The ConstitutionAn American or an English

Constitution?

As Americans, we all know the story of the creation of the

United States Constitution. It, along with the Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments form

the political, legislative, and judicial framework in which we live. But what about the English Constitution? What “document” serves the same purpose in the

United Kingdom?

But What is the English Constitution?

?

??

No Formal Constitution

While England has no formal written Constitution, the Magna Carta (1215) +

Petition of Right (1628) + Bill of Rights (1689) collectively make up a kind of Constitution of

England.

“Unlike the United States Constitution, which is a

single written document, the British constitution is

made up of all acts of Parliament over the

centuries. It also includes documents such as the

Magna Carta [1215] and Bill of Rights [1689], as well as unwritten traditions that

protect citizens’ rights.” A summary of landmark legislation will follow.

Magna Carta – June 15, 1215

King John (r. 1199-1216) signs the

Magna Carta (right) or the

Great Charter

During the last years of John's reign, the aristocracy

“commenced a series of more orderly efforts [than during the wild years of Stephen's reign,

1135-1154] to secure a share in the government”

Warren Hollister suggests that while the barons could tolerate

royal cruelty or ruthlessness (they had with previous kings),

they could not tolerate inconsistent policy or weak

military performance. It is this that lost John baronial support.

General Background to Signing of Magna Carta

Stephen Langton (c. 1155-1228), Archbishop of Canterbury

Resistance of the Clergy

Langton (above) was the guiding spirit of the baronial movement to

check royal absolutism.

John's Renewed Attempts at Overseas ConquestWith relief from the

threat of French invasion, John set about to re-

conquer his territories in France.

Philip's victory extinguished John's last hope of recovering the lost continental lands

At Bouvines (below) in the Flanders marshes,

in July 1214, Philip Augustus (1165-1223,

above) routed Otto, the ally of King John.

Failure of John’s French Campaign

Not only had John taxed England for

financing his wars; he had failed to give the kingdom any glory in

return. Map to left shows the regions in

western France claimed by John’s royal family, the

Plantaganets.

John’s Taxation Policies"Ten years of savage taxation had been for nothing, and he [John] returned to England to face a sullen baronage. . . . His prestige had never been lower, and many of his tax-ridden English barons were ready for rebellion."

John’s reign is the setting for the Robin Hood legends

(above). Walt Disney caricature of John (below):

Barons Occupy London Easter Week in 1215

“Not one of the purely baronial

movements secured lasting

results, but they helped to pave the way for the rise of

Parliament.”

Signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede—June 15, 1215

Its 63 articles—a series of demands from the barons— “did not indulge in political philosophy or in sweeping generalizations about the freedom of the people," but "dealt with immediate, specific problems. . . covering a wide range of subjects. The most numerous items centered around questions of feudal dues, law courts, and administrative abuses." In particular, it reflected a concern to "keep the king within reasonable bounds in the matter of reliefs, wardships, aids, scutage, and similar points where he had abused his relations with his vassals.”

Magna Carta—A Guarantee of Liberty vs.

A Selfish Feudal Document

“Over a third of the sixty-three clauses. . . set out the exact feudal obligations of the king's vassals. . . . Another third was directed against abuses in the royal courts, particularly at John’s practice of seizing a defendant's property before judgment was made against him.”

Some historians have described the Magna Carta as “a monument to class selfishness”

Magna Carta “used to be regarded as the fountainhead of English liberty and the bulwark of constitutional monarchy.

Some historians, reacting against this naive view, have described Magna Carta as a reactionary document—an assertion of feudal particularism at the expense of the

enlightened Angevin [Plantagenet] monarchy. In reality, the Great Charter was both feudal and constitutional. It looked

backward and also pointed forward. It was a step in the transition from the ancient Germanic notion of sacred

custom, and the feudal idea of mutual contractual rights and obligations, to the modern concept of limited monarchy and

government under the law. . . . Baronial rights and privileges were the chief items of business in Magna Carta.”

Magna Carta The forces that produced Magna Carta included “military misfortune; the rising expenses of government, more effective administration, producing more inventive and ruthless means of collecting taxes; and a growing conception on the part of powerful subjects of their specific legal rights.”

