Magna Carta does not profess to be a charter of liberties
for all Englishmen. Most of its sixty-three clauses merely guarantee to each
member of the coalition against John—nobles, clergy, and commons—those special
privileges which the Norman rulers had tried to take away. Very little is said
in this long document about the serfs, who composed probably five-sixths of the
population of England in the thirteenth century.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MAGNA CARTA
But there are three clauses of Magna Carta which came to
have a most important part in the history of English freedom. The first
declared that no taxes were to be levied on the nobles—besides the three
recognized feudal aids --except by consent of the Great Council of the
realm. [11] By this clause the nobles compelled the king to secure their
consent before imposing any taxation. The second set forth that no one was to
be arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way, except after a trial by his
equals and in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply that
to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These last two clauses
contained the germ of great legal principles on which the English people relied
for protection against despotic kings. They form a part of our American
inheritance from England and have passed into the laws of all our states.
