More on Magna Carta

 

 

 

I will admit that as a High School student I learned about the Magna Carts, but didn't really know how important the Magna Carta is.

The Magna Carta, I understand, holds rulers accountable to other bodies of government within a state or country.  In the Untied sates the President is accountable to the Legislative body (Senate & House of Reperesentatives) and Judicial Body (Supreme Court) Before the Magna Carta rulers would tax, take their land or execute people on a whim. Of course, the King of England at the time was not happy to  agree to signing as all rulers at the time were "The Law".  His subjects threatened an uprising if he did not agree to sign.  Also from what I read it was written in Latin.  So it was probably the church (Catholic) which had it's hand in the writing. 

 

 

 

A little more about the Magna Carta from Wikipedia...

Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum (Great Charter of Freedoms), is an English charter originally issued in 1215. It required the King to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or fettered — most notably the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment.

Magna Carta was the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitional law today. Magna Carta influenced the development of the common law and many constitutional documents, such as the United States Constitution. Many clauses were renewed throughout the Middle Ages, and continued to be renewed as late as the 18th century. By the second half of the 19th century, however, most clauses in their original form had been  repealed from English law.

Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by his subjects in an attempt to limit his powers by law. It was preceded by the 1100 Charter of Liberties in which King Henry I voluntarily stated that his own powers were under the law.

In practice Magna Carta mostly did not limit the power of the King in the Middle Ages; by the time of the English Civil War, however, it had become an important symbol for those who wished to show that the King was bound by the law.

Magna Carta is normally understood to refer to a single document, that of 1215. Various amended versions of the Magna Carta appeared in subsequent years however, and it is the 1332 version which remains on the statute books of England and Wales.