When I wrote my Domesday Book it became obvious that this was the documented start of the King, by way of the Government, exerting administrative control over the collection of taxes. The Domesday Book was so effective at tax collection it triggered a rebellion by the King’s Barons who were at the front line in terms of collecting tax. The Magna Carta looked to appease this breakdown between the King and the Barons by establishing a new set of rules becoming the basis for a new legal system. Whilst the Magna Carta opposed the principles of uncontrolled monarchy imposition it was based upon the social structures that the Domesday Book was so effective at establishing and documenting.
The
Magna Carta was signed by King John on the 15th June 1215 at
Runnymede a meadow alongside the River
Thames. It served to counter the impact of the Domesday Book in terms of the
control it exerted over the population by the King and Government in extracting
taxes. It established that the King and his Government were not above the law.
It sought to prevent the King exploiting his power, and placed limits on royal
authority by establishing a legal system as a power in itself supported by an
independent judiciary.
It
returned some ancient rights back to the Barons as well as preventing the
addition of new taxes until approved by a Counsel. Significantly it established
all free men have a right to justice and a fair trial with a jury. The Monarch
therefore does not have absolute power. Throughout English history this
independence of the judiciary has had a profound impact on how our society has
evolved as illustrated by the recent actions taken against the Conservative
Government when they were forcing through Brexit.
Now
I am not going to attempt to write a book on the Magna Carta but I want to
identify James Holt (1922-2014) who can be rightly credited with writing in
1965 a book considered one of the best on the subject. He produced a Second
Edition in 1992. His depth of knowledge is unsurpassed. By coincidence he is
also an authority and written books on Robin Hood the outlaw operating in
Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.
It
happens to be a trait of mine to take as much interest in the authors of books
as in the contents of the books themselves. As someone driven to research and
write on a variety of subjects I have always been interested in those driven in
a similar way.
Here
below is part of James Holt’s obituary in The Times.
Sir
James Holt, medieval historian, was born on April 26, 1922. He died on April 9,
2014, aged 91.
Sir
James Holt was the world's leading authority on Magna Carta, and the later 20th
century's outstanding historian of medieval England and Normandy. His
reputation was established by two landmark books first, in 1961, he published
The Northerners, an account of the opposition of the northern baronage to King
John. This was followed, four years later, by Magna Carta. Published in the
year of the Charter's 750th anniversary, its classic status was underlined by
an expanded second edition in 1992 and a planned reissue for the 800th
anniversary next year. (2015)
Holt
was born in Yorkshire, to where his parents had moved from Lancashire after the
First World War; he was always willing to speak of his own county while drawing
a veil over his parents' origins. His Yorkshire roots manifested themselves in
his personality and his preferences. His office at Fitzwilliam College,
Cambridge where he was Master between 1981 and 1988 was lined with blue and
green volumes of medieval royal records and with yellow volumes of Wisden
Cricketers' Almanack. Mental toughness and compact style were required
attributes of his favoured historians and favoured batsmen alike.
James
Clarke Holt was born in 1922 and attributed his earliest interest in history
partly to his father and partly to a multi-volume History of the British
People. He was dazzled by the illustrations, including one featuring a
facsimile of Magna Carta. At Bradford Grammar School he was taught by two
influential history masters. One was CS Hall, "a great teacher in the
old-fashioned way. He more or less thumped the dates into the class. And left
you well-drilled." Well-drilled was a very high compliment in the Holt
vocabulary.
The
other teacher was LJV Shepherd, "more academically bent, [who] introduced
us to analytical history". Shepherd was also a Marxist, and when Holt
served with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War, his letters home
showed some sympathy for such views.
Holt's
Army service remained a significant influence. He said that it helped to
explain his ability to work hard as an undergraduate following demobilisation.
Later, what he considered mistaken views on medieval military history might be
met with a response beginning, "Take it from an old gunner ..." One
wartime experience he did not discuss, even with his wife, was being among the
first Allied troops to arrive at Belsen.
After
the war he obtained a first in modern history at Queen's College, Oxford, where
he was taught by the outstanding medieval tutor John Prestwich. From Queen's he
moved to Merton College as a Harmsworth senior scholar, and undertook a DPhil,
supervised by the distinguished historian Vivian Galbraith.
Holt
moved on to Nottingham and then to Reading before accepting the chair of
medieval history at Cambridge, which he held until retirement in 1988. Among
other roles, he was president of the Royal Historical Society between 1980 and
1984 In any role, he provided a dynamic style of leadership. In a tribute to
his professorship at Reading, a colleague remarked that verbs such as
"holds", "fills", or "occupies" the chair all
"suggest a degree of containment which fails to convey what Jim Holt did
here." His administrative style was fearless and sometimes combative; the
prospect of the kind of phone conversation that would oppress a more
stereotypically faint-hearted academic would be greeted with a cheery,
"I'm looking forward to this."
Holt
was also the leading authority on Robin Hood, about whom he published another
classic book in 1982.
In
terms of this post I am not going into any more detail on the Magna Carta nor
Sir James Holt nor Robin Hood but provide you with the Wikipedia links below if you want more
detail.
Wikipedia
on the Magna Carta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
Wikipedia
on James Holt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Holt_(historian)
Wikipedia
on Robin Hood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood
