Jumbo's Hide, Elvis's Ride, and the Tooth of Buddha

by Harvey Rachlin

  The assassin, who tried to flee but was caught and killed by Philip’s soldiers, is supposed to have murdered the king over a complaint or an alleged injustice. But some people believed that Philip’s wife Olympias had played a role in the murder of her husband. Philip’s newest wife, Cleopatra, was a potential obstacle to their son Alexander succeeding to the throne, but the king’s death would clear the way for Alexander to become the new king of Macedonia.

  Indeed, the twenty-year-old immediately replaced his father as sovereign and soon took up his father’s dream of marching the invincible Macedonian-Greek army into Persia and conquering all its dominions, as well as Thebes, Asia Minor, Egypt, Babylonia, Jerusalem, Tyre, Syria, and northern India. Alexander’s life and adventures were astounding: he was tutored by Aristotle and later financed the philosopher’s scholarly research; he fought monumental battles against huge armies; he founded the Egyptian city of Alexandria; he disseminated knowledge and progressive ideas—indeed, he changed the course of civilizations by opening them to new ways of thinking. History would remember this conqueror of much of the known world, whose Hellenistic culture and political triumphs would reach into the future, as Alexander the Great.

  But before he would march his soldiers into combat across the civilized world, before he would rule over a great empire, Alexander had a task to complete: to build a tomb for his father and give him a royal burial. In accordance with royal protocol, Philip was cremated. From a pyre that contained weapons, jewels, and other objects—possibly even horses and chariots—Philip’s burnt bones were extricated, bathed in spirits, wrapped in rich purple fabric, and placed in a decorative gold chest, or larnax, along with a meticulously crafted heavy gold wreath adorned with an array of sculpted oak leaves and acorns. The larnax was placed in a marble sarcophagus and set in a chamber of the elaborate tomb. Exquisite and expertly crafted objects of gold, silver, bronze, iron, ivory, and wood were also deposited in the tomb. Then the tomb was sealed, and over it workmen piled mounds of soil.

  As the years passed, the tomb sank ever more deeply into the earth. Buried three centuries before the birth of Christ and the start of the common era, the Macedonian king lay undisturbed in death through the ages.

  Vergina, Greece, 1977

  After a quarter-century of excavating in the area of this village in northern Greece north of Mount Olympus—a region combed by archaeologists since the mid-nineteenth century—Greek archaeologist and professor Manolis Andronicos makes a remarkable discovery: a royal tomb, with a marble sarcophagus in the funerary chamber. Inside the sarcophagus is a gold larnax containing a set of burnt human bones. Inside the chamber and in other rooms of the tomb are an array of objects including sculptures, weapons, armor, vessels, and jewelry, and in the antechamber the burnt bones of a woman in a smaller gold larnax.* Based on years of scholarly and scientific investigation and the application of historical and archaeological evidence, Andronicos later concludes that the bones in the royal tomb are those of King Philip II of Macedonia. This identification is supported by other scholars.

  Murder. Mystery. Intrigue. The story of the father of Alexander the Great is one of the great tales of the ancient world, a story made all the more extraordinary with the emergence of Philip’s bones twenty-three hundred years after his death. Philip’s tomb and its cache of artifacts are one of the twentieth century’s most important archaeological discoveries, so while his death may have been the ancient world’s loss, it was the modern world’s gain. With the recovery of the king’s remains and royal riches that had lain hidden from human view for many centuries after their entombment, it may be said that Philip was the Greek King Tutankhamen. Like Tutankhamen’s death mask, the gold larnax that contained the bones of King Philip II is the enduring symbol of an ancient king and an ancient world that shaped the destiny of much that was to come after.

  LOCATION: Archaeological Museum of Vergina, Vergina, Greece.

  Footnote

  *In his book Vergina: The Royal Tombs, Manolis Andronicos posits that the woman’s bones are those of Philip’s last wife, Cleopatra.

