18
If anyone holding a lay fee from us should die, and our sheriff or bailiff shows our letters patent containing our summons for a debt that the dead man owed us, our sheriff or bailiff is permitted to attach and enrol all the goods and chattels of the dead man found in lay fee, to the value of the said debt, by view of law-worthy men, so that nothing is to be removed thence until the debt that remains is paid to us, and the remainder is to be released to the executors to discharge the will of the dead man, and if nothing is owed to us from such a person, all the chattels are to pass to the [use of] the dead man, saving to the dead man’s wife and her [or their] children their reasonable portion.
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The idea that sheriffs or bailiffs have the right to claim chattel and property (a lay fee) by way of discharging a debt, is still with us today. Usually if someone has defaulted upon some debt, such as commercial credit like a credit card or upon a mortgage, then the creditors have the ability to go to court and have the sheriffs or bailiffs repossess and reclaim goods and/or real property.
Clause 18 extends this right beyond the grave; which now means that the earls and barons have the ability to claim chattel and property from a deceased estate. The problem with this is that as they already own the courts and judges, it is hideously easy for them to donkey up some list of claims and extract a letters patent from the courts, which they control.
This is all the more monstrous and hideous when you consider that the goods and chattel are being reclaimed from the widows and children of the deceased person, who themselves might not have actually had legal standing in court; which means no ability at all to contest the reclamation of property from them.
Clause 18 is a nice way for the barons and earls to steal property from poorer people, by redefining what was legal. Remember, it isn't stealing if you don't want it to be and since you already own the law, the law isn't going to disagree with you.
19
No constable or his bailiff is to take corn or other chattels from anyone who not themselves of a vill where a castle is built, unless the constable or his bailiff immediately offers money in payment of obtains a respite by the wish of the seller. If the person whose corn or chattels are taken is of such a vill, then the constable or his bailiff is to pay the purchase price within forty days.
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This sounds incredibly strange to a twenty-first century audience but the underlying concept which is being touched upon here is the nature of feudal taxation.
Taxation as we know it is paid to a central authority, which is usually an agency of the federal government of the nation state. That's all good and fine, but when you have a largely agrarian society which for the most part the peasantry are absent of coin, then taxation measures and excises must be collected locally.
For the earls and barons and people in charge of a hundred, taxation claims would be directly laid upon stores of corn or other fungible and presumably semi-storable commodity. It makes no sense for instance to collect beef as a taxation payment because unless you have the means to cure it or salt it, then if is going to go off.
Clause 19 is the statement that constables and bailiffs will only operate within their own hundred, or country, or duchy, and even then, only take taxation from the villeins therein. If they want to lay claim to corn or other chattels from anyone, then the instruction is to pay monies; which seems reasonable.
20
No constable is to distrain any knight to give money for castle guard if the knight is willing to do such guard in person or by proxy of any other honest man, should the knight be prevented from doing so by just cause. And if we take or send such a knight into the army, he is to be quit of [castle] guard in accordance with the length of time that we have him in the army for the fee for which he has done service in the army.
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England in the 13th Century does not have a standing army. If in the event that there was a war called, then the Lords, Earls, and Barons, would call downwards for the Knights to either provide military service, or provide infantry for same. England in the 13th Century also does not have a standing police force. Policing is provided for by sheriffs in the employ of the owner of the hundred, and/or directly by the knight themselves or by some armed retinue.
So in order to keep broader civil order, Clause 20 has the intent of extracting the guard/police service either from the knights themselves, or by their proxies who will do the job for them. And naturally, if a knight has been called into service in the army, then they can not be physically present for the task of castle guard; so they are relieved of that duty for that particular time.
The interesting thing about the beginning of Clause 20 is that it implies that the Barons and Earls could send their Constables and probably Sheriffs to demand payment if a knight didn't want to actually do the job of guard/police service. In this respect, taxation for services rendered seems perfectly reasonable.
The real irony is that when the cookers get in court and say that they rely on Magna Carta for their defence of wanting to get out of some civic duty like a petty minded moron, that Clause 20 actually supports the concept of taxation for civil services. Not once have I ever heard of the alternative where one of these fools, intends to enlist in the Police Service in lieu of paying taxation though.
21
No sheriff or bailiff of ours or of anyone else is to take anyone’s horses or carts to make carriage, unless he renders the payment customarily due, namely for a two-horse cart ten pence per day, and for a three-horse cart fourteen pence per day. No demesne cart belonging to any churchman or knight or any other lady [sic] is to be taken by our bailiffs, nor will we or our bailiffs or anyone else take someone else’s timber for a castle or any other of our business save by the will of he to whom the timber belongs.
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Since the prime driver of economic activity is agriculture, then taking someone's horses or carts, is to literally take away their livelihood. In this case, the earls and barons have decided that they will pay five and seven times the amount which would be normally due to a day labourer at the time.
Clause 21 does give away the general sentiment of the time that the church was an entity to be respected. One of the aspects of the feudal system was that even the earls and barons, and the king, felt that they would be answerable to God or at very least were prepared to accept that the church was their propaganda piece to make known to the peasants and slaves, who was in charge, who people were answerable to, and that they were at the top because God had said so.
22
We shall not hold the lands of those convicted of felony save for a year and a day, whereafter such land is to be restored to the lords of the fees.
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Again, given that agriculture is the prime driver of economic activity during the middle ages, confiscating the lands of someone who has been convicted of felony is a pretty severe penalty. If they happened to be a freeman who held the land, then restoring to the lords of the fees, seems like an extraction tool to permanently concentrate land ergo power, into the hands of the already rich and powerful.
If someone was already a knight in possession of the fee, then restoring their lands to their lords, also concentrates land and power upwards.
About the only person whom this wouldn't likely affect, are the lords, earls, and barons, who would have their estates managed by someone in the interim and then restored to them. This of course assumes that a lord, earl, or baron, actually can be convicted of a felony; which given the interaction of this with Clause 14 which reads that "Earls and barons are not to be amerced save by their peers", is highly unlikely. Why would an earl or baron convict one of their own, except if they wanted to acquire lands vampirically?
23
All fish weirs [kidelli] on the Thames and the Medway and throughout England are to be entirely dismantled, save on the sea coast.
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This is a highly specific clause that literally has zero application in Australia. In all honesty it has zero application in most of the rivers in England as well. Basically what is going on, is that fences were erected across the Thames to prevent fish from travelling further upstream than about Richmond; to maximise the catch available to the King's household.
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In this post of the run through Magna Carta, we heave learned of the pettiness of the claims therein. It really does make you wonder about the kinds of people who want to rely on it to get out of whatever infringement of law that they have been brought to court over.
Today's running tally of Clauses in Magna Carta which might apply to someone in court in Australia today is:
0/23.
But do go banging on about fish weirs, please.
