
                 THE MAGNA CARTA (The Great Charter):

      Preamble:

      John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke
      of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishop,
      bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs,
      stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects,
      greetings. Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation
      of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto
      the honor of God and the advancement of his holy Church and for
      the rectifying of our realm, we have granted as underwritten by
      advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of
      Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman
      Church, Henry, archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of
      Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln,
      Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester,
      bishops; of Master Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household
      of our lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the Knights of
      the Temple in England), and of the illustrious men William
      Marshal, earl of Pembroke, William, earl of Salisbury, William,
      earl of Warenne, William, earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway
      (constable of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerold, Peter Fitz Herbert,
      Hubert De Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville, Matthew
      Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset,  Philip d'Aubigny,
      Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and others, our
      liegemen.

      1. In the first place we have granted to God, and by this our
      present charter confirmed for us and our heirs forever that the
      English Church shall be free, and shall have her rights entire,
      and her liberties inviolate; and we will that it be thus observed;
      which is apparent from this that the freedom of elections, which
      is reckoned most important and very essential to the English
      Church, we, of our pure and unconstrained will, did grant, and did
      by our charter confirm and did obtain the ratification of the same
      from our lord, Pope Innocent III, before the quarrel arose between
      us and our barons: and this we will  observe, and our will is that
      it be observed in good faith by our heirs forever. We have also
      granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs
      forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and held by
      them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever.

      2. If any of our earls or barons, or others holding of us in chief
      by military service shall have died, and at the time of his death
      his heir shall be full of age and owe "relief", he shall have his
      inheritance by the old relief, to wit, the heir or heirs  of an
      earl, for the whole baroncy of an earl by L100; the heir or heirs
      of a baron, L100 for a whole barony; the heir or heirs of a
      knight, 100s, at most, and whoever owes less let him give less,
      according to the ancient custom of fees.

      3. If, however, the heir of any one of the aforesaid has been
      under age and in wardship, let him have his inheritance without
      relief and without fine when he comes of age.

      4. The guardian of the land of an heir who is thus under age,
      shall take from the land of the heir nothing but reasonable
      produce, reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that
      without destruction or waste of men or goods; and if we have
      committed the wardship of the lands of any such minor to the
      sheriff, or to any other who is responsible to us for its issues,
      and he has made destruction or waster of what he holds in
      wardship, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be
      committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall be
      responsible for the issues to us or to him to whom we shall assign
      them; and if we have given or sold the wardship of any such  land
      to anyone and he has therein made destruction or waste, he shall
      lose that wardship, and it shall be transferred to two lawful and
      discreet men of that fief, who shall be responsible to us in like
      manner as aforesaid.

      5. The guardian, moreover, so long as he has the wardship of the
      land, shall keep up the houses, parks, fishponds, stanks, mills,
      and other things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of the
      same land; and he shall restore to the heir, when he has come to
      full age, all his land, stocked with ploughs and wainage,
      according as the season of husbandry shall require, and the issues
      of the land can reasonable bear.

      6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, yet so that
      before the marriage takes place the nearest in blood to that heir
      shall have notice.

      7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and
      without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance; nor
      shall she give anything for her dower, or for her marriage
      portion, or for the inheritance which her husband and she held on
      the day of the death of that husband; and she may remain in the
      house of her husband for forty days after his death, within which
      time her dower shall be assigned to her.

      8. No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to
      live without a husband; provided always that she gives security
      not to marry without our consent, if she holds of us, or without
      the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of
      another.

      9. Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any land or rent for any
      debt, as long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to
      repay the debt; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained
      so long as the principal debtor is able to satisfy the debt; and
      if the principal debtor shall fail to pay the debt, having nothing
      wherewith to pay it, then the sureties shall answer for the debt;
      and let them have the lands and rents of the debtor, if they
      desire them, until they are indemnified for the debt which they
      have paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show proof that
      he is discharged thereof as against the said sureties.

      10. If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, great or small,
      die before that loan be repaid, the debt shall not bear interest
      while the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold; and if the
      debt fall into our hands, we will not take anything except the
      principal sum contained in the bond.

