13 June 2015
The Magnificent Magna Carta Project
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has launched a film to publicise how the research undertaken during the three-year Magna Carta Project which they are funding has underpinned preparation for the Magna Carta exhibition and wider public programme at the British Library this year.
Claire Breay, Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library, is a co-investigator in the project led by principal investigator, Prof. Nicholas Vincent from the University of East Anglia. Other co-investigators are Prof. David Carpenter from King's College London, Prof. Paul Brand from the University of Oxford and Prof. Louise Wilkinson from Canterbury Christ Church University.
Nicholas Vincent and David Carpenter have been members of the Library's advisory group which supported our development of the exhibition's themes and content. They contributed extensively to the catalogue, to our Magna Carta website and to a number of public lectures and debates in our conference centre. They have also been filmed and appear on screens in the exhibition and on our website. This partnership has helped to bring the research from the AHRC-funded project directly to the public through the British Library's exhibition and events programme.
David Carpenter and Nicholas Vincent of the Magna Carta Project
The partners in the AHRC-funded Magna Carta Project were at the heart of our research day on 4 February 2015 during the week of the unification of the four 1215 Magna Carta documents. In the week of the Magna Carta anniversary itself, the Magna Carta Project will be holding a conference on 17-18 June at King's College London and on 19 June at the British Library, to present the research findings, together with a wide range of other papers, to mark the culmination of this three-year collaborative research project. The exhibition at the Library runs until 1 September 2015.
Nicholas Vincent (University of East Anglia), David Carpenter (King's College London) and Tessa Webber (University of Cambridge) examining the original manuscripts of the 1215 Magna Carta in February 2015
10 June 2015
Words on Sheepskin
We have been overwhelmed by the critical response to our Magna Carta exhibition. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has already visited or has written to us about it, and we hope that many more people will do so before Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy closes on 1 September 2015. But readers of this blog may be aware that we're always happy to look at things from different angles, and Magna Carta is no different. We were recently approached by the poet Laila Sumpton, who had visited our exhibition and was keen to write a poem about it, reflecting on the nature of rights and our ongoing battle for them.
The poet Laila Sumpton speaking at Keats House
Here we publish Laila's poem. We hope it inspires you, much as Magna Carta as inspired people across the world in the 800 years since it was first granted by King John.
Words on sheepskin
We have rights, they are not given-
realised when inked, then acted.
We have rights destroyed, diluted, flouted,
then welded anew in rhetoric fires-
in a law maker wars that buffets our rights
between crown and barons, crown and commons,
with ‘boo’, ‘hurrah’ jousting over green benches.
Each decade rephrases our penalties,
our liberties, and the mound of cast-off laws
is growing- as the tailor re-fits skin
over bones and organs, then re-stitches
the tears on the cheek of Lady Justice,
adds to and weakens her muscles before
they argue and anoint her into being.
Whilst crowds gather to watch the few wielders
of libels, pamphlets and brazen placards
as they jump before all the king's horses
all the king's men; trying to put our lady
back together again.
Heirs of our rights were etched on a shield
held up by barons against a tyrant crown
laws as big as the sheep they were scratched on
with a few petering off down the legs
and into oblivion.
Above the shrivelled seal, of skeletal John
wrapped in robes with a sword pointing at God
shadows of former words proclaim that-
No free man is to be taken
without the lawful judgement of his peers.
That a woman’s word cannot imprison a man-
save on the death of her husband.
That all Welsh hostages must be returned.
That the Church of England shall be free.
That there must not be, under any circumstances,
any more fish weirs in the Thames of Medway.
That no town can be made to build a bridge,
unless they have an ancient oath to do so.
That widows can remain widows if they choose.
That wine, ale and corn should be measured
by the London quarter, everywhere.
That officials cannot partake as they please,
even if they do so in the London quarter.
That the City and their dragons can hold fairs
and be supreme, whilst no man, including the king,
most particularly the king, shall be above the law.
They scraped away gold, to reveal a wooden chair,
for below every polished floor is Earth,
and above each roof is sky-
so we still re-sole our boots
to march for the ghost and grandchild
of our Magna Carta.
