historicaldocuments:magna-carta
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+ | ====== The Magna Carta ====== | ||
+ | <WRAP center round info 60%> | ||
+ | Source: https:// | ||
+ | </ | ||
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+ | Abuses by King John caused a revolt by nobles who compelled him to execute this recognition of rights for both noblemen and ordinary Englishmen. It established the principle that no one, including the king or a lawmaker, is above the law. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The Magna Carta ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | **(The Great Charter)** | ||
+ | |||
+ | **Preamble: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. In the first place we have granted to God, and by this our present charter confirmed for us and our heirs forever that the English Church shall be free, and shall have her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate; and we will that it be thus observed; which is apparent from this that the freedom of elections, which is reckoned most important and very essential to the English Church, we, of our pure and unconstrained will, did grant, and did by our charter confirm and did obtain the ratification of the same from our lord, Pope Innocent III, before the quarrel arose between us and our barons: and this we will observe, and our will is that it be observed in good faith by our heirs forever. We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. If any of our earls or barons, or others holding of us in chief by military service shall have died, and at the time of his death his heir shall be full of age and owe " | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. If, however, the heir of any one of the aforesaid has been under age and in wardship, let him have his inheritance without relief and without fine when he comes of age. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 4. The guardian of the land of an heir who is thus under age, shall take from the land of the heir nothing but reasonable produce, reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without destruction or waste of men or goods; and if we have committed the wardship of the lands of any such minor to the sheriff, or to any other who is responsible to us for its issues, and he has made destruction or waster of what he holds in wardship, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall be responsible for the issues to us or to him to whom we shall assign them; and if we have given or sold the wardship of any such land to anyone and he has therein made destruction or waste, he shall lose that wardship, and it shall be transferred to two lawful and discreet men of that fief, who shall be responsible to us in like manner as aforesaid. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 5. The guardian, moreover, so long as he has the wardship of the land, shall keep up the houses, parks, fishponds, stanks, mills, and other things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of the same land; and he shall restore to the heir, when he has come to full age, all his land, stocked with ploughs and wainage, according as the season of husbandry shall require, and the issues of the land can reasonable bear. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance; | ||
+ | |||
+ | 8. No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to live without a husband; provided always that she gives security not to marry without our consent, if she holds of us, or without the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 9. Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any land or rent for any debt, as long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to repay the debt; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the principal debtor is able to satisfy the debt; and if the principal debtor shall fail to pay the debt, having nothing wherewith to pay it, then the sureties shall answer for the debt; and let them have the lands and rents of the debtor, if they desire them, until they are indemnified for the debt which they have paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show proof that he is discharged thereof as against the said sureties. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 10. If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, great or small, die before that loan be repaid, the debt shall not bear interest while the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold; and if the debt fall into our hands, we will not take anything except the principal sum contained in the bond. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 11. And if anyone die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if any children of the deceased are left under age, necessaries shall be provided for them in keeping with the holding of the deceased; and out of the residue the debt shall be paid, reserving, however, service due to feudal lords; in like manner let it be done touching debts due to others than Jews. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 12. No scutage not aid shall be imposed on our kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our person, for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be done concerning aids from the city of London. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 13. And the city of London shall have all it ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 14. And for obtaining the common counsel of the kingdom anent the assessing of an aid (except in the three cases aforesaid) or of a scutage, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 15. We will not for the future grant to anyone license to take an aid from his own free tenants, except to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter; and on each of these occasions there shall be levied only a reasonable aid. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 16. No one shall be distrained for performance of greater service for a knight' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be held in some fixed place. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 18. Inquests of novel disseisin, of mort d' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 19. And if any of the said assizes cannot be taken on the day of the county court, let there remain of the knights and freeholders, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a slight offense, except in accordance with the degree of the offense; and for a grave offense he shall be amerced in accordance with the gravity of the offense, yet saving always his " | ||
