England: Historical Consequences of Being Deprived of the Magna Carta

As I went over in the previous points, judicial immunity was not established in England. The historical implications of people having either due process or equal protection rights taken away dates back to the early 1200s and is significant. It started when the Magna Carta was created and it established due process and equal protections under the law that is now a part of our 14th Amendment.

Below are the historical implications of robbing people of these rights.

First Barons’ War

Our rights that no freeman will be victimized. Rather, it will only be under the law of the land with lawful judgment. As a result of that commitment not being honored the charter failed and it led to the First Barons’ civil war with King John of England in 1215. He had ruled using the principle of vis et voluntas (“force and will”). He took executive and sometimes arbitrary decisions, often justified on the basis that a king was above the law.

Charter of 1225 – The royal courts, which toured the country to provide justice at the local level, typically for lesser barons and the gentry claiming grievances against major lords, had little power, allowing the major barons to dominate the local justice system.³⁰

Henry’s rule became lax and careless, resulting in a reduction in royal authority in the provinces and, ultimately, the collapse of his authority at court.³¹

Second Barons’ War

In 1258, a group of barons seized power from Henry in a coup d’état, citing the need to strictly enforce Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest. They created a new baronial-led government to advance reform through the Provisions of Oxford.³² The barons were not militarily powerful enough to win a decisive victory. Instead, they appealed to Louis IX of France in 1263–1264 to arbitrate on their proposed reforms. The reformist barons argued their case based on Magna Carta. They suggested that it was inviolable under English law and that the King had broken its terms.³³

After the barons had been defeated, in 1267 Henry issued the Statute of Marlborough, which included a fresh commitment to observe the terms of Magna Carta.

Charter of 1297 – they agreed to the issuing of the Confirmatio, confirming the previous charters. In the Confirmation’s second article, it is confirmed that:

…if any judgement be given from henceforth contrary to the points of the charters aforesaid by the justices, or by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against the points of the charters, it shall be undone, and holden for nought.^{34, 35}

Civil War in the 1640s in England

Lord Coke supported the Petition of Right in 1628. This cited Magna Carta in its preamble, attempting to extend the provisions, and to make them binding on the judiciary.^{36, 37}

Charles initially did not agree to the Petition of Right. He refused to confirm Magna Carta in any way that would reduce his independence as King.^{38, 39} England descended into civil war in the 1640s, resulting in Charles I’s execution in 1649.

In the next article we will discuss United States: Historical Consequences of Being Deprived of the Constitution

Footnotes:

³⁰ Carpenter (1996). The Reign of Henry III. London: Hambledon Press, ISBN 978-1852851378. P.105
³¹ Ridgeway, H. W. (2010) [2004]. “Henry III (1207–1272)”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12950
³² Davis, John Paul (2013). The Gothic King: A Biography of Henry III. London: Peter Owen. ISBN 978-0720614800, pp. 195-197
³³ Jobson, Adrian (2012). The First English Revolution: Simon de Montfort, Henry III and the Barons’ War. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1847252265, p. 104.
³⁴ The Statutes at Large Passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland from The Third Year of Edward the Second A.D. 1310 to the First Year of George the Third, A.D. 1761 Inclusive. Boulter Grierson. 1763. p. 132.
³⁵ “Confirmatio Cartarum [26] October 10, 1297″, Confirmatio Cartarum (1215.org)
³⁶ Hindley, Geoffrey (1990). The Book of Magna Carta. London: Constable. ISBN 978-0094682405, pp. 189-190.
³⁷ Turner, Ralph (2003b). Magna Carta: Through the Ages. Routledge. ISBN 978-0582438262, p. 157
³⁸ Russell, Conrad (1990). Unrevolutionary England, 1603–1642. Continnuum-3PL. ISBN 978-1852850258, p. 41
³⁹ Hindley, Geoffrey (1990). The Book of Magna Carta. London: Constable. ISBN 978-0094682405, p. 190