Magna Carta - the later constitutional significance

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject History of Europe - Middle Ages, Early Modern Age, grade: 56 %, University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Department of History), course: HIH. 3126: Magna Carta, language: English, abstract: England is rightfully seen as the birthplace of parliamentarinism, which reaches backto the Magna Carta. Even the Anglo Saxon period knew an early form of parliament,the witenagemont 1. This was the council of the elders and it did not end with theinvasion by William the Conqueror instead a council2 of the crown vassals wasintroduced, but with roots in the witenagemont . William the Conqueror wascrowned King of England in 1066 and his reign marks the end of several invasions,which had begun since 450 AD. After the Roman withdrawal from the British Islesthe resulting power vacuum encouraged invaders from the continent. The Romano-British neither had the weapons nor the army to make use of the Roman militarystructures and fell back on their traditional hill forts but were ultimately unable to stopthe German advances. The Anglo-Saxons and Danes founded several kingdoms inEngland. They were predominantly peasants and forest dwellers and fortified theirvillages and towns with earthen banks and timber palisades and constructed massiveearthworks along the borders of their Kingdoms. To return to the Normans, the Norman castle was not just a new form ofmilitary architecture; it was the product of a complex military society that had beencreated in Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries AD. The feudal system was anacknowledgement of the difficulty of running and defending a large country without awell-developed administrative system, without efficient communication, and withouta standing army. In theory at least, all land belonged3 to the King and was held as afee or payment from him in return for various political, administrative and militaryservices. [...]1 danaelayne.com/anglosaxons.ppt (21.02.2003)2 This was the Magnum Concilium. 3 Kurt Kluxen, Geschichte Englands (Stuttgart: Kroener Verlag, 1991), 40.