Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical IntroductionMcKechnie, William Sharp
History
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction
McKechnie, William Sharp
Constitutional history -- England -- Sources; Law -- England -- History; Law -- England -- Sources; Magna Carta
Unfortunately, the vagueness of contemporary accounts prevents us from
reproducing with certainty the progress of negotiations on that eventful
15th of June and the few days following. Some inferences, however, may
be drawn from the words of the completed Charter itself and from those
of several closely related documents. One of these, the Articles of the
Barons,[32] is sometimes supposed to be identical in its terms with the
Schedule which had been already presented to the King’s emissaries, at
Brackley, on the 27th of April.[33] It is more probable, however, that
during the seven eventful weeks which had since elapsed, the original
demands had been somewhat modified. It is not unlikely that the interval
had been employed in making the terms of the suggested agreement more
full and specific. The Schedule of April was probably only a rough draft
of the Articles as we know them, and these formed in their turn the new
draft on which the completed Charter was based. Articles and Charter are
alike authenticated with the impress of the King’s great seal, an
indisputable proof that the terms of each of them actually received his
official consent.
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Footnote 32:
See Appendix.
Footnote 33:
See _supra_, p. 40.
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This fact affords a strong presumption that an interval must have
elapsed between the King’s acceptance of the first and the final
completion of the second; since it would have been absurd to seal what
was practically a draft at the same time as the principal instrument.
The probability of such an interval must not be lost sight of in any
attempt to reconstruct in chronological sequence the stages of the
negotiations at Runnymede.
A few undoubted facts form a starting-point on which inferences may be
based. John’s headquarters were fixed at Windsor from Monday, 15th June,
to the afternoon of Tuesday the 23rd. On each of these nine days (with
the possible exception of the 16th and 17th) he visited Runnymede to
confer with the barons.[34]
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Footnote 34:
So far there can be no doubt. Either on the _Close Rolls_ or on the
_Patent Rolls_ (q.v.) copies of one or more writs are preserved dated
from Windsor on each of these days, and also one or more dated from
Runnymede on 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd June.
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Two crucial stages in these negotiations were clearly reached on Monday
the 15th (the date borne by Magna Carta itself) and on Friday the 19th
(the day on which John in more than one writ stated that peace had been
concluded). What happened exactly on each of these two days is, however,
to some extent, matter of conjecture. It is here maintained, with some
confidence, that on Monday the substance of the barons’ demands was
provisionally accepted and that the Articles were then sealed; while on
Friday this arrangement was finally confirmed and Magna Carta itself, in
several duplicates, was sealed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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