Magna Carta

The Great Charter of Liberties

Issued: June 15, 1215 Issued by: King John of England Location: Runnymede, near Windsor Language: Original Latin; translated to Modern English

Preamble

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 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 honor of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers in God, 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, Jocelin of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Durham, Walter of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; the abbot of St. Edmunds, the prior of the church of Holy Trinity of London, and other worthy clergy of our realm; as well as the prudent advice of our lieges…

Articles of the Magna Carta

1. The Freedom of the Church

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 and liberties inviolable. We have also granted to all the free men 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. Relief of Heirs

If any of our earls or barons should die, his heir shall not pay a relief on succeeding to the barony, but shall pay only such relief as was customary in the time of good King Henry III, our predecessor. The same rule shall apply to heirs of all ranks.

3. Wardship Restrictions

If the heir of any such person be under age and in our wardship, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without paying a relief and without a fine; saving always the rights of any one entitled to the wardship of the heir.

4. Wardship and Marriage

The guardian of the land of an heir who is under age shall take from the land of the heir only reasonable revenues, reasonable customary dues, and reasonable services, and this without destruction or waste. If we commit the wardship of such land to a sheriff, or to any one else, and he makes a profit out of our ward’s land, we will take compensation, and the land shall be entrusted to two faithful and discreet men of that fief, who shall be answerable for the issues to us or to him to whom we have assigned the wardship.

5. Widows

If any widow is left with a child under age, she shall have her dower, and shall not be compelled to marry so long as she wishes to remain single; provided that she gives security not to marry without our consent, if the land is held of us.

6. Scutage and Aid

No scutage nor 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.

7. Feudal Services

No one shall be distrained for performance of greater services for a knight’s fee, or other free holding of land, than are due therefrom.

8. Common Pleas

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

9. Assizes

Assizes of novel disseisin, mort d’ancestor, and darrien presentment shall not be taken but in their proper counties, and in this wise; we, or, if we should be out of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two justices through each county four times a year, who, with four knights of the county chosen by the county, shall hold the said assizes in the county.

10. Debts to Jews

If any one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, great or small, die before that loan be repaid, his heir shall not pay interest on the borrowed money, so long as he remains under age, of whosoever he may be a ward.

11. Widows and Debt

If a man die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower, and shall pay nothing of that debt: and if he leave children under age, necessaries shall be provided for them in keeping with the holding of the deceased; and the debt shall be paid out of the residue, saving the dower of the wife.

No scutage or aid shall be levied for us on our kingdom, unless by the common counsel of our kingdom, excepting always the ancient aids and privileges of the cities.

13. City Privileges

The city of London shall have all her ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and by water; furthermore, we decree and ordain that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs.

14. General Council

To have the common counsel of the kingdom anent the assessing of aids (other than in the three cases aforesaid) and of scutages, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, individually by our letters; and we shall furthermore cause to be summoned generally, through our sheriffs and bailiffs, and others who hold of us in chief.

15. Aids from Free Men

We will not for the future grant to any one the right of taking an aid from his free men, unless to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a knight, or once to marry his eldest daughter; and on each of these occasions there shall be levied only a reasonable aid.

16. Knight Service

No one shall be distrained to perform more services for a knight’s fee, or other land held in chief, than are due by law.

17. Fixed Place for Common Pleas

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

18. Local Assizes

Recognitions of novel disseisin, of mort d’ancestor, and of darrein presentment, shall be held only in their proper county courts.

19. Justice Without Sale

We will not sell, refuse, or defer to any man either justice or right.

20. Proportionate Fines

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 as to deprive him of his livelihood; in the same way a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a husbandman the implements of husbandry, if they fall under our mercy: and all amercements are to be assessed by oath of honest men of the neighborhood.

21. Earls and Barons

Earls and barons shall be fined only by their peers, and in proportion to the gravity of their offence.

22. Clerical Fines

No amercement of any ecclesiastic whatsoever on his lay property shall take place except after consultation with the said person, and in the same manner as laid down for laymen, saving his ecclesiastical revenue.

23. Bridges

No town or person shall be forced to build bridges, except those bound by ancient custom and law to do so.

24. Crown Pleas

No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bailiff, shall hold pleas of our crown.

25. County Rents

All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trithings shall abide by their ancient extent, without any increase, saving our demesne lands.

26. Death of a Crown Tenant

If any one holding of us a lay fief shall die, and our sheriff shall happen to be in the same county, our sheriff shall not interfere in the administration of the land of the dead man until the heir has had the opportunity of presenting himself.

27. Intestate Estates

If a free man dies without a will, 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. Royal Officials and Property

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

29. Castle Guard

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 cannot do it from any reasonable cause) then by another responsible man.