      11. And if anyone die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have
      her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if any children of the
      deceased are left under age, necessaries shall be provided for
      them in keeping with the holding of the deceased; and out of the 
      residue the debt shall be paid, reserving, however, service due to
      feudal lords; in like manner let it be done touching debts due to
      others than Jews.

      12. No scutage not aid shall be imposed on our kingdom, unless by
      common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our person,
      for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our
      eldest daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more than
      a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be done concerning aids
      from the city of London.

      13. And the city of London shall have all it ancient liberties and
      free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, we decree
      and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall
      have all their liberties and free customs.

      14. And for obtaining the common counsel of the kingdom anent the
      assessing of an aid (except in the three cases aforesaid) or of a
      scutage, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops,
      abbots, earls, and greater barons, severally by our letters; and
      we will moveover cause to be summoned generally, through our
      sheriffs and bailiffs, and others who hold of us in chief, for a
      fixed date, namely, after the expiry of at least forty days, and
      at a fixed place; and in all letters of such summons we will
      specify the reason of the summons. And when the summons has thus
      been made, the business shall proceed on the day appointed,
      according to the counsel of such as are present, although not all
      who were summoned have come.

      15. We will not for the future grant to anyone license to take an
      aid from his own free tenants, except to ransom his person, to
      make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest
      daughter; and on each of these occasions there shall be levied
      only a reasonable aid.

      16. No one shall be distrained for performance of greater service
      for a knight's fee, or for any other free tenement, than is due
      therefrom.

      17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be held in
      some fixed place.

      18. Inquests of novel disseisin, of mort d'ancestor, and of
      darrein presentment shall not be held elsewhere than in their own
      county courts, and that in manner following; We, or, if we should
      be out of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two 
      justiciaries through every county four times a year, who shall
      alone with four knights of the county chosen by the county, hold
      the said assizes in the county court, on the day and in the place
      of meeting of that court.

      19. And if any of the said assizes cannot be taken on the day of
      the county court, let there remain of the knights and freeholders,
      who were present at the county court on that day, as many as may
      be required for the efficient making of judgments, according as
      the business be more or less.

      20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a slight offense, except in
      accordance with the degree of the offense; and for a grave offense
      he shall be amerced in accordance with the gravity of the offense,
      yet saving always his "contentment"; and a merchant in the same
      way, saving his "merchandise"; and a villein shall be amerced in
      the same way, saving his "wainage" if they have fallen into our
      mercy: and none of the aforesaid amercements shall be imposed
      except by the oath of honest men of the neighborhood.

      21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced except through their
      peers, and only in accordance with the degree of the offense.

      22. A clerk shall not be amerced in respect of his lay holding
      except after the manner of the others aforesaid; further, he shall
      not be amerced in accordance with the extent of his ecclesiastical
      benefice.

      23. No village or individual shall be compelled to make bridges at
      river banks, except those who from of old were legally bound to do
      so.

      24. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or others of our bailiffs,
      shall hold pleas of our Crown.

      25. All counties, hundred, wapentakes, and trithings (except our
      demesne manors) shall remain at the old rents, and without any
      additional payment.

      26. If anyone holding of us a lay fief shall die, and our sheriff
      or bailiff shall exhibit our letters patent of summons for a debt
      which the deceased owed us, it shall be lawful for our sheriff or
      bailiff to attach and enroll the chattels of the deceased, found
      upon the lay fief, to the value of that debt, at the sight of  law
      worthy men, provided always that nothing whatever be thence
      removed until the debt which is evident shall be fully paid to us;
      and the residue shall be left to the executors to fulfill the will
      of the deceased; and if there be nothing due from him to us, all
      the chattels shall go to the deceased, saving to his wife and
      children their reasonable shares.

      27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be
      distributed by the hands of his nearest kinsfolk and friends,
      under supervision of the Church, saving to every one the debts
      which the deceased owed to him.

      28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take corn or other
      provisions from anyone without immediately tendering money
      therefor, unless he can have postponement thereof by permission of
      the seller.

      29. No constable shall compel any knight to give money in lieu of
      castle-guard, when he is willing to perform it in his own person,
      or (if he himself cannot do it from any reasonable cause) then by
      another responsible man. Further, if we have led or sent him upon
      military service, he shall be relieved from guard in proportion to
      the time during which he has been on service because of us.

