This is an essay answer that I wrote for a test in
World History about the Magna Carta.
The
Magna Carta was a document that the local lords used to limit the power of the
King. The king at the time was King
John. For many years the king had been
taking advantage of the local lords.
There were in a type of government called Feudal Monarchy, which broken
down was Feudal being the local lords, they would pledge their fealty to the
higher lords in return for protection.
The higher lords being the monarchy did the reciprocal, but for many
years the monarch’s had been using royal lands and invested them in their army,
bureaucracy, and also taking urban bourgeoisie to manage the bureaucracy. So they became good at accounting and
budgeting. They also took the
collection of taxes out of the local lords and they hired sheriffs to do
it. The last thing was the royal court
made all the decisions now instead of the local lords. The Magna Carta limited the further
expansion of the king’s powers and attempted to restore traditional privileges
of local lords. It was to keep the king from further centralizing the
government for himself. This formed a
Parliament to aid the king. It had two
houses, House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Commons was made up of local townsmen, and
merchants. This unit of government was
to work side by side with the king.