Magna Carta Dbq

Mckinley Rogers

10/22/15

World History

Prompt #1

The Magna Carta was an agreement between King John and a group of English barons in response to years of the king’s bad ruling and excessive taxation. Many english nobles resented the ongoing growth of the king’s power and rebelled during the reign of King John. The nobles wrote the charter and forced King John to affix his seal on the Magna Carta. King john of England signed this charter on June 15, 1215 at Runnymede, near Windsor. Magna Carta is Latin for “The great Charter”, and was originally written in Latin. A charter is a written document that lists the conditions of an agreement. Magna Carta was originally known as the “Charter of Liberties”. In 1199, King John gained control over England. King John became the first English monarch to be excommunicated, so he struck back by taxing the church and taking portions of its land. This upset leaders of the church and England’s nobility, they confronted King john for raising the taxes, taking land, and losing battles.

Around two-thirds of the provisions in the United States Bill of Rights draw from the Magna Carta. The United States Bill of Rights states many of the same concepts that were written in the Magna Carta. The 39th clause in the Magna Carta was one of the ideas that the United States declares in the Bill of Rights. Three of Magna Carta’s clauses are still a part of British law today. The Magna Carta laid a foundation for legal concepts that are still around today, like the ban on cruel and unusual punishments, trial by a jury of one’s peers and the idea that justice should not be sold or unnecessarily delayed. The document also addressed very specific concerns that didn’t quite stick through the ages, including a ban on fishing weirs and a mandate on the proper width for the bolts of cloth used to make monk’s