Author(s) Info and Background: The Magna Carta (The Great Charter) was written in the year 1215 by King John of England, King John’s Barons and Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was the highest ranking catholic church official in England. The document was written for the purpose of bringing peace to the state as compromises between the unpopular King John and his loyalists and the rebel barons. The document was meant to enforce the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. However, the document did little to stem the violence as the two sides fell back on their agreements and promise and continued to feud. Eventually two years later, following a full out war between the two sides, and the demise of King John, the new heir to the throne re-introduced the charter as part of the final peace agreement but removed the more radical sections that had played a part in the documents initial failure.
Document’s Purpose: While the two are very different documents, the American Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta share some similarities when it comes to the purpose of the documents. Like the DOI, the Magna Carta also was used a vessel to carry the grievances of the people to the high rulers and also was used to legitimize some of those demands. However, the Magna Carta was not a statement of secession and independence like the American Document, nor was it a constitution as is commonly believed. The document itself is list of 37 laws which were to be instated. It is preceded by a preamble containing the documents purpose and succeeded by a statement which seeks to the nullify the document if certain situations were too arise. The document is then notarized by the signatures of those present during the proceedings.
Overall, I thought you did an excellent job of discussing the purpose of the Magna Carter, although you did mention that there was 37 laws instated with in the document, I feel that you could of expanded more on the more important laws that you felt that could have been addressed in your summary. One thing that I feel that could of improved this summary was giving more background information on what was going on during this time period, in order, to indicate to the audience why this document was created in the first place. I was very impressed on how you connected the Magna Carter to the American Declaration of Independence. You told us how these two documents were similar and how they were different. Another thing I think that could of helped his summary was to include information on the preamble and not just stating that there was a preamble, however I do like the fact that you mentioned that the people that were present during the creation of this document signed it. Again, I think you understood fully what the document was about, but just needed to elaborate on some things of importance.
ReplyDeleteFor your next PDP, make sure to follow the proper format. You did a good job identifying similarities and differences between the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence but you also need to describe the significance of the Magna Carta.
ReplyDelete