Reinvention of the Magna Carta

Question 1

What powers did the monarch traditionally have?

Answer 1

To the people

To serve the common good

Question 2

Who was Edward Coke?

Answer 2

17th-century lawyer and attorney who fought for the constitutional monarchy

Question 3

What is a constitutional monarchy?

Answer 3

Where the monarch is curtailed under the law (constitution) and has a parliament

Question 4

What did Coke argue about English law?

Answer 4

That it was a supreme, rational, reasonable and had no gaps

Question 5

What did Coke say to James I about the English Law?

Answer 5

That the law could come up with an answer in any situation

Question 6

What did Coke argue that the MC had done for them?

Answer 6

Invoked an expectation in English people that their liberties, inheritances, and property rights were theirs to be held in the utmost respect

Question 7

Why did James I dislike Edward Coke?

Answer 7

Because he argued all the time that the king did not have the right to act above the law and the law was supreme

Question 8

What is the Ancient Constitution?

Answer 8

The idea that England had an unwritten constitution that went back through to before the Anglo Saxon invasion and it was the basis of all English law

Question 9

Why did Coke argue that the Magna Carta was declaratory?

Answer 9

Because he said that all it did was write down the rights and laws that already existed in some degree or another

Question 10

What commentaries did Coke write on the MC?

Answer 10

The first and second part of the institutes

Question 11

Why did Cokes arguments about the MC run in both conservative and radical directions?

Answer 11

Conservative: everytghing that exists is reasonable and rational
Radicals: everything that is reasonable should exist

Question 12

What did Coke argue about homo as used in MC?

Answer 12

That it stood for women as well as man

Question 13

Who was Freeborn John?

Answer 13

John Lillburne was leader of the Levellers and Lt Col in the parliamentary army

Question 14

What important Leveller document did Freeborn John write with Richard Overton?

Answer 14

The Agreement of the People

Question 15

Where was Freeborn John tried in 1638?

Answer 15

Star Chamber. They had a reputation for trying to get confessions rather than convict on evidence. So John argued that MC allowed him the right not to incriminate himself

Question 16

How many times did Freeborn John stand trial for his life?

Answer 16

4 times

Question 17

Who were the Levellers?

Answer 17

alliance of pamphleteers and early political group during the English Civil War 1642-1648

Question 18

What were the putney debates 1647?

Answer 18

Series of debates held by the people, especially, the Levellers which argued some radical ideas about freedom, individual rights and parliaments.

Question 19

What was John Lillburne first tried for?

Answer 19

Printing and Publishing of LIbelous and Seditious Books

Question 20

What words did Freebon John use to describe MC which helped its reputation?

Answer 20

Ancient
Famous
Great Charter

Question 21

What did Richard Overton think about MC?

Answer 21

He was not convinced called it ‘but a beggerly thing containing many marks of intolerable bondage’

Question 22

Who was Thomas Paine?

Answer 22

Newspaper editor and writer. Wrote Common Sense to try and get the US to separate revolutionarily from the British government

Question 23

How did Paine used the MC?

Answer 23

Basically by claiming it to be a constitution that gave the people of the UK rights, that the US citizens should revolutionize under its banner and fight for their own rights

Question 24

Did Thomas Paine have any doubts about MC?

Answer 24

Yes, he wasn’t always convinced of its power. Concluded it had not earned the British any new rights at all in The Rights of Man

Question 25

Who were the Chartists?

Answer 25

Group of people who after the 1832 reform act wanted more rights and so wrote an 6 clause peoples charter

Question 26

How many people signed the peoples charter?

Answer 26

1.3 million

Question 27

Who did the Chartists frighten?

Answer 27

The current government and especially the Whigs and conservatives. This was because many of the demands would threaten their monopoly on government and legislation

Question 28

What were the Chartists demands?

Answer 28

All men to have the vote (universal manhood suffrage)
Voting should take place by secret ballot
Parliamentary elections every year, not once every five years
Constituencies should be of equal size
Members of Parliament should be paid
The property qualification for becoming a Member of Parliament should be abolished

Question 29

Who was Joseph Rayner?

Answer 29

A chartist who spoke at the meeting on Hartshead Moor and claimed that the MC gave people the rights to free speech, free association and freedom from the workhouse

Question 30

Who was William Cuffay?

Answer 30

A chartist organiser and agitator, who innocently got caught up in a plot to overthrow government. He called to MC in court to get a free trial with a jury of his peers. He didnt and he was transported. He was the son of a slave from St Kitts

Question 31

When was the first call in court to the MC for a free trial?

Answer 31

1535 Thomas More

Question 32

Who called MC Magna Farta?

Answer 32

Cromwell. He did this to show that he was not constrianed by it (bit like the monarchs claimed they were not)

Question 33

Who were the diggers?

Answer 33

Group led by Gerrard Winstanly who believed that all land should be farmed to provide for the poor. He defended his cow in court for getting on someones land.

Question 34

What did Gerrard Winstanley point out about MC?

Answer 34

That it didn’t cover the poor, women or non-property owners

Question 35

Who was Arthur Beardmore?

Answer 35

Arrested for treasonable and seitious newspaper reports about the monarchy. Was arrested shown teaching his son Magna Carta ON PURPOSE

Question 36

Who were the Whigs?

Answer 36

POlitical party in 1678
First to emerged after the consititonal crisis which led to the exclusion bill
Arranged around principles of freedom and liberty
had control from 1714-1760
Whalpole was the longest servung whig PM