To mark the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest, issued by Henry III together with his reissue of the Charter of Liberties (to be known as Magna Carta in 1218 to differentiate it from the Charter of the Forest), a lecture was given by Christian Liddy of the University of Durham on 29 April 2017. It was entitled ‘Common Rights and Natural Resources: The 1217 Charter of the Forest in Historical Perspective‘ and took place in Newcastle.

After the Conquest, the crown enjoyed exclusive rights over large parts of England. The Charter of the Forest established wider access for hunting, grazing and fuel for the country’s free men. Christian’s lecture uses the charter as a historical starting point to consider conflicts over our rights of access to common land. Thanks to the Medievalists.Net and YouTube we are able to include it here.

After all our work leading up to the 800th anniversary celebrations in 2015, we’re proud to announce the publication in June 2016 of the  first and only book to tell the story of the 25 Magna Carta Barons: who they were, what they did, and what happened to them after Magna Carta was sealed 800 years ago. For more information…

Some copies might have found there way into bookshops, but you can order a copy here.

As an antidote to the “Treason” video from Westminster Hall in July, here is a  short clip from Tony Hancock’s “Twelve Angry Men”, first broadcast by the BBC on 16 October 1959 in the fifth series of “Hancock’s Half Hour”.

For those lucky enough to have a ticket, an unusual event took place at Westminster Hall on 31 July 2015 – a mock trial of the Magna Carta Barons, organised by the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee and the UK Supreme Court. It was narrated by Gavin Esler, supported by the Usher, Derek Allen. The judges were the Lord Neuberger, Dame Sian Elias and Stephen Breyer. The Prosecution Counsel was James Eadie QC, and the Defence Council was Nathalie Lieven QC. King john was played by Clive Anderson, William Marshal by the Lord Judge, Stephen Langton by the Lord Lisvane, and Robert FitzWalter by Professor David Carpenter. The other witnesses were Lord Clarke, the Rt Rev Christopher Lowson, Lord McNally, Baroness Prashar and Baroness Stedman-Scott. The outcome of course is history, but it is nevertheless instructive to watch our justices debate the rights and wrongs of past rebels…

Alex Hutton is a British composer/player with a different take on piano-trio jazz. The Magna Carta Suite, inspired by a walk through the Windsor woodlands, features classically pure double bassist Yuri Goloubev and exciting drummer Asaf Sirkis, plus occasional vocals, baroque flute and cor anglais. Flute whispers and Goloubev’s beautiful bowed sound weave through the gently ringing Old Yew; The Barons resembles an Avishai Cohen anthem; The Fog of War moves from a Scriabin-inspired tiptoe to a punchy vamp; and musician/poet Neil Sparkes recaps the whole storyline in two dramatic spoken passages at the close.

Curry Mallet in Somerset, one of our smallest member villages, has done tremendous work organising and planning its events for June 2015. They’ve just posted a short film of what they’ve done – an achievement in itself!

You may have heard this in the British Library exhibition. A cantata for narrator and bass soloists, SATB chorus and orchestra, first performed February 4, 1940, New York, CBS Radio, Burgess Meredith, narrator, Mark Warnow Orchestra, Mark Warnow, conductor. Music by Kurt Weill, text by Maxwell Anderson.

Lance Allan starts his epic tour of all the Magna Carta barons villages and towns today, Saturday 20 June. We’ll try and capture his journey as he departs from each one and keep a record in an event page…

Stansted Mountfitchet was represented at the Magna Carta Barons reception at Mansion House on 12 May. The photograph shows its representative signing a unique memorial of the event, courtesy of the Herts and Essex Observer. Read more here…

Stansted has its new website now at www.stanstedmagnacartaevents.co.uk.