Laila Sumpton
Laila Sumpton (@lailanadia) is a member of the Keats House Poets and works in both the poetry and NGO world, hoping to bring the two together. She runs creative writing workshops at museums, charities, hospitals and universities and writes extensively about human rights issues. She co-edited 'In Protest- 150 poems for human rights', published by the University of London's Human Rights Consortium and is working on her first pamphlet with the working title of 'King Arthur in Kashmir.'
Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy is on at the British Library until 1 September 2015. The objects on display can also be seen in the exhibition catalogue and on our dedicated Magna Carta website.
08 June 2015
Magna Carta: My Digital Rights
This week the public have the chance to shape a ‘Magna Carta for the digital age’, by voting for My Digital Rights clauses generated by school students from around the world. Launched with BBC Radio 1 earlier this year as part of the BBC’s Taking Liberties season, the project has been jointly conceived by the British Library, World Wide Web Foundation, Southbank Centre and British Council. The results will be published on Monday 15 June, Magna Carta Day.
In conjunction with the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and the 25th anniversary of the web, more than 3000 10 to 18 year olds, over half of whom are overseas, have taken part in Magna Carta: My Digital Rights. The project is part of the British Library’s Learning programme, supporting our major exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, and encourages young people to think about the issues of freedom and control raised by Magna Carta in the context of the digital age.
Young people have taken part in debates and workshops to consider a range of digital topics from cyberbullying to surveillance, and they have written their own ‘clauses’ in response. Since January the Library has received over 500 clauses from schoolchildren relating to freedom, privacy and access. The clauses from students are striking: rather than a call for freedom or openness, half of the submissions reveal a marked concern about safety and security online.
The clauses from students include ideas such as:
- The web we want will be safe and secure and have the ability to block and report malicious activities
- The web we want will allow freedom of speech but discourage bullying
- The web we want will not let companies pay to control it, and not let governments restrict our right to information
- The web we want will be private and not allow the government to see what we do online
- The web we want will be untraceable to strangers
- The web we want will be protective of all people
- The web we want will be a human right
The British Library also consulted a range of public figures, including human rights activists, technology experts and surveillance specialists, during the course of the project. The contributors, such as Shami Chakrabarti, Professor Sir David Omand, Caroline Criado-Perez and Simon Phipps, wrote articles and featured in films as part of the project.
The public can now vote for their favourite clauses on the My Digital Rights website until Monday 15 June, Magna Carta Day, when we will unveil the ‘Top 10’ clauses that emerge.
06 June 2015
Space: The Final Frontier
Our major Magna Carta exhibition contains 202 items, which we selected from a long-list of over 2,000 potential candidates. One of the items that didn't make the final cut was a curious book entitled Magna Carta of Space. Our researcher, Alex Lock, takes up the story.
Published in 1966 at the height of the Space Race, and only 5 years after the first manned flight into Space, Magna Carta of Space was an early attempt to codify an interplanetary Space law. Drafted by the distinguished aviation lawyer William A. Hyman, the elaborately illustrated book – and the law code it contained – was the culmination of a decade of passionate and voluble campaigning for a legally binding peace in Space. Hyman described it as ‘a humanitarian bill of rights for the world; the first complete statement of the principles of space law in skeletal form to appear anywhere’. That he named it after Magna Carta – the iconic document of 1215 – was testament to how important he believed was the codification of a new Space law.
William A. Hyman (d. 1966) as photographed in his Magna Carta of Space
Although the ideas contained within Magna Carta of Space might appear at first sight a little eccentric, if not downright bizarre, they were a serious attempt to begin an international dialogue on Space law. And it worked. Upon its publication in 1966 the book was well reviewed by Life magazine, and it even went on to influence the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space convened in Geneva that same year.
As outer space exploration was unprecedented, it was unclear what issues lawyers might face when legislating for the ‘final frontier’ and what, if any, jurisdiction they had for imposing an intergalactic law code. Furthermore, as so little was known about space, it was largely up to the legislators’ imagination as to what might be legislated for, forcing them to consider unique questions in the history of jurisprudence.
- Do aliens have legal rights?
- Who owns the stars, planets and moons?
- Where does Space begin and a nation’s airspace end?
