Episode 3 What’s Really in the Magna Carta?

1215: Years That Changed History

Dr Dorsey Armstrong (2019)

Film Review

The Magna Carta was written in Latin, like all 13th century English documents. It had 63 clauses, with most concerning minor contemporary disputes. All provide valuable insight into daily life in medieval England

Among the most important:

Clause 1: Declares the Catholic church shall be free from rom royal interference and that King John and all his heirs will faithfully follow the directives laid out in the document.

Clause 2: Require the heirs of a deceased earl will pay an inheritance tax of 100 pounds for the right to inherit his land. The heirs of a knight will pay a 100 shilling inheritance tax.

Clause 3: Stipulates underage heirs are exempt from inheritance tax.

Clause 8: Stipulates that no widow shall be required to remarry against her will and that all widows with title to royal lands must have royal consent to remarry.

Clause 10 and 11: Establishes that Christians in debt to Jews owe no interest if they die and that, in some cases, the debt itself is erased.

Clause 13: Stipulates London and all other cities, borough towns and ports shall enjoy all their ancient liberties and free customs.

Clause 23: Stipulates the king won’t compel villages or individuals to build bridges over rivers except for those who have traditional obligations to do so.

Clause 31: Prohibits any royal official to take wood from a nobleman’s estate without his consent.

Clause 33: Agrees to the removal of all fish weirs (traps) from the Thames, the Medway and owing rivers (owing to damage they cause boats)

Clause 35: Demands weights used in commerce be standardized, as well as measures of wine, ale and corn and standard widths for dyed cloth.

Clause 38: Stipulates that no official can bring someone to trial without producing credible witnesses.

Clause 39: Stipulates that no free man is to be arrested, imprisoned, dispossessed of lawfully possessed property, outlawed, exiled, or in any other way ruined except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Clause 40 Stipulates that justice can neither be sold or denied.

Clause 50: Prohibits any kinsmen of Gerard de Athée to ever hold office.*

Clause 51: Creates an official council of the 25 barons who forced the king to agree to the Magna Carta and establishes processes for replacing them when they die.

Clause 54: Stipulates no one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman, for the death of anyone other than her husband.

Clauses 56-59 Clarify circumstances in which Welsh persons* are to be subject to Welsh law, English or the laws of the Marches (the boundary lands between Wales and England). It also calls for the return of royal Welsh and Scottish hostages King John was holding at court (to guarantee the peace).**

*Gerard was an English nobleman who lost his French estate after the French king reclaimed it. King John had appointed him and a number of his cousins to public office in Britain. All were notorious for demanding bribes.

**England was still continuously at war with both Wales and Scotland, and the Welsh and Scottish leaders whose offspring were being held hostage had allied themselves with the 25 barons. Royal hostages risked being murdered if either Welsh or Scottish warriors attacked English troops.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12392969/12392976