It can start to look like a chain reaction. The events in France acted as an impetus for increasing political reform in England. Additionally, without this, the philosophical belief that underpinned the Declaration of Independence, born out of Enlightenment principles, may have never come to existence. In this vain it is even feasible to suggest that modern day American would not exist, but rather exist as colonial subjects to English monarchy.

Without this, then, we would still be subject to Monarchical law and judgement. It presents an odd image in the mind, and it is hard not to imagine the Black Adder depiction of Queen Elizabeth sitting in a 21st century context demanding the heads from her subjects.

Lastly, as democracy has become an intrinsic characteristic to capitalist society, we would be without our modern day luxuries. Forget your iPhone, if Britain had remained ruled by its monarchy then private business practice would have existed in a much smaller, diminutive form. Private entrepreneurship wouldn’t really have existed and today’s industries would have remained affiliated to state, rather than encouraging individuals to achieve their own power.

October 6, 2011

What Democracy Means To Us Today

To many of us democracy is a term that just gets thrown about in our lives, with the strained understanding that it constitutes individual freedom and the power to a voice. It is probably fair to say that we take it for granted and consider it a natural privilege, rather than an earned right. It is worth taking a moment to consider what it really means to the way we live in the 21st century.

Obviously, the whole concept of democracy is political in origin. Yet its principles are something that each of us share day by day. What it means to us is the freedom to do as we choose; it is the opportunity to vote, to get any job of our choosing and to not be discriminated against due to our position at birth. It is something that is being constantly refined over time. A democratic existence isn’t always guaranteed, despite being the core foundations of today’s society.

In these cases, it is easy to become satirical of its institution. However, within such moments it is important not to forget the otherwise unprecedented freedoms and equalities that it grants us. The worth of democracy becomes self-evident through how we live our lives; from the moment we awake in the morning to the moment that we fall asleep. In allows us to control our present and future. This is not only by being able to vote for political representation but, more importantly, being able to face the challenges of 21st century society without the heavy obstacle of inequality.

This might be a touch idealistic – for issues of inequality are still rampant within many sects of the world. Nevertheless, whereas in the past people were silenced due to their race, wealth or position at birth, under democratic states they are still given a voice with which to be heard. Under its protection all individuals are empowered to act and to speak, it does not subjugate and it does not silence.
Its failings, if it has any at all, are derived from its principle that the majority rule. On paper, this seems fair as it caters to the needs of the majority and not a select few. However in ways this can become another form of subjugation – for the needs of the few are unheeded and outweighed by the will of the majority. This can raise issues in countries that have smaller ethnic populations, who may seek different forms of representation to the majority.

Despite these arguable short-comings, however, it is a concept that embraces some of man’s most idealistic qualities and traits. Seldom are ideological institutions flawless or perfect, but it is necessary to credit them for their founding principles. In the case of democracy and how we see it today, remember it is a force and power that gives each individual the right to political expression and freedom of speech. Without it, our modern day existence would be an entirely different reality.

Magna Carta And The Pillars Of Democracy In England

The Magna Carta was a document that marked one of the first instances of democratic change in England’s history. For most of history, the nation has existed under monarchical rule. Often foreign imaginings of England are incorporated with idealised images of quaint country settings, courtiers, dukes and kings. Whilst there is some gravity in these beliefs, it certainly serves to only represent a small vain of the country’s history.

These notions lend themselves to the fantastical, and indeed, the majority of modern day conceptions of fantasy have their origins deeply rooted in English cultural tradition. It is furthered by the global appeal of Shakespeare, plays that depict the lives of kings and members of the aristocracy. Behind the scenes of all this bliss, however, remained the austere face of the country’s social and political condition. The feudal system saw England’s peasantry subjugated by the land-owners. They were not able to own land, but were able to make their living by working the land of another. This was not exclusive to England; similar hegemonic rule could be seen across the rest of the world.

However, when discussing the pillars that formed democracy in England, it is essential to illustrate where the issues existed – and for what reason change was brought about. The Magna Carta represents the beginning of such change. It was a document issued in 1215 to King John. It ordained that no freeman could be punished except through the law of the land. In this sense, it attempted to impose limits on the King’s power – a tenuous, though unmistakable beginning to the principles of democracy.

This legislation did not affect the serfs (i.e. those that were bound to work the land, representing a form of slavery in the feudal system). In hindsight, the document served more as a symbol to the people that change was possible, in addition to a warning of what was yet to come. The document was presented by the some of the King’s closest subjects. It carried profound implications, and its impact can be seen within England today and the events of the following centuries.

Yet whilst the document did a lot to incite the beginnings of change, it did not serve to catalyse any significant rebellions, actions or even permanent changes. Arguably, however, it did enough to trickle the first stones of an avalanche – influencing a series of events that over the next 500 years would result in drastic political and social changes.

