Magna Carta and Women

Question 1

How many times does femina appear in Magna Carta?1

Answer 1

Once

Question 2

How many women named in Magna Carta?

Answer 2

There are no women named in the Magna Carta. There are three women mentioned, Queen Isabella (Johns wife) and King Alexander II’s of Scotlands sisters.

Question 3

Did women swear fealty to the king?

Answer 3

No, men swore fealty to the king, women did not. Therefore whereas men could be outlawed women could not and were waived instead

Question 4

How does Bracton (Laws and customs of England) justify women’s absence?

Answer 4

Biblically

Question 5

Were women central at the time to history?

Answer 5

Women were not at Runnymede
No women signed the Magna Carta
Women were unlikely to be named in historical documents
Women were less likely to write documents

Question 6

What did Harris 2015 argue about Magna Carta and Women’s rights?

Answer 6

Magna Carta bridges the gap to women’s rights of widows, it was a nod to inclusion and women’s rights (even if that is not what it was intended to do)

Question 7

What does Holt argue about Magna Carta and women?

Answer 7

That adaptability was its greatest quality and that women could claim it to forward their rights

Question 8

What was the status of queens before Richard and John?

Answer 8

Eleanor of Aquitaine was ruler in her own right of 25% of France and very powerful
Mathila of Boulogne (Queen of King Stephen) was very powerful.
John and Richard kept their wives at arms lengths.

Question 9

What was queens gold?

Answer 9

It was a tax introduced by John on Isabella of Angouleme money in order to seize and use it

Question 10

What did Henry II charter of liberties say about widows?

Answer 10

That widows should not be married off if they didn’t want to. Therefore Magna Carta rights were little new

Question 11

How did John and Richard go against Henry II charter or liberties?

Answer 11

Because of the financial urgency to get money, they started to sell widows and charge fines for staying single therefore going against Henry II charter

Question 12

Who was Ralph de Cornhill’s widow?

Answer 12

She was a widow who paid £166 to stay single and not be married to Gedfrey of Louvain (Flemish)

Question 13

Who liked the marriage market?

Answer 13

Nigel Saul claims that the Barons hated the marriage market as it took control away from them regarding their ability to secure their childrens inheritance.

Question 14

What did Clause 6 of Magna Carta Say?

Answer 14

Marriage to a lower standing person was not allowed without consent and kin have to be told

Question 15

What did clause 7 of the Magna Carta say?

Answer 15

Widows should be allowed to stay in their homes for 40 days and have her dower immediately on her husbands death

Question 16

What did clause 8 of Magna Carta say?

Answer 16

A widow should not be compelled to marry

Question 17

What did clause 54 of the Magna Carta say?

Answer 17

That no man should be arrested or tried on a womens appeal

Question 18

What did the four womens clauses effect?

Answer 18

Ban on disparagement may be interpreted as giving women agency, but acutally it was more to do with barons control.
It made women not people (as their testimony was worth less)

Question 19

What does the womens convention at Seneca Falls 1848 say about Magna Carta?

Answer 19

Becuase the constitution was based on the Magna Carta, that they had to be aware of the Magna Carta and its effects on rights

Question 20

Who was Helena Normanton (1882-1957)?

Answer 20

Made use of the Magna Carta as an idea. Argued comparing the struggle for womens rights against the government to Barons struggle against John
She was admitted to Inns of Court in 1919 after the removal of the Sex Disqualification Act

Question 21

Who was Maud Arncliffe Sennet?

Answer 21

She was a suffragette, she kept a scrapbook and in it was the front cover of the WSPU paper from 27th January 1911. It was the Barons forcing John to sign Magna Carta. The paper had articles on justification of violence and later Maud was arrested for putting a stone through the window of the Daily Mail window for not reporting a WSPU meeting

Question 22

Who was Queen Caroline?

Answer 22

She was the very popular queen of King George IV. She was pictured in a cartoon leaning on an anchor with the words magna carta, bill of rights, constitution and the people on it.

Question 23

What did Edward Cooke say about the word homo?

Answer 23

That it was notable that it must apply to women as well as men

Question 24

Who was Nicola de la Haye?

Answer 24

Appointed sheriff of Lincolnshire by John in 1216