Magna Carta & Parliament

Houses of Parliament Parliamentary Archives

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

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 th5 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

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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. Only the great lay and ecclesiastical turned to other remedies. They deposed of the great and good to discuss the Chapter 14 defined the assembly from magnates were summoned in person. John and offered the throne instead affairs of the realm, but it was only which the consent must come. The earls, The other ‘tenants-in-chief ’, summoned to Prince Louis, the eldest son of the in the thirteenth century that they greater barons, bishops and abbots were generally through the sheriffs, were king of France, Philip Augustus. The began to be called ‘parliaments’. A new to be summoned individually. The rest also an exclusive body, being men who Charter only survived thanks to John’s term seemed appropriate because the of the king’s ‘tenants-in-chief ’ were to were direct tenants of the crown. There death in October 1216 and the parlous assemblies of the thirteenth century be summoned generally through the was no place for representatives from position of the minority government were themselves new in two ways. First sheriffs. Magna Carta did not give London and other towns. There was no of his nine year old son, King Henry they had a new power derived from the assembly thus convoked a name. place for elected knights representing

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the counties. Evidently, the great The political significance of the hear the common law assizes, a striking decades after 1215 they struggled to magnates and the other tenants-in- burgesses and knights, implied in indication of the legal knowledge and exploit it. In Lincolnshire, they had chief felt that they alone could speak Montfort’s summons, had already self confidence of the knights. Likewise, the chapter publicly proclaimed and for the realm. been clear in Magna Carta. While the twelve knights, again elected in the defied the sheriff when he seemed to Charter excluded knights representing county court (and so not nominated break it. From 1217 onwards there was The first parliament to which knights the counties and burgesses the towns by the barons) were to investigate the also, alongside Magna Carta, a separate and burgesses together were summoned from its tax granting assembly, it still malpractices of the king’s local officials. charter dealing with the administration was the parliament held under the recognized their importance. The These knights had great power because of the royal forest. The name ‘Magna auspices of Simon de Montfort in 1265. Charter had chapters protecting the they were not merely to investigate. They Carta’ itself came into being from Montfort revered Magna Carta. During liberties of London and ‘all other cities, were also to abolish the abuses they 1218 in order to distinguish the the parliament, he organized a great boroughs, vills and ports’. It also said discovered. They thus had the ability ‘Great Charter’ from its smaller Forest ceremony, held on 14 February 1265 that no tax should be levied on London to reshape the whole structure of local companion. The Charter of the Forest in the chapter house of Westminster without the common consent of the government. At the local level they gave an important role to the knights for Abbey, where the king’s adherence to kingdom. Although they failed to get were, in effect, elected legislators in each in each county they were to determine the Charter was proclaimed. Why then this into Magna Carta, the Londoners county. The foundations were being laid the areas which were to be freed from had Montfort transformed the structure were already demanding a say in the for the appearance of knights elected by the burden of forest law. There was a of the Charter’s assembly by summoning giving of such consent. As for the the counties in national assemblies. great deal of argument over just how representatives? One reason was the knights, there would have been some, if extensive the freed areas were to be. immediate political situation. Montfort In the event, the chapter setting up on an individual basis, even in Magna The king advanced one interpretation had captured King Henry III at the knights to investigate and abolish local Carta’s assembly, for many of the lesser of the Forest Charter and the county battle of Lewes in May 1264 and abuses did not survive into the post tenants-in-chief were of knightly status. knights another. These struggles over thereafter ruled the country in the king’s 1215 versions of Magna Carta. It was The Charter also gave an important the Charters were educative and name. His regime, however, remained replaced, however, by a new chapter role in the localities to elected knights. empowering. The knights were cutting unstable, and enjoyed limited baronial which regulated the whole running Four knights, elected in the county their political teeth. Here was another support. It was vital to reach out to other of the local courts. This was a chapter court, were to sit with the king’s judges foundation for the summoning of sections of society. much valued by the knights and in the when they came four times a year to knightly representatives to parliament.