+ | |||
+ | 21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced except through their peers, and only in accordance with the degree of the offense. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 22. A clerk shall not be amerced in respect of his lay holding except after the manner of the others aforesaid; further, he shall not be amerced in accordance with the extent of his ecclesiastical benefice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 23. No village or individual shall be compelled to make bridges at river banks, except those who from of old were legally bound to do so. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 24. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or others of our bailiffs, shall hold pleas of our Crown. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 25. All counties, hundred, wapentakes, and trithings (except our demesne manors) shall remain at the old rents, and without any additional payment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 26. If anyone holding of us a lay fief shall die, and our sheriff or bailiff shall exhibit our letters patent of summons for a debt which the deceased owed us, it shall be lawful for our sheriff or bailiff to attach and enroll the chattels of the deceased, found upon the lay fief, to the value of that debt, at the sight of law worthy men, provided always that nothing whatever be thence removed until the debt which is evident shall be fully paid to us; and the residue shall be left to the executors to fulfill the will of the deceased; and if there be nothing due from him to us, all the chattels shall go to the deceased, saving to his wife and children their reasonable shares. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be distributed by the hands of his nearest kinsfolk and friends, under supervision of the Church, saving to every one the debts which the deceased owed to him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take corn or other provisions from anyone without immediately tendering money therefor, unless he can have postponement thereof by permission of the seller. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 29. No constable shall compel any knight to give money in lieu of castle-guard, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other person, shall take the horses or carts of any freeman for transport duty, against the will of the said freeman. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for our castles or for any other work of ours, wood which is not ours, against the will of the owner of that wood. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 32. We will not retain beyond one year and one day, the lands those who have been convicted of felony, and the lands shall thereafter be handed over to the lords of the fiefs. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 33. All kydells for the future shall be removed altogether from Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except upon the seashore. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 34. The writ which is called praecipe shall not for the future be issued to anyone, regarding any tenement whereby a freeman may lose his court. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 35. Let there be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm; and one measure of ale; and one measure of corn, to wit, "the London quarter"; | ||
+ | |||
+ | 36. Nothing in future shall be given or taken for a writ of inquisition of life or limbs, but freely it shall be granted, and never denied. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 37. If anyone holds of us by fee-farm, either by socage or by burage, or of any other land by knight' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 38. No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsupported complaint, put anyone to his " | ||
+ | |||
+ | 39. No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 41. All merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England, and entry to England, with the right to tarry there and to move about as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient and right customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in time of war) such merchants as are of the land at war with us. And if such are found in our land at the beginning of the war, they shall be detained, without injury to their bodies or goods, until information be received by us, or by our chief justiciar, how the merchants of our land found in the land at war with us are treated; and if our men are safe there, the others shall be safe in our land. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 42. It shall be lawful in future for anyone (excepting always those imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the kingdom, and natives of any country at war with us, and merchants, who shall be treated as if above provided) to leave our kingdom and to return, safe and secure by land and water, except for a short period in time of war, on grounds of public policy- reserving always the allegiance due to us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 43. If anyone holding of some escheat (such as the honor of Wallingford, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 44. Men who dwell without the forest need not henceforth come before our justiciaries of the forest upon a general summons, unless they are in plea, or sureties of one or more, who are attached for the forest. | ||
+ | 45. We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 46. All barons who have founded abbeys, concerning which they hold charters from the kings of England, or of which they have long continued possession, shall have the wardship of them, when vacant, as they ought to have. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 47. All forests that have been made such in our time shall forthwith be disafforsted; | ||
+ | |||
