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Magna Carta & Parliament Houses of Parliament Parliamentary Archives Houses of Parliament Parliamentary Archives Magna Carta & Parliament David Carpenter David Prior Professor of Medieval History, Head of Public Services and Outreach, King’s College London Parliamentary Archives Magna Carta & Parliament David Carpenter David Prior Professor of Medieval History, Head of Public Services and Outreach, King’s College London Parliamentary Archives © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2015 FOREWORD INTRODUCTION This guide serves as an engrossments of Magna accompaniment to the Carta greatly enhances the exhibition Magna Carta & opportunity to consider Magna The Speaker The Lord Speaker Parliament which will be on Carta in a parliamentary The Speaker display in the Royal Gallery context and to examine its and Queen’s Robing Room impact on the history of in the House of Lords during Parliament. The House of From The Speaker The granting of Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede February 2015. Elements of the Lords is grateful to the British of the House of on 15 June 1215 is one of the best known events in our exhibition will then travel to Library, Lincoln Cathedral and Commons and history and one which has echoed across eight centuries. various venues during 2015 as Salisbury Cathedral for their The Lord Speaker It has shaped the way we live our lives today. part of the De Montfort project generosity in agreeing to the In a year which also sees the 750th anniversary of the which is being run by the loan of these documents. parliament assembled by Simon de Montfort at Westminster, Parliamentary Archives. This exhibition has been made it is entirely appropriate that this exhibition should seek The exhibition marks the 800th possible by the provision to trace the impact of Magna Carta on the evolution of anniversary of the sealing of of insurance through the Parliament and thereby provide the opportunity to display Magna Carta at Runnymede Government Indemnity some of Parliament’s most iconic documents, such as the in 1215. It also coincides Scheme. The House of Lords Petition of Right of 1628 and the Bill of Rights of 1689. with the 750th anniversary would like to thank HM It is due to the great generosity of the British Library, Lincoln of the meeting of Simon de Government for providing Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral that on the 5th February 2015 Montfort’s parliament at Government Indemnity the four original engrossments of Magna Carta will be on display Westminster in 1265. and the Department for as part of the exhibition in the Queen’s Robing Room in the Culture, Media and Sport The display on 5th February House of Lords. This is an unprecedented event in Parliament’s and Arts Council England for 2015 in the exhibition of history and one of which we are extremely proud. arranging the indemnity. the four surviving original 4 5 MAGNA CARTA 1215 Magna Carta and Parliament At Runnymede on 15 June 1215 King John agreed to the terms of Magna Carta – the Great Charter. This was the climax of a dispute between the King and a group of rebel barons which had grown out of ever increasing Royal demands for money to fund expensive military campaigns. In attempting to raise revenue the King went beyond the limits of accepted custom and abused and exploited long standing rights. Magna Carta contained 63 clauses and established that the king was subject to the law, like everyone else. The first clause confirmed ‘that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired’. Many of the remaining clauses addressed the barons’ grievances concerning King John’s unscrupulous behaviour; for instance clause 9 stated that ‘Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt’. Of particular significance was clause 12, which established that taxation could King John assents to the Magna Carta 1215 by Charles H. Sims © Palace of Westminster Collection, WOA 2602 www.parliament.uk/art 6 7 Magna Carta and Parliament Magna Carta and Parliament only be levied with the ‘general consent’ ‘No free man shall be seized or Library came from the collection of the of the kingdom; clause 14 set out the antiquary Sir Robert Cotton (1571- imprisoned, or stripped of his means for obtaining this consent: ‘we 1631). One, now BL Cotton MS will cause the archbishops, bishops, rights or possessions, or outlawed Augustus II 106, was passed to Cotton abbots, earls, and greater barons to or exiled, or deprived of his by Humphrey Wyems; where it came be summoned individually by letter’. from is not clear but one story has it standing in any