The Magna Carta
Name:________________________________
The Magna Carta is a document that was forced upon King John of England in the
year 1215 by a group of lords and high church officials who were tired of living under a tyrant.
The document guaranteed certain rights that even the king could not take away.
Background! For Article 12
The King was always in control of how much
the people were taxed. Generally, he taxed
depending on what he had to do for the realm. Like,
fighting wars, building castles, building bridges,
churches, manors or other things. King John had
fought many wars to retake the land him and his
brothers lost and built excessive palaces and
castles. These caused John to raise taxes on the
lords, knights and especially serfs and commoners
in order to pay for the wars and palaces. The
income of Lords and Knights relied heavily on how
much they could tax the peasants and give only a
portion to the King, now they were giving almost all
of what they taxed to the king.
Article 12 (Excerpt):
No aid may be levied in our kingdom without its general consent... For these purposes only a
reasonable aid may be levied. Aids from the city of London are to be treated similarly.
● Aid: in this context aid would be money demanded by John
● Levied: imposing or collecting a tax by force
● General consent: a group in complete agreement
1) What is the Subject of Article 12? Highlight keywords that tell us what the subject is.
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2) What is the Purpose of Article 12? What is it trying to do?
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3) What is the significance of Article 12? In other words, why is it important to understand.
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Background to Article 39!
King John used every way he could to take
money and power away from the lords,
knights, and commoners of England. The
English judicial system (courts, lawyers, judges)
had been based on royal judges in traveling courts
that solved legal cases. Some kings, especially
John, had started to be more involved in legal
cases. John would charge lords large amounts of
money in order for him to offer justice in particular
cases. The lack of rights and liberties for the
people allowed the King to dispense his own
version of justice based on how much the lords
payed them. Some people were imprisoned for
long amounts of time because the right person
paid the right amount. Some were executed for
minor crimes because of the right amount being
paid.
Article 39:
No free man shall be taken or imprisoned [arrested], or stripped of his rights or possessions, or
outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him,
or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.
● Deprived: taking something away and not letting them have it
● Lawful judgement: a trial that uses laws. This is reference to previously judges would judge
cases any way they wanted to with no set laws or they would attack the person instead of a trial
(Thomas Becket)
● Equals: someone of the same social class
1) What is the Subject of Article 39? Highlight keywords that tell us what the subject is.
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2) What is the Purpose of Article 12? What is it trying to do?
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3) Who are freemen, and who are not?
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4) What is Article 39 guaranteeing for all free men? Why is it important that judgement comes
from their equals?
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