It appears that the barons were primarily concerned with safeguarding their own selfish interests. . . however, some articles extend privileges to other non-baronial classes.

Magna Carta’s Modern Principles

12th Article—A Germ of Parliament?“No scutage nor aid shall be levied in our kingdom, unless by common consent of our kingdom.”This was later stretched to imply “no taxation without representation”—but “common consent” here was that of the leading barons and prelate who represented themselves rather than “the people.”

39th Article—Right to Jury Trial?

Indicated no freeman could be arrested or

molested “unless by lawful judgment of his peers" and "by the law of the

land.”Later, people read into this the guarantee of a

jury trial for everyone; in fact, it was a reactionary feudal protests against

royal courts. Barons did not regard royal judges as

peers or social equals.

Principle of King Being Subject to the

Law“Political

philosophers of the twelfth and

thirteenth centuries were drawing sharp distinctions between the king who abided

by the law and the tyrant who abused and ignored it. In

Magna Carta these notions received

practical expression.”

Magna Carta Supports the Notion That:

Certain laws and customs are greater than the authority of the king

If the king failed to observe these laws, the people reserved the right to make him do so

“It was with practical building blocks such as these that the structure of the English limited monarchy was built. . . . The search for some institutional means of incorporating the nobility into the royal government was to occupy England for centuries to come. . . . In later centuries [after the 17th] it came to be regarded as a document fundamental to the protection of individual liberty. This was far from the intention of its original drafters, but it is a tribute to the quality of their work. ‘It was adaptable.’”

Notion of "Community of the Realm"

“John's assent to this document was an acceptance of the principle that he and all Englishmen belonged to a community of law and that the law governed the ruler

as well as the ruled. . . . . It was in the years 1189 to 1327 that England became the first European power

to work out a concept of government, the ‘community of the realm,’ which significantly broadened

participation in government and altered relationships between king and subject. . . . Should a king not

satisfy the norms of good government, he could be restrained by the community.”

“Regarded in that general light, Magna Carta quite rightly ranks among the

most important documents of history.”

John's Abrogation of Magna Carta

About three months after Runnymede, war between John and the barons broke out. John buttressed his position by securing two main sources of aid:

Papal Support

The most powerful of all medieval popes, Innocent III (c. 1161-1216, above left and right), absolved John from obeying

the terms of Magna Carta.

And a Second Source. . .

John gained additional assistance from across the English Channel.

The coronation of Philip Augustus, 1165-1223

John allied with French king Philip Augustus who sent a French force that

occupied London and part of southeastern England while John

managed his campaign

John vs. the Barons

“The sole reason and justification for [baronial revolt against the king] died with John [right].”

“The dissident barons were fighting not

against the traditions of Angevin kingship but against a single

man. . . . This fact is dramatically

demonstrated by the speed with which the baronial insurrection dissolved in the wake

of John’s death.”

French forces were

eventually compelled to

leave England in 1217.

A Sorry Ending

In 1272, John's reign ended in full-scale insurrection. While John experienced some good successes in his war with the barons, he met a setback while campaigning in the area of Wales.

“Furious and disheartened, he overindulged in peaches and cider” and

died as a result.

Subsequent History of Magna Carta

“In time the rule of law would prevail, and Magna Carta would be vindicated as the fundamental precedent.”

The Tudor Dynasty – 1485-1603

Henry VII, r. 1485-1509

Henry VIII, r.

1509-1547

Edward VI, r. 1547-1553

Mary I, r. 1553-1558

Elizabeth I, r. 1558-1603

Strong Tudor rule led to the Magna Carta’s dropping from sight. It is not even mentioned in Shakespeare's play about

King John.

The Stuart Dynasty – 1603-1660

James I, r. 1603-1625

Charles I, r. 1625-1649

The Puritan Interregnum (1649-1660)

during which Oliver

Cromwell exercised strict

control over the national

government. Charles II, r. 1660-1685

James II, r. 1685-1688

The years of Stuart rule over England witnessed a lively struggle between Crown and Parliament over who would have the final say in English politics and financial affairs.

