Horse 3482 - NATO Wakes Up To Stare At The Eagle And The Bear

The General, the Philanderer, the Thug, the Crook, the Janitor, the Peanut, the Actor, the Blatherer, the Creep, the Moron, the Librarian, the Blowhard, the Zombie, and the Blowhard again. This is either the weirdest set of tarot cards in existence, or someone telling the fortunes of an empire which is crumbling.

When Donald Trump met with Vladmir Putin at the weekend, I thought that it was because Trump intended to give away some kind of magic beans in exchange for ten minutes of kudos. Instead, he achieved precisely nothing but Putin learned first hand that the Blowhard is actually incapable of achieving anything. This is excellent news for the little Russian man as it means that he can and will go about his business in Ukraine unimpeded.

We have now learnt that this week, the President of Ukraine Vlodomir Zelensky will have an audience with Trump and on this occasion, instead of merely being a punching bag so that Trump can look impressive in front of the hand-picked media scrum in the White House, he will be bringing the most important leaders in NATO.

The next meeting that Zelensky will have with Trump, reads more like the starting squad of a football match than anything else. This time, the group will include:

Zelensky, Von der Lewen, Merz, Macron, Meloni, Stubb, Rutte, and Starmer. To include leaders from both the economic left and right, is one of the strangest set of leaders to voluntarily arrive at the White House in a very long time; which suggests to me that at least in theory, that this time around, NATO has grown a spine and is prepared to tell the Blowhard man-baby that they have had enough.

The problem for Mr Trump is that he wants to be friends with Mr Putin; not because he thinks that normalising relations between the two nations will bring about peace and prosperity but because Trump is a thug gangster and game recognises game. 

The problem for Mr Putin is that even though he wishes for a return to the Russian Empire of old (of which the USSR was just a front company), he has constantly failed in his objectives.

Putin has failed to demiliterise Ukraine and has failed to neutralise much less defeat the Ukrainian military. Putin has failed to enact regime change in Kyyv and has failed to remove Zelensky. Putin has failed to exact full control over most of Donbas; which is the objective of this current wave of military nastiness. Perhaps most worrying of all, Putin has failed to stop NATO from enlarging, as both Sweden and Finland joined in 2023; which now means that Russia actually shares a land border with NATO.

Exactly who Trump thinks that he's acting for in the next meeting with Zelensky is unknown but what we do know is that if things transpire in a certain direction, then Ukraine will finally join NATO and Trump will be forced to make a decision about whether to pull the United States out and make his friend Vladmir Putin happy, or if he has to eat humble pie and finally actually admit that Ukraine is a sovereign nation in its own right.

Perhaps it is a good thing that there was no announcement of a ceasefire, no announcement of sanctions, and no other announcements of grand but otherwise useless nature.

Because now as it stands, European nations are rightfully and justly wary of anything that Mr Trump has to say because it was highly likely that both Ukraine and Europe could have been cut out of a deal cooked up behind closed doors by the world's biggest nuclear powers; and that simply should have never been thinkable at all.

Horse 3481 - Magna Carta - The BIG Delusion V

10

No-one is to be distrained to do more service for a knight’s fee or for any other free tenement than is due from it.

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A knight's "fee" is some unit of land which is necessary for the maintenance of that knight and maybe his retinue, for the purpose of sending him off to war. Clause 10 is an imposition which prevents someone from demanding extra work from a knight in exchange for their fee; rather than what it sounds like it could be which is an imposition upon the serfdom and peasantry from doing excess work for their knight.

Remember, Magna Carta is a list of demands from the barons to the King; rather than some great charter of rights being claimed by the general populace at large. Legally speaking, the serfdom and peasantry in relation to the knights and barons, by virtue of living upon the lands in their estates, were considered to be the property of the knights and barons. 

The actual operation of this Clause since the time of about Henry VIII with various Enclosure Acts, right up until the General Enclosure Act 1801, means that the number of people who either lived on or had the right to live on estates or graze livestock in Common lands, was steadily decreased. The General Enclosure Act 1801 rounded off that number to exactly 0.

There are no circumstances under which Clause 10 even has any operation today. It might technically still form part of the corpus of law but what is the point of law if it applies to literally no-one?

11

Common pleas are not to follow our court but are to be held in a certain fixed place.

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On the face of it, this looks like a call for established formal Courts of Assizes, Criminal Courts, et cetera to be built. This is fine. In truth though, when you have Circuit Courts and professional judges who move from place to place, the idea that court should be held in a singular fixed place, immediately dissolves like snow in a furnace. 

12

Recognisances of novel disseisin and of mort d’ancestor are not to be taken save in their particular counties and in the following way. We or, should we be outside the realm, our chief justiciar, will send our justices once a year to each county, so that, together with the knights of the counties, that may take the aforesaid assizes in the counties; and those assizes which cannot be completed in that visitation of the county by our aforesaid justices assigned to take the said assizes are to be completed elsewhere by the justices in their visitation; and those which cannot be completed by them on account of the difficulty of various articles (of law) are to be referred to our justices of the Bench and completed there.

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"Novel disseisin" and "mort d’ancestor" are in modern English: "recently dispossessed lands" and "the death of ancestral lands". What the barons and earls are trying to achieve here, are the resolution of land disputes where someone has either had their land confiscated by the Crown, or by the action of some other earl or baron. These assizes are ideally to be held within the counties where the land dispute happened.

That's all fine and dandy except that in Australia we have state land and environment courts, lands titles courts, and other courts of regular sessions. Clause 12 insofar as it applies to the operation of law in Australia is nil.

13

Assizes of darrein presentment are always to be taken before our justices of the Bench and are to be completed there.

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"Darrein presentment" is the lovely French term of "last" presentment and specifically refers to what happens if for some reason, a local priest/bishop/vicar/rector, vacates a parish or church; usually this would either happen because of death or promotion.

Take particular note of who gets to decide upon who fills the vacant position. These Assizes "are always to be taken before our justices of the Bench". This is the barons and earls who are in effect telling the Church that they are the ones who will decide who gets to be in charge of the clergy. 

It's also worth noting that as the church, while it did have some degree of ecclesiastical hierarchy and academy, was also very much subject to positions being bought and sold throughout the land. Simony, that is the buying and selling of ecclesiastic wasn't actually made illegal until the Simony Act of 1688. This is also in conjunction with the Glorious Revolution and other reformation acts such as the Bill Of Rights Act 1688.

Churches now have their own system of academic recognition and as far as I am aware, there isn't any major organised religion where one could simply buy the right to be a bishop.

14

A free man is not to be amerced for a small offence save in accordance with the manner of the offence, and for a major offence according to its magnitude, saving his sufficiency (salvo contenemento suo), and a merchant likewise, saving his merchandise, and any villein other than one of our own is to be amerced in the same way, saving his necessity (salvo waynagio) should he fall into our mercy, and none of the aforesaid amercements is to be imposed save by the oath of honest and law-worthy men of the neighbourhood. Earls and barons are not to be amerced save by their peers and only in accordance with the manner of their offence. No clergyman is to be amerced according to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice, but according to his lay tenement and the degree of his wrongdoing.

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The idea that someone should be tried in a court which is made up of their peers, is in theory a noble cause. In practice, it is dafter than a box of rats, in an elevator, going up and down in a cruise ship. Why? Just why?

Also take note of who these people deem to be the only ones capable of administering justice to the various classes: free men to free men, merchants to merchants, villeins to villeins, the clergy to the clergy, and most importantly to them the Earls and barons are not to be amerced save by their peers. 

If we were to apply this same principle today, then the directors of the ASX200 would only be able to be taken to court and tried by other directors of the ASX200. Absolutely nothing could go wrong with that in principle, yeah? This wouldn't at all be open to corruption? 

15

No town or free man is to be distrained to make bridges or bank works save for those that ought to do so of old and by right.

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We shall see that Magna Carta is in actuality, quite a petty document which is hideously concerned with the local geography of south-east England; rather than being some massive overarching legal framework for future generations. 

Essentially Clause 15 is a ban upon civil conscription of burghers and freemen. Note that it doesn't concern itself with the peasantry, or the serfs, or slaves; who as chattel property, could be conscripted to build bridges/bank works/forts/castles et cetera.

16

No bank works of any sort are to be kept up save for those that were in defence in the time of King H[enry II] our grandfather and in the same places and on the same terms as was customary in his time.

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Again, Clause 16 is concerned with the civil infrastructure of the waterways but places an allowable exception on Clause 15. Clauses 15 and 16 taken together, have literally zero actionable effect on Australia.

17

No sheriff, constable, coroner or any other of our bailiffs is to hold pleas of our crown.

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One of the curious features of English Law and by extension the corpus of received law in Australia, is that the Crown, is a separate legal person from the monarchy. As a separate legal person, the Crown is actually independent from the monarchy and although the monarch (the King) is an inheritable position which is inseparable, the Crown can enter into contracts, can own property real or otherwise, and sue and be sued. It is that last point which Clause 17 wants to address.

In 1215 and when this was later adopted into formal law, there still hadn't been the legal determination that there should only be one court. Justice and the judiciary, the sheriffs and constables, and other officers who administered law, were appointed by the earls and barons who owned the estates. 

The action of Clause 17 pits what's amounts to a private legal system against the Crown. It then refuses to accept that the Crown is actually a legal person and further refuses to admit that the Crown has any actionable things in these private courts. 

