MAGNA CARTA
The Great Charter of Liberties
This year has been the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in the UK. There have been a lot of events in the UK to mark the occasion. Click on the youtube link below to see just one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6O8FjUWuE
Magna Carta is one of the great legal documents in the world and a stepping-stone towards the democracy that we enjoy today. It is especially important to the United States who trace their own liberties back to this momentous occasion.
The Magna Carta, or more correctly called the Great Charter of Liberties, which was signed at Runnymead in June 1215, forced the tyrannical King John to accept terms dictated by the nobles which restricted royal power.
What is surprising about this document is that it is not the first declaration of such limits on the power of the crown in England.
Henry I in 1100 issued a royal proclamation – the Coronation Charter, as it was vital to ensure a consistent income of money from the nobility for his expenses as king, at least for the duration of his reign, which lasted thirty-five years.
Yet even though the Coronation Charter is acknowledged as the precursor to Magna Carta, it was conveniently forgotten and / or ignored by four Kings, and almost one Queen, over the course of the next century.
It was only after Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, also in long term dispute with King John, dusted off the 113 year old proclamation of Henry I and showed it to the Barons, that the idea of a new and improved charter – a Great Charter took hold.
So the Mars-bar question now is: what is the error in the above text?
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