See my first impressions of the Magna Carta at 'GRANTED TO GOD'.

The following is an address of seven secular lies of the document that supposedly secured eventual freedom for the Western World, but upon closer examination seems as duplicitous in character as the evil men who now rule us. This is no surprise, in that the opening clause of the document, the preamble, is contradicted and the signatories place themselves above God, as noted in Granted to God, cited above. For atheistic readers, it may be best to replace God with the idea that the rulers of mankind cannot be trusted to be all-powerful, all-seeing and all-knowing. In this reader’s view Clause 1 in the Magna Carta elevates the ruling elite of humanity to the Godhead—essentially predicting communism and other forms of totalitarian ideology worship.

The analysis shall precede the text, which shall serve as footnotes, suggesting that this author has inherited some of the hubris noted in the statement above. So feel free to read the document first and then the analysis. I read footnoted history in this way—footnotes first. A key aspect to the understanding of the implications and implementation of the Magna Carta must begin with the fact, that of 63 clauses:

-The first sets England’s elite up as God-in-aggregate.

-That 22 of the 63 clauses, being more than a third of the document, are redacted from all subsequent reissues of the charter, these being the documents that are in actual fact the legacy of the Magna Carta, including separation of church and state, making the original a classic “smoke and mirrors” affair. These are marked with an (*).

-That much of the documents focused on the displacement of family as the sacred building block of society versus debt as the most venerated aspect of the human condition. In this light one might read the Magna Carta as a struggle between the traditional, primal, worldwide desire of all men to assure their patrimony after their passing versus the specific, Middle Eastern ideal of debt slavery, enshrined in the Book of Leviticus.

[0] Clauses footnoted with a zero were specific to resolving the recent conflicts, mutual injustices and hostage-taking and may be regarded as immediate treaty concerns and thus reasonably omitted from future issues of the charter. These clauses number 12 of the 22 omitted clauses and were thoughtfully placed at the bottom of the document, in general being specific and not concerned so much with promoting a functional system of governance but of resolving residual aspects of the recent hostilities.

[1] Clauses footnoted with a one are expressive of the basic value which follows upon the expression of the human elite’s usurpation of divinity, namely that mankind is ordered along the basic premise that some men ae masters and others are slaves and that conditions of mastery and servitude should be hereditary, and perpetual. As noted in clause 20, there is to be one law for free men [who are the elite, represented by the signatories of this document] and another law for unfree men [villeins] and that justice inflicted upon the unfree shall take into consideration only the impact that such judgements might have upon their productivity.

Clauses 34 and 39 stipulate that justice and what we would call “due process” are for the freeman only. Clauses 20 and 41 designate a third class of person with rights almost identical to the free elite [for the free and the elite were, at the time of the signing and according to the desired social scheme for the future, one in the same] and extending beyond national boundaries and in that way exceeding the rights of the free man.

In summation, Clauses 1, 20, 34, 39 and 41 reorder the medieval scheme of “plough, book and sword,” according to who works, who worships and who wars, to one of servant, freeman and merchant or “supra-free transnational,” nicely predicting our current scheme of debt slave under the law, politician above the law, and banker beyond the law. In this sense, the Magna Carta indeed seems to serve as the Modern Western World’s founding document.

[2] Clauses footnoted with a two are concerned with debt. Clauses 9, 26 and 37 represent attempts to compromise between the ancient desire to insure the survival of a man’s family before and after his passing through an appeal to the social contract with the community and the increasing reverence for debt as the centerpiece of human concourse. One need only look at current inheritance tax codes to judge whether or not family lost out to debt as the centerpiece of western life.

[3] Clauses footnoted with a three are concerned with inheritance, which was the core issue of the day, as people thought in terms of family. Even government was arrayed as a family affair, kingship and inherited office. In that light, it is interesting to discover if the Magna Carta preserved the rights of the family in the face of the encroaching ethos of financial debt.

Clauses 10, 11 and 27 are attempts to preserve a deceased man’s family from creditors and to give his heirs some rights to basic living arrangements while discharging their duty to at least service their patriarch’s debt. There are no provisions for escaping debt, only an attempt to insure the continuance of free status and family. For instance, the family, in concert with the church, are still to maintain control of family lands and their liquidation and a wife’s personal property that she brought to the marriage is to be preserved from liquidation to meet her husband’s debts.

