Placing Limits on Royal Power
KING JOHN OF ENGLAND, From Magna Carta: The Great Charter of Liberties (1215)
The English kings had extensive possessions in France and spent much of their resources trying to defend or expand these holdings. By 1215, King John — through a series of military defeats and poorly conducted alliances — had lost many of these French lands. In an effort to make up for his losses, John increased the pressure on his English subjects to provide him with revenue, often going beyond traditional levels of taxation and revenue extraction and, in some cases, beyond his subjects’ ability to pay. John’s fiscal policies and military failures produced a backlash among England’s elite and, in 1215, his nobles forced him to issue a charter that would clearly define both the rights of subjects and the limits of royal power.
John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons . . . [and] subjects, greeting. . . .
We have also granted to all free men of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever. . . .
No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to live without a husband, provided always that she gives security not to marry without our consent, if she holds [a fief] of us, or without the consent of her lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. . . .
No scutage1 or aid shall be imposed on our kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our person, for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more than a reasonable aid. . . .
Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for castles or for any other work of ours, wood which is not ours, against the will of the owner of that wood. . . .
We will not retain beyond one year and one day, the lands of those who have been convicted of felony, and the lands shall thereafter be handed over to the lords of the fiefs. . . .
No freeman shall be taken or [and] imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we [attack] him nor send [people to attack] him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or [and] by the law of the land.
To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.
All merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England, and entry to England, with the right to tarry there and to move about as well by land as by water. . . .
We will appoint justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the kingdom and mean to observe it well. . . .
Since, moreover, for God and the amendment of our kingdom and for the better allaying of the quarrel that has arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these concessions, desirous that they should enjoy them incomplete and firm endurance for ever, we give and grant to them the underwritten security, namely, that the barons choose five-and-twenty barons of the kingdom, whomsoever they will, who shall be bound with all their might, to observe and hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties we have granted and confirmed to them by this our present Charter.
From William Sharp McKechnie, Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John (New York: Burt Franklin, 1914), pp. 186, 191, 220, 232, 336–337, 375, 395, 399, 431, 466–467.