History in the Library of Salisbury Cathedral
Abstract
ON MONDAY the fifteenth of June 1215 the profligate King John came down from Windsor Castle to Runnymede to keep an important appointment with the Barons of the Realm encamped at Staines. Tall, glowering, with a paunch from licentious living he listened to the ‘Articles of the Barons’ before reluctantly affixing his Great Seal. These articles drafted in the form of a royal charter promised a return of ‘ancient and accustomed liberties’ putting an end to the arbitrary and unjust rule that the King exercised over his subjects. Thus the most famous possession of the Salisbury Cathedral Library came into existence, the ‘Magna Carta’ or Great Charter upon which our political and legal history is founded.
Citation
Udal, J. (1971), "History in the Library of Salisbury Cathedral", Library Review, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 97-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb020902
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 1971, MCB UP Limited