      30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other person, shall take the
      horses or carts of any freeman for transport duty, against the
      will of the said freeman.

      31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for our castles or for
      any other work of ours, wood which is not ours, against the will
      of the owner of that wood.

      32. We will not retain beyond one year and one day, the lands
      those who have been convicted of felony, and the lands shall
      thereafter be handed over to the lords of the fiefs.

      33. All kydells for the future shall be removed altogether from
      Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except upon the
      seashore.

      34. The writ which is called praecipe shall not for the future be
      issued to anyone, regarding any tenement whereby a freeman may
      lose his court.

      35. Let there be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm;
      and one measure of ale; and one measure of corn, to wit, "the
      London quarter"; and one width of cloth (whether dyed, or russet,
      or "halberget"), to wit, two ells within the selvedges; of weights
      also let it be as of measures.

      36. Nothing in future shall be given or taken for a writ of
      inquisition of life or limbs, but freely it shall be granted, and
      never denied.

      37. If anyone holds of us by fee-farm, either by socage or by
      burage, or of any other land by knight's service, we will not (by
      reason of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage), have the wardship of
      the heir, or of such land of his as if of the fief of that other;
      nor shall we have wardship of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage,
      unless such fee-farm owes knight's service. We will not by reason
      of any small serjeancy which anyone may hold of us by the service
      of rendering to us knives, arrows, or the like, have  wardship of
      his heir or of the land which he holds of another lord by knight's
      service.

      38. No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsupported
      complaint, put anyone to his "law", without credible witnesses
      brought for this purposes.

      39. No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled
      or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon
      him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of
      the land.

      40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay,
      right or justice.

      41. All merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England,
      and entry to England, with the right to tarry there and to move
      about as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the
      ancient and right customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in
      time of war) such merchants as are of the land at war with us. And
      if such are found in our land at the beginning of the war, they
      shall be detained, without injury to their bodies or goods, until
      information be received by us, or by our chief justiciar, how the
      merchants of our land found in the land at war with us are
      treated; and if our men are safe there, the others shall be safe
      in our land.

      42. It shall be lawful in future for anyone (excepting always
      those imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the
      kingdom, and natives of any country at war with us, and merchants,
      who shall be treated as if above provided) to leave our kingdom
      and to return, safe and secure by land and water, except for a
      short period in time of war, on grounds of public policy-
      reserving always the allegiance due to us.

      43. If anyone holding of some escheat (such as the honor of
      Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats
      which are in our hands and are baronies) shall die, his heir shall
      give no other relief, and perform no other service to us than he 
      would have done to the baron if that barony had been in the
      baron's hand; and we shall hold it in the same manner in which the
      baron held it.

      44. Men who dwell without the forest need not henceforth come
      before our justiciaries of the forest upon a general summons,
      unless they are in plea, or sureties of one or more, who are
      attached for the forest.

      45. We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs
      only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it
      well.

      46. All barons who have founded abbeys, concerning which they hold
      charters from the kings of England, or of which they have long
      continued possession, shall have the wardship of them, when
      vacant, as they ought to have.

      47. All forests that have been made such in our time shall
      forthwith be disafforsted; and a similar course shall be followed
      with regard to river banks that have been placed "in defense" by
      us in our time.

      48. All evil customs connected with forests and warrens, foresters
      and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, river banks and their
      wardens, shall immediately by inquired into in each county by
      twelve sworn knights of the same county chosen by the honest men
      of the same county, and shall, within forty days of the said
      inquest, be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored,
      provided always that we previously have intimation thereof, or our
      justiciar, if we should not be in England.

      49. We will immediately restore all hostages and charters
      delivered to us by Englishmen, as sureties of the peace of
      faithful service.

      50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks, the relations
      of Gerard of Athee (so that in future they shall have no bailiwick
      in England); namely, Engelard of Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew
      of Chanceaux, Guy of Cigogne, Geoffrey of Martigny with his
      brothers, Philip Mark with his brothers and his nephew Geoffrey,
      and the whole brood of the same.

      51. As soon as peace is restored, we will banish from the kingdom
      all foreign born knights, crossbowmen, serjeants, and mercenary
      soldiers who have come with horses and arms to the kingdom's hurt.

