Question

how did the barons who forced king john to sign the magna carta in 1215 have an impact on the governments established in the english colonies founded centuries later

Answer 1

The political myth of the Magna Carta and its protection of the old personal liberties persisted after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 well into the nineteenth century. It influenced the first American settlers in the Thirteen Colonies and the formation of the US Constitution in 1787, which became the supreme law of the territories in the new republic of the United States. Research by Victorian historians showed that the original 1215 letter concerned the medieval relationship between the English monarch and the barons, rather than the rights of ordinary people, but that letter remained a powerful and iconic document, even after almost all its content was repealed from the statutes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Magna Carta is still an important symbol of freedom, it is frequently cited by politicians and activists and is respected by the British and American legal communities.

When the English settlers left for the New World, they took with them royal letters with which they established the colonies. For example, the letter from the Massachusetts Bay Company stated that settlers "would have and enjoy the freedoms and immunities of free and natural subjects" .216 The Virginia Charter of 1606 - largely written by Edward Coke - he declared that the settlers would have the same "liberties, right to vote and immunities" as those born in England.217 The Massachusetts Body of Liberties contained similarities with clause 29 of the Magna Carta; in drafting it, the Massachusetts General Court considered the letter to be the main incarnation of English customary law.218 Other colonies would follow its example. In 1638, Maryland tried to recognize the Magna Carta as part of the law of the province, but the request was denied by Carlos I.