Petition of Right – May-June 1628

King Charles IThis historical

landmark document set forth

the rights and liberties of English

subjects in contrast to the

prerogatives of the Crown. The

Petition, passed by the Third

Parliament of Charles I (May

1628), aimed particularly at controlling the

king’s arbitrary fiscal methods. Specifically, it:

Affirmed the principle of no taxation without Parliamentary

consent

No imprisonment of subjects without due legal cause

No billeting (quartering) of soldiers in private

houses without payment

No declarations of martial law in peacetime

While Charles accepted the

Petition of June 7, 1628, he later disregarded it. The Petition nevertheless

became a central element in the evolving

English Constitution.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688

In 1688, Parliament offered the Stadtholder of

the Dutch Republic, William of Orange (1650-

1702, left), the English throne.

William’s royal claim came through his marriage (1677) to Mary, the Protestant

daughter of the recently fled Roman Catholic English king, James II.

Those who implemented the Glorious Revolution of 1688 sought an historical

precedent to justify: the establishment of Parliamentary supremacy. Parliament found that precedent in the story of King John and Magna Carta. Revolutionaries rescued the

venerable but long neglected document from the dustbin of history, reading into Magna

Carta various exaggerations. Since that time, it “has been regarded as one of the

bulwarks of English liberty.”

Patterns as Old as Time

The resurrection of Magna Carta as a pivotal document in English political history demonstrates an

interesting truth regarding the nature of history. Magna Carta appeared, in its own time, as an aberration—a departure from the norm. Four

hundred and seventy-three years later, it undergoes a veritable apotheosis. Why? Because Englishmen—

wittingly or not—began a process of democratization that subsequently extended across the next three centuries. In historiographical contrast, Pharaoh Akhenaton (c. 1379-1362, right) scandalized 14th

century B. C. Egypt by instituting monotheism. Since his theological innovation was short-lived, it appears in Egyptian history as a brief , heretical, and futile

foray away from traditional polytheism. Akhenaton’s theological revolution failed to evolve into an agogic,

precedent-setting breakthrough on a par with monotheistic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Legislation of the Glorious Revolution – Its Relationship to the English Constitution

Presentation of Declaration of Rights to William and Mary in the Banqueting Hall on

February 13, 1688

An indictment of James II and his misdeeds

A declaration of the rights of citizens

A declaration naming William and Mary as the King and Queen regent of England with William’s rule being lifelong

Bill of Rights – December 16, 1689

William of Orange

King James II

The English Bill of Rights (1689) laid

down the rights and liberties of English subjects. This list was not, however, exhaustive. Rather it sought to justify

the Glorious Revolution through

explaining the political and

religious crimes of the former king,

James II.

The English Bill of Rights—An Act of Parliament, December

16, 1689 Asserted rule of law under which all the people, including the rulers,

had to obey the law of the land Limited the power of the monarch Established Parliamentary Supremacy—gave Parliament the

dominant power of governing Insured the establishment of the Church of England (particularly over

and against the Roman Catholic faith) Articulated the principle of government by contract and consent—the

idea that government is based upon a contract between the rulers and the ruled; that the contract can be broken if rulers violate the terms of that contract

Established a balance of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government with judges independent of both (a concept that in principle moves in the direction of “separation of powers” and “checks and balances”)

Comparison &

ContrastThe English Bill of Rights (1689) vs. the American

Bill of Rights (1789)

While the two are not

identical, England provided

America with an important

model.

England America

The English Bill of Rights was a law

passed by Parliament; it could also be changed by

Parliament

The American Bill of Rights was adopted by

Congress and then ratified or approved by

the people; it can only be changed with consent of the people through duly

established Constitutional processes

The English Bill of Rights intended mainly to limit royal power and

increase the power of Parliament; it prohibits

the monarch from violating the rights of

Parliament.

The American Bill of Rights seeks to

prevent the government from

violating individual rights as well as

protecting the rights of the minority from

the majority.

Toleration Act – May 24, 1689

The Toleration Act became law on May 24,

1689.Contemporary apologist

for the Glorious Revolution, John Locke

(1632-1704, right) argued in favor of

religious freedom in A Letter Concerning

Religious Toleration, 1690

John Locke

The Toleration Act granted freedom of

worship to most Dissenters (excluding

those who did not believe in the Trinity).

Finis