Happy Magna Carta Day June 15th

Happy Magna Carta day!

Free Markets depend upon the government to punish wrongdoers (thieves) but also presume that the government is not the chief theif.

This presumption reaches back in the history of the West but crystalizes at certain points such as today with the issuance of the Magna Carta… a limitation on the king’s power to rob, loot, and pillage. The outrages addressed by the charter are the historical background for the story of Robin Hood.

The picture of the hated King John is one wherein he is offered a poisoned chalice in hopes of a speedy demise.

From the American Minute daily email:

The Legend of Robinhood speaks of Richard the Lionheart.

The real King Richard the Lionheart, so named for his courage in battle, joined the Third Crusade in 1190AD to win back Jerusalem from the Muslims, who had taken it away from the Byzantine Christian and Jewish inhabitants in a bloody siege in 636AD.

Though he did not retake Jerusalem, Richard made a truce with Saladin to open the region to religious pilgrims.

On his return trip to England, Richard was captured by a rival king in Austria and spent three years in prison.

He was eventually found and purchased back with an enormous “king’s ransom.”

He returned to England and took back the throne from his brother John.

Just five years later Richard died and John again ruled oppressively in England.

The angry barons responded by capturing London and, on this date, June 15, 1215, surrounded King John on the plains of Runnymeade, forcing him to sign the Magna Carta.

This was the first time in history that the arbitrary powers of a king were limited. The Magna Carta ends with the words: “for the salvation of our souls, and the souls of all our…heirs, and unto the honor of God.”

A modern translation of the Magna Carta