a convenient truth

I saw this on MeFi, and some of the links are fascinating. Ross Perot is selling a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta. It is one of 17 copies, and the only one not in institutional ownership in the Commonwealth.

The Magna Carta certainly has some great words in it (this is taken from the article referred to later):

The provisions of the Magna Carta reveal among other things the famous chapter 39 from which habeas corpus, prohibition of torture, trial by jury, and the rule of law are derived:

Chapter 39: No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or any way victimized, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. Chapter 40: To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice.

We also see that “one of the first great stages in the emancipation of women is to be traced” to the Magna Carta.⁵ The most valuable individual provisions in the eyes of the only contemporary chronicler (a minstrel attached to Robert of Béthune) are those treating the disparagement of women:

Chapter 7: A widow shall have her marriage portion and inheritance forthwith and without difficulty after the death of her husband . . . Chapter 8: No widow shall be forced to marry so long as she wishes to live without a husband . . .

It put a stop to the robberies of petty tyrants: Chapter 28: No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take anyone’s corn or other chattels unless he pays on the spot in cash for them . . .

I had previously thought that, for all it’s emotive language, the Magna Carta was basically PR. There’s a fantastic article in the Boston Review of all places that covers the history of the Magna Carta in more detail, and there is a whole lot more to it than a tiff between a skint King and some irritating Barons.