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The summoning of knights and Here again much was owed to Magna it was impossible after 1215 to levy a Another reason was Magna Carta. It burgesses to Simon de Montfort’s Carta. As we have seen, it stipulated tax without the consent of parliament. had a major impact on the king’s ability parliament in 1265 set the pattern for that taxation could only be levied with The only time Edward I tried to do so to extract money from his subjects in the future. Henry III’s son, Edward the common consent of the kingdom. (in 1297) the protests soon forced him an arbitrary fashion. The Charter was I (1272-1307), a king influenced, in It is true that this chapter was omitted to draw back. largely obeyed after 1215 when it fixed many ways, by Montfort’s example, from the post 1215 versions of the the ‘relief ’, the inheritance payment The need to secure consent to taxation summoned them with increasing Charter of 1215, as was the chapter due from a baron, at £100. King John, would not have mattered had kings frequency and by the end of his reign setting up the assembly from which by contrast, had frequently charged been able to do without the money. their place was virtually fixed. None of consent was to come. The reason was hundreds of pounds and sometimes If, as many thought they should, they this, however, meant that parliament baronial selfishness. By excising the thousands. Magna Carta was also ‘lived off their own’, lived, that is, off necessarily had power against the king. chapter, the barons were able to excise obeyed when it forbade the sale of their own lands and other customary Knights and burgesses might attend, along with it the parallel chapter which justice. Likewise, the offers of money revenues, they would have no need for just like lords, simply to applaud and limited their ability to tax their own common under John to assuage the taxation. The twelfth-century kings implement his wishes. That indeed tenants. The omission of the chapter king’s anger and recover property seized had largely been in that position. The was how the kings would have liked was, however, less significant than it by acts of will virtually disappeared thirteenth-century kings were not. If it. They did not, however, get their seemed. The Magna Carta of 1215 was under Henry III. Whereas under they were to live grandly in peace way. The second great parliamentary widely copied in the thirteenth century John the annual value of fines (offers and act mightily in war, taxation was development of the thirteenth and became very well known. There was of money to the king for concessions an absolute necessity. One reason century, alongside the summoning of no understanding that it was invalid. and favours) was over £20,000, under for the change was the diminution representatives, was a huge increase in The papal bull quashing the Charter Henry III it rarely exceeded £5000. in the revenue from royal land. The parliament’s power. The great lever, the was rarely copied and was generally Such income did not recover either great landed estate obtained by the source of parliament’s authority down ignored. In 1255 the magnates in under Edward I. Norman Conquest in 1066 had been the ages, had appeared, namely the parliament gave the failure to summon alienated by the kings of the twelfth The conclusion was obvious, the king control over taxation. them according to the terms of the century, alienated in gifts both to had to find a new source of revenue. 1215 Magna Carta as a reason for religious houses and to royal servants. That by far the best source was the one refusing to grant taxation. In practice,

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provided by a general tax levied on the thirty men and three women were If it was to grant a tax, parliament whole kingdom was clear. Such taxes assessed for the tax. The first of such demanded in return the right to choose had first been levied in 1187 in order to taxes of which we know the yield was the king’s ministers, and control the raise money for the papally proclaimed the seventh levied by King John in expenditure of the money, demands as crusade to recover Jerusalem after 1207. It brought in around £60,000. radical as any faced by Charles I. Since its seizure by Saladin. Another tax Since John’s annual income at the Henry found such terms unacceptable, was raised in 1193-4 to help pay the start of his reign was little more than no taxes were forthcoming. The great ransom of Richard the Lionheart after £20,000, such taxes had the power to lever, the source of parliament’s power, his capture on his way back from the triple the king’s revenues. had thus appeared. Edward I was far crusade. These taxes were levied as a more successful than his father. He In 1207, John had failed to get proper percentage of the value of everyone’s usually secured consent to taxation by consent for his great tax. That was a movable property, essentially clever concessions and the reform of major reason behind Magna Carta’s their corn and farm animals. Later the realm. He thus gained the funds insistence that such taxes must be evidence shows the detail in which with which he conquered Wales and levied with the consent of the kingdom. the assessments were made. ‘William nearly conquered Scotland. John’s son, Henry III never tried to levy at Netherhead: 1 heifer, 4 shillings; 1 a tax without consent. Indeed, he went Magna Carta is, therefore, crucially bullock, 5 shillings; 1 cow, 5 shillings; to parliament again and again asking important for the development 20 sheep, 20 shillings; 1 pig, 2 shillings; for it. In 1225 he was successful in of Parliament. It established the 1 quarter and 2 pounds of wheat, 4s return for the issue of what became the fundamental principle that taxation and 2 pence; 1 quarter of drage, 3s 9d; definitive Magna Carta. In 1237 he was needed consent. It set out the first Total 43 shillings and 11 pence. Ninth, successful again, this time in return for constitution for Parliament, and it 4 shillings and eleven pence’ ran the his first confirmation of the Charter as accelerated the emergence of the assessment of William at Netherhead a king of full age (as he had not been House of Commons. Without Magna for the ninth of 1297. He was one of in 1225). Thereafter, Henry’s numerous Carta there would have been no tax the more prosperous villagers from requests for taxation ran into trouble. based parliamentary state. Shillington in Bedfordshire where

