Magna Carta

Lit. 'Great Charter'. The first version of this document of June 1215 had 63 clauses. Magna Carta (first known as the Articles of the Barons) emerged out of King John's dispute with rebelling barons. John saw it as a means of placating his opponents; they saw it as a means of controlling the king. The document was agreed at Runnymede and the following temporary peace is sometimes known as the Peace of Runnymede. A copy of Magna Carta was sent to every sheriff in England to be read out at the shire court. But that peace lasted a few months only. On the fresh outbreak of hostilities, the French king, Louis VIII, was invited to come to England and take the crown. Magna Carta was effectively forgotten. However, on the accession of Henry III, after King John's death in October 1216, it was reissued, somewhat modified. A third version was produced in 1217. Finally in 1225 it reached its fourth and final form. This is the version usually referred to, unless otherwise specified. Famously, it proclaimed in chapter 35 that 'no free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or disseised [i.e. dispossessed of property or rights] . . . except by the lawful judgement of his peers'. Another clause, equally important, states 'To no one will we [the crown] sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice'. Copies of the 1215 version remain in existence: one at Lincoln Cathedral, one at Salisbury Cathedral, while the British Library has two. It has come to represent a statement of basic liberties, though many of its provisions, such as those dealing with forest law, are now irrelevant. -

Cf. Disseisin; Justice-in-eyre