Magna Carta

One of four surviving exemplifications issued over the Great Seal of King John on and after 23 June 1215. According to contemporary chronicles, these exemplifications were distributed to bishops, sheriffs and others throughout the land, and in this case upwards of 36 of them must be reckoned to have been sent out. But the issue of only 13 - to two bishops and to a servant of the Archbishop of Canterbury - is actually recorded. The two other survivors are now in the archives of Lincoln and Salisbury Cathedrals. All four declare themselves to have been `given by our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede between Windsor and Staines on the 15th day of June in the 17th year or our reign' (1215) - the date on which the Articles of the Barons are accordingly thought to have been sealed - but differ slightly in size, shape and text. The few short words and passages written at the foot of the present document have been incorporated into the main texts of the Lincoln and Salisbury exemplifications and may therefore represent last-minute revisions. The original destination of the present document is unknown. It was given to Sir Robert Cotton by the barrister Humphrey Wyems on 1 January 1629, and according to one account had been found in a London tailor's shop.

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