- What is the role of private industry in Space?
- Who will allocate radio frequencies and set standard time?
To these unusual questions Hyman sought to give answers – and this accounts for why the book looks so odd. Yet, it was a serious text, with serious aims, written by a serious and experienced lawyer.
Hyman earnestly foresaw a near future where mail was delivered by rockets and missiles would be a popular mode of transport, connecting human colonies across the galaxy. To ensure the expansion of the human race into Space and to ensure international ‘cooperation and coordination,’ Hyman’s Magna Carta of Space attempted to outline the parameters by which space exploration and colonisation could be safely pursued. Article 6, for instance, declared that ‘Outer Space shall be used solely for peaceful purposes with freedom of exploration and exploitation thereof given to all peoples for the benefit of mankind.’ Hyman was also careful to demarcate Outer Space as a communal domain (Res Communis) separated from sovereign airspace by a buffer zone, named Neutralia, to which all ‘earthmen’ had access. Yet, while Magna Carta of Space encouraged exploration and colonisation, it did not condone imperial expansion and it sought to establish the legal rights of aliens. Article 18 stipulated that ‘The Peoples of the earth do hereby declare that they recognize the rights of sovereignty, ownership and control of any other planet by the inhabitants thereof’.
Though ostensibly concerned with Space, Hyman’s priority was securing peace on earth. The book is a clear product of the Cold War and is a powerful polemic against nuclear weapons. Since the first successful launch of a satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957, both the USSR and the USA had developed the capability to launch nuclear missiles from Space, leaving a perpetual nuclear threat literally hanging over the world. The 19 articles of Hyman’s Magna Carta of Space are more concerned with restricting the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Space rather than legislating for peaceful extra-terrestrial exploration. Hyman’s book explicitly attempted to restrict the misuse of Space by belligerent nations, with articles 7 and 19 making provisions to ban ‘nuclear experiments in Outer Space’ and the prosecution of ‘War, in, by, or through space … forever’. As Hyman stated in his introduction, it was his expressed wish to create a Magna Carta of Space that was so ‘powerful’ it would ‘compel the proper use of space --- for peace’. An aspiration that we would all do well to follow.
Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy is open 7 days a week at the British Library until 1 September 2015 (late night openings every Tuesday). Admission costs £12 for adults and concessions are available (under 18s enter for free).
Alexander Lock
02 June 2015
The Trial of Sir Thomas More
What does Magna Carta have to do with the English Reformation? Answer: lots. Magna Carta’s first clause claiming that ‘the English Church is to be free and have its rights in whole and its liberties unimpaired’ became a fundamental clause for those who looked for historical precedents in their opposition to the English Reformation and Henry VIII’s religious settlement. ‘The liberties of the Church …guaranteed by Magna Charta’ were referenced by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1532 in a speech to be delivered to the House of Lords in 1532, that also noted — in a veiled threat to Henry — that those ‘kings who violated them … came to an ill end.’ Warham, however, died before he was able to deliver this speech to Parliament. Had he survived to deliver it, it is likely that he would have come to an ‘ill end’ well before Henry VIII! Later, members of the popular uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 similarly looked to Magna Carta to justify their opposition to Henry’s reforms, demanding in their rough minutes from the conference at Pontefract, ‘That the Church of England may enjoy the liberties granted them by Magna Carta’. It is interesting to note that such invocations of Magna Carta appeared around the same time as the first publication of the Latin and English versions of Magna Carta in 1508 and 1534 respectively. Indeed, given these ever increasing appeals to Magna Carta by opponents of the Reformation, it is little wonder that Thomas Cromwell — Henry VIII’s chief minister — made it a priority to ‘Remembre the Auncyent Cronycle of Magna Carta and how libera sit cam[e] into the statute’.
The first printed edition of Magna Carta, 1508
Of all those who invoked Magna Carta against Henry VIII, perhaps the most famous of all was its use by Sir Thomas More at his trial for high treason in 1535. Unable to accept Henry’s religious settlement and unwilling to swear to the Act of Succession, More was imprisoned on 12 April 1534 and tried the following year in July 1535. Though the outcome was a forgone conclusion, More delivered a forceful statement outlining his spiritual position, and invoking the first clause of Magna Carta. Quoting it in Latin, Thomas More told the court that Henry VIII’s reforms were ‘co[n]trary both to the ancient Lawes, & Statutes of our owne Realme not the[n] repealled, as they might well see in Magna Carta; Quod Ecclesia libera sit, & habeat omnia iura integra, & libertates suas illæsas’. Although based as it was on Magna Carta, this defence did not save him and More was beheaded on 6 July 1535.
The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes, 1626
That we know so much about More’s trial, and his use of Magna Carta in it, is due to the publication in 1626 of a book entitled The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes, or the Life of Syr Thomas More More Knight. Written by More’s son-in-law, William Roper, during the reign of Queen Mary (1553–58), this is reputedly the earliest personal biography in the English language. Marked for its candour, detail and strong loyalty to More, it has influenced all subsequent writing on the former Lord Chancellor. Although it was written by Roper in the 1550s, the accession of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) precluded the publication of this religiously sensitive biography. It was only published in 1626 by exiled English Jesuits at Saint-Omer who sought to mislead government agents by giving it the imprint ‘Paris’.
Thomas Cromwell's response to Thomas More's use of Magna Carta at his trial in 1535: ‘Item to Remembre the Auncyent Cronycle of Magna Carta and how libera sit cam[e] into the statute’
You can view the items described here in our major exhibition, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, on display at the British Library in London until 1 September 2015. You can also read more about them on our dedicated Magna Carta website and in the book that accompanies the exhibition.
Alexander Lock
27 May 2015
The Document That (Almost) Changed the Course of History
You may be aware that some of the most famous documents in the world are currently on display at the British Library. One of those is Magna Carta (for good measure, we have no fewer than 6 of the medieval copies in our exhibition); others are the Petition of Right and English Bill of Rights (both kindly loaned to us by the Parliamentary Archives) and the US Bill of Rights (on loan from the US National Archives). The last-named is visiting the United Kingdom for the very first time, and is a particular favourite of ours. It bears the signature of John Adams, Vice President (and later 2nd President) of the USA (d. 1826), and it was sealed by Delaware in January 1790 before being returned to the federal government. It's a truly impressive item, supplying the first 12 proposed amendments to the US constitution.
The signature of John Adams and seal of the General Assembly of Delaware, at the foot of the Delaware copy of the US Bill of Rights (courtesy of the US National Archives, Washington, DC)
And if all that is not enough, the British Library also has on show, again for the first time in the United Kingdom, a manuscript of the United States Declaration of Independence, loaned by New York Public Library! Like the other documents we've mentioned, we're absolutely thrilled to have the Declaration of Independence in our Magna Carta exhibition. But there's a curious story behind this particular document, and we thought we'd share it with you.
The manuscript in question was written by Thomas Jefferson himself, who drafted the Declaration of Independence and later went on to become 3rd President of the USA (1801–1809; d. 1826). Jefferson had been profoundly influenced by Magna Carta in his legal thinking, and while he did not mention the Great Charter by name in the Declaration, many of its concepts derived ultimately from Magna Carta. Among the charges levelled against King George III were, 'For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world; For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent; For depriving us of the benefits of Trial by Jury.'
What is particularly important about the manuscript on display at the British Library this summer is that it preserves Jefferson's original text of the Declaration of Independence, before it had been amended and ratified by his fellow delegates of the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia in July 1776. Jefferson made his copy in the days immediately following the ratification of that document, and he underlined those words and phrases which had been removed.
One of the pages of Thomas Jefferson's manuscript copy of the United States Declaration of Independence (courtesy of New York Public Library)
Certain of the passages in the draft Declaration of Independence deleted by the Second Continental Congress are worthy of special attention. At the bottom of the third page, Jefferson had originally written, '[George III] is unfit to be the ruler of a people who mean to be free. Future ages will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man adventured within the short compass of twelve years only, to build a foundation, so broad and undisguised, for tyranny over a people fostered and fixed in principles of freedom.' Students of American history will search in vain in the published text of the Declaration for the words underlined above. They were struck out in Philadelphia before that document was ratified, with the sentence in question instead ending, 'is unfit to be the ruler of a free people'.