All three of these reasonable “debt-versus family” compromises are omitted from the following versions of the document, literally putting those few free souls in England who had lost the head of their family, at the mercy, first and foremost, of creditors, predominantly non-Christian creditors, with the Church barred from interceding on behalf of the faithful.

At this juncture, sometime soon after the signing of the Magna Carta, a decision was made that servicing debts owed to non-Christian, non-English persons superseded the rights of even the free elite of English society, and utterly trumped any notion of family, unified Christian faith and patrimony. Again, we see this High Medieval document as a clear font of Modernity and such materialistic ideologies as Communism, Capitalism and Libertarianism.

[4] Clauses footnoted with a four represent agreements between the executive and proto-legislative branches of government that taxation was potentially abusive and damaging to society and should be limited to the serving of specific needs deemed worthy of forced payment.

Clauses 12, 14, 15 and 25 all limit taxation and are omitted from future issues of the Magna Carta!

Again, the Magna Carta serves as the font of Modernity, first promising restraints on government theft in return for loyalty and then reversing course as soon as loyalty is attained.

[5] Clause 42 concerns a free man’s right to travel beyond the borders of England. Keep in mind that most people were not free and that they were forbidden, through the Early Modern Period, to travel beyond the lands of their owner. Even so, the few freeman permitted to travel outside of England would have that privilege revoked in all following issues of the document, though merchants would retain the exclusive right to travel between nations, many being men without a nation.

Once again, the Magna Carta is predictive of state ownership of the person and preference for internationalist aliens.

[6] Clauses footnoted with a six are concerned with forests, forestry and forestation which was the medieval version of federal land schemes. Any man caught hunting in a forest was an enemy of the state, for the meat of animals therein belonged to the State, its wardens, lords and sovereign. It should be remembered by the modern American that his ability to hunt, the ethic that largely binds the identity of the rural American, is based entirely on borrowed Amerindian traditions and has no basis in European life, where only lords might hunt.

However, this is not the main focus of Clauses 44, 45, 47 and 48, but rather control of the primary natural resource of the medieval nation: wood, which was the raw material for most hand weapons, all ships, all artillery, most buildings, most apparatus for raising stone buildings, much of the fortifications of the previous era and which provided all of the fuel needs of the economy. Forests were the petroleum and rare earth of their day, without which homes and weapon foundries could not be fueled nor military power projected by land or sea.

The laws regarding forested lands, which were owned by the Nation in the person of the King, are directly antecedent to modern federal land ownership, which puts the wealth of a nation directly in the hands of government, making subjects of the nation essentially landless tenants through much of its expanse. The over 100 enclosure acts, driving modern English tenants off of their lands and into plantation bondage had their roots sunk deep in the forest system, though, by the time England was selling its poor into colonial slavery the land was largely deforested. In this author’s opinion, much of J.R.R. Tolkien’s dark lord versus virgin forest metaphor in his Novel the Two Towers is reflective of this.

[7] The final clause, footnoted with a seven, is a promise to preserve the various freedoms, protections and rights set forward in the document as a duty of the State on behalf of its loyal, free subjects and also of the Church—and is omitted from all future issues, predictive in its toxic way of the near universal reversal of campaign promises made by America Presidents.

The absolute ethical basis for the Magna Carta is, “THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD,” and means nothing less than the omnipotence of Mankind’s ruling elite, essentially an inversion of the concept of divine right, which was not contractual but moral. In the Magna Carta we have a duplicitous, corporate-style document cloaked in fine fashion to prevent detection its ultimate goal. Recall, that at the time of this very meeting of king and barons that Two English priests were pleading with them to stop selling English boys to the Irish. They plead to no avail.

The most consistent and least redacted is that “free men” are few and that the natural state of most men is servile and unfree.

From this basis the document has one minor and one major constituency at which it aims to make assurances:

The minor audience for this was the international merchant class, dominated by Jews, who were specifically addressed in the first draft and then omitted—with their concerns strengthened by the omission—in subsequent drafts. When the document is edited the minor portion of the audience has its position improved and its influence cloaked.

