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.
[...] He wanted to know the number of lands, their owners and the values of these lands to determine taxes. But some problems of accuracy are met because some places in the North are not included, and because the officers do not all use the same methods: this is why we can say that, because of a lack of laws, treasury matters are left to chance and are, therefore, sometimes unfair. However, for justice, some institutions already exist: Henry II, William the Conqueror's great grandson, develops common law with the idea of the use of juries in some cases to make the law courts as fair as possible: thanks to it, an accused man can claim “trial by jury” and has to choose twelve of his neighbours. [...]
[...] Nevertheless, we also have to say that some elements of the Magna Carta have been forgotten: for example, the Great Charter protects the privileges f the Church, while Henry VIII signs the Act of Supremacy in 1534 in order to separate the government and the Pope; this is why Henry VIII becomes the Head of the English Church. Furthermore, we can say that, even today, the Magna Carta has left marks in English politics: indeed, England is nowadays a Parliamentary Monarchy. [...]
[...] III] The consequences of the Magna Carta after 1215 After the reign of King John, such a document cannot be forgotten, and, on the contrary, the English institutions have not stopped improving from then on: the first step is the organization of the first Parliament in 1258. At this time, nobles think that King Henry III crowned in 1232- wastes the state's money, a thought reinforced by the fact that he offers to pay the Pope's debts. 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 Magna Carta symbolizes the beginning of a new era of the English system, because most of the feudal values are not respected with it: first of all, we can see it thanks to the co-operation between nobles and freemen; in feudalism, the different classes communicate by an exchange of services and not by an alliance. Moreover, the lords prefer now to ask money from their vassals instead of getting them to work on their lands: they lose their names of serfs and become a kind of tenants, even if they still do not have any liberty. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
