November 3, 2014
Magna Carta 800 years on: recognition at last for ‘England’s greatest export’
The Guardian, Saturday 1st November.
“Prepare for a surfeit of television historians strolling across a meadow in Surrey, gesturing into cameras. Plans are taking shape for lavish celebrations – including a host of TV and radio documentaries and books, and even a float at the Notting Hill carnival – of an anniversary that many hope will bring belated recognition to one of England’s greatest but most overlooked creations.
Eight hundred years ago next year, on 15 June 1215, on the banks of the Thames in Runnymede, an embattled King John met the English barons, who had backed his failed war against the French and were seeking to limit his powers. The weakened monarch had little choice but to witness the sealing of what some say is the world’s most important document, one that, symbolically at least, established a new relationship between the king and his subjects.
Thus the original Magna Carta, 3,500 words in Latin on a calfskin parchment, came into being, its enduring relevance confirmed in the many legal cases in which it is cited today. But while lawyers worship Magna Carta for laying the foundations for modern democracy, the defence of personal liberty and the protection of freedoms around the world, Britain largely ignores it. The 750th anniversary passed in 1965 with little fanfare. Plans for the 700th anniversary were abandoned due to the first world war. An appeal to the government for a national holiday next year, backed by many MPs, was rejected.
History as an academic discipline has also often been reluctant to pay homage. The 1214 battle of Bouvines, the decisive battle after which England was forced to concede it had lost most of its lands in France, a pivotal moment in the weakening of John’s position, has been described as “the most important battle in history that nobody has ever heard of”. And until recently Magna Carta was only on the periphery of the history syllabus. Even David Cameron, when asked on a US chat show, was unable to say what Magna Carta means in English (answer: “Great Charter”).”
To read more from the Guardian, click here.
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