It languished in obscurity for decades—a stained, neglected parchment dismissed as a mere copy. But now, a manuscript tucked away in Harvard Law School’s archives has been revealed by experts to be something far rarer: an authentic original Magna Carta ( “Great Charter”) from 1300, issued under Edward I. Bought for a trifling $27.50 in 1946 (around £7 at the time), its true worth—both historical and monetary—could now stretch into the millions.
“This is a staggering find,” declares Professor David Carpenter of King’s College London, who identified the document after spotting digitised images online. “Not some faded imitation, but a surviving original—one of the last—of the very charter that shaped the rule of law.” The revelation stunned him: how could such a relic go unnoticed for so long, sold for pennies while its significance gathered dust? Harvard’s records listed it vaguely as a “1327 copy,” its damp stains and wear masking its true lineage.
The Magna Carta, first forced upon King John in 1215, was repeatedly reissued, with hundreds of originals likely circulated. Today, 24 copies from various editions created between 1215 and 1300 survive. Most are in British hands. This rediscovered parchment, authenticated by Prof Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia, joins the elite few. These charters endure as emblems of liberty—proof that even the mightiest rulers are bound by law. And now, one more has returned from the shadows. The manuscript—written in Latin on parchment contain handwriting and dimensions consistent with those of the six previously known 1300 originals. The British Library (London) – holds two copies, Salisbury Cathedral (Wiltshire) – home to the best-preserved version and Lincoln Cathedral (Lincolnshire) – whose copy has occasionally toured globally, including displays in the U.S.
As for its value today, Prof Vincent said: “I would hesitate to suggest a figure, but the 1297 Magna Carta that sold at auction in New York in 2007 fetched $21m [about £10.5m at the time], so we’re talking about a very large sum of money.”
Each bears the royal seal (though not King John’s signature, a common myth) and slight textual variations. Around 250 copies were likely made in 1215 for distribution, but most were lost to time or destroyed. Later reissues under Henry III and Edward I survive in greater numbers, but these four are the sole remnants of the groundbreaking original.
The creation of the Magna Carta began not with high ideals but with a standoff — a grumbling of barons tired of King John’s erratic rule and empty treasury. In 1215, on the banks of the Thames at Runnymede, the document was sealed in wax and history. A patchwork of feudal grievances disguised as reform offered no sweeping vision, just a blunt message: even the king was not above the law. Much of it was promptly ignored, repealed, or revised. Yet within its Latin clauses lay a seed — due process, fair trial, limits to unchecked power — that refused to die.
The real power of the Magna Carta emerged not in medieval courtrooms but in its afterlife. Its transformation from failed treaty to freedom’s blueprint is the work of centuries. Protestants, Parliamentarians, revolutionaries — all found the authority to speak back to power in its stilted prose. By the 17th century, the Charter had slipped its chains and become an icon. It’s most enduring phrase — that no free man shall be imprisoned without a lawful judgment — would shape the DNA of modern democracy, echoing from Westminster to Washington.
And now? The Magna Carta rests in climate-controlled display cases, which are more relic than rulebooks. Yet its myth continues to burn. It is not admired for what it was, but for what we’ve made it: a symbol of resistance, of rights wrested from tyranny, of law over whim. In a world still wrangling with authoritarian drift, that old document—born of compromise, revived by revolution—whispers a reminder: justice must be demanded, and once written, never forgotten.
Top Photo: LORIN GRANGER/HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
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