It is often said that democracy is built upon certain essential pillars. Whilst it would be hard to say the Magna Carta served as one of these pillars in England, it is certainly evident in the forming of their foundations.

The Seeds Of Democracy

Like a plant susceptible to winter’s grasp, the growth and fruition of democracy as a political ideology has not survived without a fair bit of struggle. As with any belief that opposes the status quo, it has a turbulent history that is stained with violence and blood-shed. Nevertheless, its seeds were sown in fertile soil, and across the world it survived amongst a variation of conflict and political shifts.

At the turn of the 20th century, Russia was facing extensive political and social issues. By the time the First World War had finished, Nicholas II, the last Tsar (Emperor) of the Romanov dynasty had abdicated his throne. In the aftermath of his abdication, a civil war sparked between the Bolshevik party and the anti-Bolshevik parties (aided by certain Western countries). At the point that the Bolshevik victory was secured, the fate of Russia as a communist state was sealed. Whilst on paper this form of socialism seemed to share the same sense of individual equality that democratic states embraced, its political system compromised of a single party state – the Bolshevik party. After Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin took over and chaos followed. It was not until 1989 that communism ended in Russia. Today it exists as a multi-party representative democracy.

For Russia, the road to becoming a democratic state was a turbulent one, to say the least. It took the deaths of millions for the change to occur, and tore at the nation’s cultural heart throughout the 20th century.

America, too, arrived at being a democratic republic through similar strife and hardship. The Declaration of Independence, signed in 1776, has become one of the most recognized documents of democratic ideology. It marks the beginnings of modern day America. Before this time, the British Empire had dominion over the Thirteen Colonies that comprised mid-18th century America. By the end of the century, however, these colonies had secured their independence and gained autonomy.

England saw a similar struggle to achieve democratic right. Since the middle-ages discontent had grown and the subjugation of the people through the feudal system had resulted in increasing social and political unrest. By the time of the 16th and 17th century, this had escalated drastically, taking the form of numerous rebellions. By 1642, England was set in a civil war which saw numerous instances of armed conflict between the Royalist factions and the Parliamentarians.

It resulted in the execution of King Charles I and the establishment of the republican Common Wealth. It formed the foundations of England’s modern day political system and symbolised the growing strength of the people’s voice. In essence, these three instances depict the struggles that followed hand-in-hand with the arrival of a democratic world.

October 1, 2011

Democracy Today

Democracy has flourished across the world since the medieval times. Democracy, in short, is a system of political beliefs which emphasizes the rights of the individual, giving them the power and freedom to choose how they are ruled. It has various sub-definitions, extending across the range of difference ‘types’ of democracies, but fundamentally it shows the same basic concern for social and political equality.

It has become one of the cornerstone characteristics of the ‘free world’, often synonymously associated with the concept of a civilised nation. In this way, it opposes the political systems which existed during the middle ages, namely monarchical government and the feudal system. Under these systems the common people (sometimes known as the serfs or proletariat) lived a life of subservience under the ruler of the land, often someone of aristocratic blood who was born into power and wealth. Needless to say, it was felt that social equality did not exist – people were forced, particularly under monarchical constitution, to accept their ruling as divine providence.

This was particularly rampant during the middle-ages as people were far more zealous with their religious beliefs than they are today. It comes as no surprise, then, that they are retrospectively seen as the darker times in our histories.

Today, democracy exists as the core ideal of the Western world. In essence, democracy is the very air we breathe – it is a political system that safe-guards are values, though we often take it for granted. Democracy as we know it today has arisen out of a range of political movements over the past millennia. It is born from revolution, rebellion, scientific discovery and shifting philosophical belief.
Its cultural influences, however, can be traced back to the Roman era. Before it became the Roman Empire, the Roman people had existed under a republic, embracing a lot of the characteristics that we recognize in today’s democracy. Its senate was determined by the people (albeit only a very select group of privileged people). It can also be identified as far back as Ancient Greece.

These early governments certainly influenced the way that political systems, beliefs and ideals of social equality changed with time. In England, democracy arose from numerous factors. The key turning point was the English Civil War, symbolising the end to absolute monarchy and, for the first time, the creation of a parliament which had a significant degree of power. If we look further back, however, we can see that the beginnings of democracy were evident in the creation of the Magna Carta – the first document to be first forced upon a king by his disgruntled subjects. It was an attempt to limit the power of the king, proclaiming that an individual should be punished through the law of the land rather than have his fate solely subject to the will of the King.

From whichever seed it grows, democracy in all nations exists to serve the liberty of the people – it is regarded as one of humanities most progressive achievements to date.