3-057-468 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Illustration from a letter containing details of the Magna Carta, c1215. Part of one of the letters sent throughout the kingdom by the royal chancery to publicise the terms of the grant. These letters contain the first authoritative text of Magna Carta, which is widely regarded as the cornerstone of liberty in the English-speaking world, but it is in fact a series of detailed concessions on legal procedure and feudal rights wrung from an unwilling King John by his noble opponents in 1215.