March 26, 2015
Sir Robert Worcester KBE DL, “Magna Carta: Foundation of Freedom”, Oxford Literary Festival
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26 March 2015, Sir Robert Worcester KBE DL, “Magna Carta: Foundation of Freedom”, Oxford Literary Festival
Good afternoon. I’m delighted to be here again in the City of Oxford and honoured by its Literary Festival and by the sponsors on our talk today by FT Weekend and HSBC, but come on Richard, I keep telling you, that the Bodleian having four Magna Carla’s is at least one to many, and I’m sure I can scrape up a few quid if you ever will let me buy one of yours.
I plan to speak about three things before opening it up to questions:
First ‘Why me and why now?
Second, a bit about Nick’s book and some of the others that are pouring out of the band of astute and through scholars who have made this fantastically important document we call Magna Carta. They’re producing books faster than I can read them.
And third, Why commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of what I suspect grew out of the scholars of the day congregating at the University of Paris in the 12th Century which by the early 13th in 1215 became the Chmter of Liberties we know today as the Great Chatter, Magna Carta.
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