Magna Carta Copy - A 700-year-old copy of the Magna Carta has reportedly been found in a scrapbook in Kent, England during a search of a council's archives. The discovery of the Magna Carta copy occurred months before the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta in Runnymede in 1215.
The Magna Carta copy found in Kent has been in existence since the 1300s, 85 years after King John of England signed the first agreement limiting the rights of kings, according to NBC News.
This Magna Carta copy was reportedly issued by King John's grandson at a time when he was pressured by the church and the barons to reaffirm good governance, according to Sophie Ambler, a research associate with the Magna Carta Project.
"Nobody knew it was there," Ambler said of the damaged Magna Carta copy. "This Magna Carta had been stuck into a scrapbook by a Victorian official from the British Museum at the end of the 19th century."
The Magna Carta copy was afterwards placed in the Sandwich archive in Kent, thus having become forgotten, Ambler told Live Science.
Its current discovery had been brought about by the efforts of researchers with the Magna Carta Project. They are reportedly investigating the history of the Magna Carta in the lead-up to its 800th anniversary this year.
Nicholas Vincent from the University of East Anglia and leader of the project, asked a historian in Kent to look up Sandwich's Charter of the Forest, a complementary document to the Magna Carta. The historian found the forgotten Magna Carta copy through this process, according to Live Science.
The new Magna Carta copy just brought the total number of surviving 13th-century versions to 24. The charter is more than 1.6 feet long. However, about one-third of the text is missing, according to the Magna Carta Project.
The paper of the Magna Carta copy has also been eaten away by water damage and the royal seal is missing as well. Nevertheless, the date of issue survives at the bottom of the document, said Ambler.
The document could still be worth up to £10m despite its condition, according to Professor Nicholas Vincent, a specialist in medieval history from the University of East Anglia. This is due to the fact that this Magna Carta copy had been found with the Charter of the Forest. The only other such pair which dates back to the 1300s is owned by Oriel College in Oxford.
According to experts, the discovery of the Sandwich Magna Carta copy makes it the seventh from the number of surviving originals of the 1300s.
The Magna Carta copy's fate may be unknown still, however, it is likely to stay in Kent. As for Sandwich, it does not plan to sell its copy but hopes to benefit from the document as a tourist attraction, reported the BBC.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
