William Sharp McKechnie, was a Scottish scholar, historian, lecturer in Constitutional Law and History, and author of which charter commonly known as, and agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215?
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William Sharp McKechnie William Sharp McKechnie (2 September 1863 – 2 July 1930) was a Scottish scholar, historian, lecturer in Constitutional Law and History, and author of "Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John with an Historical Introduction". He later held the Chair of Conveyancing at the University of Glasgow from 1916 until 1927. Upon his retirement, he was awarded an honorary LL.D.
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Magna Carta Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin for "the Great Charter of the Liberties"), commonly called Magna Carta (also "Magna Charta"; "(the) Great Charter"), is a charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. After John's death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where the document acquired the name Magna Carta, to distinguish it from the smaller Charter of the Forest which was issued at the same time. Short of funds, Henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes; his son, Edward I, repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part of England's statute law.
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Robert of Thornham Robert of Thornham (or Robert de Turnham) (died 1211) was an English soldier and administrator. The namesake of his landowner father, he was the younger brother of Stephen of Thornham. Robert made his reputation in connection with the conquest of Cyprus in 1191 during the Third Crusade. On order of King Richard I, he led half the fleet in that battle. Subsequently, he was responsible for controlling the island when the Crusaders moved on, first jointly with Richard de Camville and then independently, when he defeated a group of Cypriot rebels. After he left Cyprus, Robert became more closely identified with Richard I. As the king's "familiaris", he carried Richard's equipment from the Holy Land to England. When Richard I was captured in 1192 in Vienna, among the terms of his release was the presentation of men to stand as "pledges" that the ransom would be paid. Robert was among these hostages, though evidently not for long, as he was back by the king's side in 1194 at Poitiers. Appointed Seneschal of Anjou, he served in France with Richard I, primarily in Anjou and Normandy, throughout the rest of Richard's reign. At around the same time, he was also appointed High Sheriff of Surrey, but he did not return to England until after Richard's death. In 1196, he led troops at Richard's behest into Brittany on an unsuccessful attempt to capture the child Duke of Brittany Arthur, whose mother Constance was resistant to Richard's control. In 1197, King Richard arranged for Robert to marry Isabella Fossard, daughter and heiress of the powerful Yorkshire baron William Fossard. The Fossard inheritance included the castle, honor, and lordship of Mulgrave with 34.5 attached knight's fees.
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Burgage Burgage is a medieval land term used in England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland, well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town ("borough") rental property (to use modern terms), owned by a king or lord. The property ("burgage tenement") usually, and distinctly, consisted of a house on a long and narrow plot of land (Scots: "toft"), with a narrow street frontage. Rental payment ("tenure") was usually in the form of money, but each "burgage tenure" arrangement was unique, and could include services. As populations grew, "burgage plots" could be split into smaller additional units. (Amalgamation was not so common, until the second half of the 19th century.) Burgage tenures were usually money based, in contrast to rural tenures which were usually services based. In Saxon times the rent was called a "landgable" or "hawgable".
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William Russell (knight) Sir William Russell (1257–1311) was an English nobleman, knight, and holder of a "moiety" of the feudal barony of North Cadbury, Somerset, but spent most of his life engaged in the administration and defence of the Isle of Wight, where he obtained by marriage the manor of Yaverland. He served as constable of Carisbrooke Castle, and sat in parliament on two occasions, firstly as burgess for Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, and then for the County of Southampton. As a baron his military service was called on several times by King Edward I "Hammer of the Scots".
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Constitutional status of Cornwall Cornwall is a unitary authority area and ceremonial county of England. Although most historians record that Cornwall had come under the control of the Kingdom of England by the time of the Norman Conquest, and the county was included in the Domesday Book, some nationalist activists, amongst other Cornish people, question the constitutional basis for the administration of Cornwall as part of England, arguing that the Duchy Charters of 1337 place the governance of Cornwall with the Duchy of Cornwall rather than the English Crown. These charters and various constitutional peculiarities related to the Duchy of Cornwall are claimed to distinguish Cornwall from England to such an extent that Cornwall should not be described as part of England in a constitutional sense.
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John de Leche John de Leche (or John de Leck or John de Leek) (died 1313) was a canon of Dunkeld and prelate during the early 14th century. After the death of Matthew de Crambeth, Bishop of Dunkeld, in 1309, William Sinclair was elected by some of the chapter to the bishopric. John de Leche, however, was elected soon afterwards, and had the support of King Edward II of England. The diocese of Dunkeld lay vacant for three years, while the issue was contested at the Papal see. Pope Clement V appointed James, Cardinal Deacon of St George in Velabro, to judge the issue; but this was resolved when, on 22 May 1311, John de Leche was promoted to the Archbishopric of Dublin. He held the latter for two years. He obtained a charter for the earliest University in Dublin in 1311 but his death, which seems to have been sudden, in 1313 greatly hampered the establishment of the university, which never flourished.
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Stephen of Thornham Stephen of Thornham (died 6 March 1214) was a British justice and administrator. He was the son of Robert of Thornham, a Kentish landowner, and the older brother of Robert of Thornham, and first came to official attention in 1170 when, along with his father, he acted as a benefactor to Combwell Priory. He served Henry II, and in 1188 was one of the agents tasked with ensuring the return of normal religious service in Canterbury after a dispute between the Archbishop and local monks, with Henry rewarding him for his work with lands in Artington, Surrey. After Henry died in 1189 Thornham served his son and successor, Richard I, with the same loyalty and skill. In 1190 he accompanied Richard on the Third Crusade, visiting Jerusalem in 1192, and in 1193 he escorted Queen Berengaria and Joan of England on their journey from Palestine to Rome.
