Chapter 2 - Some History

Question 1

Why was Magna Carta annulled by the Pope within a few months?

Answer 1

It was believed it had been exacted from King John by duress, and it has given rise to much bad history.

Question 2

Define habeas corpus.

Answer 2

A writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.

Question 3

Should we consider the barons who confronted King John at Runnymede as altruistic liberals seeking to make the world a better place?

Answer 3

No, but the sealing of the Magna Carta was an even that changed the constitutional landscape in this country and, over time, the world.

Question 4

What has Hungary’s charter which was created around the same time as Magna Carta?

Answer 4

The Golden Bull of Hungary, 1222.

Question 5

What was the charter not in response to, contrary to some elementary history books?

Answer 5

The oppression and exactions of a tyrannous king.

Question 6

What was the country’s experience of King John’s rule later named?

Answer 6

‘The smack of firm government’.

Question 7

What three problems did King John have?

Answer 7

Domestic difficulties
A dispute with the church
Military failures

Question 8

Magna Carta drew heavily on what?

Answer 8

Henry I’s charter of liberties and the coronation of oaths of previous kings.

Question 9

What were the features of the charter of Henry I?

Answer 9

Issued on his accession to the throne in 1100 as a sort of non-election manifesto.
It promised relief from the evil custom and oppressive taxation of the previous reign.
It forbade the imposition of excessive penalties and required that penalties should fit the crime.
Justice and mercy in all judgements.

Question 10

Importantly, what did Magna Carta express about royalty?

Answer 10

A clear rejection of unbridled, unaccountable royal power. Even they must follow the rules.

Question 11

When was the Magna Carta created?

Answer 11

1215

Question 12

When did habeas corpus become familiar?

Answer 12

The early 13th century.

Question 13

When was habeas corpus become used to protect the liberty of the subject and investigate the lawfulness of the person’s detention?

Answer 13

Later when the write was issued with the writ we now call a quashing order.

Question 14

What is a quashing order?

Answer 14

A request to a court to render a previous decision of that court or a lower judicial body null or invalid. It can arise out of mistakes made by any lawyer in a court proceeding.

Question 15

Was habeas corpus a product of Magna Carta?

Answer 15

No, but it came to be seen as such which was beneficial as Magna Carter holds power.

Question 16

What has habeas corpus been recognised as?

Answer 16

The most effective remedy against executive lawfulness. Later adopted elsewhere, e.g. the United States.

Question 17

What method was used to prove a man’s innocence in medieval England?

Answer 17

Trial by ordeal. The subject would hold a piece of molten iron or was immersed in water, and if he survived without septicaemia or drowning, God was thought to have intervened to demonstrate his innocence.

Question 18

Who condemned the medieval practice as cruel, leading to its removal from pracice?

Answer 18

The Lateran Council of 1215.

Question 19

After the trial by ordeal was removed from practice, a system much like the one we have today was introduced. What wad the main difference.

Answer 19

The defendant could not testify them self but could have witnesses.

Question 20

Why was the new system unsuccessful in continental Europe?

Answer 20

There needed to be two witnesses, one corroborating the other or a confession. Because witnesses weren’t always available, it became routine to torture the defendant until they confessed.

Question 21

When did the common law of England adamantly set its face against the use of torture and the admission of evidence procured by torture?

Answer 21

No later than the fifteenth century.

Question 22

Despite the rejection of torture no later than the fifteenth century, what still took place?

Answer 22

Torture continued up to the early seventeenth century. Warrants were issued by the royal Council on behalf of the Crown, mostly for alleged offences against the state (e.g. Guy Fawkes).

Question 23

One of the royal prerogative courts who issued warrants for torture was called…

Answer 23

The Court of Star Chamber

Question 24

Naval Officer John Felton fatally stabbed three friends of the royal family in 1628. What did the judges say regarding whether or not he should be tortured?

Answer 24

Felton ‘ought not by the law be tortured by the rack, for no such punishment is known or allowed by our law.’

Question 25

What was one of the first acts of the Long Parliament in 1640?

Answer 25

They abolished the Court of Star Chamber. Since then, no torture warrant has been issued in England.

Question 26

When did Scotland abolish torture warrants?

Answer 26

1707