magna carta

Example Sentences

• "[…] Significantly, only in England—where, beginning in the thirteenth century with the granting of the Magna Charta, there gradually developed an appreciation of the rights and dignities of those less powerful than the king—was the fury of witch hunting mitigated by legal safe-guards and social sensibilities."
• "The Magna Carta harkens back to 1215 when King John of England was forced by an assembly of barons to write down the traditional rights of the country's free persons. By so doing, he bound himself and his heirs to grant "to all freemen of our kingdom" the rights and liberties described in the great charter, or Magna Carta. Each subsequent ruler did the same. The 1297 Magna Carta represents the transition from a brokered agreement to the foundation of English law, upon which U.S. law is based."
• "During cataloguing for the 2007 sale, at least two Magna Cartas, previously listed as copies, were reidentified as 'originals', and no fewer than four new originals of the Forest Charter came to light."
• "[...] King John bowed to pressure from the rebellious barons and assented to the demands of the barons at Runnymede. For the first time in English history a king had agreed to limit his own power. As importantly, his assent was agreed in writing in the Magna Carta (which means 'Great Charter'). The physical document meant that the details could be widely distributed and remembered. The importance of the event was apparent immediately, but the long-term consequences across the centuries were unforeseen. Four hundred years later the Magna Carta was used as a crucial political weapon in the fight between Parliament and Charles I during the English Civil War."
• "Between 1215 and 1225 four Magna Cartas were issued. The 1215 Charter was annulled within 10 weeks. The reissues in 1216, 1217 and the final text in 1225 were all different from each other and omitted parts of or amended the original."
• "My Lord Coke ſayes, It had not its name of GREAT CHARTER, from the Greatneſs of it in Quantity; for there were ſeveral Voluminous Charters, longer than this: But it was ſo called, in reſpect of the Great Importance, and Weightyneſs of the Matter; as Charta de Foresta, is called, Magna Charta de Foresta, for the ſame Cauſe; and both of them are called, Magnæ Chartæ Libertatum Angliæ; i.e. The Great Charters of the Liberties of England; and upon great Reaſon too, Quia liberos faciunt, becauſe they make us Free."