Eight hundred years ago King John of England was forced to seal a document of historic importance. As the first charter to grant individual liberties under the rule of law, protecting the people against tyranny, Magna Carta is the most influential and far-reaching legal text the world has ever known. For this book, published with the official support of the UK Magna Carta Trust and marking the eight hundredth anniversary of the charter's first issue, Professor Nicholas Vincent is joined by a range of experts on Magna Carta from across the world to reflect on the circumstances of its genesis and its enduring significance. Magna Carta was serially reinterpreted by later generations, becoming a totem in fierce political debates on the liberties of the people - it became a sacred text for English puritans of the Civil War, for the American patriots of the War of Independence, and for all those in the English-speaking world who have striven to build democratic rights and freedoms in the post-colonial age.
Contents:
Magna Carta in Context: a general survey from 1215 to the present day Nicholas Vincent
Law Before Magna Carta: the Anglo-Saxon law codes and their successors before 1215 Nicholas Vincent
Plantagenet Tyranny and Lawmaking Nicholas Vincent
The Tyranny of King John Nicholas Vincent
Magna Carta: Defeat into Victory Nicholas Vincent
Magna Carta in the Later Middle Ages Anthony Musson
Magna Carta against the King Justin Champion
Magna Carta and the American Age of Reason Joyce Lee Malcolm
Magna Carta in the 19th Century Miles Taylor
From World War to World Heritage: Magna Carta in the 20th Century Nicholas Vincent
21st-Century Magna Carta Richard Goldstone
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About the Author:
Nicholas Vincent is Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia and a leading authority on Magna Carta. In 2007 he wrote the catalogue for the New York sale of Ross Perot's 1297 Magna Carta (sold for $21.3 million). He has since acted as a consultant on Magna Carta to the National Archives in Washington and the Australian Senate. In 2012 he published the best-selling Very Short Introduction to Magna Carta (Oxford University Press). Professor Vincent is Director of the officially sponsored UK Magna Carta Project, established to scour the archives of England and France in search of unpublished materials and to explain the history and context of the document for its 800th anniversary in 2015. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has published a dozen books and some hundred academic articles on various aspects of English and European history.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherThird Millenium Pub Ltd
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 1908990481
- ISBN 13 9781908990488
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages195