MAGNA CHART& mig'na Icieta, or GREAT CHARTER OF LIBERTIES, a famous document extorted from King John of England by the confederated barons in 1215. The barons who with their followers com posed "the Army of God and the Holy Church'o were the whole nobility of England; their fol lowers comprehended all the yeomanry and free peasantry, and the accession of the capi tal was a pledge of the adherence of the citizens and burgesses. John had been obliged to yield to this general union, and in June both parties encamped on the plain called Runnymede, be tween Windsor and Staines, on the banks of the Thames, and conferences were opened be tween the king and his barons. The prelimi naries being agreed upon, the barons presented heads of their grievances and means of redress, in the nature of the bills now offend by both houses for the royal assent. The king, accord ing to the custom which then and long after prevailed, directed that the articles should be reduced to the form of a charter, in which state it issued as a royal grant. The charter was signed on 15 June. Copies were immedi ately sent to every county or diocese and or dered to be read publicly twice a year. To se cure the execution of the charter John was compelled to surrender the city and Tower of London, to be held by the barons till 15 August, or until he had completely executed the charter. King John, though he signed the charter, had no intention of keeping it; he to the Pope, who in a bull declared Magna Charta *null and void* and excommunicated the bar ons who had obtained it ; and he was conduct ing a war against his barons when death over him in May 1216. Many parts of the
charter were pointed against the abuses of the power of the king as lord paramount; the ty rannical exercise of the provisions of the for est laws was checked, and many grievances in cident to feudal tenures were mitigated or abol ished. But besides these provisions it contains many for the benefit of the people at large, and a few maxims of just government, applicable to all places and times, of which it is hardly possible to overrate the importance of the first promulgation by the supreme authority. One of these provided that taxes should not be im posed without the consent of the Common Council of the realm. The 39th article con tains the celebrated clause which forbids arbi trary imprisonment and punishment without lawful trial. This article contains the writ of habeas corpus and the trial by jury, the most effectual securities against oppression which the wisdom of man has devised, and the prin ciple that justice is the debt of every govern ment, which cannot be paid without rendering law cheap, prompt and equal. The provision which directs that the Supreme Civil Court shall be stationary, instead of following the king's person, was an important safeguard of the regularity, accessibility, independence and dig nity of public justice in Great Britain. Con firmation of the Great Charter was frequently made by English monarchs. Consult Stubbs, `Constitutional History of England' (1897).