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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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Lord Woolf

Lord Woolf

790 years ago, John,the King of England was having a little local difficulty with his barons. His attempts to defend his extensive dominions across the Channel, including Normandy and a considerable portion of western France, had been a disaster...

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