The Magna Carta Essay Example for Free

The Magna Carta Essay The Magna Carta is widely viewed as one if the most important documents in the history of democracy. The Magna Carta was written by a group of people in 13th century England to protect their rights and property against their oppressive king. The document provides specific laws and rules to keep the king from having too much power over the country; this very key document also inspired the American constitution and Bill of Rights. In the stories from the unit A Royal Mess it is easily identifiable why the people of England wanted a document to protect their freedoms and rights. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the character Macbeth is an honorable man who becomes a bloodthirsty, power hungry king; he kills for pleasure and without reason. This would be a big reason for the Magna Carta since in the document in article 29 states that â€Å"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.† This principle would have eliminated the actions of Macbeth because he as king would not have been able to kill any people without just cause or without a trial for their actions. In the play Macbeth, the thane of Cawdor was killed in battle and King Duncan took his land to give to Macbeth. This would be unjust according to the Magna Carta. The solution to the problem is stated in article 2 where it states that â€Å"If any of our earls or barons, or anyone else holding from us in chief by military service should die, and should his heir be of full age and owe relief, the heir is to have his inheritance for the ancient relief, namely the heir or hairs of an earl for a whole county 100, the heir or heirs of a baron for a whole barony 100 marks, the heir or heirs of a knight for a whole knights fee 100 shillings at most, and he who owes less will give less, according to the ancient custom of (knights’) fees.† This article is basically saying that if a royal owner of land dies the land cannot be taken from his family it must be passed down to his children or given to his wife. In Beowulf, Wiglaf banishes the geats who refuses to help Beowulf fight the dragon. Those geats would have been protected by article 29 of the Magna Carta which says that no man can be exiled from the land without a trial of his actions by judgment of his peers. The Magna Carta is relevant to our culture in the fact that it was the model for the American Constitution. This was the mold for the document that guides our free country still today. We do not need a new Magna Carta because The American Constitution and Bill of Rights are our modern day Magna Carta. Those documents protect our rights as citizens and control our government to keep our president from having to much power. Without the Magna Carta we may have never gotten our American documenst to protect us, the people who live here.