22 23 Magna Carta and Parliament: the legacy Magna Carta and Parliament

By David Prior

That both the 800th anniversary The development of Parliament of the sealing of Magna Carta Within a few years of Magna th and the 750 anniversary of Carta, which established a principle the parliament assembled of ‘the general consent of the realm’ by Simon de Montfort fall for taxation there had emerged a in the same year provides an body which by 1265 is recognisable opportunity to consider both by us today as Parliament with events in the context of the representatives from counties and history of Parliament and to towns in attendance. That these reflect on the archival legacy representatives had attended previous that both have left us. This is parliaments is documented, but the not an unprecedented activity: 1265 Parliament is the first instance fifty years ago, in 1965, our of their attendance together at such predecessors working in the an occasion when matters of common House of Lords Record Office, concern, as opposed to simply taxation, as the Parliamentary Archives were discussed. was then known, were in much Magna Carta and Parliament the same position when they decided to mark the seventh In addition to forming a baseline centenary of de Montfort’s for the story of the development of Parliament. Their response democracy in the years after 1215 it was also an exhibition in the drawn from both Parliament’s collections is also true to say that Magna Carta Queen’s Robing Room in the and those of the then Public Record embodied values that have been House of Lords of documents Office. Some of those records are again reflected in the history of Parliament on display in the present exhibition. during the following 800 years. These

Writs of summons to Simon de Montfort’s Parliament of 1265 Magna Charta cum Statutis, 1587 The National Archives, C 54/82, m 11d House of Lords Library

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included ideas of liberty and rights which clarified or extended some of Magna Charta is such a King’s Bench, became an MP and active and access to justice. The incorporation the clauses in Magna Carta. Altogether critic of the crown. In particular he of Magna Carta into Parliament’s there were six statutes between 1331 fellow, that he will have wrote and pushed through Parliament institutional memory began in many and 1369 that contributed to clarifying no ‘Sovereign’ the Petition of Right of 1628 which ways in 1297, when the text of the 1225 or extending aspects of the Charter. Sir Edward Coke MP, was triggered by the imposition by reissue of the charter was copied onto These changes, which were derived House of Commons, 17 May 1628 Charles I of a non-parliamentary tax. the Statute Roll. Thereafter volumes of in part from Edward III’s need to The Petition proclaimed the illegality of King and Parliament statutes often began with the text of accommodate the concerns of the taxation without parliamentary consent. Magna Carta. It was also read out at House of Commons in return for During the seventeenth century Magna the opening of parliament and during grants of taxation, became as important Carta took on a different significance the 14th century Parliament passed Acts to later lawyers as Magna Carta itself. when it became a reference point in the constitutional struggles which began in the reign of Charles I and culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. In many ways these struggles mirrored those between King John and the barons in 1215. During the reign of Charles I opponents of the King such as John Selden and Sir Edward Coke looked to Magna Carta to justify their belief in the dominance of parliamentary power over the monarchy. Coke (1552- 1634), who was an eminent lawyer, and between 1592 and 1616 successively solicitor-general, attorney-general and chief justice of both Common Pleas and

