Magna Carta 800 Global Tour

Hong Kong

11 – 14 November 2015Sotheby’s Hong Kong

Gallery

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL MAGNA CARTA, 1217

of 1215, became English law.

Terms of Magna Carta

Most of the terms of Magna Carta were designed to protect the customary rights of free subjects from the king, although those clauses relating to the regulation of trade, the standardisation of weights and measures and the liberties of the Church had a wider application. Under the feudal system of the thirteenth century the majority of the

‘the common people’. In subsequent decades a series of legal judgements broadened the interpretation of the rights and freedoms expressed in Magna Carta so that ordinary people were increasingly protected and given access to impartial justice.

Presented as part of the 800th anniversary celebrations 2015

A selection of the clauses in Magna Carta:

1

2 Many clauses deal with feudal laws relating to service, inheritance, wardship and rights of widows.

3 Liberties and customs of the city of London, Cinque Ports and all other

4 Assize, county and hundred courts regulated

5 except on the sea coast.

6 Standard measures for wine, ale and corn and widths of cloth set.

7 No free man shall be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or possessions or outlawed or exiled or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we condemn him but by lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.

8 No one shall be denied or delayed the right of justice.

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL KING JOHN’S WRIT, 1215 Hereford Cathedral possesses the only known surviving original of a writ, sent out by King John from Runnymede in June 1215 to the

peace has been re-established between us and the barons and freemen of our kingdom... [ordering it] to be read out publicly throughout your

John, by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy [and] Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, [sends] greeting to

barons and freemen of our kingdom, as you shall hear and see through our charter which we have caused to be made concerning this peace,

and which we have also ordered to be read out publicly throughout your

make all from your jurisdiction swear to the Twenty-Five Barons mentioned in the charter, at their command or at the command of the majority of them, in the presence of these barons or in the presence of those whom these barons have attorned for this matter through their letters patent, both on the day and at the place which the aforesaid

twelve knights from your county, who shall be elected by that county in

riverbanks and their keepers, and to abolish these [evil customs], just as

you shall both observe inviolably everything contained in that charter, and make everyone observe it, lest – may God avert it – because of your neglect or through your transgression the peace of our realm comes

proclaimed throughout your jurisdiction, and you are to order it to be

patent in respect thereof. Witnessed by me at Runnymede, on 20 June in the 17th year of our reign [1215].

www.themappamundi.co.uk Translated by Daniel Power, Professor of Medieval History, Swansea University.

from the Library and Archive collections.

or Hereford Cathedral and its collections, please contact:

Cathedral Close, Hereford HR1 2NG +44 (0) 1432 374200

www.herefordcathedral.org

THE STORY OF MAGNA CARTA 1199 Accession of King John

On his accession in 1199 King John inherited a kingdom covering England, Ireland, parts of Scotland and lands in France stretching

His reign was characterised by unprecedented taxation demands, harsh and arbitrary treatment of opponents and supporters alike and disastrous wars resulting in the loss of most of the French lands. All

John had also alienated the church by refusing to accept the Pope’s

increasing pressure, agreed to Langton’s appointment and restored

pope as his overlord. No English king had ever done such a thing,

barons and matters came to a head in 1215.

JUNE 1215 Magna Carta Agreed

In January 1215 John was confronted by a group of barons who

of the kingdom. John prevaricated and, eventually losing patience, the barons were provoked into renouncing their obedience to the king

decisive in forcing John to agree to meet with the barons in June at Runnymede, near Windsor, to restore peace.

John and his barons on 15 June at Runnymede followed the custom

privileges of his subjects but went much further in including terms that attacked or curtailed the king’s sovereignty. Additionally John agreed

JULY 1215 – OCTOBER 1216 Civil War Continues

Far from achieving peace, neither party seemed fully committed to abiding by the terms of Magna Carta. King John appealed to his overlord, Pope Innocent III, who cancelled the charter in August 1215 declaring it ‘as unlawful and unjust as it is base and shameful’; and

was a dead letter.

French king, to give military support and make claim to the English throne. A year of civil war followed throughout England. King John died unexpectedly on 19 October 1216 in Newark leaving his nine-year-old son, Henry, as his successor. John’s remains were taken to Worcester Cathedral for burial near the shrine of St Wulfstan.

NOVEMBER 1216 Magna Carta Reissued

On his accession Henry III’s position as a minor was very vulnerable.

and until he came of age he would have to govern through regents.

their control. Henry was hastily crowned in Gloucester on 28 October 1216, and as a political expedient to attract more supporters or avert

John’s original, converting it to a more moderate document dealing mainly with feudal and legal liberties and regulation.

succeeded in defeating the rebel forces. A peace treaty was agreed in September 1217 which declared a general amnesty.

NOVEMBER 1217 Magna Carta Revised and Reissued

regulation of county courts and assizes and the power and conduct of the

forest rights and law incorporating and expanding on several clauses

regents: William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and Guala, the papal legate. In 1225 when Henry came of age he issued Magna Carta again ‘of his own free will’ under the King’s Great Seal. It contained minor changes

guarantee of the monarch’s conduct and communal liberty. So at times of heightened political tension, as in 1235, 1253 and 1265, the king

1297 Magna Carta Becomes Statute Law

In 1297, during another period of tension between king and subject over

chancery and so became enshrined in the written law of England.

Magna Carta Revived

During the reign of Charles I, when the people were once again in deep

Edward Coke, a former Chief Justice and leading member of the parliamentary opposition, initiated the Petition of Right

of the most important British constitutional documents. It was a statement of civil liberties invoking

the principles of Magna Carta which was sent by Parliament to Charles I

throughout the political upheavals of the 17th century, resulting in two important Acts of Parliament: the Habeas Corpus Act, 1679, and the Bill of Rights, 1689.

Magna Carta and the principles of English liberty were transported to America by the new settlers where the liberties of Englishmen were guaranteed in the foundation charters of many of the new colonies including

liberties harking back to Magna Carta were considered fundamental by the founders of the United States and were incorporated in the American Bill of Rights embodied in the Constitution of the United States of America.

Magna Carta Today

What began as a peace treaty brokered between a king and his most

an iconic symbol of liberty, justice and freedom of the individual

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 and the European Convention on Human Rights which set up the European Court of

years of reform and rationalisation of English law only three and a half of the clauses in Magna Carta remain in force yet it is what Magna Carta represents that still has power to inspire today.

HEREFORDCATHEDRAL