An underlined passage in the Declaration of Independence, representing words that did not make it into the final, published version (courtesy of New York Public Library)
There are many other such words and phrases in Jefferson's manuscript of the Declaration, and you really have to see it in person at the British Library this summer in order to get a true impression of how much it had been revised. But a second passage in this, one of the most famous documents in the world, has inspired the title of this blog-post. The phrase in question is found on the same page as the previous passage cited, and one of the words is written in block capitals for further emphasis:
Thomas Jefferson's denunciation of the slave trade, later removed from the final version of the United States Declaration of Independence (courtesy of New York Public Library)
'He has waged cruel war against <...> itself, violating it's most sacr<ed ...> of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain, determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.'
Now, we're not going to enter here into the debate about Thomas Jefferson's attitude to slavery. He expressed opposition to the slave trade throughout his career and in 1807 he signed a bill that prohibited slave importation into the United States; that said, Jefferson was also the owner of hundreds of slaves. However, it does strike us that this passage, with its forthright language ('this piratical warfare', 'this execrable commerce'), could easily have changed the course of history if adopted in America as early as 1776. You'll have to come to the British Library to see this awe-inspiring document with your own eyes ...
Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy is on display at the British Library until 1 September 2015. Entrance costs £12 for adults, under 18s go free, and other concessions are available.
14 May 2015
Magna Carta (An Embroidery)
Today Cornelia Parker’s new artwork, Magna Carta (An Embroidery), is being unveiled at the British Library. Commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford in partnership with the British Library, the artwork is a 13 metre-long embroidery of the Wikipedia page on Magna Carta, as it stood on 15 June 2014, Magna Carta’s 799th birthday. The embroidery, which is the work of over 200 stitchers, is the result of more than two years of planning.
Cornelia Parker with a fragment of Magna Carta (An Embroidery) in the British Library (photograph by Tony Antoniou)
Paul Bonaventura of the Ruskin School of Art first contacted me in March 2013 to discuss the idea of fundraising to commission a new work of art that would take Magna Carta as its point of departure and be premiered in the Library during our exhibition, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, which runs until 1 September. This proposal became a reality thanks to funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and from the John Fell OUP Research Fund.
Cornelia Parker’s proposal was chosen from ideas presented by the shortlisted artists in February 2014, setting in train the enormous logistical task of organising the work of all the many stitchers. The majority of the words have been sewn by almost forty prisoners, with the remainder being added by a wide range of public figures, politicians, campaigners, academics and lawyers. These include Mary Beard, Kenneth Clarke MP, Jarvis Cocker, Germaine Greer, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Caroline Lucas MP, Lord Judge, Eliza Manningham-Buller, Jon Snow, Edward Snowden, Peter Tatchell and Baroness Warsi. There are also contributions from some very skilled embroiderers from the Embroiderers’ Guild, the Royal School of Needlework and the company Hand & Lock, and from some rather less skilled stitchers from the staff of the British Library.
King John signs Magna Carta (1902) stitched by Janet Payne, Embroiderers’ Guild (Eastern Region)
I took a break from an intense period in the preparation for the opening of our Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition to sew a few words, including ‘British Library’, late one night in January this year. It was quite a challenge to keep my sewing up to the standard of the surrounding words sewn by prisoners already trained in stitching by Fine Cell Work, a social enterprise that trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework. Sewing my words was a chance to reflect not only on the many hands that had contributed to the embroidery, but also the many different people over the centuries who have reused, reinterpreted and reworked Magna Carta itself.
Claire Breay, Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts, embroidering the words ‘British Library’ (photograph by Noah Timlin)
Cornelia said, ‘I wanted the embroidery to raise questions about where we are now with the principles laid down in the Magna Carta, and about the challenges to all kinds of freedoms that we face in the digital age. Like a Wikipedia article, this embroidery is multi-authored and full of many different voices.’
Detail of one of 1215 Magna Carta documents, held by the British Library. Stitched by Pam Keeling, Embroiderers’ Guild (East Midlands Region).
