This Day In History - June 15: Magna Carta Sealed, The Battle of Kosovo Fought & Lightning Strikes Ben

Art: Romantic Landscape With Ruined Tower, Thomas Cole, 1836

1215 – King John of England met with his barons at Runnymede and there, affixed his seal to the Magna Carta. John was a highly unpopular king who heavily taxed his subjects, engaged in disastrous wars and was excommunicated by the Pope. When his barons had finally had enough and were near open revolt, they instead agreed with John to the terms set forth in the Magna Carta. A millennium later, Churchill would dryly observe, "When the long tally is added, it will be seen that the British nation and the English-speaking world owe far more to the vices of John than to the labours of virtuous sovereigns."

The Magna Carta is one of the most famous and important documents in our history. The U.S. Constitution, with but a few notable differences, is largely an amalgam of the rights of Englishmen as existed in common law and by solemn compact with the crown in 1776. One of the first of those compacts was the Magna Carta and indeed, many of the rights set out therein are found directly in our Constitution and Bill of Rights today. The fine blog Brits At Their Best lists them, and I have, in brackets, annotated where they exist in our founding documents:

THE MOST IMPORTANT RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF MAGNA CARTA

- The right to trial by jury. [6th Amendment]

- The right to habeas corpus. —We cannot be arrested and kept in prison without trial. [Const. Art. I, Sec. 9]

- The right to own property, which cannot be taken from us without due payment or process of law. [5th Amendment]

- The right not to be fined so heavily as to have our livelihood destroyed. [8th Amendment]

- The right to reasonable taxation levied only with the general consent of the kingdom. [Const. Art. I, Sec. 7-8] . . .

- The right to travel freely in and out of the country except during war. (recognized at common law)

- These rights to be observed not only by the king but by all men.

The version agreed to by John included the right to redress through an advisory council to the king and planted the seed of representative government. [In Britain, it would grow into Parliament; in the U.S., to our bi-cameral legislature]

You can find the Magna Carta here. Brits At Their Best has much more on the events leading up to the signing of this document and its historic significance.

1389 – An Ottoman army won a close but critical victory over a combined force of Serbs and Bosnians at the Battle of Kosovo. Though a loss, the battle did succeed in stopping the Ottoman advance into Europe for a period. As a result of the battle, Serbia was reduced to a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire and Christianity repressed. Serbia remained under Ottoman rule until revolution in 1817.

1667 – The first blood transfusion to a human is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, personal physician to the French King. Denys gave a transfusion of lambs blood to a sick child who later died of his illness.

1752 – Ben Franklin famously flew his kite in a thuderstorm to prove that lightning is electricity.

1775 – George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

1804 – New Hampshire approved the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document.

1836 – Arkansas was admitted as the 25th U.S. state.

1844 – Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

1864 – Arlington National Cemetery was established when 200 acres around Arlington Mansion, formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, were officially set aside as a military cemetery.

1888 – Crown Prince Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm II - and is the last emperor of the German Empire. He led Germany into the disaster of World War I. He abdicated the crown in 1918 following a mutiny against his rule.

1911 – IBM is incorporated.

1916 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.

1934 – The U.S. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is founded.

1985 – Rembrandt's painting Danaë is attacked by a man (later judged insane) who throws sulfuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife.

1992 – The United States Supreme Court rules in United States v. Álvarez-Machaín that it is permissible for the USA to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the USA for trial, without approval from those other countries.

1994 – Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.

1996 – In Manchester, UK, an IRA bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre.


Births

1330 – Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales (d. 1376)

1519 – Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, illegitimate son of King Henry VIII of England (d. 1536)


Deaths

923 – Robert I of France (b. 866)

2002 – Choi Hong Hi, founder of Taekwon-Do (b. 1918). The precursors to Tae Kwon Do stretch far back into Korea's history. Choi consolidated the various strands of this martial art and turned it into the TKD that we know today. It is the national sport of South Korea.

Holidays and observances

Today was ninth and final day of the ancient Roman celebration of Vestalia in honor of Vesta.

Several Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate a feast for St. Augustine of Hippo. Augustine, a 5th Century ascetic, did more to stigmatize sex within Christianity than any other Christian thinker.

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The Barbary Wars, Islam in American History & Churchill on Wahhabism

One historical perspective of Islam concerns the very first war America fought after its Independence from Britain. It was a 32 year war against the Muslim Barbary pirates who believed their religion justified attacks on the shipping of non-believers and enslaving all Christians they could take prisoner. A second perspective that we get is through the eyes of Winston Churchill, who wrote of his observations of Islam in the Sudan and Afghanistan, and warned against the Wahhabi Islam of the Sauds. Had we but listened to Churchill, our world would be very different today.

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There are a couple of fascinating posts that I have stumbled across today. The first, with a hat tip to Red Alerts, is a very good article on the history of Islam in our nation and the first war that our nation ever fought against the Muslm pirates of the Barbary Coast. This from Wallbuilders:

. . . The Barbary Powers (called Barbary “pirates” by most Americans) attacked American civilian and commercial merchant ships (but not military ships) wherever they found them. Prior to the Revolution, American shipping had been protected by the British navy, and during the Revolution by the French navy. After the Revolution, however, America lacked a navy of her own and was therefore left without protection for her shipping. The vulnerable American merchant ships, built for carrying cargoes rather than fighting, were therefore easy prey for the warships of the Barbary Powers, which seized the cargo of the ships as loot and took their seamen (of whom all were considered Christians by the attacking Muslims) and enslaved them.

In 1784, Congress authorized American diplomats John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson to negotiate with the Muslim terrorists. Negotiations proceeded, and in 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson candidly asked the Ambassador from Tripoli the motivation behind their unprovoked attacks against Americans. What was the response?

The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet [Mohammed] – that it was written in their Koran that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners; that is was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners; and that every Musselman [Muslim] who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Given this “spiritual” incentive to enslave and make war, the Muslim attacks against American ships and seamen were frequent. In fact, in the span of just one month in 1793, Algiers alone seized ten American ships and enslaved more then one hundred sailors, holding them for sale or ransom. Significantly, when Adams and Jefferson queried the Tripolian Ambassador about the seizure of sailors, he explained:

It was a law that the first who boarded an enemy’s vessel should have one slave more than his share with the rest, which operated as an incentive to the most desperate valor and enterprise – that it was the practice of their corsairs [fast ships] to bear down upon a ship, for each sailor to take a dagger in each hand and another in his mouth and leap on board, which so terrified their enemies that very few ever stood against them.

The enslaving of Christians by Muslims was such a widespread problem that for centuries, French Catholics operated a ministry that raised funding to ransom enslaved seamen. . . .

This is a long article and there is much more. Do read the whole article. It is footnoted, though I have deleted them in the section quoted above.

And as long as we are speaking of historical perspectives on Islam, one should never forget the observations of one of the greatest men of the West, Winston Churchill. As a young man, Churchill served in the military in the Sudan, eventually writing his first book about his experiences, The River War:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries.

Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248 50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899). And later, Churchill would write specifically about the Wahhabis and Ibn Saud:

"A large number of Bin Saud's followers belong to the Wahabi sect, a form of Mohammedanism which bears, roughly speaking, the same relationship to orthodox Islam as the most militant form of Calvinism would have borne to Rome in the fiercest times of [Europe's] religious wars.

The Wahhabis profess a life of exceeding austerity, and what they practice themselves they rigorously enforce on others. They hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children. Women have been put to death in Wahhabi villages for simply appearing in the streets.

It is a penal offence to wear a silk garment. Men have been killed for smoking a cigarette and, as for the crime of alcohol, the most energetic supporter of the temperance cause in this country falls far behind them. Austere, intolerant, well-armed, and blood-thirsty, in their own regions the Wahhabis are a distinct factor which must be taken into account, and they have been, and still are, very dangerous to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Read the entire article. Unlike our modern Nero's, Churchill spoke the truth about what he saw. How prescient and clearheaded was Churchill? In 1919, he wanted to fully invest the White Revolution and end Boshevism before it took hold and became the communist state of the Soviet Union. In 1933, he wanted to threaten military force against Nazi Germany to stop their rearmanent. In between, he argued against backing Ibn Saud to take over Arabia. Amazing, that this one man clearly saw the three greatest threats to civilization of the past century, and had we but listened to him at any of those junctures, how many tens of millions of lives would have been spared?

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