Stamps mark 800th anniversary of Magna Carta

Blackleaf

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,405
1,667
113
A special set of commemorative stamps has been issued to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in just under a fortnight's time.

The six stamps feature text from Magna Carta and other charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law around the world.

Magna Carta was granted by King John of England on 15 June 1215, establishing that the king was subject to the law rather than being above it.

A "foundation of liberty" postmark will also appear on letters this week.

Principles set out in Magna Carta charted the right to a fair trial and limits on taxation without representation.

Magna Carta 800th anniversary marked with commemorative stamps

BBC News
2 June 2015



The set of six commemorative stamps mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta


A special set of commemorative stamps has been issued to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.

The six stamps feature text from Magna Carta and other charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law around the world.

Magna Carta was granted by King John of England on 15 June 1215, establishing that the king was subject to the law rather than being above it.

A "foundation of liberty" postmark will also appear on letters this week.





Principles set out in Magna Carta charted the right to a fair trial and limits on taxation without representation.

Landmark document

It also inspired a number of other documents, including the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Text from the American Bill of Rights of 1791, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and the 2013 Charter of the Commonwealth are among other texts that feature on the commemorative stamps.

Sir Robert Worcester, chairman of the Magna Carta 800th Committee, said: "The relevance of Magna Carta in the 21st Century is that it is the foundation of liberty.



"I am delighted that Royal Mail has marked this landmark document, and other key bills and declarations it inspired, with these striking stamps. It is fitting that they will be seen by people all around the world."

Andrew Hammond, director of stamps and collectibles at Royal Mail, said the legacy of Magna Carta had been far-reaching.

"The charter's unique status as a fundamental text, guaranteeing freedom under the law, has been the inspiration for many key charters, bills and declarations which have become milestones in the development of the rule of law throughout history and across the world," he said.


Magna Carta 800th anniversary marked with commemorative stamps - BBC News
 
Last edited:
Walter

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
34,843
92
48
The Magna Carta was the beginning of representative gubmint in the west.
 
Blackleaf

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,405
1,667
113
Machjo said:
And what's the relevance of the US Bill of Rights? They have a stamp for that even though the US Bill of Rights does not apply to the UK either.
Click to expand...

It's not the US Bill of Rights. It's the English Bill of Rights of 1689. The US Bill of Rights wasn't ratified until 1791.

The 1689 Bill of Rights is, along with Magna Carta, the Petition of Right 1628, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 and other documents, part of Britain's uncodified constitution.


Oh, I've just seen it. The US Bill of Rights is there.

This is what it says in the article: The six stamps feature text from Magna Carta and other charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law around the world.

Magna Carta influenced the US Constitution (although the US Constitution is hardly the greatest in the world).
 
Machjo

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
17,878
61
48
Ottawa, ON
Blackleaf said:
It's not the US Bill of Rights. It's the English Bill of Rights of 1689. The US Bill of Rights wasn't ratified until 1791.

The 1689 Bill of Rights is, along with Magna Carta, the Petition of Right 1628, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 and other documents, part of Britain's uncodified constitution.


Oh, I've just seen it. The US Bill of Rights is there.

This is what it says in the article: The six stamps feature text from Magna Carta and other charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law around the world.

Magna Carta influenced the US Constitution (although the US Constitution is hardly the greatest in the world).
Click to expand...

They also influenced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which in turn influenced the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; but the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is inferior in worthiness to both the US Bill of Rights and the UDHR. In fact, I can shamelessly say that it is far inferior to either of them.
 
Machjo

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
17,878
61
48
Ottawa, ON
Doesn't the Book of Genesis say God created the UK in six days and on the seventh he rested from all the work he had done?
 
Blackleaf

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,405
1,667
113
Britain is the world's oldest democracy and India is the world's biggest.

The British were able to vote in elections when America was still a British colony and Greece was a dictatorship.
 
Blackleaf

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,405
1,667
113
EagleSmack said:
You can thank the Greeks.


History of democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Democracy can be traced back from the present day to classical Athens in the 6th century B.C.E.
Click to expand...


Nope. Britain was a democracy when Greece was a dictatorship. Britain is the oldest democracy.


Magna Carta anniversary: now, finally, we mark the spot where freedom was born

A statue of the Queen in Runnymede will be a permanent and long-overdue symbol of a day which changed the world forever


The pillar at Runnymede in Surrey on the banks of the Thames, erected by the American Bar Association to commemorate the Magna Carta Photo: Paul Daniels / Alamy


By Daniel Hannan
12 Jun 2015
The Telegraph
161 Comments


Daniel Hannan is the Conservative MEP for South East England. You can contribute to the Runnymede appeal here.


How the statue of the Queen to be erected at Runnymede to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta will look. It shows Elizabeth II in full Garter Robes and has been inspired by the 1954 and 1969 portraits by Pietro Annigoni.

Exactly 800 years ago, on a reedy stretch of riverbank outside Windsor, the most important bargain in the history of the human race was struck. It’s a big claim, but there are occasions when only superlatives will do.

​
As Lord Denning put it, Magna Carta was “the greatest constitutional document of all time, the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot”.

For the first time anywhere, the rules were elevated above the ruler. Yet, until now, there has been no British memorial to mark the spot. Those riparian meadows look pretty much as they did when King John stomped his irritable way across them in 1215 – green, flush and rank with June.


Where the Magna Carta was sealed by King John on 15th June 1215: Runnymede today, a water-meadow on the banks of the Thames near the Surrey border with Berkshire (Photo: The National Trust Photolibrary / Alamy)



The birthplace of constitutional freedom went wholly unrecognised until 1957 when a pillar was finally erected there – by the American Bar Association. The Cousins, at any rate, were in no doubt about where their rights came from: a copy of Magna Carta hangs alongside the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution at the National Archives in Washington.

