Seeds of Our Constitution

This paper is being submitted on October 12, 2013, for Shauna Froelich’s J331/CJL3297 Constitutional Law course. Seeds of Our Constitution The Magna Carta was signed almost 800 years ago. It laid the ground work for what is the U.S. constitution today, as well as many other government’s laws and regulations. Before the Magna Carta was created and signed into law the kings and queens of England ruled with absolute control. They could impose taxes that were unfair and unrealistic to meet and then prosecute and even execute anyone, for any reason, without any kind of trail. The Magna Carta changed the rights of the English people and in turn changed the world, both in the past when it was written, the current times and I believe it will continue to change the world in the future. Kings during medieval times were used to a certain type of control. Not only did they control their subjects but the church as well. Most subjects, including knights and noblemen were abused and had no legal way to combat this. Everything changed with the signing of the Magna Carta. “The Great Charter was extracted in June 1215 from King John by a group of barons, assisted by their followers ‘sword in hand.’ ”. (In Guns in American Society, 2003) King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta into rule. It gave his citizen’s rights they never had before as well as making the king follow certain rules. Our textbook states that the Magna Carta “ensured feudal rights and guaranteed that the king could not put himself above the law.” (Harr, 2012, Pg.13)
The Magna Carta can be broken down into many different sections. The In Guns in American Society article, lists five auxiliary rights given to the people by the Magna Carta, “The first of these rights was the existence of Parliament and the rules governing it; the second was the limitations on the king’s