Why was the Magna Carta so important to the middle ages? What was its purpose? How did it effect life in the middle ages? When looking at a document like this it is easy to see how it lead the way for our government today, but what about how it changed life in its own time? How did it effect the people of the middle ages directly? The Magna Carta had a strong effect on the English people of the middle ages; it protected them from corruption of the king as well as other law officials. To understand the Magna Carta, we must first look at what was happening before it was composed, that lead up to the making of this document. The Crusades, also known as the “Holy Wars” were taking place during this time. King Richard preferred to fight in wars over dealing with the governmental side of ruling a country, and he went out to join the fighting. John was left in control of the country when his older brother, Richard, left to be a part of the third crusade and was crowned after his brother died from an unattended wound received while besieging a castle. (Sherman, 258) King John also had many issues with the church. He had argued with the pope about the Archbishop and was excommunicated.
Because this document came, in part, from barons, it is important to understand how the feudal system worked at this time. Feudal relationships
…show more content…
This is one of the ways that the Magna Carta prevents the king from abusing his power. The idea of the Magna Carta led to the creation of Parliament, which was institutionalized as another way to restrict the king’s power when King Edward I needed to raise taxes to fund his wars. (Sherman, 258) This consisted of nobles giving advice to the king regarding things such as taxes. They required that the king must have this council to make sure that he did not do anything that could potentially harm his