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Before I make the people pay taxes, I will ask the advice of the lords in my council. |
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No free man may be arrested or put in prison unless other free men decide that he is guilty, and unless he has a proper trial. |
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3 |
Judges will not be allowed to take bribes. |
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People found guilty in court will not have to pay bigger fines than they can afford. |
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Barons will be fined only if the other barons say they are guilty. |
Some of the promises made by King John in Magna Carta
The devil has stirred up the barons of England against you. They have dared to make war on you. They have forced you to agree to a charter which is illegal and unfair. I completely condemn this charter. I order you not to keep it.
Letter from the pope to King John in 1216
In the year 1215, in a place called Runnymede, King John put his great seal on Magna Carta. It was a great event in English history. It meant that from that time on, kings must obey the law. The law gave rights to all men, and kings could not take them away.
Adapted from comments by Professor W.S. McKechnie in 1915
My next parliament will be held at Easter 1275 in London. All the bishops, abbots, and nobles will be there. I order you to send four knights from your county to the parliament. You must also send four or six good men from each town.
Letter from Edward I [written by one of his clerks] to the sheriff of Middlesex in 1275. Each sheriff would get the same kind of letter
The nobles gathered at Oxford for the parliament. They ordered their knights to come with them, to defend them from their enemies. They were afraid that the king and his half-brothers from France would attack them. When parliament opened, the nobles told King Henry III that he must keep his promise to obey Magna Carta.
Written by a monk called Matthew Paris at St. Albans Abbey in 1259. Matthew did not go to the Oxford parliament himself
Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 31/33 f.