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Who knew that Blackstone got it so wrong!!!
The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of property: which consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution, save only by the laws of the land … The laws of England are … extremely watchful in ascertaining and protecting this right. Upon this principle the great charter has declared that no freeman shall be disseised, or divested, of his freehold, or of his liberties, or free customs, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.
William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (The Legal Classics Library, 1765) Book 2.
King John would be proud of your efforts to make shit up as you go along Roylyin'.
You know very little about King John.
There's little doubt that by the 17th century onwards the Magna Carta was associated with British liberty and freedom, even though the original document had very little to do with either. It became a rallying cry during a parliamentary struggle against the arbitrary power of the monarch mainly in the early to mid 17th century. It's why many professional historians regard Magna Carta's exalted reputation as the beginning of liberties for all as a myth. The Charter did little or nothing to promote good government. Nor did it serve to protect the legal rights of the great majority of people in England. It served only the barons. It's glorification was a later invention, attributable to myth-making lawyers like Edward Coke (who described it as England's "ancient constitution") in the seventeenth century and William Blackstone in the eighteenth. It was nothing of the sort.
William Sharp McKechnie a historian and lecturer in Constitutional Law and History, argued that the intent of the barons in 1215 was thoroughly backward-looking as they "professed to be demanding nothing new." McKechnie stated that the correct reading of "freemen" was those who could claim protection was restricted to "landowner" with a manorial court.
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