Magna carta (synopsis ) (2)

MAGNA CARTA 800 years of Democracy

King John signing the Magna Carta at Runnymede on June 15, 1215

MAGNA CARTA

MAGNA CARTA

1215 - 2015 800 Years of Democracy

1215 - 2015 800 Years of Democracy MAGNA CARTA SYNOPSIS The Barrister magazine’s Magna Carta Anniversary Magazine is a commemorative supplement elebrating the 800 years of Democracy since the historic signing of the Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede on June 15 1215 The supplement will include articles from some of Britians Finest legal minds on the impact of such a historic documnent 800 years on.

Magna Carta 800 years on will be A4 colour and stapled into the June issue of the barrister magazine.

PROPOSED CONTENTS LIST Introduction/ Magna Carta / What is Magna Carta Eight facts about Magna Carta Landmark Bills and Treaties the Magna Carta has spawned An outline look at the British seat of government today. Houses of Lords/Commons Articles contributed by leading legal practitioners More facts about the influence of the Magna carta Interview Christine Duffy (Imaging scientist) about her work on the burnt copy of the Magna Carta using ground-breaking multispectral imaging techniques to recover lost text etc.

List of Magna Carta related events/Talks/Exhibitions

MAGNA CARTA

1215 - 2015 800 Years of Democracy

MAGNA CARTA The Human Rights Act: 800 years in the making The Magna Carta marked the birth of a proud tradition of human rights in the UK, which eventually led to the passing of the Human Rights Act of 1998 Here, we summarise eight things you need to know about Magna Carta:

MAGNA CARTA John, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants and to all his officials and loyal subjects, greeting.

So begins the text of Magna Carta, as agreed by King John and the barons of England on 15 June 1215. This is one of the four surviving copies of Magna Carta dispatched within the month to various bishops, and possibly sheriffs, throughout the kingdom. The document itself starts with a large capital ‘I’ (for ‘Iohannes’) in the upper left-hand corner. It is written on sheepskin parchment, in a documentary script, by a single scribe.

The Latin text is in continuous prose — the division into separate clauses is a later phenomenon — but there are additions in the lower margin, denoting passages which were either omitted in error by the scribe or represent last minute revisions. Of the surviving 1215 copies, this document alone is written in landscape format; King John’s seal is no longer attached, but a central slit at the foot apparently shows where the seal-tag was located.

The medieval provenance of this copy of Magna Carta is unknown, but it has a curious later history. According to one account, it was discovered in a London tailor’s shop, before being presented to Sir Robert Cotton (d. 1631) by Humphrey Wymes of the Inner Temple on 1 January 1628/9. Cotton’s manuscripts later entered the British Museum (now the British Library), and this Magna Carta has been on regular display since 1857.

Although very large for an early 13th-century royal charter, its appearance is otherwise unprepossessing. King John could surely never have anticipated the enduring international legacy of Magna Carta, which closes with the words: Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall be observed in good faith and without deceit … Given by our hand in the meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign.

• Magna Carta is a 13th-century document enshrining the rights, privileges and liberties of the clergy and the nobles, and placing limits on the power of the crown. Most of the 63 clauses deal with the administration of justice, and the detail of feudal rights and customs • It was granted by King John in June 1215. The document was drawn up after his barons rebelled and forced him to agree to limitations on his power, because he had demanded heavy taxes to fund his unsuccessful wars in France • Much significance was placed on Magna Carta in later years, but at the time it was primarily “a practical solution to a political crisis which primarily served the interests of the highest ranks of feudal society by reasserting the power of custom to limit despotic behaviour by the king”.

• Only three of the original clauses in Magna Carta are still law. One defends the freedom and rights of the English church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, and the third paved the way for trial by jury by stating that no man could be arrested, imprisoned or have their possessions taken away except by “the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land” • Magna Carta was – and continues to be – significant because it placed limits on royal authority, and made clear that the monarch was not above the law • Magna Carta was written on parchment, which was made from dried sheepskin. The scribes who produced it wrote in medieval Latin and abbreviated words to save space on the parchment, says the British Library • Many copies of the document were sent out to bishops and sheriffs across the country, says the British Library. The exact number is unknown, but four survive: one in Lincoln, one in Salisbury, and two in the British Library

By August 1215, Pope Innocent III had annulled Magna Carta, declaring it null and void and having been sealed under duress. King John died of dysentery aged 50 in October that year. But, says Magna Carta 800th, “over the course of the next 800 years, the idea of Magna Carta gathered momentum and assumed a greater authority in respect of the central key clauses concerning liberty and justice. These central clauses, usually referred to as 38 and 39, have not only stood the test of time, but have a potency of their own which has seen off hundreds of attempts at annulment, repeal, modification and suspension by successive monarchs and governments”