Travel Tips avec un petit morceau de Revisionist History

Here’s something that you probably haven’t been giving much thought to lately and it kind of worries me that I have; The Magna Carta.  Yeah I know, I’m getting weirder and weirder but I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with it.  There’re a few reasons that lead me to bring it up now.  One thing is, if you keep your ear to the ground you’ll probably hear more about it over the next while, as we will be celebrating its 800^th anniversary in 2015.

Also, my sister-in-law Lorraine just landed in town and she lives in Salisbury England, where the best surviving exemplification is housed at the Salisbury Cathedral.  It’s been there since it was created in 1215, which is pretty damned impressive.  There were thirteen original copies of Magna Carta created and only four of these still exist.  I’ve seen the one in Salisbury while visiting in the past.

If ever you’re travelling in England, Salisbury is about an hour by train southwest of London and is definitely worth a stop on the inevitable tourist trip to Bath.  It’s a great little city and a visit to the Cathedral is a must as it’s one of the finest examples of early English architecture and is encompassed by the largest close in England.  It was built in the early to mid 1200’s.  Think of that.  If you do get there, take the time to stand at the bottom of one of the main pillars and look up.  They are actually bowed under the weight of the spire.  It’s difficult to imagine that the technology existed in the 1200’s to create such a monstrosity.  It’s assumed that Ken Follett based his book Pillars of the Earth on the building of the Salisbury Cathedral.  Edward Rutherfurd’s novel Sarum describes the construction process in what is a really unique piece of time-travelling historical fiction.  If any of this medieval shit appeals to you – read it!

The big pile of rocks is just outside of Salisbury as well.  You may have heard it referred to by its other name - Stonehenge.  Regardless of what you believe about the old stones, it was a remarkable feat dragging them from miles away and arranging them in such an obvious ritualistic pattern, again with a seemingly total lack of technology.  I dig on the Pagans and Druids.

Old Sarum, an ancient fort town and the site of the original Cathedral is just outside of town too.  Some say that Tolkien based the character Saruman on some Old English interpretation of Old Sarum.  It’s a remarkable archeological site and an easy way to burn a day.

It’s difficult not to be swept up by these important and representational examples of a developing western civilization, but the subtler, more experiential aspects of history far too often diverts my attention.  Take The Haunch of Venison pub for example.  It was established in the 1300’s and the current building in the centre of Salisbury was built in the 15^th century with really nothing having changed to the interior in a century and it serves real ale, which sadly is becoming a rare thing in England in this age of the corporate pub.

Magna Carta to beer in a few short paragraphs – a new world record!  Don’t you just love it when beer and history converge?

For anyone who’s unaware of what Magna Carta is or the significance it played in the development of our civilization, I’ll try to put it into words here.  Magna Carta or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England was a document created by a group of revolting feudal barons (what I mean is they had taken up arms, not that they were hideous) and presented to and sealed by King John at Runnymeade, on the bank of the River Thames, on June 15, 1215.  It is a document that was designed to control the power of the King and to protect the interests of the barons.  It is thought to be the genesis of constitutional law and in essence a blueprint for western social development as it presented the ideas of political representation and parliament along with the ideals of democracy, limitation of power, equality and freedom under law.  Remember this term “freedom under law”.  It was basically the first stab at an English constitution and is widely thought to be the inspiration for the American Constitution.

One immediately thinks that this is like the coolest fucking document ever right?  I mean this puppy is what formed the basis of our modern western democracy.  The words democracy, equality and freedom, albeit in Latin, are actually in there somewhere.  Who couldn’t get on board with such pure and altruistic ideology?  The mere idea that eight hundred years ago, in the midst of the middle ages, humans had the capacity to think this broadly, put quill to paper and laydown the mores to guide the proper development of society for all generations to follow.

But just for the simple sake of shits and giggles let’s take a minute or two to pull back the layers of this motherfucker and see what we can find.

You know that statement above about having the capacity to think broadly and all that ballyhoo about insuring the proper development of society for generations to follow was all tongue-in-cheek right?  I know you did.

 

This capacity to think broadly had its development strictly focused on one thing and one thing only.  Money!  Prior to the sealing of the Charter, King John had the capacity to rule using the principle of force and will, which allowed him to make executive and arbitrary decisions because the King was believed to be above the law.  This essentially meant that the King could determine an increase to tax rates and other charges whenever the hell he felt like it, you know – arbitrarily.  The Barons inevitably got pissed with this form of rule and eventually revolted.  The original charter was actually part peace treaty, part political charter and it experienced a cycle of revolutions and revisions over the next number of years and even centuries.

But here’s the real abhorrent part of our little tale.  A couple of paragraphs back I mentioned the term “freedom under law”.  Well the freedom defined in the Charter, and all the rights and liberties contained within it applied only to non-serfs and excluded totally the unfree labour or the masses of the time.  There wasn’t exactly what you’d call a middle-class in 1215 right?

 

So as far as I can see, what drove our kind to toil in the creative pursuit of these lofty societal conventions and practices was a combination of greed and dominance.  It seems almost trite to be incredulous about this, as of course it was greed and dominance.  What else would it be?  I don’t remember reading or being taught about the great epoch of benevolence and egalitarianism.

Magna Carta was the very first document to actually spell out class distinction and seal a division of wealth between the elite and all those who existed strictly for the sole purpose of doing their biding.  This document virtually invented and delineated the One Percent.  Granted, it did create a system of social fairness but only between a despotic monarch and a small group of super rich and the beauty (not so much) is history’s packaging of it as the fundamental indenture to define “our” liberties.

Ah, nothing like the liberty of being high-born.  I wonder if they had a tea party that day at Runnymeade?

Anyhoo, Speaking of the one percent, I also bumped into Edward Heath twice on that visit to Salisbury.  Well the second time was in the best pub ever in Marlborough, but that’s another story altogether.