THE MAGNA CARTA: CELEBRATING 800 YEARS

In early 1215, civil war erupted in England. A large group of barons rebelled against King John because of his high taxes and other abuses.  The rebels captured London and forced the king to flee.  John yielded, and on June 19, he signed what came to be known as the “Magna Carta.”

In the short run, the Magna Carta was a complete failure.  It was meant as a peace treaty to end the rebellion.  Within a few months, however, John and his loyalists repudiated the charter and war broke out all over again.  That could have been the end of the Magna Carta, but John died the next year and his son, Henry III, confirmed the charter as a way to secure his throne.  It was confirmed again by later kings and queens, and soon became an established part of English law.

You may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with me?  Why should I care about an 800-year-old charter signed by people I’ve never heard of in a country I’ve never actually been to?

That’s a fair question.  The answer is that the Magna Carta is the source of many of the civil liberties we hold dear in America today.  For example, the Magna Carta gives us the earliest expression of the right to a jury trial (no freedman could face imprisonment or loss of liberty “but by lawful judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the land.”)  There is also a guarantee of equal access to justice (“we will sell to no man, and we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”)  These time-honored principles were enshrined in our own founding documents, including the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  In fact, the Magna Carta is so connected to our history that one of the surviving copies of the charter was loaned to us as part of our bicentennial celebration.

These rights, of course, did not come without a cost.  Throughout the centuries, brave men and women have suffered and died to preserve them.  Especially as these same rights come under attack, both now and in the coming election cycle, we should remember that they are cherished by us because they were purchased with the blood of those who defended the cause of freedom.

Let’s join with our English friends in celebrating 800 years of civil liberty!

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