Lord Chancellor and Master of the Rolls prepare for Magna Carta's 800th anniversary
This morning the Lord Chancellor Ken Clarke QC and the Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger will be among the dignitaries gathered at Runnymede Meadows to kick off five years of celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.
Lord Neuberger
The celebrations will start with a public commemoration of the sealing of the Magna Carta at the site where, in 1215, the barons gathered to petition King John for the first ‘great charter’.
The organisers of today’s event hope that the five-year programme of celebrations will include a commemorative coin and stamp in 2015 as well as a public holiday on June 15th 2015.
Lord Neuberger, chairman of the Magna Carta trust, said the importance of Magna Carta could never be understated.
“This ‘great charter’, issued nearly 800 years ago, continues to echo in the modern world and indeed, all over the world,” Neuberger said.
It enshrined concepts such as freedom under law, democracy and the importance of limited government, Neuberger added, and was a pre-cursor to many of the freedoms and liberties that humanity rightly expects their governments to respect today.
Neuberger said the Magna Carta had paved the way for ‘the law of the land’ and English common law and was the genesis of the English and American Bill of Rights, the American Constitution and parliamentary democracy.
“This document is the foundation stone of liberty, freedom, justice and democracy the world over, and we come together to celebrate its many great and noble achievements and to draw the world’s attention to the impending 800th anniversary of its inception,” Neuberger said.
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 12-Nov-2010 5:11 pm
The Magna Carta was issued 800 years ago.
Cyrus' Cylinder was issued 2500 years ago, and was more comprehensive and detailed that the "first great charter".
Whilst the impact Magna Carta had in England or the West could not be understated, it's impact on the world is doubtful as many more of such charters existed many years before it.
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Ron Brown | 12-Nov-2010 8:36 pm
Hear! Hear! Well said.
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Sarah | 16-Nov-2010 1:41 pm
I think the significance of the Magna Carter is that it was the first time any such comprehensive survey took place in Britain, rather like a modern day census. The Cyrus Cylinder is from Babylon (modern-day Iraq), so whilst such things may have happened many years earlier elsewhere, the signing of the Magna Carter was the first such enterprise in the British Isles, which enevitably had a knock-on effect on our (ex-)colony, the USA. We should not underestimate its place in 'Western' history.
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Anonymous | 23-Mar-2012 4:21 pm
Remember the Domesday Book of William I (also an eager taxer) -- that was probably the first comprehensive survey; not Magna Carta. Will we who are descendants of King John also have a role in these observances? Remember, despite his real and imputed failings, John is reckoned by most to have been a capable adminstrator who did much to provide a basis for modern courts of law in England, includng the increase of coroners, etc., to investigate causes of death. Perhaps too grasping, he also was under pressure to raise money to pay for the Crusade and later the ransom of his brother, King Richard. Despite the antipathy alleged to have existed between him and his brother, he supported Richard loyally enough in clashes with the French in Normandy, and one of John's sons was himself named Richard (Baron) Fitzroy. Then, again, unlike some of his brothers, John never rebelled against his father, either. This event promises another cartoonish presentation of a John Carradine-like king skulking and plotting about. All that will be missing are Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham!
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