The major audience the document addresses is the free elite—being one and the same. What did these folk lose in the subsequent drafts?

-Freedom from arbitrary taxation

-That status as an Englishman would protect his heirs, in some measure, from non-English litigation and seizure of property

-That status as a Christian would offer protection for his heirs, in some measure, from non-Christian litigation and seizure of property

-Freedom to travel internationally

-Shelter from intergenerational debt

-Assurance that their descendants would be looked after by the governing hierarchy according to the current agreement

Overall the document is a smoke and mirrors ploy familiar to modern voters, who are taught that they have inherited the “free” status of the English barons of the High Middle Ages. The institutions most adversely affected by the Magna Carta and its subsequent [almost immediate] omissions were:

-Church [ruthlessly borne-out by Henry VIII beginning 300 years later]

-Family [ruthlessly borne-out by the poor acts and servant trade beginning 350 years later]

-Land use traditions [ruthlessly borne-out beginning 400 years later with the ensuing enclosure acts]

-Ethnic identity

-Liberty

This institutions most strengthened were:

-Commerce

-Banking

-Debt farming

-Debt slavery

-Human trafficking on a vast, industrial scale

In all of the above respects the Magna Carta is quite predictive of Modernity.

In this reader's view, having become intimately familiar with the details of the various poor laws, enclosure acts and mass slave deportations of Early Modern England, I agree with the standard academic opinion that the Magna Carta is the basis for our current democratic society, one in which the reverence for Omniscient Man, obsession with material comfort and acquisition, the sacred currency of debt and the intolerance for family and masculinity reign supreme across The Rented Land.

Full-text translation of the 1215 edition of Magna Carta

Clauses marked (+) are still valid under the charter of 1225, but with a few minor amendments. Clauses marked (*) were omitted in all later reissues of the charter. In the charter itself the clauses are not numbered, and the text reads continuously. The translation sets out to convey the sense rather than the precise wording of the original Latin.

JOHN, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, Greeting.

KNOW THAT BEFORE GOD, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William bishop of London, Peter bishop of Winchester, Jocelin bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh bishop of Lincoln, Walter bishop of Worcester, William bishop of Coventry, Benedict bishop of Rochester, Master Pandulf subdeacon and member of the papal household, Brother Aymeric master of the knighthood of the Temple in England, William Marshal earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William earl of Warren, William earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway constable of Scotland, Warin fitz Gerald, Peter fitz Herbert, Hubert de Burgh seneschal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert de Roppeley, John Marshal, John fitz Hugh, and other loyal subjects:

+ (1) FIRST, THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.

TO ALL FREE MEN OF OUR KINGDOM we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs: [1]

(2) If any earl, baron, or other person that holds lands directly of the Crown, for military service, shall die, and at his death his heir shall be of full age and owe a 'relief', the heir shall have his inheritance on payment of the ancient scale of 'relief'. That is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl shall pay £100 for the entire earl's barony, the heir or heirs of a knight 100s. at most for the entire knight's 'fee', and any man that owes less shall pay less, in accordance with the ancient usage of 'fees'.

(3) But if the heir of such a person is under age and a ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without 'relief' or fine.

(4) The guardian of the land of an heir who is under age shall take from it only reasonable revenues, customary dues, and feudal services. He shall do this without destruction or damage to men or property. If we have given the guardianship of the land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same 'fee', who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. If we have given or sold to anyone the guardianship of such land, and he causes destruction or damage, he shall lose the guardianship of it, and it shall be handed over to two worthy and prudent men of the same 'fee', who shall be similarly answerable to us.

(5) For so long as a guardian has guardianship of such land, he shall maintain the houses, parks, fish preserves, ponds, mills, and everything else pertaining to it, from the revenues of the land itself. When the heir comes of age, he shall restore the whole land to him, stocked with plough teams and such implements of husbandry as the season demands and the revenues from the land can reasonably bear.

(6) Heirs may be given in marriage, but not to someone of lower social standing. Before a marriage takes place, it shall be made known to the heir's next-of-kin.

