History of the Magna Carta

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The Magna Carta is often thought of as the cornerstone of liberty and a defense against unjust rule in England. The Magna Carta is also a type of constitution. Just like the English have the Magna Carta, the Americans have the Constitution.

To better describe the Magna Carta I’m going to tell you some more about the line of events that led up to this famous document. First there was the landing of the pilgrims in 1620 at the Plymoth Rock “for the glory of god and the advancement of the Christian faith”. Prior to this happening, another course of events unfolded in England. In 500 (?)A.D., the Anglo-Saxons conquered England bringing Roman Catholicism with them. Only the new Latin Bible was available to the people and the pagan rulers had that in mind so the people couldn’t read it. Two important men, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale tried to translate this new Bible. The church didn’t like this and burned the translated Bibles and killed Tyndale. The idea of a limited government came from the Anglo-Saxons.

Before-hand, the King’s counselors were called Witan, but when the Norman conquered they changed the name to Parliament. This is how the Parliament came to be.

Another event that connects the colonist and the English together is the event of a hated King in England trying to take away freedom and go back to the old ways. The idea of how much power the King had struck Parliament. After that, the Parliament and the people made the King sign the Magna Carta, which limits the amount of power the King has. The Magna Carta also affected the rights of the American colonies. It practically took away all relationships between the King and the colonies. After the relationship was broken, America broke off from England. All of this happened because of the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta introduced the idea of placing the King under the law of the land.

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