The Magna Carta document in the legal development of England
Introduction
The Magna Carta is a 1215 document, which contains a serious statutes that served for the development of the England Development System. This system served as the basis for most ancient English colonies to write their own legal systems. The correct name of the Magna Carta is the Libertatum Magna Carta, (the Magna de las Liberties Carta). It is commonly known as the Magna Cart. Due to the pressure exerted by the nobles and the Church the King Juan without land was forced to sign the document.
Enrique I’s liberty letter, which preceded the Magna Carta included many of the rights that later appeared in this document. Some of the clauses contained in the Magna Carta influenced later constitutions such as that of the United States.
Developing
"Juan Sin Tierra" came to power in 1199 due to the death of his brothers and successor of El Rey Ricardo. Juan is known as an extremely cruel, unscrupulous person, tried to remove his brother’s brother Ricardo, while he was in the East fighting in the third crusade. He made several treaties Col los Reyes of France, the Catholic Church and the English nobility that in principle was of great benefit, however, throughout the document and gave rise to the document.
In the war with France which by the way he lost, I end the possible reign in the continent of England, weakened to John, causing a limitation of his power, he is more left than accepting the imposition of the Magna Carta. His lawsuit with the Church was of the utmost importance for the great letter for the appointment of the replacement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, there were two candidates, one for the religious and the other by King Juan. For discord he submitted to the Vatican, Pope Innocent III, who discarded both and named Stephen Langton, this was unknown by King Juan. The Pope responded by prohibiting all the sacraments, with the exception of baptism, the pressure of the continuous Pope until he excommunicated King John, and entrusted a crusade to remove it by force, on the eve of the invasion, King Juan He accepted the conditions of the Church, being some of these, becoming a feudal vassal of the Pope and recognizing Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Shortly after being in England, Langton brought together the nobility to create a series of reforms that would be included in the Magna Carta. Many of the nobility did not agree with King Juan, and discord was largely caused by the increases and arbitrariness of King Juan’s demands, to finance his wars in France. Langton was able to channel the discomfort of the nobles who showed him in a rejection of paying the king, and doing it as a support, with which it is possible to write a documents known as “the articles of the barons”, which is the draft or draft or The Magna Carta plate.
However, King John did not accept Magna Letter more than before the pressure of the army of the nobles and with the support of the London people, only then did he present the document in the presence of the nobles. After signed he had no intention of complying with the agreement. Since Pope Inancence III was the highest feudal authority in England, he rejected the great letter and declared it void, inapplicable and a usurpation of the king’s power, also threatening excommunication. The civil war began and the nobility found allies in the king of France, who declared his son Luis as king and invaded England. King Juan died in 1216 when he lost his treasure that was transported in carriages in the Wash [Footnoteref: 1] swamps: 1]. A month after his death, the great letter with modifications for Enrique III, his nine -year -old heir was promulgated again. And with this the invasion of Luís and returned to France. [1: https: // www.BBC.com/News/UK-England-Norfolk-30964882]
The text of the magna letter
In the magna letter there is no government form and a constitution per se, it is simply the meeting of a collection of norms of the most varied and very few refer to what we know today as constitutional law.
Chapter I is guaranteed rights and the freedom of the Church of England is proclaimed, within its rights its exemptions are included and all its patrimonial rights to had. He adds that the investiture of the archbishopric could not be fooled, and this is due to the problem that arose before, and this guarantee is own and free of the king.
Chapter II mentions the freedoms that the king will guarantee in his name and his heirs, these freedoms are mentioned in subsequent chapters. He does not mention the privileges of the nobility, he goes further and also mentions the free men. It is very important to remember that the citizens of London supported the nobility in the lawsuit with the king. The great letter does not resemble a constitution, there are no subjects in abstract with a relationship with the State. It is a list of the rights of its members regarding relations with authority and its submission that is something very common of feudalism. The Magna Letter confirms the existing feudal rights or restoring them since some when they had been altered or removed by decisions of the kings.
Some of the rights and freedoms that contain are those that protect the inheritance between the members of the nobility, the letter limits what the king can request an heir to the nobility, since this was to renew the title he possessed, in addition to a restriction of the powers, what were the responsibilities of the guardian of a minor, assured that when he reached the age of majority, he received his inheritance, without any payment.
The letter has a very broad regulation about widows and their rights, for example: the right to marry immediately without having to wait for the time established by the Saxon Law, to receive without difficulty the hereditary dowry of it; LIVE THE HOUSE OF THE HUSBAND OF HER AFTER THE DEATH AND NOT TO BE FORMED TO CONTAIR NEW marriage against his will. These clauses are very important the widows of the King’s feudatarios, known as the King’s widows ("The King’s Widows").
