Forget “What’s in your wallet?” How about what was in the archives of the municipality of Sandwich that everyone seemed to miss until last December?
Here’s the story via the New York Times:
A tattered copy of the Magna Carta has been discovered in the archives of the municipality of Sandwich, a sleepy seaside town in eastern England, according to the local government and a historian at the University of East Anglia.
News of the find comes just as the charter, often regarded as England’s first step towards civil rights, marks its 800th anniversary. Events have been scheduled across the country to mark the occasion, including a recent reunion of the four surviving copies of the original version, issued in 1215, in London this month. Between 1215 and 1300, other copies of the Magna Carta were marked with a royal seal, only two dozen of which are known to exist.
The copy found in Sandwich, in the county of Kent, dates to 1300, when King Edward I issued the final version of the charter marked with such a seal. The original version signed in 1215 was issued by King John, an unpopular ruler under pressure to check his own power in the interest of preventing civil war. The document affirms the king as subject to the law like any other citizen.
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