(7) At her husband's death, a widow may have her marriage portion and inheritance at once and without trouble. She shall pay nothing for her dower, marriage portion, or any inheritance that she and her husband held jointly on the day of his death. She may remain in her husband's house for forty days after his death, and within this period her dower shall be assigned to her.

(8) No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she wishes to remain without a husband. But she must give security that she will not marry without royal consent, if she holds her lands of the Crown, or without the consent of whatever other lord she may hold them of.

(9) Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may have the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them. [2]

* (10) If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond. [3]

* (11) If a man dies owing money to Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing towards the debt from it. If he leaves children that are under age, their needs may also be provided for on a scale appropriate to the size of his holding of lands. The debt is to be paid out of the residue, reserving the service due to his feudal lords. Debts owed to persons other than Jews are to be dealt with similarly. [3]

* (12) No 'scutage' or 'aid' may be levied in our kingdom without its general consent, unless it is for the ransom of our person, to make our eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry our eldest daughter. For these purposes only a reasonable 'aid' may be levied. 'Aids' from the city of London are to be treated similarly. [4]

+ (13) The city of London shall enjoy all its ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and by water. We also will and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall enjoy all their liberties and free customs.

* (14) To obtain the general consent of the realm for the assessment of an 'aid' - except in the three cases specified above - or a 'scutage', we will cause the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons to be summoned individually by letter. To those who hold lands directly of us we will cause a general summons to be issued, through the sheriffs and other officials, to come together on a fixed day (of which at least forty days notice shall be given) and at a fixed place. In all letters of summons, the cause of the summons will be stated. When a summons has been issued, the business appointed for the day shall go forward in accordance with the resolution of those present, even if not all those who were summoned have appeared. [4]

* (15) In future we will allow no one to levy an 'aid' from his free men, except to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry his eldest daughter. For these purposes only a reasonable 'aid' may be levied. [4]

(16) No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's 'fee', or other free holding of land, than is due from it.

(17) Ordinary lawsuits shall not follow the royal court around, but shall be held in a fixed place.

(18) Inquests of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and darrein presentment shall be taken only in their proper county court. We ourselves, or in our absence abroad our chief justice, will send two justices to each county four times a year, and these justices, with four knights of the county elected by the county itself, shall hold the assizes in the county court, on the day and in the place where the court meets.

(19) If any assizes cannot be taken on the day of the county court, as many knights and freeholders shall afterwards remain behind, of those who have attended the court, as will suffice for the administration of justice, having regard to the volume of business to be done.

(20) For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a villein the implements of his husbandry, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of reputable men of the neighbourhood. [1]

(21) Earls and barons shall be fined only by their equals, and in proportion to the gravity of their offence.

(22) A fine imposed upon the lay property of a clerk in holy orders shall be assessed upon the same principles, without reference to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.

(23) No town or person shall be forced to build bridges over rivers except those with an ancient obligation to do so.

(24) No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other royal officials are to hold lawsuits that should be held by the royal justices.

* (25) Every county, hundred, wapentake, and tithing shall remain at its ancient rent, without increase, except the royal demesne manors. [4]

(26) If at the death of a man who holds a lay 'fee' of the Crown, a sheriff or royal official produces royal letters patent of summons for a debt due to the Crown, it shall be lawful for them to seize and list movable goods found in the lay 'fee' of the dead man to the value of the debt, as assessed by worthy men. Nothing shall be removed until the whole debt is paid, when the residue shall be given over to the executors to carry out the dead man’s will. If no debt is due to the Crown, all the movable goods shall be regarded as the property of the dead man, except the reasonable shares of his wife and children. [2]

* (27) If a free man dies intestate, his movable goods are to be distributed by his next-of-kin and friends, under the supervision of the Church. The rights of his debtors are to be preserved. [3]

(28) No constable or other royal official shall take corn or other movable goods from any man without immediate payment, unless the seller voluntarily offers postponement of this.

(29) No constable may compel a knight to pay money for castle-guard if the knight is willing to undertake the guard in person, or with reasonable excuse to supply some other fit man to do it. A knight taken or sent on military service shall be excused from castle-guard for the period of this service.

(30) No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from any free man, without his consent.

(31) Neither we nor any royal official will take wood for our castle, or for any other purpose, without the consent of the owner.

