Lecture by Professor David Carpenter, University of London: ‘Why is 2025 not 2015 the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta?’ The discovery of the final version of Magna Carta, bearing the commitment of the King and reached after a time of baronial conflict, is a remarkable story.
David Carpenter is a leading authority on the history of Britain in the central middle ages. He has been key to the discovery and validation of the Magna Carta Document in the United States. In this talk he will use the recent work in this area to explore the dates of Magna Carta as well as the content of the document. David Carpenter is a Professor of Medieval History at King’s College London. His biography of Henry III came out in the Yale English Monarchs Series in two volumes: Henry III 1207-1258: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule (2020) and Henry III 1258-1272: Reform, Rebellion, Civil War and Settlement (2023). Previously he had written The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284 in the New Penguin History of Britain and Magna Carta: A New Commentary in the Penguin Classics Series, the latter published to coincide with the Charter’s 800th Anniversary in 2015.