other way, nor At the heart of Magna Carta lay two that it was found in a tailor’s shop in clauses, 39 and 40, which are the most will we proceed with force against London. The other copy, BL Cotton well known and which relate to rights him, or send others to do so, except Charter XIII 31A, was sent to Cotton and liberties. in 1630 by Sir Edward Dering. Recent by the lawful judgement of his research shows that this copy was in In order to ensure that the King equals or by the law of the land.’ the archives of Canterbury Cathedral complied with the terms of Magna in the late thirteenth century and was Carta the barons were to elect 25 Clause 39 probably sent there in 1215. It was of their number to ‘keep, and cause badly damaged in a fire in 1731 and is to be observed with all their might, ‘To no one will we sell, to no one now very difficult to read, but it is the the peace and liberties granted and deny or delay right or justice.’ only one of the four originals to still confirmed to them by this charter.’ Clause 40 have King John’s Great Seal attached. News of the sealing of the charter The copy held by Lincoln Cathedral was communicated to officials in the seven copies had been produced and is believed to have been held by the counties who were required to see that it is known that at least thirteen were Cathedral since 1215; the same is true its terms were adhered to. Of the 63 issued altogether. Four original copies of the copy held by Salisbury Cathedral clauses only 4 are still in force today: 1 of Magna Carta survive today. Two which was originally kept at Old (part), 13, 39 and 40. are held by the British Library, one Sarum Cathedral. After the events of 15 June it is thought by Lincoln Cathedral and one by that officials drafted copies of Magna Salisbury Cathedral. All are written Carta using the terms that had been on parchment, but vary in size and agreed at Runnymede. By 24 June shape. The copies held by the British 8 9 Magna Carta, 1215 © The British Library Board, BL Cotton MS Augustus II 106 10 Magna Carta, 1215 Magna Carta, 1215 © The British Library Board, Lincoln Cathedral Library, BL Cotton Charter XIII 31A A1/1B/45 12 13 Writ of King John with news Magna Carta, 1215 of Magna Carta, 20 June 1215 Salisbury Cathedral Archives, Dean and Chapter Press IV, C2: Royal Charters/39 of Hereford Cathedral 14 15 MAGNA CARTA AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARLIAMENT Magna Carta and Parliament By Professor David Carpenter In England in the thirteenth century III (1216-1272). In order to tempt their control over taxation. Second Contemporaries would usually have there were two great constitutional Prince Louis’ partisans back into the they had a new constitution since called it a ‘council’ or ‘great council’, but developments; the establishment of young king’s camp, in November 1216, knights representing the counties and already the name ‘parliament’, derived Magna Carta and the emergence of the minority government issued a new burgesses the towns were summoned to from the French word for meeting or Parliament. It was on 15 June 1215 that version of the Charter. Having won the them with increasing frequency - the discussion, was coming into use. Indeed, King John (1199-1216) authorized the war against Louis, it did so again in beginnings of the House of Commons. a contemporary account of the events sealing of Magna Carta. The Charter November 1217 in order to consolidate These twin developments, the of 1215 spoke of the barons meeting met very real grievances against his the peace. Finally in 1225, in return for establishment of Magna Carta and the in a ‘parliament’. The first assembly to rule and also asserted a fundamental a great tax, Henry III issued the final development of Parliament, were very be called a parliament in an official principle, namely that the king was and definitive version of Magna Carta. closely linked. document met in 1237, and thereafter subject to the law. Nonetheless in the It is chapters of Henry’s 1225 Charter the term quickly became established. In 1215 Magna Carta laid down short term it was a failure. Within little (in Edward I’s confirmation of 1297) the first constitution for Parliament. In 1215 Magna Carta’s assembly was more than a month of its issue, King which are still on the Statute Book of Chapter 12 stipulated that the king largely baronial. It was the House of John had asked the pope to quash the United Kingdom today. could only levy taxation with the Lords, not the House of Commons. the document. The barons themselves Kings had always convened assemblies common consent of the kingdom.
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