(32) We will not keep the lands of people convicted of felony in our hand for longer than a year and a day, after which they shall be returned to the lords of the 'fees' concerned.

(33) All fish-weirs shall be removed from the Thames, the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except on the sea coast.

(34) The writ called precipe shall not in future be issued to anyone in respect of any holding of land, if a free man could thereby be deprived of the right of trial in his own lord's court. [1]

(35) There shall be standard measures of wine, ale, and corn (the London quarter), throughout the kingdom. There shall also be a standard width of dyed cloth, russet, and haberject, namely two ells within the selvedges. Weights are to be standardised similarly.

(36) In future nothing shall be paid or accepted for the issue of a writ of inquisition of life or limbs. It shall be given gratis, and not refused.

(37) If a man holds land of the Crown by 'fee-farm', 'socage', or 'burgage', and also holds land of someone else for knight's service, we will not have guardianship of his heir, nor of the land that belongs to the other person's 'fee', by virtue of the 'fee-farm', 'socage', or 'burgage', unless the 'fee-farm' owes knight's service. We will not have the guardianship of a man's heir, or of land that he holds of someone else, by reason of any small property that he may hold of the Crown for a service of knives, arrows, or the like. [2]

(38) In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.

+ (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, 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. [1]

+ (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

(41) All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs. This, however, does not apply in time of war to merchants from a country that is at war with us. Any such merchants found in our country at the outbreak of war shall be detained without injury to their persons or property, until we or our chief justice have discovered how our own merchants are being treated in the country at war with us. If our own merchants are safe they shall be safe too. [1]

* (42) In future it shall be lawful for any man to leave and return to our kingdom unharmed and without fear, by land or water, preserving his allegiance to us, except in time of war, for some short period, for the common benefit of the realm. People that have been imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the land, people from a country that is at war with us, and merchants - who shall be dealt with as stated above - are excepted from this provision. [5]

(43) If a man holds lands of any 'escheat' such as the 'honour' of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other 'escheats' in our hand that are baronies, at his death his heir shall give us only the 'relief' and service that he would have made to the baron, had the barony been in the baron's hand. We will hold the 'escheat' in the same manner as the baron held it.

(44) People who live outside the forest need not in future appear before the royal justices of the forest in answer to general summonses, unless they are actually involved in proceedings or are sureties for someone who has been seized for a forest offence. [6]

* (45) We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well. [6]

(46) All barons who have founded abbeys, and have charters of English kings or ancient tenure as evidence of this, may have guardianship of them when there is no abbot, as is their due.

(47) All forests that have been created in our reign shall at once be disafforested. River-banks that have been enclosed in our reign shall be treated similarly. [6]

*(48) All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffs and their servants, or river-banks and their wardens, are at once to be investigated in every county by twelve sworn knights of the county, and within forty days of their enquiry the evil customs are to be abolished completely and irrevocably. But we, or our chief justice if we are not in England, are first to be informed. [6]

* (49) We will at once return all hostages and charters delivered up to us by Englishmen as security for peace or for loyal service. [0]

* (50) We will remove completely from their offices the kinsmen of Gerard de Athée, and in future they shall hold no offices in England. The people in question are Engelard de Cigogné, Peter, Guy, and Andrew de Chanceaux, Guy de Cigogné, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Marc and his brothers, with Geoffrey his nephew, and all their followers. [0]

* (51) As soon as peace is restored, we will remove from the kingdom all the foreign knights, bowmen, their attendants, and the mercenaries that have come to it, to its harm, with horses and arms. [0]

* (52) To any man whom we have deprived or dispossessed of lands, castles, liberties, or rights, without the lawful judgment of his equals, we will at once restore these. In cases of dispute the matter shall be resolved by the judgment of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace (§61). In cases, however, where a man was deprived or dispossessed of something without the lawful judgment of his equals by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard, and it remains in our hands or is held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite for the period commonly allowed to Crusaders, unless a lawsuit had been begun, or an enquiry had been made at our order, before we took the Cross as a Crusader. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once render justice in full. [0]

* (53) We shall have similar respite in rendering justice in connexion with forests that are to be disafforested, or to remain forests, when these were first afforested by our father Henry or our brother Richard; with the guardianship of lands in another person's 'fee', when we have hitherto had this by virtue of a 'fee' held of us for knight's service by a third party; and with abbeys founded in another person's 'fee', in which the lord of the 'fee' claims to own a right. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice to complaints about these matters. [0]

(54) No one shall be arrested or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman for the death of any person except her husband.

