Magna Carta in the Middle Ages

This is a document that was forcefully signed by John the King of England between 1116 and 1216 at Runnymede near Windsor Castle Middle Ages, Lordsandladies). This particular document is like the Domesday Book and is considered to be the most significant document to have been written during at the time. It has a great effect on the English society and its law in general. This paper describes the Magna Carta in the Middle Age.It may be sound strange that a band of baron were able to force the King to make that decision with all the powers he possesses.

But ultimately it the barons that normally help the King to make both external and internal affairs. At the time England owned some land parts of France (Trueman, Magna Carta).

The baron was the once to finance the King and also provide the security men at the borders. As part of the old law, the king would ask permission if need be to either hike the tax collected from the people or the need to increase the number of security men in its territories.King John, however, was not successful in his operation to protect his borders, he lost the land owned by England in Europe. Without hesitating or any kind of consultation from the baron, he went ahead to increase the taxes and added more men, an unwelcomed decision by the people. This was against the feudal law which resulted in conflict between the King and the boron (Newman, Magna Carta).King John yet made another mistake in other areas as well.

He had an argument with Pope Innocent III after trying to decide who should be the leader of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This decision was not welcomed by the Roman Catholic which resulted in the ban of tradition parish church services in England. Moreover, the decision by far made the people unhappy inkling the barons. In addition, this decision made the Pope in 1209 to excommunicate with John. Face with this two-religious problem and even worse, they believed that those who do wrong to the church will not go to heaven, John accepted to let the Church make their own decision on leadership.In 1214, the King was faced with another tremendous problem after suffering a military defeat in his fight to regain the territories owned by England in France (King John Issue 18). After the fine imposed by the Pope and his lost fight, he came to the baron to ask for more funds which led the barons to question King Johns strategies of leadership. Early 1215, a full document by the baron was prepared, they took the arms and ganged together against their king. By mid-year, England was successfully captured by the barons. June of the same year, Barons dressed with amour cornered the king and forced him to agree to the terms of the document. This led to the production of the Magna Carta which was made of Royal Seal. The document was printed, copied and sent to every important individual in England.

In conclusion, the Magna Carta since then became a very valuable document as it regarded to be the core foundation of the counties constitution. This has greatly influenced the Kings perception of his powers. Moreover, it helped in the establishment of the citizen civil rights as well as the powers imposed to King in parliament. Its effect can be observed to have influenced the restricting of the most significant documents in the U.S like the Bill of Right and the Constitution well. The King had a superficial support for the document indicating not to honor the laws he signed.

Works Cited

• "Why did King John issue, Magna Carta?" The Magna Carta Project (n.d.): 18. http://magnacarta.cmp.uea.ac.uk/static/schools/downloads/KS2%20Learning%20Pack.pdf."Middle Ages for Kids".
• Middle Ages, www.lordsandladies.org/.Newman, Simon. Magna Carta. 2017.
• http://www.thefinertimes.com/Middle-Ages/magna-carta.html. 23 October 2017.
• Trueman, C N. Magna Carta. 20 October 2016.
• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/magna-carta/. 23 October 2017.

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