Magna Carta (An Embroidery) is on free display in the front hall of the British Library from 15 May to 24 July. The exhibition is accompanied by a film, a publication and even mirrors so that you can see parts of the back of the embroidery.
Claire Breay
13 May 2015
The First Edition and Translation of Magna Carta
Our latest Magna Carta blogpost focuses on the first printed edition and translation of Magna Carta, from the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. All the items described here can be viewed in our major exhibition, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, which is on at the British Library until 1 September 2015.
The first time that the Latin text of Magna Carta was printed in its entirety was in 1508, when the king’s printer (regius impressor) Richard Pynson (c. 1449–1529/30), published it alongside other statutes, in Magna Carta Carta cum aliis Antiquis Statutis. Pynson's edition reproduced in 37 clauses King Henry III’s Magna Carta of 1225, as confirmed and enrolled on the Statute Book in 1297 by Edward I.
The first printed edition of Magna Carta, 1508 (British Library C.112.a.2)
Richard Pynson was born in Normandy in the mid-15th century (around the same time that Johannes Gutenberg was developing movable type printing technology), but by 1482 he had moved to London to work as a glover. By 1496 he had set up as a ‘pouchemaker’ and ‘bokeprynter’, eventually setting up business in Fleet Street in 1502, close to the legal trade associated with the London Inns of Court. Although Pynson’s first publications were religious, the printing of legal texts dominated his trade, and by 1506 he was made printer to the king with exclusive rights to print all parliamentary statutes and royal proclamations.
Magna Carta Carta cum aliis Antiquis Statutis was one of the titles he produced for this legal trade centred around the Inns of Court. As well as containing Magna Carta in full, the edition also reproduced the complete text of the Charter of the Forest and a further 63 statutes drafted in both Latin and law French. Conceived as a practical handbook for practising lawyers, the edition drew on a long-standing tradition of bespoke manuscript compilations of laws used for legal training since the Middle Ages. Such manuscript collections underpinned the common law traditions of Tudor legal culture, and with the growth in the printing trade it was a culture that was gradually transforming from one based on irregular manuscript compilations to standardised printed texts. This was important. As a result of the standardisation of these legal textbooks, beginning with Magna Carta, the Great Charter became literally the first statute that every trained lawyer in the Inns of Court encountered in print and it was soon considered to be the foundational statute of the realm.
The first published English translation of Magna Carta, 1534 (British Library C 112.a.6)
Following the publication of the first Latin edition of Magna Carta in 1508 it was not long until the first English translation of the full text of Magna Carta was published, in 1534. The translation was made by the Tudor courtier and poet, George Ferrers (c. 1510–1579), who was associated with Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII. The book itself was printed by Robert Redman (d. 1540), an early rival of Richard Pynson’s who would later take over his premises in Fleet Street. Like Pynson, Redman largely produced legal texts for the legal market generated by the Inns of Court, and he developed the business by producing English translations of previously untranslated statutes with the useful inclusion of alphabetised indexes. Ferrers’ translation, however, was not a good one. It contained many errors that were further compounded by printer’s mistakes. Subsequent editions would announce the ‘great deal of care’ taken to correct the text and these corrected versions ran into many editions throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Life of Sir Thomas More (British Library G.1580)
The appearance of these books by Pynson and Ferrers had a significant impact on the dissemination, use and popular awareness of Magna Carta in the 16th century. In the years following their publication the range of legal invocations of Magna Carta proliferated. From 1508 onwards it was often invoked in the law courts to protect due process from royal interference in, particular the summoning of men without charge under the king’s privy seal. Furthermore, within two years of the publication of the first English translation in 1534, Magna Carta was widely called upon by those opposing of Henry VIII’s religious reforms. It was used by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) at his trial in 1535 and by participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 who looked to the Charter’s first clause confirming the liberties of the English Church. That these invocations coincided with the publications of these books on Magna Carta is no coincidence. Awareness of the Great Charter and the political uses to which it could be applied was clearly growing. Its invocation was no mere rhetorical flourish, but evidence of a vibrant legal discourse that was growing as a result of these early publications.
For details about our exhibition, see our dedicated website, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy.
Alexander Lock
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