Yesterday I attended the first day of the Magna Carta exhibition at the British Library in London before attending Professor Nicholas Vincent's lecture "Magna Carta: Old and New" in the evening.
The exhibition itself is beautifully laid out although, as with other national exhibitions, there's the inevitable bottle-neck at the beginning as everyone queues dutifully to examine each item. The exhibition begins with some context and predecessors to the Magna Carta.
Beginning with Anglo-Saxon law codes, we are treated to one issued under King Cnut where the regular references to murder and the punishment are highlighted.A wonderful family tree for King John (1199-1216) then follows and it's striking how well the colours have survived. The family tree is presented in order to highlight the need to legitimise the family tree. Bearing in mind that John's family's right to rule was one they had won at the Battle of Hastings.
Throughout the exhibition, contemporary quotes relating to John are included to give us a flavour of his character and method of ruling.
Matthew Paris for example describes John in a note beneath this famous depiction of him in his Historia Anglorum. John is pictured (bottom left) holding Beaulieu abbey and looking terribly regal and divine. The text that Matthew accompanies this depiction with however is decidedly unflattering and he describes John as "John, last of kings, principal abomination of the English, disgrace to the English nobility".
Shortly after Matthew Paris's damning description in the exhibition, the chronicler Gerald of Wales is up next to describe the king when accompanying John on his conquest of Ireland, and relates how the king pulled the beards of the Irish chieftains.
This was not a king famed for his diplomacy.
After these initial character assassinations, the exhibition continues to present John's story. Beginning with how his nephew (Arthur) in France rebelled, was captured and then went 'missing' (probably murdered is the implication). His disagreement with the church then follows when his first archbishop Hubert Walter (whose vestments are on display) died and the monks of Canterbury elected Stephen Langton without his agreement. This disagreement led to a 6 year interdict where none of the sacraments of marriage, death, baptising etc. could be properly carried out in England all because the king was quarrelling with the papacy.
At a time when the church was deep at the heart of life you can imagine how well this went down.
Further examples of John's character are hinted at with an example from Ralph of Coggeshall's chronicle which omits the papal interdict, implying that Ralph wanted to avoid the king's displeasure as surely this event would have otherwise been included.
The interdict is broken however at last when John requires papal help when invasion threatens from France and the letter from the pope is presented in all it's glory along with the papal signature which in itself is worth seeing.After all this, we get to the heart of the exhibition, the creation of the Magna Carta itself where draft copies of it are displayed and an interesting visual accompanies the drafts, demonstrating the different clauses in the charter and its successors and when they were removed.
The original Magna Carta only lasted a couple of weeks before it was repealed, but John's successor Henry III (1216-1220) reissued it upon ascending the throne to secure the support of his barons during his minority (he was only 9 years old when his father died). The original Magna Carta had been a coerced out of John who was facing serious discontent at home and the charter itself is described in the exhibition's leaflet as "a practical solution to a political crisis",
So, by this stage in the exhibition you're well and truly convinced that John was not a particularly good king and that he probably deserved the alleged death by poisoning he received at Swineshead Abbey in Lincolnshire in 1216.
What then follows is, I suppose, the legacy of King John and of Magna Carta. You have unflattering depictions of John including some 19th century footage showing his death scene in Shakespeare's King John.
It's effect in America is also demonstrated and there are some lovely copies of the declaration of Independence and the Bill or Rights.
As a resident of Runnymede, I was mildy saddened to learn that there was discussions on the 100th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution to erect a monument to Magna Carta at the place of its signing. The place was deemed to wet to build upon however (it is a flood plain) so all we have is the plan.
Just before the unveiling of the magna cartas, its relevance around the world is demonstrated through its themes that have made it into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights among other important documents.
Nelson Mandela dock speech "I am prepared to die" even references the document "The magna carta, the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights, are documents which are held in veneration by democrats throughout the world".
Today only 3 of the original 37 clauses are still in law following various purges from the Statutes of the Realm when they were deemed obsolete. For example in 1863, 17 were repealed as they referred to defunct medieval tolls or services.
The original clauses agreed to on the 13th June, 1215 are in all their glory revealed on a curved wall at the end of the exhibit right before the four magna cartas themselves. It's a lovely feature and well worth taking a moment to admire as the blown up text in white upon a grey background is very impressive.
So there we go, a quick run down on the exhibition itself but if you're interested, do go along as I've only touched on most of the items displayed in the exhibition. There's much more to see.
It's open until the 1st September, tickets are available here: http://www.bl.uk/whats-on
Notes
Statue - BL exhibition website
Family tree - MS, BL Royal 14 B vi, membrane 6
Papal signature - ruthless pinched from wikipedia via google.
King John - 'Herbert Beerbohm Tree as King John in King John by William Shakespeare', painted by Charles A Buchel (1900) Nelson Mandela speech - http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-in-the-modern-age
Magna Carta: old and ne!
Magna Carta: old and new
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