However, it must be noted that initially, the Magna Carta was deemed a failure. The reason quoted was that although it was intended to be a peace document, it had the result of inflaming passions so that there was war instead. It is said that the document pretended to quote customary law, but it actually promoted disagreement and contention. Therefore, it is no great surprise that the Magna Carta was legally valid for no longer than a period of three months, and even within that time period, the terms of the document were never properly executed. However, all the same,

Therefore, the Magna Carta can be effectively defined as a defining document in the emergence of the rule of law in the kingdom at the time. The Magna Carta is relevant even in today's times, especially in relation to human rights, even though it was in fact written and framed at a time in history when quarrels and other arguments and issues would be tested by a battle or by ordeals, and that, despite the fact that it is a universally applicable document, it was based upon a system wherein inequality and a feudal hierarchy were the keywords. 21

During the middle Ages, nobles divided their land amongst the lesser nobility, who therefore became their 'vassals' or servants. However, many of these vassals became so very powerful that the Kings had a difficult time trying to control them, and by the year 1100, certain barons and lords had castles and courts that would rival even those that the Kind had, and the King started to fear that if he had any sort of problem or issue with them, then he would have to be the loser, because they were so very powerful. Therefore, by the year 1215, the English barons formed an alliance at that time, by which the then ruler King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta. The document, as mentioned earlier, gave no new right to the common man, but it did, however, impose limits on the king's powers of taxation and declare that trials would be required before punishment. This was historic indeed, because this was the very first time that an English Monarch or a Ruler would come under the control of the Law. 13

During the middle Ages, law and theology were in fact becoming known as 'higher degree' subjects, and this was also the time when the doctrine of the Church was starting to develop. 7 Law in the Middle Ages however had not yet been developed to such an extent that justice as one knows it today would have been awarded. The types of trials that existed at that time were 'trial by ordeal', 'trial by battle', and the types of courts that existed at that time were Church Courts, Manor Courts, and Royal Courts. The trial by ordeal was when the innocence of a person would be put to the test by putting him in great difficulties, like for example, making him swallow poison, pulling an object from boiling hot oil, walking over nine red hot ploughs, and other such cruelties, which, if the person was able to overcome, would automatically prove his innocence of the crime that he was being accused of. 8

King John supposedly signed the Magna Carta under immense pressure from rebellious barons, who were angered by his numerous ruinous foreign wars, and by the fact that it was in order to finance these wars that the King "had charged excessively for royal justice, sold church offices, levied heavy aids," and also appointed "advisers from outside the baronial ranks". 14 The document guaranteed Church Rights, Baronial Privileges, and many more such liberties, while at the same time barring and imposing the right of the King to exploit feudal customs. Although, as a matter of fact, the Magna Carta did not last for more than three short months, and did not have too much relevance to others outside of the King and the nobles around him, the Magna Carta did have a long lasting impact on others, and it did provide the very basis for the Anglo-American legal tradition. 15

However, it cannot be stated that just because of this fact, the Magna Carta cannot be deemed to be irrelevant to today's human rights and other issues; as a matter of fact, according to the United States Constitution in its initial stages, there was a license for racial segregation for a long time. Like the Magna Carta, therefore, the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 detailed a long list of the alleged wrongs that were committed by the Crown, against a background of legalized slavery. Therefore, the Magna Carta is relevant because of the fact that the document is a veritable 'beacon of the Rule of Law', and that it effective

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