[Wonder Warthog]

"Representative govt. did not exist at all until the Magna Carta (embyronic of course), several hundred years after the last Viking invasions."

Magna Carta arises directly from the northwest European cultural idea of the existence of the "rights of free men" as distinct from those rights granted "by the sovereign", whose roots antedate Magna Carta by many hundreds, if not thousands of years.

[Tin-Legions]

Good-good agree that said rights predate MC, however, you deny that "the rights of free men" is a Greek idea also, any casual reading of Greek state philosophers (Aristotle or Plato), or any Greek/Roman writer concerned with the subject will give you this idea. Stating that idea as unique to Germanic tribes is erroneous, at best, unprovable by any archeological finds or writings at worst. But to state that just one idea-shared by Greeks, Latins, Germans, and Celts, outwieghts the vast cultural, governmental, and legal lineage we trace directly from Greece and Rome is, to say it nice as possible, quite preposterous.

Keep it coming. I'm overseas so if I miss a retort or reply, I'm in bed, at PT, or wasting taxpayer dollars at "work".