* (55) All fines that have been given to us unjustly and against the law of the land, and all fines that we have exacted unjustly, shall be entirely remitted or the matter decided by a majority judgment of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace (§61) together with Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and such others as he wishes to bring with him. If the archbishop cannot be present, proceedings shall continue without him, provided that if any of the twenty-five barons has been involved in a similar suit himself, his judgment shall be set aside, and someone else chosen and sworn in his place, as a substitute for the single occasion, by the rest of the twenty-five. [0]

(56) If we have deprived or dispossessed any Welshmen of land, liberties, or anything else in England or in Wales, without the lawful judgment of their equals, these are at once to be returned to them. A dispute on this point shall be determined in the Marches by the judgment of equals. English law shall apply to holdings of land in England, Welsh law to those in Wales, and the law of the Marches to those in the Marches. The Welsh shall treat us and ours in the same way. [0]

* (57) In cases where a Welshman was deprived or dispossessed of anything, without the lawful judgment of his equals, by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard, and it remains in our hands or is held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite for the period commonly allowed to Crusaders, unless a lawsuit had been begun, or an enquiry had been made at our order, before we took the Cross as a Crusader. But on our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice according to the laws of Wales and the said regions. [0]

* (58) We will at once return the son of Llywelyn, all Welsh hostages, and the charters delivered to us as security for the peace. [0]

* (59) With regard to the return of the sisters and hostages of Alexander, king of Scotland, his liberties and his rights, we will treat him in the same way as our other barons of England, unless it appears from the charters that we hold from his father William, formerly king of Scotland, that he should be treated otherwise. This matter shall be resolved by the judgment of his equals in our court. [0]

(60) All these customs and liberties that we have granted shall be observed in our kingdom in so far as concerns our own relations with our subjects. Let all men of our kingdom, whether clergy or laymen, observe them similarly in their relations with their own men.

* (61) SINCE WE HAVE GRANTED ALL THESE THINGS for God, for the better ordering of our kingdom, and to allay the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, and since we desire that they shall be enjoyed in their entirety, with lasting strength, for ever, we give and grant to the barons the following security: [0]

The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter.

If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us - or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice - to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us.

Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command.

If one of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country, or is prevented in any other way from discharging his duties, the rest of them shall choose another baron in his place, at their discretion, who shall be duly sworn in as they were.

In the event of disagreement among the twenty-five barons on any matter referred to them for decision, the verdict of the majority present shall have the same validity as a unanimous verdict of the whole twenty-five, whether these were all present or some of those summoned were unwilling or unable to appear.

The twenty-five barons shall swear to obey all the above articles faithfully, and shall cause them to be obeyed by others to the best of their power.

We will not seek to procure from anyone, either by our own efforts or those of a third party, anything by which any part of these concessions or liberties might be revoked or diminished. Should such a thing be procured, it shall be null and void and we will at no time make use of it, either ourselves or through a third party.

* (62) We have remitted and pardoned fully to all men any ill-will, hurt, or grudges that have arisen between us and our subjects, whether clergy or laymen, since the beginning of the dispute. We have in addition remitted fully, and for our own part have also pardoned, to all clergy and laymen any offences committed as a result of the said dispute between Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215) and the restoration of peace. [0]

In addition we have caused letters patent to be made for the barons, bearing witness to this security and to the concessions set out above, over the seals of Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, Henry archbishop of Dublin, the other bishops named above, and Master Pandulf.

* (63) IT IS ACCORDINGLY OUR WISH AND COMMAND that the English Church shall be free, and that men in our kingdom shall have and keep all these liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peaceably in their fullness and entirety for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and all places for ever. [7]

Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall be observed in good faith and without deceit. Witness the abovementioned people and many others.

Given by our hand in the meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215: the new regnal year began on 28 May).

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