The Magna Carta Swindle.

As they seem to have been doing all year today the UK has been marking the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta (Great Charter in Latin). At ceremonies attended by both the Prime Minister and the Queen this anniversary is being used to present Britain as a shining beacon of justice and liberty in the world. This a massive deception but one that seems appropriate because the 800 year story of Magna Carta is really a story of political deception.

Pretty much from the moment he ascended to the English throne in 1199 King John was at war with King Phillip II of France. Coming some 200 years before the invention of Protestant Christianity this caused huge problems for the Catholic Pope because both King John and King Phillip II took their authority from the Catholic Church which obviously couldn't back both of them in a war. These wars were also hugely expensive and King John tried to pay for them by effectively stealing money, soldiers and animals from England's wealthy Barons.

This triggered a revolt by the Barons in the north and with the Pope looking to appoint a new King of England King John was at very serious risk of losing the throne. So in 1215 King John attempted to make peace with the northern Barons by signing Magna Carta. Contrary to popular belief this did not introduce notions like the rule of law, courts and due process - they already existed. What Magna Carta did was force the Monarch to abide by those existing rules. After signing Magna Carta King John got the Pope to visit him in Westminster Abbey where he re-affirmed his commitment to the Catholic Church. Following this show of obedience the Pope allow King John to repeal Magna Carta just 10 weeks after it had been signed as had been King John's intention all along.

This caused the northern rebellion to restart and on his way to fight the northern Barons King John stayed with some monks in King's Lynn in the east of England. There King John suddenly died of a mysterious illness. He was then succeeded by his son King Henry III. As Henry was only 9 years old at the time it was clear to his advisers that he would not be able to defeat the rebel barons so they moved to end the rebellion to introducing a new, much shorter version of Magna Carta. This version did away with many of the clauses on the rule of law but kept the ones establishing uniform weights and measures for things like a bale of wool and how much compensation would be paid if these things were seized by the Crown for use in war.

The rule of law clauses were never heard of again until around the 1770's when the American revolutionaries justified their revolution pointed to Magna Carta as an example of how England's colonial King George III could not be trusted to follow the rules even though George III wasn't bound by Magna Carta. The trick worked though and once America had won its war of independence for the UK Crown the new nations founders drew inspiration from Magna Carta for their Constitution and it's amendments protecting citizens from search, seizure and imprisonment with out due process under the law.

So the anniversary of Magna Carta is hugely important - for the US Justice system. However it's less important in the UK where only three of it's clauses are law and two of them protect the now Protestant Church and the City of London as institutions.

16:50 on 15/6/15 (UK date).