Customer Reviews

Magna Carta

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Many Magna Carta scholars, including A. E. Dick Howard and Ralph V. Turner, rate this book as THE definitive work on the historical background and events leading up to the Great Charter, as well as its immediate consequences. No serious student of Magna Carta (1215) can afford not to read this book, and to read it carefully.

J.C. Holt's book on Magna Carta is the most authoritative up-to-date work on the subject. It concentrates on the negotiation of the great charter of 1215, not its reissue or its role in British history thereafter, although that is covered in the introduction. Holt reviews the events and circumstances of the immediate run-up to the negotiations at Runnymede, provides an analysis of the political context and contemporary meaning of the document, and comments on the charter's main terms. The appendix provides the charter's full text, in translation, as well as the "barons' charter" and Henry I's coronation oath (both in Latin, though).

What Holt's book is not is a history of Magna Carta through the ages, a legal analysis, or a layman's guide to the charter's articles. Holt demystifies the dispute between John and his barons and indeed peers a little further into the 1215-17 civil war, and he sheds light on the document's main terms, but it helps if the reader already knows what `scutage' or `relief' were, and what Henry II's legal reforms did. For further background, Warren's `King John' is useful, apart from being short, clear, and devoid of jargon. The first Angevin king's legal reforms are quite clearly explained in `Henry II', also by Warren.

Holt's Magna Carta is an interesting study of the politics behind the formation of Magna Carta. The author's exploration of the political and legal crises in medieval times conveys how this charta was a result of war and injustice. The author connects many legal principles, such as individual rights, of the modern era and roots them in their medieval past. This book is detailed and long, but worthwhile to students of legal, medieval, or English history.

Holt's Magna Carta is an interesting study of the politics behind the formation of Magna Carta. The author's exploration of the political and legal crises in medieval times conveys how this charta was a result of war and injustice. The author connects many legal principles, such as individual rights, of the modern era and roots them in their medieval past. This book is detailed and long, but worthwhile to students of legal, medieval, or English history.