British Library to display King John's teeth and thumb bone in Magna Carta celebrations

The Guardian

Exhibition commemorating the 800-year anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta will feature royal relics

Two molars and a thumb bone belonging to King John, the medieval monarch, who granted the charter of Magna Carta. Photograph: Claire Kendall/British Library/PA

King John is coming to the British Library for the exhibition celebrating the most famous event of his reign, the sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede 800 years ago.
The king will be represented by two extraordinary loans; two teeth are coming from Worcester city museum, where they have only occasionally been on display, and a thumb bone which was also taken as a souvenir from his tomb but returned to Worcester cathedral 160 years later. The cathedral is also lending its original copy of John’s will.
They will be on display in the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy opening on March 13, the largest exhibition mounted on the charter that inspired centuries of declarations of human rights.
The teeth and bone were taken when John’s splendid tomb at Worcester cathedral was opened in 1797 – supposedly to verify it held the king, but part of a late 18th century antiquarian craze for opening royal tombs. The tomb stayed open for almost two days and the cathedral was heaving with sightseers until the authorities were forced to close it to keep order.
John had a particular affection for Worcester: two of his favourite hunting grounds were nearby, and he visited the shrine of the Anglo-Saxon Saint Wulfstan at the cathedral several times. When the king died in October 1216 at Newark castle, probably of dysentery rather than the poison or “surfeit of peaches” of contemporary sources, he requested to be buried there near the saint.
His splendid tomb was opened at least twice, in the 16th century and in 1797 when only rotting scraps remained of the fabulous embroidered robe of crimson damask recorded 200 years earlier. Various fragments of fabric and bits of bone were taken as souvenirs, including the teeth and the thumb.
A local surgeon, Mr Sandford, was present when the tomb was opened and recorded what hapened. The body was found lying in the same position as the effigy, but the bones had been disturbed, with the jaw lying by the elbow.

All but four of the teeth, and most of both hands, had vanished, presumably to earlier souvenir hunters. A note preserved with the teeth says: “These are two teeth taken from the head of King John by William Wood, a stationer’s apprentice, in 1797.”
The skull was wrapped in a monk’s cowl rather than the crown shown on the effigy, and a sword in a leather scabbard lay by the side of the remains. The bones were measured, and John’s height in life estimated at 5 foot six inches. The textiles were interpreted as parts of socks, some shoe leather, as well as the shreds of the damask shroud – scraps of surviving embroidery, including a lion’s head, showed it had once been a truly regal garment.
The will is the earliest surviving English royal example. It was dictated just before John’s death, and is thought to indicate how weakened he was because, instead of spelling out exactly how his possessions should be distributed, he left the decisions to his group of close advisers.
Worcester cathedral is also mounting an exhibition and events programme about Magna Carta.

British Library reunites Magna Carta copies for 800th anniversary

Mark Brown

The Guardian

 

 

The four surviving copies of the Magna Carta being prepared for display at the British Library. Photograph: Clare Kendall/British Library/PA

 

Four copies of groundbreaking document to be assembled at British Library – but only 1,215 people who won a ballot can see them


         

          

The only remaining original copies of Magna Carta, one of the world’s most enduringly influential documents, are to on Monday be brought together for the first and probably only time.

Two copies in the British Library’s collection will be joined by one from Lincoln Cathedral and one from Salisbury Cathedral to mark the 800th anniversary of an agreement that has become a symbol of liberty and law.
The four copies will remain at the British Library for three days. On Tuesday 1,215 people who won a ballot to see them – randomly selected from 43,715 applicants from 20 countries – will be given access.
The following day, the world’s leading academic experts on the document will get their turn, part of a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
On Thursday, the manuscripts will travel to the House of Lords before being returned to their separate homes and exhibitions. The British Library’s display, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, runs from 13 March to 1 September. All four copies have differences, including their shape, with one of the two at the British Library and the Salisbury version being in portrait format, while the Lincoln copy is square and the other British Library version is landscape.
Claire Breay, head of medieval manuscripts at the British Library, said: “Magna Carta is one of the most famous documents in the world, let alone one of the most important things we have in the collections at the British Library. We’ve been working towards this with Lincoln and Salisbury since 2010, so it is very exciting to see it come to fruition.”King John agreed the terms of the charter at Runnymede in 1215, sealing it on 15 June. Most of Magna Carta’s clauses dealt with specific grievances England’s barons had with the king, but buried within the document are agreements that have become totemic across the world, not least the 39th article giving all “free men” the right to a fair trial.
At least 13 copies were made on sheepskin parchment and sent out to bishops. The two copies in the British Library came into the national collection in 1753 as part of the enormous library of the MP and antiquary Sir Robert Cotton.
Seeing Magna Carta is an almost spiritual event for many visitorsto the Library . Breay said: “People really want to have stood in front of this incredibly famous document. Even though it is written in medieval Latin and in medieval handwriting and most people can’t actually read it, people recognise its historic and symbolic importance as a symbol of freedom and rights and liberties.”
She said it seemed a fitting start to the Magna Carta anniversary. “It is a unique opportunity, a never-to-be-repeated opportunity, to see them side by side.”