D1 The Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest

A question about the Magna Carta exposed sloppiness on my part. The substance of my post ,“3.2 Do People Hold a Right to Exist? Part 2”, is correct. Certain details are not. I will need to revise the post.

What was stated incorrectly: the Magna Carta did not combine the 1215 Charter of Runnymede and the 1217 Charter of the Forest. The two documents are separate. What was stated correctly: it is the Charter of the Forest that extended the right to the resources needed to sustain life to the public.

What happened in England. Kings historically granted charters of liberties to Barons and towns so that they could handle trials and disputes without dragging every case to the king. Those liberties preserved noble privileges but created a hodgepodge of inconsistent judgments that would eventually be fixed by making laws uniform in the kingdom. Although William upheld most Anglo-Saxon principles, disputes with the powerful Barons lead to threats of rebellion. Under pressure from the nobles, on 15, June 1215 King John sealed the Charter of Runnymede (a charter of rights protecting some people). At John’s request Pope Innocent III annulled it. Anger at the annulment triggered the First Barons’ War that ended in 1217 with the King sealing a revised charter of liberties. Under pressure he also removed Articles 47 and 48 from the Runnymede charter. These articles dealt with the Royal Forests that occupied 1/3 of England. With significant expansions those articles became the Charter of the Forest, which the king sealed in 1217 along with the amended Charter of Runnymede. To distinguish the new charter of liberties from the Charter of the Forest and from earlier charters, the revised Charter of Runnymede was named the Magna Carta.

While the Magna Carta is generally credited with bringing legal rights to everyone, the scholarly consensus is that the extension of rights to ordinary people was a centuries long process. The consensus is also that the original protections focused on Barons, nobility, property and the church. The foundations of individual rights were there, but the Magna Carta restricted those rights by class. The long delayed extension of rights might explain why legends of King Arthur, Camelot, and a lost or suppressed charter of individual rights grew in popularity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

In the context of whether people “hold a right to exist”, the Charter of the Forest is the more relevant document. The Magna Carta focused on defense of Barons, property, the Church and against criminal accusations. The Magna Carta is also the first document affirming that the king is subject to the law. The Charter of the Forest addressed whether the rich and powerful could seize all the land then arrest or imprison you for existing without a residence.