In another part of the letter, mention is made on the debts contracted with the Jews. They had permission to make interest loans, which was contrary to Christians the latter had a legal prohibition. This caused great discomfort against them and was the cause of terrible crimes. Within the documents, the payment conditions of the debts with the Jews were established, it seems that the importance of the Jewish credit for the real treasury explains, by itself, this chapter. The Jews being under the mastery of the king could be subject to taxes without any restriction.
The letter provided protection to cities and merchants, in this way the old freedoms and customs of the city of London.
The Magna Carta had great importance in forest administration, since this had a high impact on economic and political. The forests were not from the town, but were real forests since the Norman conquest, there was a prohibition of hunting absolute, since hunting in the forests was the king’s privilege. In order to change this in chapter LVI of the letter, a survey was conducted, on the different customs related to forests and their staff and forty days the worst customs were completely abolished, to never be restored. However, the main clergy signed a protest to implement this clause and express the need to maintain forests.
The Magna Carta has several rules regarding judicial procedures that meant an advance for the provision of justice. One of the important changes was to establish a permanent headquarters of the Common Pleas Court, which was responsible for applying customary private law. In addition, circuit courts were created, called Assizes, who gathered four times a year in each count that the plaintiff or his deceased ascendants had been dispossessed or to exercise the right to present the holder of an ecclesiastical benefit.
Within the guarantees, it is very important to note that limits were imposed on fines that were imposed to punish offenses or infractions. In the case of a free man, the Magna Carta towards mention that the belongings or instruments of their respective trade or profession had to be respected or what a free man could entertain his neighbors. If he was a merchant, the fine did not touch the merchandise.
A peculiarity is that it prohibits that no man could be arrested or imprisoned for the accusation of a woman, only if she kill her husband. This accusation is a basic procedural law of the Common Law and the Magna Cart priest.
The main guarantee that the great letter is is that “no free man will be arrested or imprisoned or dispossessed or put out of law or in any way destroyed, nor will we condemn him, nor will we impose prison, except for the legal judgment of his peers or according to the laws of the country ". This phrase is what makes the Magna Carta so important. What this text consecrates is the double guarantee of the “iudicium parium suorum” and the “lex terrae’. The first means the jury trial and excluded that no one could be convicted of a court or a special commission dependent on the king. The second requirement, alternative or complementary of the previous. This is undoubtedly an ambiguous requirement, which sometimes became understood as equivalent to the first (after all, the laws of the country, this is the Common Law, demanded the jury trial since the twelfth century). (Dunham, "Magna Carta and British Constitutionalism" in The Great Charter. Four Essays on Magna Carta and The History of Our Liberty, Op. cit., pages 26 and 27)
The Magna Cart. Additionally, any person was authorized to swear loyalty to any of the nobles and thus justified the popular rebellion against the king. This shows us that the nobles did not trust King Juan and either what they had signed and were willing to remove it if necessary. When the authorization to be rebelled, the king not respect him and felt satisfied by the declaration of nullity for Pope Innocent III.
conclusion
The Magna Carta has as a principle that authority must be based on justice and limited by law, as well as the natural and by positive laws. Santo Tomas mentions that it would be normal for a people to rebel against the unfair authority, and the Magna Carta itself mentions it in the last chapter. It should also be noted that the law was not born with the ruler. The law was born from the community, and it was the result of the customs that were practiced in them, so it can be said that the Magna Carta was really a validation of the customs of the kingdom.
The Magna Carta was the first document that stipulated individual freedoms and equality. The document guaranteed the supremacy of the law, and ratified that all citizens were equal and that neither a person, nor the king had the right of absolute power, did not own others, nobody was above the law. All citizens had rights and obligations that could defend in court. The government also had its own rules and principles to comply with. Although King John appealed to the Pope to invalidate him, the Magna Carta never lost its importance since it was implemented several times. In 1217 another version appeared with several amendments, and the 1225 version contained all the necessary amendments and varied from the previous one, since then this has been the official version. In the Middle Ages the Magna Carta was used to regulate the relations between the king and the nobility.
The Magna Carta was the first step on the road to democracy, it was also the first legal document in English history, which guaranteed equality for all people. One of the clauses established by law as the supreme power is the basic principle found in the history of the United States. We can also find ideas of the Magna Carta in important documents, such as the rights of citizens (Bill of Rights), the fifth and sixth amendment of Constitution of the United States.
Bibliography
- https: // www.bl.UK/Magna-Carta/Articles/Magna-Carta-England-Translation
- https: // archive.org/stream/pdfyiwmgkuydrulvosc/magna%20cart%20%281215%29_djvu.TXT
- https: // www.traffickers.net/sites/default/files/pdfs/%20Manifiesto%20de%20la%20cart%20magna-traffickers%20de%20Sue%c3%b1os.PDF
- https: // is.Wikipedia.org/wiki/letter_magna
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