A long time ago in a land called England a despotic king called John Lackland, (king Richard's successor), sought to impose his will on the barons and subdue the people with high taxes and unjust laws, ( has anything changed ). The barons and the people fought against this injustice and so was born Magna Charta.
No Englishman or woman could be presumed guilty, all were innocent until proven guilty.
They had a right to trial by their peers and for centuries the English saw Magna Charta as their bill of rights. The principles enshrined in Magna Charta have been adopted in other countries to ensure fair and impartial treatment under the law. ( for full Magna Charta text and historical context click here).

Today those fundamental freedoms, your culture and your heritage as free Englishmen and women are being eroded as local authorities and Government interfere and meddle in the nitty gritty of your lives. Our fishermen and farmers have lives destroyed by laws made by strangers in other lands. Our Parliament is emasculated and derided by those we fought and died to free from tyranny on the mainland of Europe.
Englishmen now have to prove they are innocent under some laws, this is the indignity of our England today.

This "Great Charter of Liberties", granted on the 19th June 1215 by King John of England (1167-1216), to the "Freemen" of England was forced on the King by his feudal barons in return for their support against the French King, Philip the 2nd Augustus who had been offered the English crown by Pope Innocent 3rd.

The French king defeated John at Bovines in France in 1214. A year earlier Innocent 3rd had declared John deposed and at that point had offered Philip the crown of England. The northern barons and prelates, a rebellious lot anyway, seized the opportunity to re-establish "ancient rights and freedoms".

For the first time a group of subjects sought to limit the power of the executive by law. What is so relevant today and why the English feel so strongly about the "Great Charter" is that in its 63 clauses lie most of the rights and freedoms under pinning a modern democracy.

The words, Magna Charta, Runnymede, (the place where it was signed), equality before the law, trial by ones peers, stem directly from the charter. This charter is so dear to the hearts of the English / British that in the second world war an original manuscript was sent by battleship for safe keeping in the USA. The charter, despite its original use by and for the barons, represents that which is good in relations between state and people.

In the same way that the American declaration of human rights lives in the hearts of Americans and how its words embody justice and freedom throughout the world , so Magna Charta lives in the hearts of all Englishmen, as does the "Bill of Rights" sealed by William the 3rd of England and Mary Stuart. This banned arbitrary taxation and confirmed the freedom of speech.

But this is a digression, back to Magna Charta and its 63 clauses. The original charter was written in latin and remained in latin until the scholar and lawyer George Ferres transcribed it into English in 1534. Much of the old charter related to the feudal system and by 1534 had fallen into disuse. Ferres wanted to use the charter, as did other lawyers, to challenge arguments of the time raging on constitutional law.

We must bear in mind that the absolutist Stuarts were on the throne at the time and the House of Commons was in its infancy.

Ferres translation loses non of the basics relating to freedom and trial by jury. Those clauses regarded as relevant today are highlighted. Ferres reduced the original 63 clauses to 37 and it is these we reproduce below.

Remember as you read this charter that it was used as a model by the founding fathers of America and their words being of such magnitude we reproduce those words at the end of Magna Charta.

1. We have, in the first place, granted to God, and by this Our present charter confirmed for Us and Our heirs forever :- That the English Church shall be free and enjoy her rights in their integrity and her liberties untouched----We have also granted to all the freemen of Our kingdom, for Us and Our heirs forever, all the liberties underwritten, to have and to hold to them and their heirs of Us and Our heirs.

2. If any of Our earls, barons,or others who hold of Us in chief by knight's service shall die, and at the time of his death his heir shall be of full age and owe a relief, he shall have his inheritance by ancient relief; to wit, the heir or heirs of an earl of an entire earl's barony, £100; the heir or heirs of a baron of an entire barony, £100; the heir or heirs of a knight or an entire knight's fee 100 shillings at the most; and he that owes less shall give less, according to the ancient custom of fees.

3. If, however, any such heir shall be under age and in ward, he shall, when he comes of age, have his inheritance without relief or fine.

