The significance of the Magna Carta

Résumé du document

The Magna Carta is a charter signed by King John in 1215, during the Middle Ages, a period organized around the system of feudalism. This text embodies an enormous advance politically speaking: it is the basis of the whole English institution. Nevertheless, to discuss the significance of such a text, we need to know which events led to its writing. But the main question of this study remains:" What is the place of the Magna Carta in the political history of Britain?"
This is why we will see, first of all, what the context before the charter is, from a social and a political point of view. Then, we need to study the writing and the content of the text in itself. Lastly, it is important to analyse the consequences of this fundamental law after 1215.

Extraits

[...] Thus, some gentry and merchants gather together and become the “house of Commons”. And we can add that Edward I repeats the idea of the link between taxation and government: this idea suggested in the Magna Carta becomes the system of taxation without representation”. Edward thus, has been loyal to the Great Charter: he has respected its words and has carried on in its sense, as every King since King John recognizes this text, until the end of the Middle Ages. [...]

[...] This is why, forty-three years after the signature of the Magna Carta, Simon de Montfort, duke of Leicester, has the idea of creating a council for the nobility. The terms of this council are in the Provisions of Oxford and explain that the councillors have to meet together three times a year and that the Justices of the Peace will be created to give justice all over England. In 1267, through the Statute of Marlborough, the King and the nobility recognize that the Magna Carta has to be reinforced: once again, we can say that the Magna Carta is just the beginning of an important list of events which will change the population's rights. [...]

[...] After 1215, the document is taken more and more seriously and becomes a fundamental law of the English Institutions. It is for all these facts that we can say that the significance of the Magna Carta is summed up in the contemporary English government: the Great Charter is the basis of the English politics as a whole. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mc Dowall, David, An Illustrated History of Britain. Harlow: Longman (1989) Lane Poole, Austin, From Domesday Book to Magna Carta. Oxford University Press, 1993. [...]

[...] Thus, the latter is forced to sign the Magna Carta. This document, written by some nobles and signed by King John in 1215, defines the power of the King and prevents him from manipulating the lords, defines the rights of the subjects, guarantees the privileges of the Church and opens the Court of Justice to all freemen (even if this term does not represent a majority of the population). This is a fundamental law because it introduces the idea that paying taxes has a link with participation in government. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, to discuss the significance of such a text, we need to know which events led to its writing. But the main question of this study remains:” What is the place of the Magna Carta in the political history of Britain?” This is why we will see, first of all, what the context before the charter is, from a social and a political point of view. Then, we need to study the writing and the content of the text in itself. Lastly, it is important to analyse the consequences of this fundamental law after 1215. [...]