  THE MAGNA CARTA

  DATE: 1215.

  WHAT IT IS: A medieval charter that was drafted to rectify abuses in the rule of King John of England, and which demonstrated that even sovereigns must adhere to a supreme law. Several handwritten exemplifications (official copies issued under royal seal) of the 1215 charter were distributed throughout the English realm, of which four survive. The original 1215 charter was revised and reissued several times throughout the thirteenth century, and a number of these reissued exemplifications survive as well.

  WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: All the extant 1215 charters are written on parchment in Latin, are dated 15 June 1215, and have slight variations in their dimensions and wording. The text of one of the exemplifications is difficult to read as a result of damage it sustained in a fire in 1731 at the Cotton Library in Westminster, where it was stored, but it is the only extant 1215 exemplification with any vestige of the royal seal.

  The Magna Carta is known as one of the great documents in the history of democracy, but in the annals of duplicitous dealings, King John’s consent to the charter is almost without equal. When the tyrannical ruler acquiesced to the demand that he affix his royal seal to a document guaranteeing certain rights and liberties, made by an assembly of barons who had angrily confronted him at Runnymede (a meadow southwest of London, between Windsor and Staines) in June 1215, he pacified a group of discontented subjects and quelled a rebellion. But one can imagine what was running through his mind in view of the fact that soon after he notified the Pope of this contentious encounter, the Pope nullified the entire transaction. As a result of John’s royal chicanery, civil war erupted in England. But the integrity of the realm was saved a year later by John’s sudden demise, and with the new government’s acceptance of the Magna Carta, the seeds of modern democracy were planted.

  Many social, economic, political, ecclesiastical, and other conditions that had evolved through the centuries, not to mention the policies and events in the rule of King John, led the barons to demand a charter from their sovereign. From the fifth to the eleventh century, England was ruled by Anglo-Saxons. After William of Normandy conquered England in 1066, feudalism spread throughout England, but kings continued to rule by absolute power for the next two centuries. Over time, however, their power began to lessen. During the twelfth century, Henry II made many legal reforms, but his son John, who ascended the throne in 1199 following the death of John’s brother, Richard I, ruled as a despot—albeit with many complications, including heavy taxation and contention with France, that had been passed on to him by his predecessor.

  As a result of a dispute between King John and Pope Innocent III over the election of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope, forging greater strength for the Church than it had ever had, put an interdict over England, and then excommunicated John. But later, with his nobles on the brink of rebellion, John had no choice but to surrender England and Ireland to the Pope and receive back the kingdoms as fiefs.

  A record of these transactions is found in an extant papal bull, that of Pope Innocent III, dated April 21, 1214, from St. Peter’s in Rome (The British Library, London). In this bull the Pope describes John’s letter of October 3, 1213, sealed with the royal seal, in which the king affirms the relinquishment of his kingdoms (which he had preliminarily surrendered in May 1213) and pledges to pay tributes to the Roman Church. In the bull the Pope accepts King John’s vassaldom to the Roman Church and lifts the interdict of 1208.

  A result of the reconciliation between King John and Pope Innocent III was John’s acceptance of Stephen Langton as the new archbishop of Canterbury. Langton, in exile in Pontigny since the 1208 interdict, returned to his homeland with the aim of guiding the English monarch to renew the fair laws of previous English kings. To carry out government reform, Langton decided that a royal charter would be the most propitious vehicle and proposed this idea to some of the most powerful bar
ons, citing the 1100 Coronation Oath of Henry as the foundation for a new charter.

  After his reconciliation with Innocent III, John’s popularity increased, but he still had problems with his northern barons. In early 1214 John undertook an unsuccessful military campaign against France, and while away, he angered many at home by requesting scutage (a tax levied in lieu of serving in the army).

  To replenish his depleted treasury after the costly war against Philip II of France, John decided to levy new scutage. His demand elicited bitter feelings from the taxed barons, who, wanting to protect themselves from further misrule, felt they must obtain from the king a charter of liberties. At a summit in November 1214, the barons informed John they would not pay the new scutage and shortly after planned to demand a charter. Early in 1215, as they had been preparing for civil war against John, the barons proposed to John a charter based on the feudal rights of Henry’s Coronation Oath that subsequent kings had largely ignored, but Archbishop Langton intervened and obtained a truce in effect through Easter. As the period of the truce ended, the barons, gathered at Stamford, once again pressed for a charter, but John continued to resist.

  Although many barons, not just from the north but throughout the realm, had united to fight John, the king also had some powerful supporters. Still, while the barons were not a match for the royal army, they seized London in May 1215, encountering little resistance. Even with this crisis John at first would not concede, but finally, realizing the strength of his opposition, he gave in to the baronial demand for a charter of liberties.

  On June 15, 1215, the barons and King John met at Runnymede. John agreed to their demands, which were set forth in a manuscript of forty-nine clauses that his adversaries carried with them, and he placed upon it his seal of white wax. Discussion followed, and these stipulations, which became known as the Articles of the Barons (The British Library, London), became the basis for the charter that would soon be issued with some additional revisions making it applicable to freemen rather than just barons (although freemen were then only a small part of the population, the category would eventually come to include most of the people). The assembly at Runnymede, which ended on June 23, had been successful; the barons had the seal of King John on their Articles, they had their Great Charter, and the threat of civil war was, for the time at least, abated.

  In putting his seal to the Articles, John had in essence endorsed the idea that a sovereign held the same status under law as a freeman. However, even though the Magna Carta would over time become a cornerstone of democracy, it wasn’t the barons’ intention to acquire liberties for all people. Rather, the barons wanted the charter to safeguard the liberties of the nobles and restrict the sovereign’s means to raise money. But the charter contained many democratic provisions—among them, that a freeman must have a trial by jury of his peers before he could be seized, imprisoned, outlawed, or exiled; that rights and justice would not be sold or denied to freemen; and that the consent of a council of nobles and clergy was necessary for taxes to be levied—that would over time be interpreted as universally applicable. The charter also provided for a council of twenty-five barons to enforce its clauses, first by warning the king of any noncompliance with the articles, then by forming an army under the authority of the charter to ensure compliance, without incurring a penalty for treason.

  A formal charter was drafted that had been expanded to contain sixty-three clauses, and around June 24, exemplifications of what would come to be called Magna Carta (the “Great Charter”) were distributed. The exact destinies of all the exemplifications are not known, but historians of the time cited their distribution to bishops and sheriffs throughout the kingdom. As many as three dozen exemplifications may have been distributed, although only thirteen are recorded to have been issued.

  The Great Charters began with a preamble. Following is the preamble (translated from the Latin) of one of the extant exemplifications:

  John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou: to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, reeves, ministers, and to all bailiffs, and faithful subjects greeting.

  Know that we, by divine impulse, and for the salvation of our soul, and of the souls of our ancestors and of our heirs, and for the honor of God, and the exaltation of Holy Church, and the amendment of our kingdom, by advice of our venerable fathers… have in the first place granted to God, and by this our present charter, confirmed on behalf of ourselves and our heirs for ever.

  This preamble was followed in basic form in reconfirmations by subsequent kings, with the issuing king’s name in place at the beginning.

  Soon, probably after a communication sent by John to Innocent III, the Pope declared King John’s charter invalid. In the bull of Pope Innocent III of August 24, 1215 (The British Library, London), the Pope describes John’s cession of his kingdom to the Roman Church, condemns the “shameful” agreement with the barons, and declares it annulled because King John agreed to it only under threat of force:

  By force and fear, that could have assailed even the most courageous of men, he was compelled to enter into an agreement with them as unlawful and unjust as it was base and shameful. … We, not wishing to close our eyes to such audacious wickedness whereby the Apostolic See is brought into contempt, the royal prerogative diminished, the English nation outraged … do utterly reject and condemn his agreement and under threat of excommunication command that neither the barons and their accomplices demand its observation, utterly cancelling and making void both the charter itself and any pledges or obligations that may have been made in any way concerning it, so that neither now nor hereafter shall they be of any validity.

  This papal bull probably arrived in England around the end of the following month. With the charter abrogated by the Church, John caused his enemies to be excommunicated and seized their castles in the north. The barons rebelled, Stephen Langton was expelled from his position by the Church for not supporting the papal decree, and England was in upheaval until John suddenly died in October 1216 and his nine-year-old son, Henry III, succeeded him.

  Of up to thirty-six Magna Cartas distributed around England in 1215, the Lincoln Magna Carta, pictured above, is one of only four to survive.

  To help gain acceptance for the new king, who was crowned at Gloucester, the conservative regents who directed royal administrative matters issued a revised version of King John’s charter on November 12, 1216, under the seal of William Marshal, the first Earl of Pembroke, who in 1215 was one of John’s representatives to the barons. In the following year, 1217, the civil war came to an end, the charter was again revised and reissued, and this charter likewise omitted the clauses that were dropped in the 1216 reissue. Whenever a reconfirmation was made, copies were dispatched to counties and made known to the local people.

  Even though King John in his charter bound his heirs forever, the barons became deeply concerned that royal injustices would be perpetrated again when the government in 1223 made an examination into the royal privileges enjoyed by King John. Near the end of the following year, some barons, along with Stephen Langton, who had served as a mediator during the drawing up of the 1215 charter, which he favored, sought out Henry. They asked the young king, who had by now come of age, to confirm the Great Charter of King John, which he agreed to in exchange for a mobile items tax. This last reissue of King John’s Great Charter came on February 11, 1225, with the king’s seal, and it was this reconfirmation that became known as the Magna Carta.

  Henry’s reconfirmations of the Magna Carta were not exact reproductions of the King John charters. There were certain differences, such as the lack of a clause regarding the Great Council whose consent was necessary for levying taxes. But even though later sovereigns would issue the Magna Carta, Henry’s 1225 charter would be the final form, with reconfirmations in later years true to its provisions. Henry III’s eldest son, Edward I, confirmed the Magna Carta on October 12, 1297, and the
charter’s 1225 revision, the third, became entered in the Statute Roll, and was thus incorporated into English law.

  Despite the considerable and admirable efforts to establish the Magna Carta in the thirteenth century, over time it became largely forgotten. The Tudor monarchs allowed Parliament to convene, but when Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 and was succeeded by her cousin, James Stuart, the King of Scotland, a reign of Stuarts began in which the monarchy was accorded supreme power. Thus the decisions of the king were immutable; as James conceived the government, “a deo rex, a rege le”: “the king is from God, and the law from the king.”

  James’s son, Charles, continued his father’s autocratic rule, and after he imprisoned some subjects for refusing to bestow presents on him, Parliament compelled him to accept a petition, which, among other things, provided for tax reform. During this time, Sir Edward Coke, an outspoken authority on law who had served as privy councillor and in other legal positions under English monarchs, pulled the concepts of the Magna Carta from dormancy and contended that rulers, like common people, are bound by the law. Lord Coke elucidated the Magna Carta as a charter of rights that was applicable to all the people of a nation.

  While it was a feudal instrument that addressed itself primarily to the liberties of nobles and was consequently not an ideal democratic instrument, the Magna Carta did limit the absolute power of the sovereign and criticized the oppression of the feudal classes. Although subsequently reinterpreted in ways not necessarily originally intended, the Magna Carta has served as a symbol of freedom, one held in high esteem by later generations as the foundation stone on which to build the future of democracy.

  LOCATIONS:

  King John’s 1215 Magna Carta— four exemplifications survive: