Magna Carta Essay

The Magna Carta, Latin for "Great Paper", was written as a charter for England in 1215 (Magna 1). The Magna Carta has had the most significant influence on modern day common law and constitutions. The document was originally written because of disagreements between the Pope, King John, and his English barons over the rights of the king. The Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights, and to accept that the powers of the king could be bound by law (Asimov 12). There are a few misconceptions about the Magna Carta, however. It was not the first document to attempt to limit the power of the king. It, however, failed to limit the power of the king, especially during the Middle Ages. The Magna Carta had been strengthened …show more content…
This is one the reasons why the Magna Carta came to be such a highly regarded document. With the Magna Carta once again at the forefront of politics, it was possible for it to shape the way government was run. By the Stuart Period, the Magna Carta had taken on a mythical aura that represented a "golden age" to the common man. It was a symbol of the English liberties that existed before the Norman invasion and that had attempted to be restored by the Magna Carta. During the Stuart age, the Magna Carta was not important because of the liberties it bestowed, but because it was proof of what had happened before, that many great minds had created the Magna Carta (Ayars 51). By the seventeenth century, the Magna Carta was an indispensable document that limited the powers of the crown, a very important topic during the Stuart age. During that time, kings were preaching of their divine right, and were trying, in the minds of the common man, to become absolute monarchs. As a result, problems began to arise in England. It was not the content of the Magna Carta that made it so important in the history of England, but it was more what it stood for in the eyes of the common man. In fact, to many, it represented many things that were not even found in the Magna Carta. Firstly, that it could be used to claim liberties against the

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