The Petition exhibited to His Majesty by the Lords Spiritual Sir Edward Coke. Jacobus and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament Houbraken after an original assembled, concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the by Cornelius Johnson Subject with the King’s Majesty’s Royal Answer thereunto © Palace of Westminster in Parliament (The Petition of Right), 3 Charles I, c. 1, 1628 Collection, WOA 502 Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PU/1/1627/3C1n2 www.parliament.uk/art

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His writings articulate the ideas of the These struggles between Crown and 1689, which firmly established the ‘ancient constitution’, of the antiquity Parliament reached a climax in 1688 principles of frequent parliaments, free of the common law and of Magna Carta when in the face of an invading army elections, and freedom of speech within being the basis of the fundamental led by William, Prince of Orange the Parliament. The balance of power had laws of England and in effect a contract Catholic King James II fled London finally shifted away from the monarch between sovereign and people. for France. The following February towards Parliament. The new king the draft Declaration of Rights was described some of the actions of James debated by Parliament. II as ‘contrary to law and to that express provision of Magna Charta’. This document catalogued the means by which James had allegedly sought Liberty to subvert the Protestant religion of In 1679 Parliament passed the Habeas the country. It sought to prohibit the Corpus Act, which was designed to king from certain actions, such as codify the ancient writ of Habeas levying revenue without parliamentary Corpus. consent, and went on to affirm the The Act prevented the unlawful rights and liberties of the subject and detention of people by the authorities, that ‘the Freedom of Speech and Debates, giving courts the power to determine or Proceedings in Parliament, ought not the legality of such imprisonment. Such to be impeached or questioned in any rights carried strong echoes of Magna Court or Place out of Parliament’. This Carta and it was erroneously believed principle is known as Parliamentary that the principle of Habeas Corpus Privilege. The draft ended with the had originated in 1215. The suspension resolution that William and his wife The engrossed Declaration served of Habeas Corpus in 1817 at a time of Mary be declared King and Queen of as the basis of the Act known as the civil unrest provoked the caricaturist England, an offer which was accepted. Bill of Rights, passed in December George Cruikshank to depict this as an

An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, Draft Declaration of Rights, and settling the Succession of the Crown (the Bill of 12 February 1689 Rights), 1 William & Mary Session 2, c. 2, 1689 Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/JO/10/1/403D Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PU/1/1688/1W&Ms2n2

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attack on Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights. Two years later Cruikshank collaborated successfully with William Hone on his political satire The Political House That Jack Built which featured an image of a treasure chest containing the same three documents.

Gillray in 1798 entitled Consequences of a Successful French Invasion which carried the sub-title We come to recover your long lost liberties. In the cartoon the House of Commons was shown That the forces of revolution themselves as overrun by the forces of revolution, were also sometimes seen as threats to with Magna Carta and the Declaration Magna Carta and Parliament’s heritage of Rights together with the journals of is clear from the cartoon by James the House tipped onto the floor.

Illustration from The An Act for the better securing the Liberty of the Political House that Jack Consequences of a Subject, and for Prevention of Imprisonments beyond Built by William Hone Successful French Invasion, the Seas (Habeas Corpus Act), 31 Charles II, c. 2, 1679 © The British Library Board 1798 by James Gillray Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PU/1/1679/31C2n3 8135.e.1.(6) House of Lords Library

