US Constitution Instead of Magna Carta

You could probably write a book on why this could never have happened, but let's play with it anyway.

Suppose in 1215 the contents of Magna Carta were effectively identical to the contents of the US Constitution as it currently stands. The monarchy gets abolished, the position of President is created, so too is Congress, each of the counties have the same powers and recognition bestowed on the states, change the wording of the 2nd Amendment slightly so it applies to weapons such as swords rather than non-existent firearms, slavery is abolished, and the government is elected by everyone eighteen and over, male or female.

So the question is threefold;

1. Could this arrangement have lasted, especially considering how utterly alien much of it would be to a 1215 society?
2. What would be the ramifications for England?
3. What would be the ramifications for the wider world, particularly the effect on political thinking, considering this is happening in a world just emerging from the Dark Ages?
 
This is completely impossible, utterly inconceivable to the people creating it. Magna Carta was designed to solve the problems of the period by nobles who wanted to slightly curb the power of their king. Just about every provision of the Constitution is irrelevant to the people of the time- hell over 90% of Magna Carta deals with matters such as guaranteeing the rights of the Church, the City of London and other settlements; regulating Royal Forests, defining weights and measures and so forth.
 
You could probably write a book on why this could never have happened, but let's play with it anyway.

Suppose in 1215 the contents of Magna Carta were effectively identical to the contents of the US Constitution as it currently stands. The monarchy gets abolished, the position of President is created, so too is Congress, each of the counties have the same powers and recognition bestowed on the states, change the wording of the 2nd Amendment slightly so it applies to weapons such as swords rather than non-existent firearms, slavery is abolished, and the government is elected by everyone eighteen and over, male or female.

So the question is threefold;

1. Could this arrangement have lasted, especially considering how utterly alien much of it would be to a 1215 society?
2. What would be the ramifications for England?
3. What would be the ramifications for the wider world, particularly the effect on political thinking, considering this is happening in a world just emerging from the Dark Ages?

Most likely the people proposing it get imprisoned for lunacy.
 
If, somehow, John is gotten to sign and seal it, it will be immediately repudiated. Assuming the real documents are found shortly thereafter and the perpetrators not for several months (or years), it will go down as the greatest practical joke in history. Otherwise, the perpetrators of the switch will be summarily declared madmen or traitors. What was done with non-dangerous lunatics back then?
 
Lol, this is highly unlikely. Democracy was a vague half notion at this point, the stuff of stories.
 
ASB. This was the age of kings. There was virtually no nation on the planet that had anything other than some form of monarchy.
 

perfectgeneral

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This belongs in the ASB forum.

As it stands.

You might get what you want with a counter-revolution of the Saxons followed by a Thing established to limit the power of kings.
 
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