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Oxford’s Bodleian, one of the oldest libraries in Europe, holds three of the surviving manuscripts of the 1217 Charters, the new and improved versions of the original Magna Carta. Issued during the reign of the Henry III when he was only 9 years old, they bear the seal of his appointed guardians – the regents of the boy king, William Marshal and the Papal Legate to England, Guala Bicchieri. The great seal of Henry III was finally attached to an even later edition of the Magna Carta – the 1225 Charter of the Forest.

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Magna Carta, or as it is properly called the Great Charter of Liberty, was born on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede when King John – Bad King John as he is more commonly known – was persuaded to accede to a number of demands made...

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