The Magna Carta [View All]

[JewelDigger]

Was reading a little bit about English history and the Magna Carta last night. It said that because King John was cruel, greedy, and taxed the people heavily - even the nobles hated him. He was forced by the nobles to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. The three great principles of this document were/are:

1) that the king could raise tax money from the nobles only if they agreed to it;

2) that the king could not sell justice or deny it - a rich man couldn't buy his way out of punishment for a crime he had committed.

3) a free man could not be imprisoned unless he was declared guilty in a trial by his equals.

Even though the nobles meant only to protect their money and freedom, the Magna Carta was an important step in giving liberty to the ordinary English citizen. England gave those same liberties to her colonies, and America used the M.C. to shape the Constitution of the United States.

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That was 1215. So, in light of some of the things happening in TODAY's world....what the hell happened????

Does giving tax cuts to the rich prevent them from 'revolting' like this now? Do not enough people now know this history or know that there are important lessons to learn from the past?

I used to know this better than I do now (have forgotten way too much of it)...so, I'm going to go back to reading more...gonna share it with the kids too - they haven't heard of the Magna Carta (go figure!)