4. The guardian of the land of any heir thus under age shall take therefrom only reasonable issues, customs,and services, without destruction or waste of men or property; and if We shall have committed the wardship of any such land to the sheriff or any other person answerable to Us for the issues thereof, and he commit destruction or waste, We will take an amends from him, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall be answerable for the issues to Us or to whomsoever We shall have assigned them. And if We shall give or sell the wardship of any such land to any one, and he commit destruction or waste upon it, he shall lose the wardship, which shall be committed to two lawful and discreet man of that fee, who shall, in like manner, be answerable unto Us as has been aforesaid.

5. The guardian, so long as he shall have custody of the land, shall keep up and maintain the houses, parks, fishponds, pools, mills, and other things pertaining thereto,out of the issues of the same, and shall restore the whole to the heir when he comes of age, stocked with plows and tillage, according to the season may require and the issue of the land can reasonably bear.

6. Heirs shall be married without loss of station, and the marriage shall be made known to the heir's nearest of kin before it is contracted.

7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall immediately and without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance. She shall not give anything for her marriage portion, dower or inheritance which she and her husband held on the day of his death, and she shall remain in her husband's house for forty day's after his death, within which time her dower shall be assigned to her.
No widow shall be compelled to marry so long as she has a mind to live without a husband, provided, that she give security that she will not marry without Our assent, if she holds of Us, or that of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another.

8. Neither We nor Our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any debt so long as the debtor's chattels are sufficient to discharge the same; nor shall the debtor's sureties be distrained so long as the debtor is able to pay the debt. If the debtor fails to pay, not having the means to pay, then the sureties shall answer the debt, and if they desire, they shall hold the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction of the debt which they have paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has discharged his obligation to them.

9. The city of London shall have all her ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and water. Moreover,We will and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs.

10. No man shall be compelled to perform more service for a knight's fee or other free tenement than is due therefrom.

11. Common pleas shall not follow Our Court, but shall be held in some certain place.

12. Recognizances of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and darrein presentment shall be taken only in their proper counties, and in this manner: We or, if We be absent from the realm, Our Chief Justiciary shall send two justiciaries through each county four times a year, and they, together with four knights elected out of each county by the people thereof, shall hold the said assizes in the county court, on the day and in the place where that court meets.

13. If the  said assizes cannot be held on the day appointed, so many of the knights and freeholders as shall have been present on that day shall remain as will be sufficient for the administration of justice, according as the business to be done be greater or less.

14. A freeman shall be amerced for a small fault only according to the measure thereof, and for a great crime according to it's magnitude, saving his position; and in like manner a merchant saving his trade, and a villein saving his tillage, if they should fall under Our mercy. None of these amercements shall be imposed except by the oath of honest men of the neighbourhood.

15. Earls and barons shall be amerced only by their peers, and only in proportion to the measure of the offence.

16. No amercement shall be imposed upon a clerk's lay property, except after the manner of the other persons aforesaid, and without regard to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.

17. No village or person shall be compelled to build bridges over rivers except those bound by ancient custom and law to do so. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other of Our bailiffs shall hold pleas of Our Crown.

18. If anyone holding a lay fee of Us shall die, and the sheriff or Our bailiff show Our letters patent of summons touching the debt due to us from the deceased, it shall be lawful for such sheriff or bailiff to attach and catalogue the chattels of the deceased found in the lay fee to the value of that debt, as assessed by lawful men. Nothing shall be removed therefrom until Our whole debt is paid; then the residue shall be given up to the executors to carry out the will of the deceased. If there be no debt due from him to Us, all his chattels shall remain the property of the deceased, saving to his wife and children their reasonable shares.

19. No constable or other of Our bailiffs shall take corn or other chattels of any man without immediate payment, unless the seller voluntarily consents to postponment of payment.

20. No constable shall compel any knight to give money in lieu of castle guard when the knight is willing to perform it in person or (if reasonable cause prevents him from performing it himself) by some other fit man.
Further, if We lead or send him into military service, he shall be quit of castle guard for the time he shall remain in service by Our command.

21. No sheriff or other of Our bailiffs, or any other man, shall take the horses or carts of any free man for carriage without the owners consent.
Neither We nor Our bailiffs will take another man's wood for Our castles or for any other purpose without the owner's consent.

22. We will retain the lands of persons convicted of felony for only a year and a day, after which they shall be restored to the lords of the fees.

23. All fishweirs shall be entirely removed from the Thames and Medway, and throughout England, except upon the sea coast.

24. The writ called "praecipe" shall not in the future issue to anyone respecting any tenement if thereby a freeman may not be tried in his lord's court.

25. There shall be one measure of wine throughout Our kingdom, and one of ale, and one measure of corn, to wit, the London quarter, and one breadth of dyed cloth, russets, and haberjets, to wit, two ells within the selvages. As with measures so shall it also be with weights.

26. Henceforth nothing shall be given or taken for a writ of inquisition upon life or limbs, but it shall be granted gratis and not be denied.

27. If anyone holds of by fee farm, socage, or burbage, and also holds land of another by knight's service, We will not by reason of that fee farm, socage, or burbage have the wardship of his heir, or the land which belongs to another man's fee; nor will We have the wardship of such fee farm, socage, or burbage unless such fee farm owe knight's service. We will not have the wardship of any man's heir, or the land which he holds of another by knight's service, by reason of any petty sergeanty which he holds of Us by service of rendering Us daggers, arrows, or the like.

28. In the future no bailiff shall upon his own unsupported accusation put any man to trial without producing credible witness to the truth of the accusation.

29. No free man shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him ,except by the lawful judgement of his peers and by the law of the land.
To no one will We sell, to none will We deny or delay, right or justice.

30. All merchants shall have safe conduct to go and come out of and into England, and to stay in and travel through England by land and water for purpose of buying and selling, free of illegal tolls, in accordance with ancient and just customs, except, in time of war, such merchants as are of a country at war with Us. If any such be found in Our dominion at the outbreak of war, they shall be attached, without injury to their persons or goods, until it be known to Us or Our Chief Justiciary how Our merchants are being treated in the country at war with Us, and if Our merchants be safe there, then theirs shall be safe with Us.

31. If anyone die holding of any escheat, such as the honour of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or other escheats which are in Our hands and are baronies, his heir shall not give any relief or do any service to Us other than he would owe to the baron, if such barony had been in the hands of a baron, and We will hold the escheat in the same manner which the baron held it.

32. Persons dwelling outside the forest need not in the future come before Our justiciaries of the forest in answer to a general summons unless they be impleaded or are sureties for any person or persons attached for breach of forest laws.

33. All barons who have founded abbeys, evidenced by charters of English kings or ancient tenure, shall, as is their due, have the wardship of the same when vacant.
All forests which have been created in Our time shall forthwith be disafforested. So shall it be done with rivers which have been placed in fence in Our time.

34. No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon a woman's appeal for the death of any person other than her husband.

35. If We have disseised or deprived the welsh of lands, liberties or other things, without legal judgement of their peers,in England or Wales, they shall immediately be restored to them, and if a dispute shall arise thereon, the question shall be determined in the Marches by judgement of their peers according to the law of England as to English tenements, the law of Wales as to Welsh tenenments, and the law of the Marches as to tenements in the Marches. The same shall the Welsh do to Us and Ours.

36. All the customs and liberties aforesaid, which We have granted to be enjoyed, as far as in Us lies, by Our people throughout  Our kingdom, let all Our subjects, whether clerks or laymen, observe, as far as in them lies, toward their dependents.

37. Wherefore We will, and firmly charge, that the English Church shall be free, and that all men in Our kingdom shall have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights and concessions, well and peaceably, freely, quietly, fully, and wholly, to them and their heirs, of Us and Our heirs, in all things and places for ever, as is aforesaid.
It is moreover sworn, as well on Our part as on the part of the barons, that all these matters aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without deceit.
Witness the above named and many others. Given by Our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of Our reign.
 
 

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are  Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, that when any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it...........