      52. If anyone has been dispossessed or removed by us, without the
      legal judgment of his peers, from his lands, castles, franchises,
      or from his right, we will immediately restore them to him; and if
      a dispute arise over this, then let it be decided by the five and 
      twenty barons of whom mention is made below in the clause for
      securing the peace. Moreover, for all those possessions, from
      which anyone has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been
      disseised or removed, by our father, King Henry, or by our
      brother, King Richard, and which we retain in our hand (or which
      as possessed by others, to whom we are bound to warrant them) we
      shall have respite until the usual term of crusaders; excepting
      those things about which a plea has been raised, or an inquest
      made by our order, before our taking of the cross; but as soon as
      we return from the expedition, we will immediately grant full 
      justice therein.

      53. We shall have, moreover, the same respite and in the same
      manner in rendering justice concerning the disafforestation or
      retention of those forests which Henry our father and Richard our
      brother afforested, and concerning the wardship of lands which are
      of the fief of another (namely, such wardships as we have hitherto
      had by reason of a fief which anyone held of us by knight's
      service), and concerning abbeys founded on other fiefs than our
      own, in which the country desires it, swear to obey the orders of
      the said five and twenty barons for the execution of all the
      aforesaid matters, and along with them, to molest us to the utmost
      of his power; and we publicly and freely grant leave to everyone
      who wishes to swear, and we shall never forbid anyone to swear. 
      All those, moveover, in the land who of themselves and of their
      own accord are unwilling to swear to the twenty five to help them
      in constraining and molesting us, we shall by our command compel
      the same to swear to the effect foresaid. And if any one of the
      five and twenty barons shall have died or departed from the land,
      or be incapacitated in any other manner which would prevent the
      foresaid provisions being carried out, those of the said twenty
      five barons who are left shall choose another in his place
      according to their own judgment, and he shall be sworn in the same
      way as the others. Further, in all matters, the execution of which
      is entrusted,to these twenty five barons, if  perchance these
      twenty five are present and disagree about anything, or if some of
      them, after being summoned, are unwilling or unable to be present,
      that which the majority of those present ordain or command shall
      be held as fixed and established, exactly as if the whole twenty
      five had concurred in this; and the said twenty five shall swear
      that they will faithfully observe all that is aforesaid, and cause
      it to be observed with all their might.  And we shall procure
      nothing from anyone, directly or indirectly, whereby any part of
      these concessions and liberties might be  revoked or diminished;
      and if any such things has been procured, let it be void and null,
      and we shall never use it personally or by another.

      62. And all the will, hatreds, and bitterness that have arisen
      between us and our men, clergy and lay, from the date of the
      quarrel, we have completely remitted and pardoned to everyone. 
      Moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said quarrel, from
      Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration of
      peace, we have fully remitted to all, both clergy and laymen, and
      completely forgiven, as far as pertains to us. And on this head,
      we have caused to be made for them letters testimonial patent of
      the lord Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, of the lord Henry,
      archbishop of Dublin, of the bishops aforesaid, and of Master
      Pandulf as touching this security and the concessions aforesaid.

      63. Wherefore we will and firmly order that the English Church be
      free, and that the men in our kingdom have and hold all the
      aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peaceably,
      freely and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their
      heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respects and in all places
      forever, as is aforesaid. An oath, moreover, has been taken, as
      well on our part as on the art of the barons, that all these
      conditions aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without evil
      intent. Given under our hand - the above named and many others
      being witnesses - in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between
      Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, in the
      seventeenth year of our reign.

      
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      This is but one of three different translations I found of the
      Magna Carta; it was originally done in Latin, probably by the
      Archbishop, Stephen Langton. It was in force for only a few
      months, when it was violated by the king. Just over a year later,
      with no resolution to the war, the king died, being succeeded by
      his 9-year old son, Henry III. The Charter (Carta) was reissued
      again, with some revisions, in 1216, 1217 and 1225. As near as I
      can tell, the version presented here is the one that preceeded all
      of the others; nearly all of it's provisions were soon superceded
      by other laws, and none of it is effective today. The two other
      versions I found each professed to be the original, as well. The
      basic intent of each is the same.

      