Magna Carta Libertatum

Magna Carta was engrossed, sealed and issued by King John at Runnymede, between Staines and Windsor, on 15 June 1215, following five days of intensive discussion and negotiation, during which many of the Articles of the Barons (which King John had accepted in principle) were extended, or re-arranged, or had their contents broken up and redistributed, while gaps in their coverage were filled.  Just one Article (no. 13) has no equivalent in Magna Carta, but six chapters of Magna Carta (1, 14, 19, 21, 24, 57) have no equivalents among the Articles of the Barons (the differences are discussed in the clause-by-clause commentary provided).  The fact that the Great Charter was composed in Latin, the language of religious liturgy, of scholarship, and of secular and ecclesiastical government, emphasised its importance, something also apparent in its length – no fewer than sixty chapters.  Even so, the name under which it has become famous was not the one under which it was originally known – when it was first issued and disseminated it was known as ‘the Charter of Runnymede’, and only came to be called Magna Carta from 1217, when it was re-issued in the name of John’s young son, King Henry III, in an amended form, alongside a new Charter of the Forest.  The text of the 1215 Charter chosen for presentation here is that edited by Bishop William Stubbs in the late nineteenth-century, which has been long accepted as reliable (the work of this project may, however, lead to some alterations being made to it, and by extension to the translation).  Four original manuscripts of that text are known to survive – two at the British Library, one at Lincoln Cathedral and one at Salisbury Cathedral.

Click on a clause in the left-hand menu or select ‘all clauses’ to view Magna Carta 1215.

Select a commentary option from the left-hand menu to learn more about each clause (work ongoing).


Further Reading:

D. A. Carpenter, Magna Carta (London, 2015)

D.A. Carpenter, ‘The Dating and Making of Magna Carta’, in his The Reign of Henry III (London, 1996), 1-16

J. C. Holt, Magna Carta (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1992)

J. S. Loengard (ed.), Magna Carta and the England of King John (Woodbridge, 2010)

N. C. Vincent, Magna Carta: The Foundation of Freedom 1215-2015 (London, 2015)

N. C. Vincent, Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012)

Audio commentary

http://magnacarta.cmp.uea.ac.uk/static/audio_commentary_temp/Intro.mp3

‘The Articles of the Barons’ constitute the schedule of terms agreed on 10 June 1215 by King John and a group of barons, mostly though by no means all of northern origin, who had been provoked into resistance by years of what they regarded as unjust and extortionate government.  The Articles were a programme of reform drawn up in an attempt to avert an all-out civil war, and as such they formed the basis for Magna Carta, which was issued by King John five days later on 15 June, though there are important differences between the two documents (outlined in the clause-by-clause commentary on Magna Carta 1215 clause-by-clause commentary on Magna Carta 1215). The Articles of the Barons survive in a single manuscript which has King John’s seal attached to it (B.L. Add. MS. 4838).  It was most likely preserved by Archbishop Stephen Langton, who played an important part in the negotiations between the king and his adversaries in the early summer of 1215.

The translation of the Articles of the Barons given here, with the clauses numbered according to long-standing convention, is essentially a cooperative effort involving all the members of the project team.  

Click on the numbers in the left hand column to view each clause or select 'all articles'.


Further Reading:

D. A. Carpenter, Magna Carta (London, 2015)

D.A. Carpenter, ‘The Dating and Making of Magna Carta’, in his The Reign of Henry III (London, 1996), 1-16

J. C. Holt, Magna Carta (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1992), 429-440.

N. C. Vincent, Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012)

Translation of the full text of the original 1215 edition of Magna Carta from Latin into modern day English. Which clauses were later omitted and which are still valid today?


Notes on the English translation of Magna Carta

The text of Magna Carta of 1215 bears many traces of haste, and is the product of much bargaining. Most of its clauses deal with specific, and often long-standing, grievances rather than with general principles of law. Some of the grievances are clear; others can be understood only in the context of the feudal society in which they arose. The precise meaning of a few clauses is still uncertain.

Welcome

The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (DMLBS) is a British Academy research project at the University of Oxford.

Based entirely on original research, the DMLBS is the most comprehensive dictionary of Medieval Latin to have been produced and the first ever to focus on British Medieval Latin.

Completed in print in 2013, the DMLBS is a definitive survey of the vocabulary of one of the most important languages in British and European history.

Differences between Medieval and Classical Latin