But we, in our lackadaisical way, have not raised so much as a pebble to mark our greatest gift to mankind.

Until now.

I have been working with some Runnymede councillors and a truly heroic local construction company, Crest Nicholson – who, as well as working for nothing, raised funds from other local businesses – to mark the anniversary with a permanent memorial. On Sunday, the eve of the centenary, we shall be unveiling a 12ft bronze statue of the Queen in her Garter robes. James Butler RA, arguably Britain’s foremost figurative sculptor, took his inspiration for it from the 1954 and 1969 portraits of Her Majesty by Pietro Annigoni.

Why the Queen? For two reasons. First, to mark 800 years of the Crown’s acceptance of the rule of law, which is why the unveiling will be carried out by the Speaker of the House of Commons – heir, so to speak, of the other party to the bargain. Secondly, because during the reign of the present sovereign, dozens of new states were launched on the basis of the constitutional principles initiated at Runnymede.

Magna Carta was a defence against government power, so we have made it a point of principle to seek no money from state institutions. The entire project will be paid for by public subscription, and I hope that Daily Telegraph readers will be part of it.

Am I making too much of a deal between a cornered king and his mutinous nobles – a deal which, moreover, the king broke the moment he could? No. Contemporaries saw Magna Carta in much the same way that we see it today: as a guarantor of freedom and property, a promise that no one could be bullied or expropriated by someone higher up the social scale.

William Pitt the Elder called Magna Carta “the Bible of the English constitution”, and it was a good metaphor. The Charter is, so to speak, the Torah of the English-speaking peoples: the text that sets us apart while, at the same time, speaking truths to the rest of humanity. Here is how Pitt described its almost magical consequences:
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter – but the King of England may not enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.


Working models of the sculptor's design (Photo: Christopher Pledger)

We’re so accustomed to that idea today that it takes a real mental wrench to see how extraordinary it must have been 800 years ago. For the first time, the notion that the law stood above the government took written, contractual form. King John formally agreed that he would no longer get to make up the rules as he went along. Above him stood something invisible, intangible and yet all-powerful: what Magna Carta called “the law of the land”.

The law was no longer just the will of the biggest man in the tribe, nor yet the preserve of priests presuming to interpret the metaphysical. Rather, it was immanent in the territory and the people who lived there, their common property, their folkright.

True, that notion had been dimly prefigured in earlier charters. But although there had been pre-Conquest premonitions, although kings had been in the habit of promising to uphold the law in their coronation oaths, Magna Carta was different. Uniquely, it contained an enforcement mechanism. Instead of leaving it to the king to decide whether he had kept his word, it instituted a form of conciliar government which was to evolve directly into the Parliament that meets at Westminster today.


At work on the sculpture itself (Photo: Christopher Pledger)

Runnymede, in short, is where constitutional freedom was born. Which is why visitors from abroad, especially from other English-speaking countries, are often shocked to find the site unadorned. They learnt at school that our country exported the sublime idea of the rule of law. Even now, that precept elevates the territories where it is practised. Magna Carta, ultimately, is why Bermuda isn’t Haiti, why Canada isn’t Cuba, why Hong Kong isn’t China. That’s the sorcery of Runnymede.

Some historians argue that later generations invested Magna Carta with a significance invisible to its authors. A surprisingly large chunk of the text is concerned with the placing of fish-traps in the Thames. Indeed, the name itself – Great Charter – referred initially to the length of the document, not its import.


Serenely trundles the head that wears the crown (Photo: Christopher Pledger)

But Magna Carta was repeatedly cited during the Middle Ages as an assertion of parliamentary prerogative against overweening monarchs. It had been reissued more than 40 times by the accession of the Tudors. While it faded slightly from public consciousness during the 16th century, it returned fortissimo in the 17th, forming the basis of Parliament’s case against the autocratic tendencies of the Stuarts.

The Roundheads took Magna Carta as their inspiration because they grasped that constitutional freedom is the spout of all other liberties. Once the people in charge accept that they can’t rewrite the rules as they please, much follows. The law, instead of being an instrument of state control, becomes a vehicle for the individual seeking redress. Property rights become secure, and enforceable by independent courts: even the passages about fish-traps were really about property rights, specifically the freedom of merchants to navigate the Thames.


King John signing the Magna Carta at Runnymede on June 15, 1215 (Photo: ALAMY)

Magna Carta, above all, assumes residual freedom – in other words, that what is not expressly prohibited is legal. The rights we take for granted today – uncensored newspapers, habeas corpus, regular elections, equality between men and women, jury trials – trace their genesis back to that June day in 1215. Though we call them universal we are, in truth, being polite. To the extent that they have become universal, it is as a result of a series of military victories by the English-speaking peoples. Suppose that the Second World War or the Cold War had ended differently; there’d be nothing universal about them then.

That’s what we celebrate by raising our statue above the slow, khaki waters of the Thames: the freedom that elevated first this country and then the rest of mankind. We can’t add or subtract a single line from the story of the past 800 years. But we can show future visitors that, in 2015, we still cared.

Magna Carta anniversary: now, finally, we mark the spot where freedom was born - Telegraph
 
Last edited:
MHz

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
41,030
43
48
Red Deer AB
I was under the impression that document gave the business owners some protection from the wanton wrath of the Royals. The bit you posted seems to indicate the mechanism for that is the BAR or the Crown Temple Lawyers of the City of London. Civil Law is Roman Law, Admiralty Law is the law of commerce and Nations are all about commerce. The ones that wanton destruction can still come to would be the ones that the law is used against, the consumers basically. I'm going to guess that a whole lot of us are destined to die before that protection is granted (on paper as poison will replace the sword as the means of 'population control')
That about sum it up?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom