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Anyone expecting to find in it some sort of primitive constitution
如果有人想在《大憲章》中 看到原始憲法的雛型
is going to be in for a bit of a shock when they read the details,
那么當你了解了它的內容 恐怕會有些震驚
because the liberties enumerated here boil down largely to tax relief for the armoured and landed classes.
因為其中羅列的許可條款 基本概括起來 就是給騎士和地主階級減免稅收
But even if the Magna Carta is filled with the moans and belly-aching of the barons,
然而盡管《大憲章》里 都是貴族們的滿腹牢騷
that belly-aching turned out to have profound consequences for the future of England.
事實證明 這些牢騷對英國的未來 產生了深遠的影響
For, by putting so much weight on the authority of a common law,
王室如此強調《普通法》的權威
the Angevins had stirred in the nobility a dawning realisation that this was their law too.
這也就喚醒了貴族們 幡然醒悟 這也是他們的法律
A generation before, the barons couldn't have cared less about the rights of men held in prison for unstated causes.
以前的貴族對莫名入獄的 犯人的權利根本不屑一顧
That was what happened to commoners.
平民才有這種遭遇
But under John, bad things had happened to them land stolen, widows hounded,heirs made to disappear.
但約翰在位期間 他們也難逃厄運 土地被盜 寡婦被糾纏 子嗣失蹤
Now was the time to use the weapons Henry II's revolution in justice had put into their hands,
是時候利用亨利二世 司法革命的武器抗爭了
And, by an amazing irony, the Angevins became the schoolmasters of their own correction.
極為諷刺的是 安茹王室在這場 針對自己的變革中 扮演了導師角色
