2025 sees the 800th anniversary of the issue, by King Henry III, of what would become the definitive text of Magna Carta. The Great Charter enshrined a wide range of legal, social and governmental principles, and attempted better to regulate relationships between the monarch, the crown, the church and the people. The text and its interpretation have long been fought over, as has its legacy.
Join the Pipe Roll Society for an panel discussion between four world experts on kingship, government and the law in the Middle Ages. They will explore the context for Magna Carta, the reasons behind its revisions, its impact on contemporary politics and society, including on the development of parliament, and its centuries-long legacy.
This event takes place at The National Archives in Kew and is in-person only. It will not be streamed or recorded. The event will last approximately one hour, followed by an opportunity to view original records from The National Archives' collection.
The Pipe Roll Society is a charity which aims to increase public knowledge of medieval history by the publication of the Pipe Rolls and the associated records of medieval English government, and of other manuscripts of national importance prior to the year 1350.
Speakers:
Sophie Ambler (Reader in Medieval History, Lancaster University), author of The Song of Simon de Montfort: England’s First Revolutionary (Picador, 2019) and Bishops in the Political Community of England (Oxford University Press, 2017)
David Carpenter (Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, King’s College London), author of the magisterial two-volume biography of Henry III (Yale Monarchs Series, 2020 & 2024) and the Penguin Magna Carta (2015)
Nicholas Vincent (Professor of Medieval History, University of East Anglia), director of the Magna Carta Project and author of King John, an Evil King? (Penguin, 2020)
Louise Wilkinson (Professor of Medieval History, University of Lincoln), Chair of the Pipe Roll Society, co-investigator of the Magna Carta Project', and author of Eleanor de Montfort: a Rebel Countess in Medieval England (Continuum, 2012)