+ | 48. All evil customs connected with forests and warrens, foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, river banks and their wardens, shall immediately by inquired into in each county by twelve sworn knights of the same county chosen by the honest men of the same county, and shall, within forty days of the said inquest, be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored, provided always that we previously have intimation thereof, or our justiciar, if we should not be in England. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 49. We will immediately restore all hostages and charters delivered to us by Englishmen, as sureties of the peace of faithful service. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks, the relations of Gerard of Athee (so that in future they shall have no bailiwick in England); namely, Engelard of Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew of Chanceaux, Guy of Cigogne, Geoffrey of Martigny with his brothers, Philip Mark with his brothers and his nephew Geoffrey, and the whole brood of the same. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 51. As soon as peace is restored, we will banish from the kingdom all foreign born knights, crossbowmen, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 52. If anyone has been dispossessed or removed by us, without the legal judgment of his peers, from his lands, castles, franchises, or from his right, we will immediately restore them to him; and if a dispute arise over this, then let it be decided by the five and twenty barons of whom mention is made below in the clause for securing the peace. Moreover, for all those possessions, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 53. We shall have, moreover, the same respite and in the same manner in rendering justice concerning the disafforestation or retention of those forests which Henry our father and Richard our broter afforested, and concerning the wardship of lands which are of the fief of another (namely, such wardships as we have hitherto had by reason of a fief which anyone held of us by knight' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 54. No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman, for the death of any other than her husband. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 55. All fines made with us unjustly and against the law of the land, and all amercements, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 56. If we have disseised or removed Welshmen from lands or liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them; and if a dispute arise over this, then let it be decided in the marches by the judgment of their peers; for the tenements in England according to the law of England, for tenements in Wales according to the law of Wales, and for tenements in the marches according to the law of the marches. Welshmen shall do the same to us and ours. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 57. Further, for all those possessions from which any Welshman has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or removed by King Henry our father, or King Richard our brother, and which we retain in our hand (or which are possessed by others, and which we ought to warrant), we will have respite until the usual term of crusaders; excepting those things about which a plea has been raised or an inquest made by our order before we took the cross; but as soon as we return (or if perchance we desist from our expedition), | ||
+ | |||
+ | 58. We will immediately give up the son of Llywelyn and all the hostages of Wales, and the charters delivered to us as security for the peace. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 59. We will do towards Alexander, king of Scots, concerning the return of his sisters and his hostages, and concerning his franchises, and his right, in the same manner as we shall do towards our owher barons of England, unless it ought to be otherwise according to the charters which we hold from William his father, formerly king of Scots; and this shall be according to the judgment of his peers in our court. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 60. Moreover, all these aforesaid customs and liberties, the observances of which we have granted in our kingdom as far as pertains to us towards our men, shall be observed b all of our kingdom, as well clergy as laymen, as far as pertains to them towards their men. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 61. Since, moveover, for God and the amendment of our kingdom and for the better allaying of the quarrel that has arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these concessions, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 62. And all the will, hatreds, and bitterness that have arisen between us and our men, clergy and lay, from the date of the quarrel, we have completely remitted and pardoned to everyone. Moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said quarrel, from Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration of peace, we have fully remitted to all, both clergy and laymen, and completely forgiven, as far as pertains to us. And on this head, we have caused to be made for them letters testimonial patent of the lord Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, of the lord Henry, archbishop of Dublin, of the bishops aforesaid, and of Master Pandulf as touching this security and the concessions aforesaid. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 63. Wherefore we will and firmly order that the English Church be free, and that the men in our kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, | ||
+ | Given under our hand - the above named and many others being witnesses - in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is but one of three different translations I found of the Magna Carta; it was originally done in Latin, probably by the Archbishop, Stephen Langton. It was in force for only a few months, when it was violated by the king. Just over a year later, with no resolution to the war, the king died, being succeeded by his 9-year old son, Henry III. The Charter (Carta) was reissued again, with some revisions, in 1216, 1217 and 1225. As near as I can tell, the version presented here is the one that preceeded all of the others; nearly all of it's provisions were soon superceded by other laws, and none of it is effective today. \\ | ||
+ | The two other versions I found each professed to be the original, as well. The basic intent of each is the same.\\ | ||
+ | Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300)\\ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Prepared by Nancy Troutman (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa345). Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN).\\ | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{page>: | ||
historicaldocuments/magna-carta.txt · Last modified: 2021/02/23 16:15 by 127.0.0.1