# "Evil customs of the forest" in the Magna Carta **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2012, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810 "2012-01-08T09:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/41 "2012-01-13T17:03:50Z")
There’s your third edict, then. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/42 "2012-01-13T17:53:52Z")
[QUOTE=Malthus] Clause 54 said that no man may be imprisoned on the testimony of a woman except on the death of her husband. [/QUOTE] That’s not what it says. It says: > [@](#): > > Nullus capiatur nec imprisonetur propter appellum femine de morte alterius quam viri sui. Or (roughly) “nobody shall be imprisoned or arrested on the appeal of a woman except in the case of the death of her husband.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/43 "2012-01-13T18:22:29Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > The phrase “evil customs of the forest” keeps conjuring up banjo music. My first thought was that it would make a good band name, or possibly album title. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/44 "2012-01-13T18:47:01Z")
My first thought was bestiality. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/45 "2012-01-13T18:56:36Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > That story is just bizarre. Had those guys read Magna Carta? [ > [@](#): > > Vita admitted he needs to “bone up” on the content of the charter, but said “it’s a document that still functions.” He views the bill as similar to efforts in Congress requiring all legislation to cite constitutional authority. > > “This is a little bit older than the Constitution, but the same thought is there,” he said. > > Asked about any legal hang-ups in requiring New Hampshire bills to derive their authority from an English charter, Kingsbury said “that’s an interesting thought.” > > “Everything has an analog, everything has an origin, and this is part of the origin of what we have in our country,” he said. > > The Magna Carta doesn’t directly weigh in on modern-day liberty issues like gay marriage, women’s rights or abortion. Vita acknowledged that “all the activist issues that have come up in recent years probably are not addressed in the Magna Carta.” > > “It probably didn’t enter anybody’s mind back then,” Vita said. “In spite of that point, I’ll still support the bill.” ]([http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/300270/eight-hundred-years-later-inspiration?SESS65a4b683fc77abb556155350449b0d6f=google&page=full](http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/300270/eight-hundred-years-later-inspiration?SESS65a4b683fc77abb556155350449b0d6f=google&page=full)) In a word, no. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/46 "2012-01-13T19:04:14Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > The phrase “evil customs of the forest” keeps conjuring up banjo music. Not to put too fine a point on it regarding New Hampshire, Duelling Banjos. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/47 "2012-01-13T19:19:19Z")
According to wiki, even Magna Carta was interfering with traditional family rights. > [@](#): > > Clauses 4 to 5 refer to the duties of wardship, specifically forbidding the practice of the over-exploitation of a ward’s property by his warder (or guardian). > > Clause 6 refers to a warder’s power over the marriage of his ward. He was forbidden from forcing a marriage to a partner of lower social standing (possibly therefore to one such who may have been willing to pay a higher price for it). > > Clause 7 refers to the rights of a widow to receive promptly her dowry and inheritance. > > Clause 8 stated that a widow could not be compelled to marry. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/48 "2012-01-13T19:43:15Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > That’s not what it says. It says: > > Or (roughly) “nobody shall be imprisoned or arrested on the appeal of a woman except in the case of the death of her husband.” You better tell those guys in New Hampshire ASAP. Important issues hang on having the correct wording! Why, I’ll bet women are getting men arrested there right now, due to Wiki editors’ faulty Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/49 "2012-01-13T22:48:34Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Or (roughly) “nobody shall be imprisoned or arrested on the appeal of a woman except in the case of the death of her husband.” I wonder if the people promoting this idea are prepared to retroactively unimpeach Clinton. Wasn’t a woman’s testimony somehow involved? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/50 "2012-01-13T22:58:07Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Not to put too fine a point on it regarding New Hampshire, Duelling Banjos. Of course, they didn’t have banjos in 13th century England, so to comply with the spirit of the Magna Carta they’ll neeed dueling lutes. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/51 "2012-01-13T23:12:39Z")
And you thought Republicans were only trying to take America back to the _18th_ century… ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/52 "2012-01-14T03:35:29Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Of course, they didn’t have banjos in 13th century England, so to comply with the spirit of the Magna Carta they’ll neeed dueling lutes. Lutes are not evil enough. What they need is duelling bagpipes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/53 "2012-01-14T05:06:21Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Lutes are not evil enough. What they need is duelling bagpipes. The earliest evidence of bagpipes in England, IIRC, is the Canterbury Tales, which weren’t written until the 14th century. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/54 "2012-01-18T18:10:13Z")
How about duelling crwths? I don’t know if they’re old enough, but I love the shameless lack of vowels. The proposed legislation sounds like a challenge to a game. > [@](#): > > “All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived” I’m sure that the denizens of this board could find a long, strained, tortuous route between one of the clauses and any legislation that they’d care to enact. Of course, any discussion on legislation could then be derailed into a discussion of the connection instead of the legislation. Damn. That would turn the legislature into a message board. Or is it that already? And now I have an urge to start a thread challenging the SDMB to find a connection between a piece of proposed legislation and Magna Carta. Hmmm. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810/55 "2012-01-18T19:13:18Z")
Magna Carta Trivia Dominoes - in the Game Room! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-customs-of-the-forest-in-the-magna-carta/608810.md?page=2)