With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Charter of the Forest, not Magna Carta, is origin of civil liberties [30min]

Former British Conservative politician Michael Portillo presents the final installment in a series revisiting the great moments of history to discover that they often conceal other events of equal but forgotten importance. Nearly 800 years after it was signed, Magna Carta is still venerated as the bedrock of English justice and liberty. Yet in truth its impact was a good deal less far-reaching than is popularly believed. Another document, The Charter of the Forest, signed two years after Magna Carta, was the true charter for the common man. Michael Portillo goes in search of this forgotten manifesto for English rural life.
Read entire article at BBC Radio 4 "The Things We Forgot to Remember"