The Magna Carta Project at Peking University

In September 2015, members of the Magna Carta Project visited Peking University, as part of a delegation led by the Institute of Historical Research. A conference on Magna Carta was hosted by PKU, involving Chinese and British scholars. 

L-R: David Carpenter, Nicholas Vincent, Harry Dickinson, Sophie Ambler, Rachel Foxley, Lawrence Goldman, Alex Lock, Jane Carpenter, George Garnett

The Magna Carta Conference: booking now open

Booking has now opened for The Magna Carta Conference, a landmark event commemorating the 800^th anniversary of the Charter’s issue. Hosted by the The Magna Carta Project, it will be held 17-19 June 2015 at King’s College London and the British Library. Members of The Magna Carta Project will be joined by renowned scholars from across the globe to share major new discoveries and research on Magna Carta and its world, in conjunction with the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition. To be part of this momentous occasion, be sure to book your tickets via Eventbrite.  

The conference will cover the world of Magna Carta in unparalleled breadth and depth (you can view the whole conference programme on the Magna Carta Project website): from the Charter’s background and later use to its place in medieval law; from propaganda and political ideas in King John’s reign to kingship in medieval literature; from John’s military campaigns to the scribes of his court; and from the Charter’s continental and British context to its impact on society.  

There will also be a conference reception at KCL’s Maughan Library (spaces are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment!), where the J. C. Holt Undergraduate Essay  Prize will be awarded by Melvyn Bragg, and a rare opportunity to enjoy a private viewing of the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition, introduced by lead curator Claire Breay. Those attending day three of the conference are also being offered free entry to the British Library’s Early European Parallels to Magna Carta evening event (again, spaces are limited so book now to be sure of a place).  

Speakers will include: Nicholas Vincent, Jinty Nelson, Levi Roach, Björn Weiler, Martin Aurell, Janet Burton, Sophie Ambler, Anne Duggan, John Hudson, George Garnett, Hugh Doherty, Tessa Webber, Andrew Payne, Geoffrey French, Stephen Church, Daniel Power, Henry Summerson, David Crook, Paul Brand, Scott Waugh, Jean-Philippe Genet, Louise Wilkinson, Claire Breay, Marc Morris, John Gillingham, William Chester Jordan, John Maddicott, Alice Taylor, Peter Crooks, Nigel Saul and David Carpenter. 

New original Magna Carta discovered in Kent

The Sandwich Magna Carta of 1300

As a result of research for the Magna Carta Project, a previously unknown exemplar of the 1300 Magna Carta has been discovered in Sandwich, Kent. The find was made when Nicholas Vincent, our Project’s Principal Investigator, asked Kent County Council’s community history officer, Dr Mark Bateson, to look up a copy of Sandwich’s Charter of the Forest. This led to the discovery of the Magna Carta in the Sandwich archive in Maidstone. It is of great significance, particularly as it survives with its partner Forest Charter of 1300. Only one other extant pair is known, kept at Oriel College, Oxford.

Like the other exemplars of Magna Carta, the Sandwich charter is a large document (over half a metre in length). It has been badly damaged by damp, missing about a third of its text, and its royal seal has also disappeared. It had survived, unbeknownst to its archivists, in a scrapbook compiled by a British Museum official, E. Salisbury, at the end of the 19^th century.

The 1300 Magna Carta, issued by Edward I, was apparently the last drawn up by the royal chancery and distributed under the king’s seal. The discovery of the Sandwich Magna Carta brings the number of surviving originals of 1300 to seven. That the newly discovered exemplar was sent to Sandwich, one of the Cinque Ports, suggests that the Charters were sent to as many as fifty towns and ports – a much wider distribution than was previously thought.

Professor Vincent will give his own detailed account of this discovery in next week's TLS, and thereafter on this blog.

You can read Professor Vincent’s comments on the Sandwich discovery in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Mirror, Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, BBC News, CNN, ABC Radio, news.com.au, 9 news, The Australian, The Daily Mail, The Independent, Sky News, the Evening Standard and the Eastern Daily Press.

Read more from the Magna Carta Project, on the Magna Carta Project website.

Read about the work of Magna Carta Project experts in examining the four surviving 1215 Magna Cartas here.

Magna Carta Essay Competition

Professor Sir James Holt (1922-2014)

The Magna Carta Project has established an essay prize in memory of the late Professor Sir James Holt, the great expert on Magna Carta, who died earlier this year. Professor Holt's work on the Charter, including two magisterial books (The Northerners and Magna Carta) has formed an important part of undergraduate syllabuses for decades and continues to inspire students. 

The J.C. Holt Essay Prize will be awarded for the best essay by an undergraduate student answering one of the competition's designated questions on Magna Carta. The prize will be £250, to be presented at the Magna Carta Project conference at King's College London/British Library between 17 and 19 June 2015. The deadline for submissions is 1 March 2015.

The list of questions and full details of how to enter are available on the Magna Carta Project website.

'The men who were responsible for the Great Charter of 1215 asserted one great principle. In their view the realm was more than a geographic or administrative unit. It was a community. As such, it was capable of possessing rights and liberties. Magna Carta was indeed a statement of these rights and liberties, which could be asserted against any member of the community, even and especially against the King. The durability of Magna Carta is to be explained by the general utility of this central concept.' (J.C. Holt, The Northerners)

Translating Magna Carta

Back in 2012, members of the Magna Carta Project team met to produce a new translation of Magna Carta and, along the way, got an insight into how the drafters of the Charter set about their task in 1215. Soon you'll be able to listen to the discussion clause by clause but, for now, here's a preview.

Podcast: Magna Carta: what more is there to say?

Professor Nicholas Vincent (UEA)

In this podcast, recorded in 2012 at the National Archives, the Magna Carta Project's Principal Investigator, Professor Nicholas Vincent, discusses the context and legacy of Magna Carta, his work in tracing originals of the Charter and the work of the Magna Carta Project on the charters of King John.

Listen here to Nicholas Vincent's podcast via the National Archives website