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Online Library of Liberty A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc. The Concise Magna Carta: The 63 Clauses in Latin, English, and with Commentary (1215, 1914, 2015) Magna Carta (1215) Edition used: Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, with an Historical Introduction, by William Sharp McKechnie (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1914). About this Title: The text, translation, and commentary has been taken from William Sharp McKechnie's edition of 1914. The lengthly historical introduction and appendices have been removed for reasons of space. To see them, please consult the complete edition of the book. For additional material on Magna Carta in the Online Library of liberty, see: <http://oll.libertyfund.org/groups/132> Magna Carta Commemoration Essays, edited by Henry Elliot Malden, M.A. with a Preface by the Rt. Hon. Viscount Bryce, O.M., Etc. For the Royal Historical Society, 1917. <http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/339> and this collection of more recent essays, Ellis Sandoz, The Roots of Liberty: Magna Carta, Ancient Constitution, and the Anglo-American Tradition of Rule of Law, edited and with an Introduction by Ellis 1 Sandoz (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2008). <http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2180> Copyright information: The text is in the public domain. Fair use statement: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. About the OLL and Liberty Fund The Online Library of Liberty is a project of Liberty Fund, Inc., a private educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The OLL website has a large collection of books and study guides about individual liberty, limited constitutional government, the free market, and peace. For more information see: Liberty Fund: www.libertyfund.org OLL: oll.libertyfund.org Table of Contents: TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND COMMENTARY PREAMBLE.1 CHAPTER ONE. CHAPTER TWO. CHAPTER THREE. CHAPTER FOUR. CHAPTER FIVE. CHAPTER SIX. CHAPTER SEVEN. CHAPTER EIGHT. CHAPTER NINE. CHAPTER TEN. CHAPTER ELEVEN. CHAPTER TWELVE. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. CHAPTER FOURTEEN. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. CHAPTER NINETEEN. CHAPTER TWENTY. CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE. CHAPTER TWENTY–TWO. CHAPTER TWENTY–THREE. CHAPTER TWENTY–FOUR. CHAPTER TWENTY–FIVE. CHAPTER TWENTY–SIX. CHAPTER TWENTY–SEVEN. 2 CHAPTER TWENTY–EIGHT. CHAPTER TWENTY–NINE. CHAPTER THIRTY. CHAPTER THIRTY–ONE. CHAPTER THIRTY–TWO. CHAPTER THIRTY–THREE. CHAPTER THIRTY–FOUR. CHAPTER THIRTY–FIVE. CHAPTER THIRTY–SIX. CHAPTER THIRTY–SEVEN. CHAPTER THIRTY–EIGHT. CHAPTER THIRTY–NINE. CHAPTER FORTY. CHAPTER FORTY–ONE. CHAPTER FORTY–TWO. CHAPTER FORTY–THREE. CHAPTER FORTY–FOUR. CHAPTER FORTY–FIVE. CHAPTER FORTY–SIX. CHAPTER FORTY–SEVEN. CHAPTER FORTY–EIGHT. CHAPTER FORTY–NINE. CHAPTER FIFTY. CHAPTER FIFTY–ONE. CHAPTER FIFTY–TWO. CHAPTER FIFTY–THREE. CHAPTER FIFTY–FOUR. CHAPTER FIFTY–FIVE. CHAPTER FIFTY–SIX. CHAPTER FIFTY–SEVEN. CHAPTER FIFTY–EIGHT. CHAPTER FIFTY–NINE. CHAPTER SIXTY. CHAPTER SIXTY–ONE. CHAPTER SIXTY–TWO. CHAPTER SIXTY–THREE. Edition: current; Page: [i]Edition: current; Page: [183] TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND COMMENTARY Edition: current; Page: [184] Edition: current; Page: [185] PREAMBLE.1 Johannes Dei gratia rex Anglie, dominus Hibernie, dux Normannie et Aquitannie, et comes Andegavie, archiepiscopis, episcopis, abbatibus, comitibus, baronibus, justiciariis, forestariis, vicecomitibus, prepositis, ministris et omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis salutem. Sciatis nos intuitu Dei et pro salute anime nostre et omnium antecessorum et heredum nostrorum, ad honorem Dei et exaltationem sancte Ecclesie, et emendacionem regni nostri, per consilium venerabilium patrum nostrorum, Stephani Cantuariensis archiepiscopi tocius Anglie primatis et sancte Romane ecclesie cardinalis, Henrici Dublinensis archiepiscopi, Willelmi Londoniensis, Petri Wintoniensis, Joscelini Bathoniensis et Glastoniensis, Hugonis Lincolniensis, Walteri Wygorniensis, Willelmi Coventriensis, et Benedicti Roffensis episcoporum; magistri Pandulfi domini pape subdiaconi et familiaris, fratris Aymerici magistri milicie Templi in Anglia; et nobilium virorum Willelmi Mariscalli comitis Penbrocie, Willelmi comitis Sarresburie, Willelmi comitis Warennie, Willelmi comitis Arundellie, Alani de Galeweya constabularii Scocie, Warini filii Geroldi, Petri filii Hereberti, Huberti de Burgo Edition: current; Page: [186] senescalli Pictavie, Hugonis de Nevilla, Mathei filii 3 Hereberti, Thome Basset, Alani Basset, Philippi de Albiniaco, Roberti de Roppeleia, Johannis Mariscalli, Johannis filii Hugonis et aliorum fidelium nostrorum. John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciars, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, greeting. Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our souls, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of God and the advancement of holy Church, and for the reform of our realm, [we have granted as underwritten]1 by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of master Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the Knights of the Temple in England), and of the illustrious men2 William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, William, earl of Salisbury, William, earl Warenne, William, earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerald, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert de Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip d’Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and others, our liegemen. The Great Charter of John opens, in the form common to royal charters of the period, with a greeting from the sovereign to his magnates, officials, and faithful subjects, and announces, in the pious legal formula used by impious and pious kings alike, that he had made certain grants by the advice of counsellors whom he names. Three features call for comment. I. The King’s Title. Points of interest are suggested by the form of royal style here adopted. John’s assumption of the royal plural “Sciatis Nos” reads, in the light of Edition: current; Page: [187] subsequent history, as a tribute to his arrogance rather than his greatness, when compared with the humbler first person singular used by his father. In this particular, however, Richard, not John, had been the innovator.1 For a further alteration, John was alone responsible: to the titles borne by his father and brother, he added that of “lord of Ireland.” When the wide territories of Henry II., had been distributed among his elder sons, the young John (hence known as “John Lackland”) was left without a heritage, until his father bestowed on him the island of Ireland, recently appropriated; and this brought with it the right to style himself “dominus Hiberniae,” a title retained after he had outlived his brothers and inherited their wide lands and honours. John began his reign in 1199 as ruler over the undivided possessions of the House of Anjou from the Cheviots to the Pyrenees. These lands were held, by him as by his father, under a variety of titles and conditions. Anjou, the original fief of the Plantagenet race, still carried with it only the title of count. Henry II. had, at an early age, become duke of Normandy in his mother’s right, and thereafter duke of Aquitaine by marriage with Eleanor, its heiress.2 These fiefs were held by Henry and his sons under the King of France as Lord Paramount. Long before 1215, John had lost these wide dominions, except the most distant of them all, his mother’s dowry of Aquitaine. Anjou and Normandy were irretrievably lost, but he still retained their empty titles; and in this Henry III. followed him at first, until, by the Treaty of 1259, he surrendered to Louis IX. all claim to Normandy and Anjou with their dependencies, in return for a confirmation of his claims on Aquitaine.3 Of Ireland, John was still, as formerly, “lord” not “king.”4 The exact denotation of “dominus” has formed Edition: current; Page: [188] the subject of learned controversy. It is not, as has sometimes been suggested, an inferior title to that of rex, appropriate only to a preliminary stage of the process culminating in kingship. The two words imply distinct relationships differing in kind. The one is national and the other personal and feudal. Kingship is conferred by “election” (or at least proclamation) followed by coronation; lordship depends on the feudal contract made with the individual vassal, by homage and fealty.1 England, alone of John’s possessions, was held by the style of “Rex,” implying sovereign rule, although John in 1213 had accepted Innocent as feudal overlord. In calling himself “Rex Angliae,” in place of “Rex Anglorum” (as Henry I. had done), he followed precedents of Stephen and of Henry II.2 No vindication of John’s title is given. The