In the twenty-first century, the idea that there should be private courts is usually seen as intolerable but the wheel of history is big and frequently turns in unexpected directions. I know that was then but it could be again. For now, the operation of Clause 17 is nil.

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As we continue to move forward through Magna Carta and as it presses ever more in upon local land disputes, the actual relevance of it upon Australian law only move ever sharper into focus.

Today's running tally of Clauses in Magna Carta which might apply to someone in court in Australia today is:

0/17.

Horse 3480 - Magna Carta - The BIG Delusion IV

 7

A widow, after the death of her husband, is immediately and without any difficulty to have her marriage portion and her inheritance, nor is she to pay anything for her dower or her marriage portion or for her inheritance which her husband and she held on the day of her husband’s death, and she shall remain in the chief dwelling place of her husband for forty days after her husband’s death, within which time dower will be assigned her if it has not already been assigned, unless that house is a castle, and if it is a castle which she leaves, then a suitable house will immediately be provided for her in which she may properly dwell until her dower is assigned to her in accordance with what is aforesaid, and in the meantime she is to have her reasonable necessities (estoverium) from the common property. As dower she will be assigned the third part of all the lands of her husband which were his during his lifetime, save when she was dowered with less at the church door. No widow shall be distrained to marry for so long as she wishes to live without a husband, provided that she gives surety that she will not marry without our assent if she holds of us, or without the assent of her lord, if she holds of another.

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On the face of this, it looks as though leaving a widow the estate to which she should be entitled to is obvious; but again the curses like within the minutiae of the text.

The earls and barons are keen to keep things like castles within the control of the powerful; and Clause 7 implies that unless a widow either remarries, or in conjunction with Clauses 3-6 that a suitable heir of majority can occupy the estate, that they will strip widows of two-thirds of the estate. There is also a trip statement right at the end of this clause which states that, if a widow does not want to marry someone else then she must make surety not to do so. The fact that that surely is conditional on the consent of the earls and barons, belies the awful truth that women were not actually seen as equals, or perhaps even as people in their own right with their own agency.

8

Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any land or rent for any debt, as long as the existing chattels of the debtor suffice for the payment of the debt and as long as the debtor is ready to pay the debt, nor will the debtor’s guarantors be distrained for so long as the principal debtor is able to pay the debt; and should the principal debtor default in his payment of the debt, not having the means to repay it, or should he refuse to pay it despite being able to do so, the guarantors will answer for the debt and, if they wish, they are to have the lands and rents of the debtor until they are repaid the debt that previously they paid on behalf of the debtor, unless the principal debtor can show that he is quit in respect to these guarantors.

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Clause 8 reminds us that the only power which exists within England in the thirteenth century, is the power to control the land, the things on the land, and the people who might be owned as chattel. By limiting the power of the bailiffs and courts to seize land as payment of debt, the intent of Clause 8 is to keep the estates intact, rather than to be generous and let people keep their stuff.

Also, in the light that people's lands may not be seized in the payment of debt, this also has the other effect that the Crown can not simply take and seize lands. On one hand a clause like this might look merely like being equitable but on the other, this is about preserving the power of the English earls and barons against what they see as a French aristocracy. Remember, Magna Carta exists in the period immediately after the memory of the initial Norman Conquest has already passed and faded to black.

9

The city of London is to have all its ancient liberties and customs. Moreover we wish and grant that all other cities and boroughs and vills and the barons of the Cinque Ports and all ports are to have all their liberties and free customs.

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I live in Australia. The interesting thing about Australia is that in ye old olde olden days when Billy was an outlaw and Billy was a thief and Billy got transported cause he stole a leg of beef and became Billy Brown of Sydney Town, he was given a lovely eight month cruise and was made to take a trip on a government ship ten thousand miles away.

The City of London is not in Australia. It is in old Blighty. Clause 9 insofar as it relates to the dismal people of this land of ne'er-do-wells, is completely and utterly irrelevant. 

By way of background the "Cinque Ports" were the Five Ports of Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich, and by the thirteenth century had expanded to include Winchesea, and Rye. In exchange for some taxation exemptions, they were charged with giving up ships and naval troops; which the barons then presumed to take from the local populations. By what exactly is meant by the 'ancient liberties and customs' of the City of London meant is lost to the mists of time by the liberties and free customs of the Cinque Ports by way of exercise and demonstration for the next thirty decades proved to be that they could and would pressgang people into joining the navy.

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As applied to the cookers in court who today try to claim that they are Sovereign Citizens, I do not know if any of them realise that Clause 9 by operation would actually allow the judge in front of them, to make justice by pressganging them into joining the navy.

This especially looks like a case of not thinking things through.

Today's running tally of Clauses in Magna Carta which might apply to someone in court in Australia today is:

0/9, though I may be persuaded to admit that Clause 9 might apply to them; though not in the way they'd like.