Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe), guest blogger
“The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It was written in Magna Carta.”
–Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Third Inaugural address (1941)
On June 15, in the year 1215 AD, the King of England was an involuntary “guest” of a group of forty rather angry Barons in a field at Runnymede. After the Barons explained “the facts of life” to him, King John affixed his Seal to a document they called the Magna Carta. In those days, documents were not signed, as is the custom today. Instead of a signature, the official Seal of the person “signing” was impressed into hot wax poured onto the document.
King John consented to the Baron’s demands, sealing the document in hope of averting a civil war. Ten weeks later, Pope Innocent III proclaimed the Magna Carta document null and void, plunging England into a civil war the King and Barons had hoped to avoid. Fortunately, for posterity and the law, King John died before Pope Innocent III’s decree became law. He died only 15 months after sealing the Magna Carta.
Although this magnificent document did not solve King John’s immediate problems, it was reissued in multiple copies after his death, and was read to the people throughout England. In fact, when the first English settlers landed on the shores of Colonies around the world, they took their rights with them.
Years later, when the American Colonies decided to break away from control by England, the writers of the Declaration of Independence and new Constitution had the rights first enumerated in the Magna Carta very much in mind.
Exact copies of the document, called “exemplifications,” were made, so all of the participants would each have one of the originals. The picture above is of one of the four original exemplifications. This copy has been conserved and restored by the Archives responsible for it. There was a copy for the Royal archives, one for each of the Barons, and one for each of the 40 counties existing in England at the time. If there was a single ‘master copy’ of the first Magna Carta sealed by King John on this date in 1215, it has not survived. Four of the original exemplifications still exist, one of them in the National Archives of the United States.
There have been a number of reissues of the Magna Carta, in several versions. In 1759, Sir William Blackstone wrote an analysis of the Magna Carta, which he titled, The Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest. In that treatise, Blackstone created the numbering system for the sections, which are still in use today.
Some later versions were edited for the benefit of the nobleman or landowner commissioning the reproduction, however, hidden away near the middle of the dense Latin manuscript in the original are these words:
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled … except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.”
This was a legal concept unknown at the time until the Barons inserted it into the document to be sealed by King John. For the first time in history, the right of habeas corpus was made law.
The rights of the common person, the peasants, and other commoners of the day were probably not very high on the list of priorities of the Barons. However, and probably unwittingly, they unleashed human rights on the people in ways they could hardly have imagined. Here are just two excerpts:
“No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.”
“To no one will We sell, to no one will We deny or delay, right or justice.”
So let’s wish The Great Charter a happy 798th birthday. There are already plans in the works at several historical sites to celebrate the 800th anniversary in 2015.
The floor is open for discussion, and if anyone has any ideas on how to bring it (and its progeny) back as enforceable–and enforced–law, I am certainly interested.
hmm, 2 more years & we’ll be at the 900th anniversary. ‘spose there’ll be any vestige of the document still remaining in our government?
Active citizenship– as in ‘use it or lose it’!
Metadata, Megadata, we got the clap
Clapper, Clapper he’s the chap.
First came spies, then came lies.
Obama don’t see nuthin he aint got eyes.
— chant from the kids protesting in Hong Kong
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What’s interesting is in the Texas Capitol sits a copy if the entire Magna Carta…. Now, its not certain that they can read in the legislature…. Nor comprehend what they do read…. But it’s on display….
You see… Just because you’ve got dunces there now…. They were not all dunces at one time….. It’s just they were republicans…. And partisianshit took over…..
A constitution of charter is only enforceable if the gov’t is willing to adhere to it. When the gov’t isn’t it is restorable only if the citizenry is willing to do so.
Gene, Chuck:
It’s doesn’t matter if it was the 15th or the 19th. As far as exact anniversaries are concerned when England officially converted from the Julian to the Gregorian calendars there were days lost during the conversion (11 I believe). So it is all relative anyway. 🙂
Mike,
Point well taken. I have some thoughts on the problems that sprang up with the creation of a single entity, Homeland Security, to handle a myriad of functions, some of which appear to be mutually exclusive.
“I have some thoughts on the problems that sprang up with the creation of a single entity, Homeland Security, to handle a myriad of functions, some of which appear to be mutually exclusive.”
OS,
I agree, but then when I first heard the name “Homeland Security” I shuddered.
I hope you keep getting better, staying warm and hanging loose.
Yesterday the people of Hong Kong demonstrated in support of Snowden and demanded that the Hong Kong government not arrest him or turn him over the U.S. igPays. Here is a snippet from a Brit newspaper.
Protesters marched to Hong Kong’s government headquarters demanding their leaders protect Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who fled to the city after exposing a U.S. surveillance program.
About 200 people, some carrying banners saying “Protect Free Speech” and chanting slogans such as “NSA has no say,” marched to the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong in the rain before making their way to the government building. Protesters blew whistles as a sign of solidarity with Snowden.
“We must not let anybody intervene, be it from Beijing or be it from Washington, because we have the rule of law,” Albert Ho, a legislator from Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, said to the protesting crowd. “Mr. Snowden should be given the right under our law to stay in Hong Kong.”
Snowden’s flight to Hong Kong after he exposed the NSA program may pose a challenge to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. China, which took back sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997, could refuse his extradition if it’s related to defense or foreign affairs.
Leung said Saturday Hong Kong will handle Snowden’s case according to the laws and procedures of the city “when the relevant mechanism is activated,” according to a statement on the government website. Hong Kong will “follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other rights of the institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated.”
The city’s legislature may also debate cybersecurity after Snowden told the South China Morning Post the U.S. had been hacking Hong Kong and China since 2009.
“What he’s doing is basically sacrificing his freedom to challenge such a powerful country,” said Eason Chung, the student union president at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who took part in the protest. “He is telling the world your privacy and human rights are being invaded by the U.S.”
The ultimate decision over Snowden’s fate may lie in Beijing. In editorials yesterday, China’s government-controlled media said the nation should seek more information from Snowden and demand the U.S. explain itself over the surveillance program he exposed.
“Hong Kong has no say whatsoever,” Legislative Council member Ronny Tong said on Bloomberg Television yesterday. “That’s why you see our chief executive not saying anything at all. He is waiting for instructions from Beijing. I think Beijing is sitting back, probably enjoying the moment, before deciding what they want to do next.”
Protesters also demanded Saturday that the U.S. government doesn’t extradite the former Central Intelligence Agency technical assistant.
“Snowden said he came to Hong Kong because it has a rich tradition of political dissent and freedom of speech and we’re going to demonstrate that,” said Tom Grundy, an activist who jointly organized the protest. “We’re all whistleblowers today.”
China is following developments in Snowden’s case, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing in Beijing yesterday. She declined to comment when asked how China would respond to any U.S. extradition attempt.
“What cyberspace needs is not war or hegemony, not irresponsible attacks, but regulation and cooperation,” Hua said. She said China looks forward to more dialogue with the U.S. on cybersecurity.
Counterintelligence and criminal investigators in the U.S. are examining whether Snowden might have been recruited or exploited by China. The U.S. is working on “a thorough scrub” of Snowden’s possible ties to China, Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters in Washington yesterday.
–end
I scanned the news and do not see any news that Americans are protesting on Snowden’s behalf. In Hong Kong they are blowing whistles. Nice touch.
I cited the Magna Carta a bunch of times as common law. It is directly relevant to my situation. I was run out of Steamboat Springs using a restraining order to benefit Jane Bennett that used the forms for an intimate relationship complete w children but not only am I not a lesbian I never had sex or even tried to have sex w Jane Bennett. She testified under oath that there was no touching, that I hadn’t called her in years and that we had very little contact but that I accused her and the convicted drug dealer she is married to of violating the zoning. Then I was ordered to pay Jane Bennett’s attorney bills with no finding of why I should. Then it was ordered that I couldn’t have an evidentiary hearing. Then it was ordered that I should be imprisoned for 5 months with no criminal charge and no evidentiary hearing, no statutory basis was cited and there was no trial and no bail hearing. Then the USMS declared that I was a federal prisoner for prostitution even though I wasn’t charged with prostitution or arrested for prostitution and prostitution isn’t a federal crime.
OS,
Understood (and I hope you are feeling better and taking it easy).
I have no issue with either the 15th or the 19th as the date as in a technical manner both can and do make sense historically.
“No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.”
“To no one will We sell, to no one will We deny or delay, right or justice.”
Isn’t it amazing that almost 800 years after the signing of the Magna Carta, these simple principles are under attack by some in a country whose legal tradition comes from English Common Law. Moreover, it is astounding that people who supposedly are well versed in “the Law” want to ignore it in order to meet some amorphous threat.
Gene,
I am running on empty due to lack of sleep and still recovering from pneumonia. When I tried to post earlier, I lost all but a couple of paragraphs. Rewriting and re-editing has given me a massive headache. You are right. It took them several days to hammer out the final agreement. Not an unusual arrangement, but one our legislatures and gridlocked Congress could learn from. I believe the traditional day accepted by historians is June 15; or at least, that is the date given on most history web sites.
When the barons with the support of Prince Louis (the French Heir) and of King Alexander II of the Scots, entered London in force on June 10, 1215 largely unopposed, they essentially forced King John to agree to the ‘Articles of the Barons’ at Runnymede on June 15,1215. This agreement was technically the precursor to the Magna Carta officially created and entered into on June 19, 1215.
So it is and isn’t four days early, but it isn’t a month early.
Working on no sleep. This is timely as it gets given the current state of affairs.
You’re a month early.
I wish I had a suggestion to pass on but this is not a happy day for Magna Carta enthusiasts. It would appear that it and its great concepts are obsolete while Pope Innocent III has sprung back to life. But sometimes the impossible happens. Happy Birthday Magna Carta!