6 - Magna Carta, 1215

Summary

There are four surviving originals of the Great Charter, two at the British Library, one at Lincoln Cathedral and one at Salisbury Cathedral. These are conventionally designated Ci, Cii, L and S. Ci was badly damaged in the fire of the Cottonian library in 1731; an engraved copy of it was published by John Pine in 1733. The others are in good condition, although none now carry the king's seal. Yet another possible original, inspected and noted by Matthew Hale, was ‘sent to the abbey of Tewkesbury’. As far as is known, this no longer survives.

L, certainly, and S, probably, reside in the counties which obtained them in 1215; Ci possibly went to the Cinque Ports. Ci and Cii share a small number of amendments which are noted below in the text. These have been used to argue that they were drafted either (a) earlier or (b) later than L and S, but they may well have been nothing more serious than copyists' omissions. The debate is not of great moment. It derived essentially from the assumption that there was a single authoritative original which figured in the ceremonies at Runnymede and from which all other versions were copied. This assumption was first questioned among later authorities by Professor V. H. Galbraith, and has now been rejected. There is no sound reason for giving any one of the surviving texts priority over the others, nor is there any need to do so. With the possible exception of S, they are all exemplifications of equal weight and value.

S presents its own special problems. The other three are plainly in a Chancery hand; S not so – not, at least, until the scribe of S is discovered at work in other Chancery documents. His hand is too ‘bookish’. Yet this may not render S any the less authentic.