50 Fun Facts About Magna Carta

In what year did King John seal the Great Charter at Runnymede?

The date was 15 June; formal copies were issued four days later when the rebels renewed their oaths of loyalty.

Runnymede, where the charter was agreed, is a water-meadow on the bank of which river?

It sat on neutral ground between the royal fortress at Windsor and the rebel base at Staines, so neither side risked an ambush.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury drafted the charter to make peace between John and the barons?

The pope's commissioners suspended him from office that September for his part in the affair.

The rebel barons demanded that John confirm the Charter of Liberties issued by which earlier king?

That century-old coronation charter supplied much of the language of the barons' first draft, the so-called Unknown Charter.

Which pope annulled the 1215 charter, calling it 'null, and void of all validity for ever'?

John had made himself a papal vassal in 1213 and argued the charter infringed the pope's rights as his feudal lord.

How many barons formed Magna Carta's clause 61 council empowered to seize John's castles?

The king had 40 days to put a breach right before the barons could act; all 25 chosen were rebels, which doomed the peace.

The collapse of the 1215 settlement led to which conflict?

The rebels offered the English throne to Prince Louis of France, and the war outlived John himself.

The rebels offered the English throne to which member of the French royal family?

His army was beaten at Lincoln in May 1217 and his reinforcement fleet at Sandwich that August, after which he went home.

How old was Henry III when his father John died in October 1216?

A famous elderly knight became his guardian, and the regency reissued the charter to win the barons back.

The document acquired the name 'Magna Carta' in 1217 to distinguish it from which smaller companion document?

The forest charter pardoned forest offences and reined in the forest courts, a major source of royal income.

Which king reissued the charter in 1297, confirming it as part of England's statute law?

It is this 1297 version, not the 1215 original, that remains on the statute book today, though almost all of it has been repealed.

How many original exemplifications of the 1215 charter survive today?

Two are at the British Library, one at Lincoln Castle and one at Salisbury Cathedral; at least thirteen were issued in 1215.

Which cathedral's 1215 Magna Carta copy is possibly the best preserved, apparently written by its own staff?

It was first given to Old Sarum Cathedral and rediscovered in 1812; pin holes show it was once pinned up on display.

The Lincoln Cathedral copy spent much of the Second World War stored where for safekeeping?

It had been on show at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and Churchill wanted to give it to the Americans outright to coax them into the war.

Which jurist introduced the clause-numbering system for the 1215 charter that is still used today?

His critical edition appeared in 1759; the original parchment had no paragraphs or numbered clauses at all.

The 1215 charter was written in which language?

Heavily abbreviated Latin on sheepskin parchment, about 15 by 20 inches, sealed with beeswax and resin.

What was the parchment of the charter made from?

The great seal was applied by an official called the spigurnel; the barons did not attach seals of their own and nobody signed.

Which 17th-century jurist made the charter a weapon against the divine right of kings, and was arrested for treason?

He was still working from the 1225 text; the first printed copy of the 1215 charter only appeared in 1610.

According to a 1660 pamphlet, which ruler dismissed the charter as 'Magna Farta'?

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, repeated the story in a 2005 speech.

Which English statute of 1354 first introduced the wording 'due process of law', later used in the US Fifth Amendment?

The same statute widened 'free man' to 'no man, of whatever estate or condition he may be'.

Who published the first copy of the charter printed on American soil, in 1687?

It appeared in his tract 'The Excellent Privilege of Liberty and Property', echoing Coke's view of it as fundamental law.

Which colony's 1638 request to recognise the charter as part of provincial law was refused by Charles I?

The Massachusetts Body of Liberties had already borrowed from clause 29 without asking the king's permission.

Whose 1904 article 'The Myth of Magna Carta' argued the 1215 charter protected baronial, not popular, rights?

Historians like Albert Pollard went further and said Coke had largely 'invented' the myth in the 17th century.

Which 1930 parody history called the charter 'a Good Thing for everyone (except the Common People)'?

Sellar and Yeatman's book skewered the Whig view of history that Victorian schoolrooms had taught for decades.

Which organisation erected the Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede in 1957?

The English and American legal professions had also formed the Magna Carta Society in 1922 to save the meadows from development.

Which judge called the charter in 1956 'the greatest constitutional document of all times'?

The full quotation continues: 'the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot'.

Roughly how many clauses of the 1297 Magna Carta statute remain in force in England and Wales?

They cover the freedom of the English Church, the ancient liberties of the City of London and the right to due legal process.

The surviving clauses also protect the 'ancient liberties' of which city?

When Occupy protesters cited the charter in 2012, the judge noted drily that this clause could hardly help them against the City itself.

Which country's national parliament displays a 1297 exemplification bought in 1952 for £12,500?

It came from King's School in Bruton, Somerset, and after a 2024 restoration hangs in the Members' Hall at Parliament House, Canberra.

Which businessman paid $21.3 million in 2007 for a 1297 Magna Carta now at the US National Archives?

The Perot Foundation had bought it from the earls of Cardigan in 1984; Rubenstein called it 'the basis for the Declaration of Independence'.

Which US university's copy of the 1300 confirmation was identified as an original in 2025?

The law school had catalogued it as an unofficial secondary copy; another 1300 original turned up in a Victorian scrapbook in Sandwich in 2015.

Cornelia Parker's 2015 'Magna Carta (An Embroidery)' is a hand-stitched copy of what?

More than 200 people embroidered the article as it stood on the charter's 799th birthday, and it went on show at the British Library.

Which 1214 battle, a defeat for John's allies, forced him to sue for peace and fuelled the barons' revolt?

John had been raising heavy taxes for a decade trying to win back the French lands lost to Philip II in 1204.

Which rebel leader accused John of trying to rape his daughter and joined a 1212 plot to kill him?

He was later elected leader of the rebel barons, a leadership the article calls 'unimpressive by the standards of the time, even disreputable'.

The rebels' draft demands, presented to John at Runnymede, are known to historians by what name?

Langton's mediation over the following ten days turned these into the charter; the 'Unknown Charter' was an even earlier draft.

Clause 33 of the 1215 charter ordered the removal of what from England's rivers?

Weirs were an important and growing source of revenue, but they blocked navigation for everyone else.

Scutage, addressed in clauses 12 and 14, was a payment made instead of what?

Knights who preferred not to fight paid cash, which the Crown often used to hire mercenaries.

Clause 57 required the return of the son of which Welsh prince, held as a hostage by John?

The 1215 charter was the first document to refer to English and Welsh law side by side.

Magna Carta's 1225 reissue was granted for a £40,000 tax to send an army to defend which French province?

Poitou had already fallen to Louis VIII; the barons made the reissue their price for supporting the campaign.

The barons who seized power from Henry III in 1258 ruled through which reform programme?

The dispute went to Louis IX of France for arbitration, and when he backed Henry the Second Barons' War followed.

The 1297 Confirmatio Cartarum required copies to be kept in cathedrals and read to the people how often?

The 1300 Articuli super Cartas went further, ordering readings four times a year at the county courts.

Of what disease did King John die in October 1216?

Chroniclers claimed his baggage, crown jewels included, had been lost in the Wash days earlier.

By what mocking nickname was the young King John known, as he seemed unlikely to inherit much territory?

The joke was his father Henry II's; later chroniclers added 'Softsword' for his record against the French.

Runnymede lies in which English county?

The meadow is just over 20 miles west of central London and is now National Trust land, home to a memorial to John F. Kennedy as well.

Which veteran knight, guardian of boy king Henry III, beat Louis at Lincoln in May 1217?

He was in his seventies; the loss of a French reinforcement fleet off Sandwich that August finished Louis's cause.

What was the exact date in 1215 on which King John sealed the charter at Runnymede?

The 800th anniversary on 15 June 2015 was marked with a Runnymede ceremony, commemorative £2 coins and a Google Doodle.

What was the title of the royal official who applied the great seal to the charters?

He used a special seal press with beeswax and resin; no one, king or baron, actually signed the 1215 document.

Which antiquarian acquired the two 1215 exemplifications now held by the British Library?

One had reportedly been found by a London lawyer in a tailor's shop and handed over in January 1629.

Which 1628 parliamentary document, backed by Coke, cited Magna Carta in its preamble?

Charles I refused to confirm the charter in any way that reduced his independence, and Coke was arrested for treason.

Who probably produced the first mechanically printed edition of Magna Carta, in 1508?

Early printed versions wrongly credited the charter to Henry III and 1225 rather than John and 1215.