Was The Magna Carta A Success Or A Failure

The Magna Carta or the ‘Great Charter’ was signed on 15th June 1215 at Runnymede in Windsor by King John. After seizing London, King John had no choice but to negotiate with his angered barons and so met at Runnymede. With the negotiations led by Archbishop Stephen Langston of Canterbury and the charter constructed by the barons, the document consisted of 63 chapters addressing different grievances against their tyrannical king. Although the document may have been a failed peace treaty between the King and his rebel barons and a number clerics and eventually resulting in the First Barons War of 1217, the document was not a failure. The Magna Carta is still described by many as the most important documents of history, not only did the charter

address the grievances of the barons, it also extended further than the wishes of the barons and included fundamental values between the King and his people, outlining the rights of all ‘free-men’, rights of the English Church, finance and set out the enforcement of the law. The Magna Carta was the first attempt at a codified constitution in England and has remained an important a basis of the British constitution right up to the present day.
A key importance of the Magna Carta, often looked in favour of the individual values of the document, is the value of the document as a whole.

This meaning that this document held great importance through its legal value. The document was, although agreed to by the King the Magna Carta was above the King’s prerogatives as a superior body of law. With King John agreeing to the Charter, proved a new type of rule, coined by A. V. Dicey as a “rule of law” as opposed an ultimate rule of a King, with all authority over the laws. The was extremely important as it bound the monarchs prerogative rights over law making and had to uphold his promises made by signing the Magna Carta and could be held accountable if he failed to do so. This gave the King a choice, to obey the law and keep the peace, or defy it and risk civil war. The King no longer held the advantage of ultimate supremacy over his people but instead was, to a degree, answerable to his barons. However, the Magna Carta, although bound some of the monarch’s power, as a whole was also important in the growth of a national identity. Although a national identity was not a completed achievement in 1215, the Magna Carta can be viewed as an important step towards an identity through the laying out of both political and civil rights of the people and by trying to embody this idea of liberties, even if these were not yet extended to all whom we would consider “free-men” in today’s context. However, although this may be seen as

important outcome of the Magna Carta, this could be argued to have been applied retrospectively, and was rather an unconscious occurrence by the barons. This is because the expanding of the definition of a ‘freeman’ and to whom those rights applied to, had its benefits. The barons had close connections with the knights and lesser free landholders, and so extending their privileges, also held advantages for the barons.
The Magna Carta also held importance in re-establishing the rights of the Church in England, in separating the institution to be free from the influence and control of the king. King John spent much of his reign in disputes with Pope Innocent III with regards to the election of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, as John refused to acknowledge Stephen Langton the papal candidate. After further disagreements, John was excommunicated, although later acknowledged Stephen Langton as the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1213 after being forced to make peace with the Pope due to French invasion threats in 1212. With these ongoing disagreements between King John and Pope Innocent III, the Magna Carta set to reaffirm promises John had previously made in a charter made in 1214. The Great Charter again, aimed to limit the powers of King John and place separations between the King and Church and papal matters. The document meant that the king could again no longer interfere with the elections and appointments of bishops and abbots, but instead remained free and open to the necessary Church officials who were involved. Although King John appealed for Pope Innocent III to reject the Magna Carta within weeks of signing the Charter before it could be properly implemented and Pope Innocent did so declaring the document null in August 1215, this part of the Magna Carta still proved important as it again set out laws in order to create separation between the monarch and other institutions within society to make them free from the Kings prerogative rule and influence which he abused, not just in refusing to accept Stephen Langton as the Archbishop of Canterbury but by also in his action to take the Church’s land and income in 1208 during the ongoing disputes between King John and Popes Innocent III following the disagreements of the Archbishop appointment.