Arguments Against The Magna Carta

When King John signed the Magna Carta along the River Thames at Runnymede he probably did not realize the consequences his decision would have, or the severe implications of such a document in the first place. The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter” as it means in English, began as merely a list of complaints by the rich land-owning barons under King John. John had taxed his barons unnecessarily in order to help pay for his costly wars, and if they refused he would take away their property and punish them. Simply put, they really didn’t like this, and if John had commanded the respect of his people they might have cowered away from any intervention. As history stands, the barons rebelled against the king, who was not able to stop them as they surrounded London. In order to appease them, he signed their charter, but had no intentions to follow it; he would continue to fight with the barons until he fell ill and died in 1216. David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s college London, speculates that if John had lived and been victorious over the barons, then the Magna Carta would have been the kindling for John’s fireplace. However, after John’s death, his nine-year-old son Henry wisely upheld the Magna Carta in order to stop the

Many a person living in medieval England had experienced the government using its sheriffs and bailiffs to shift the law in its favor. Statements like the 45th clause say that the government will only elect justices, constables, sheriffs, and bailiffs who know the law and will uphold it; and clause 48 states that every county should elect 12 sworn knights who are honest men to keep those officers of the crown in check. Obviously the crown needed to be put under the law otherwise injustice would be as rampant is it is in other monarchies