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Rhode Island Royal Charter The Rhode Island Royal Charter was a document providing royal recognition to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, approved by England's King Charles II in July 1663. It provided a life for America and outlined many freedoms for the inhabitants of that colony. It was the guiding document for the government of Rhode Island over a period of 180 years, and was the oldest constitutional charter in the world at the time of its retirement in 1843.
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John de Winchester John de Winchester (died 1460) was a 15th-century English cleric who distinguished himself as an administrator and bishop in Scotland. Winchester was a student of canon law from 1418, graduating with a bachelorate in 1421.
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Roger of Seaton Roger of Seaton (1230–1280) was a British justice. He studied canon law at Oxford University, and by 1258 he was a qualified "magister", a rarity for British justices of the time; of the sixty or so justices who had served under Richard I only three held such a title, with ninety and eight respectively for those who had served under John of England. By 1260 he was using his knowledge of Canon law as the commissary-general for Walter of Kirkham, the Bishop of Durham, as well as his immediate successor, Robert Stitchill, serving as one of his chancellors and also his executor.
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A. V. Dicey Albert Venn Dicey, KC, FBA (4 February 1835 – 7 April 1922), usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British jurist and constitutional theorist. He is most widely known as the author of "Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution" (1885). The principles it expounds are considered part of the uncodified British constitution. He became Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford and a leading constitutional scholar of his day. Dicey popularised the phrase "rule of law", although its use goes back to the 17th century.
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Ainslie Tavern Bond The Ainslie Tavern Bond (also known as the "Ainslie Band", or the "Ainslie Tavern Band") was a document signed on about 20 April 1567 by a number of Scottish bishops and nobles. The bond approved the Earl of Bothwell's acquittal on 12 April of implication in the murder of Lord Darnley, recommended him as an appropriate husband for Mary, Queen of Scots, and pledged to assist in defending such a marriage.
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William Waynflete William Waynflete (c. 1398 – 11 August 1486), born William Patten, was Provost of Eton (1442–1447), Bishop of Winchester (1447–1486) and Lord Chancellor of England (1456–1460). He is best remembered as the founder of Magdalen College and Magdalen College School in Oxford.
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Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. The important feature of Walter's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.
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William Fitz Alan, 2nd Lord of Oswestry and Clun William Fitz Alan was a Norman nobleman who lived in Oswestry and Clun near Shrewsbury, along the medieval Welsh Marches. William was the son of William Fitz Allan, controlling the castles of Clun and Oswestry and later became the High Sheriff of Shropshire. William married a daughter of Hugh de Lacy, of which no first name is mentioned in any record known. When William came to inherit his lands in 1210, King John demanded a fee of 10,000 marks; unable to pay, William was unable to inherit. He only outlived his father by a few years, dying around Easter 1215. The estates were eventually reclaimed by his younger brother John Fitzalan.
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John de Kingston Sir John de Kingston, also known as John de Kyngeston, (died after 1336) was an English knight of the late 12th and early 13th centuries from Somerset. As one of King Edward I's leading commanders, he was Governor of Edinburgh Castle from 1298 to 1300 and from 1301 to at least 1305 (possibly as late as 1310). John and his brother Nicholas were captured during the battle of Bannockburn on 24 June 1314. He was the Sheriff of Somerset from 1315-1317.
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Gerald de Windsor Gerald de Windsor (c. 1075–1135), "alias" Gerald FitzWalter, was the first castellan of Pembroke Castle in Pembrokeshire (formerly part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth), in Wales, and was in charge of the Norman forces in southwest Wales. He was the ancestor of the FitzGerald and de Barry dynasties of Ireland, who were elevated to the Peerage of Ireland in the 14th century and was also the ancestor of the prominent Carew family, of Moulsford in Berkshire, Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire (in the Kingdom of Deheubarth) and of Mohuns Ottery in Devon (see Baron Carew, Earl of Totnes and Carew baronets).
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King John's Castle King John's Castle is the name of several large castles built in Ireland during the reign of King John of England (1166-1216), including:
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Succession to the Crown Act 1603 The Succession to the Crown Act 1603 (1 Jac. I c.1), full title "A most joyful and just recognition of the immediate, lawful and undoubted Succession, Descent and Right of the Crown", was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England enacted during the reign of James I. The Act recited the loyalty of Parliament to James, and stated that the English crown, on the death of Elizabeth I, had come to him "by inherent birthright and lawful and undoubted succession". It acknowledged him as the legitimate king "of England, Scotland, France and Ireland". The Act was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1948, having become obsolete in the intervening three centuries.
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Instrument of Government The Instrument of Government was a constitution of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. Drafted by Major-General John Lambert in 1653, it was the first sovereign codified and written constitution in England.
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Ancient constitution of England The ancient constitution of England was a 17th-century political theory about the common law, used at the time in particular to oppose the royal prerogative. It was developed initially by Sir Edward Coke, in his law reports; and has been analysed in modern times by J. G. A. Pocock in "The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law" (1st edition 1957; reissued "with a retrospect" 1987).