Monday, November 17, 2008

Every thing you wanted to know about the Magna Carta but...


My hometown in England, Bury St. Edmunds in the Borough of St. Edmundsbury, is associated with the famous Magna Carta. See the town's coat of arms above.

The motto of the Borough, Sacrarium Regis, Cunabula Legis, means Shrine of a King, Cradle of the Law. The King is St. Edmund, King of the East Angles, who was killed by invading Danes in 869. His shrine stood for centuries in the medieval Abbey of St. Edmund, and from him the town derived its name. Cradle of the Law refers to the tradition that in 1214 the barons of England met in the AbbeyChurch and swore that they would force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties later known as Magna Carta.

The clauses of Magna Carta were also echoed in early American colonial charters, in the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Three of its clauses still stand on the English Statute Book, including its most famous one protecting free men from arbitrary imprisonment and prohibiting the sale, denial or delay of justice.

See some photos here:
http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/play/magna-carta-pictures.cfm


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