30. Horses and Carts

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. Wood for Castles

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. Felons’ Lands

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

33. Fish-Weirs

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

34. Writ of Praecipe

The writ called Praecipe shall not for the future be issued to any one, regarding any tenement whereby a free man may lose his court.

35. Standard Measures

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, russet, or halberget, to wit, two ells within the selvages. Let it be the same with weights as with measures.

36. Writs of Inquisition

Nothing in future shall be given or taken for a writ of inquisition of life or limbs, but freely it shall be granted, or denied without charge.

37. Fee-Farm and Socage

If anyone shall hold of us by fee-farm, by socage, or by burgage, and shall also hold land of another by knight’s service, we will not have the wardship of his heir, nor of his land which is held of the other’s fee, by reason of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage.

38. Trial by Witnesses

No bailiff for the future shall put any man to his “law” on simple accusation without credible witnesses brought for this purpose.

39. Due Process

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 other 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.

40. Justice Not for Sale

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

41. Merchants

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 purposes of buying and selling, free from all evil tolls, by the ancient and right customs, save in time of war.

42. Right to Travel

It shall be lawful in future for any one (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 is above provided) to leave our kingdom and to return, safe and secure by land and water.

43. Escheats

If any one 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 to the baron, if the same barony were in the baron’s hand.

44. Forest Courts

Men who dwell without the forest need not henceforth come before our justiciaries of the forest upon a general summons, except those who are impleaded or who have become sureties for any person or persons attached for forest offences.

45. Royal Officials

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. Monastic Custody

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. Forest Disafforestation

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

48. Forest Customs

All evil customs connected with forests and warrens, foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, river banks and their wardens, shall immediately be 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.

49. Return of Hostages

We will immediately return all hostages and charters delivered up to us by Englishmen as security for peace or faithful service.

50. Foreign Officials Removed

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

51. Foreign Mercenaries

As soon as peace is restored, we will remove from the kingdom all the foreign-born knights, crossbowmen, sergeants, and mercenary soldiers, who have come with horses and arms to the kingdom’s hurt.

52. Restoration of Lands

If any one 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.

53. Pending Cases

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 any one held of us by knight’s service).

54. Women’s Appeals

No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman, for the death of any other than her husband.

55. Unjust Fines

All fines made with us unjustly and against the law of the land, and all amercements imposed unjustly and against the law of the land, shall be entirely remitted, or else it shall be done concerning them according to the decision of the five-and-twenty barons.

56. Welsh Lands

If we have disseised or kept Welshmen from lands or liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them.

57. Welsh Holdings

For all the possessions, hostages, liberties, and rights which were taken away from Welshmen, without the lawful judgment of their peers, by King Henry our father, or King Richard our brother, and which we hold in our hand (or which other persons hold, and which we ought to warrant), we will have respite until the usual term of crusaders.

58. Welsh Hostages

We will give back at once the son of Llywelyn and all the Welsh hostages, and the charters delivered to us as security for the peace.

59. Treatment of King of Scots

We will treat with Alexander, king of Scots, concerning the return of his sisters and his hostages, and concerning his franchises and his right, in the same manner in which we shall act towards our other barons of England.

60. Application to All

All the customs and liberties aforesaid, which we have granted to be held in our kingdom for so much of it as belongs to us, shall be observed by all of our kingdom, as well clergy as laymen, as far as concerns themselves towards their dependents.

61. Security Clause

Since, moreover, for God and the amendment of our kingdom and for the better allaying of the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these things aforesaid, wishing them to enjoy them in complete and firm endurance forever, we give and grant to them the security underwritten; namely, that the barons choose five-and-twenty barons of the kingdom, whomsoever they will, who shall be bound with all their might, to observe and hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties we have granted and confirmed to them by this our present Charter.

62. General Amnesty

All ill-will, indignations, and rancors that have arisen between us and our subjects, clergy and laymen, from the date of the quarrel, we have completely remitted and pardoned to everyone.

63. Final Confirmation

Wherefore we will and firmly enjoin that the English Church shall be free, and that the men in our kingdom shall 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.

Witnessed

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.

Legacy

The Magna Carta, signed on June 15, 1215, at Runnymede, stands as one of the most influential documents in the history of democratic governance. Though much of it addressed feudal concerns specific to medieval England, its fundamental principles continue to resonate through the centuries:

The Charter was reissued and amended numerous times throughout the 13th century, and its principles were invoked repeatedly in subsequent centuries by those seeking to limit the powers of the crown. It became a cornerstone document for constitutionalism and influenced the development of English common law, the U.S. Constitution, and democratic institutions worldwide.

The original Magna Carta was written in Latin. This document is a modern English rendering for accessibility.