called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of
June, in the seventeenth year of our reign.

***


The text of THE MAGNA CARTA


The Magna Carta (The Great Charter):

Preamble:


John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of
Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishop,
bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs,
stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects,
greetings. Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of
our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor
of God and the advancement of his holy Church and for the rectifying
of our realm, we have granted as underwritten by advice of our
venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all
England and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry, archbishop of
Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and
Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of
Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of Master Pandulf, subdeacon
and member of the household of our lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric
(master of the Knights of the Temple in England), and of the
illustrious men William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, William, earl of