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Radicals, Parliamentary Reform was created, allowing adult males I call it a greater Charter and the Right to Vote occupying property worth at least of the liberties of England Amongst those in the eighteenth £10 a year to vote. In the counties Thomas Babington Macaulay M P, century who championed parliamentary the franchise was broadened to House of Commons, 5 July 1831, speaking in favour of a bill for parliamentary reform. reform was the radical MP John Wilkes include the more substantial (1725-1797), who in 1776 made the tenant farmers, small landowners first motion in the House of Commons and shopkeepers. Fifty-six towns on the subject. Images of Wilkes often with less than 2,000 inhabitants depict him with Magna Carta and the (‘rotten boroughs’) lost separate Bill of Rights. representation and 31 further towns were reduced to one MP. Sixty-seven The passing of the Great Reform Act new constituencies were created. in 1832 was a mixture of political circumstance and popular pressure. The pro-reform Whig Lord Grey became Prime Minister in 1830 and agitation from extra-parliamentary radicals finally convinced a sceptical King and hostile Tory peers that reform was necessary. The effect of this Act was to enable the middle classes of the big industrial towns to share in political power. A uniform borough franchise

An Act to amend the Representation of the People in England and Wales (the Great Reform Act), 2&3 William John Wilkes MP by John Dixon IV, c. 45, 1832 © Palace of Westminster Collection, Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/ WOA 1468 www.parliament.uk/art PU/1/1832/2&3W4n147

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The Great Reform Act was followed methods, and such women became Women, however, were still not equal to by further Acts which widened the known as suffragettes. The cover of men in terms of the franchise, as men male franchise in 1867 and 1884. By the 27 January 1911 edition of Votes could vote from the age of 21. the early 1900s some women had for Women, a suffragette publication, The requirement to be 30 years old become frustrated that years of peaceful featured a representation of the scene at or more was to ensure that women campaigning by groups such as the Runnymede in 1215 with the sub-title did not form the majority of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage The Story of how Militant Methods Won electorate; if women had been Societies had not yet obtained them the Great Charter is told by Mr Joseph enfranchised on the same terms the vote. They formed new associations Clayton on page 277 . as men, they would have been which used more forceful and direct in the majority because of the An Act to further reform the electoral system was deemed necessary during the First World War as millions of returning soldiers were not entitled to the vote because of property and residential qualifications. The Representation of the People Act of 1918 widened suffrage by abolishing almost all property From the late 1830s to the 1850s the qualifications for men and enfranchising Chartist movement demanded further women over 30 who met minimum reform. The Chartists campaigned property qualifications. These changes for the male right to vote and listed saw the size of the electorate triple their demands in The People’s Charter, a from 7.7 million to 21.4 million. manifesto with obvious echoes of Magna Women now accounted for about Carta, which was launched in 1838. 43% of the electorate.

Representation of the People The People’s Charter Cover of Votes for Women, (Equal Franchise) Act, c. 12, 1928 Bishopsgate Library, 27 January 1911 Parliamentary Archives, Bishopsgate Foundation and Institute Museum of London HL/PO/PU/1/1928/18&19G5c12

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loss of men in the war. Ten years in its insistence that governments Further reading later the Equal Franchise Act was follow the law and due procedure. Ashley, M. passed ‘for the purpose of providing Taking Liberties: The Struggle for that the parliamentary franchise shall Britain’s Freedoms and Rights be the same for men and women’. It The Magna Carta, the (The British Library, 2008) lowered the voting age for women Petition of Right, and the Bill to 21, giving the vote to five million of Rights are documents held Breay, C. Magna Carta: Manuscripts and Myths women. Men and women now had the in veneration by democrats same qualifications based on residence, (The British Library, 2010) business premises, or being the spouse throughout the world Carpenter, D. of a person with a business premises Nelson Mandela, Magna Carta qualification. Supreme Court of South Africa, 20 April 1964 (London, 2015) The Modern Legacy Shenton, C., Prior, D., During the 19th century Parliament and Takayanagi, M. repealed many of the clauses in Magna Victoria Tower Treasures from Carta. In particular, the Statute Law the Parliamentary Archives Revision Act of 1863 repealed certain (Parliamentary Archives, 2010) clauses in the 1225 re-issue of Magna Carta which had been entered onto the Vincent, N. Statute Roll in 1297. Today only clauses Magna Carta: The Foundation 1 (part), 13, 39 and 40 remain in force. of Freedom 1215-2015 (London, 2014) In 1998 the Human Rights Act incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into British Law. The Convention echoed Magna Carta

Human Rights Act, c. 42, 1998 Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PU/1/1998/c42

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