Ten Little Known Facts about the Magna Carta

1. Before the Magna Carta was signed, widows and daughters of Barons could be sold by the King in marriage in order to make money.

2. Only 3 of the original 63 clauses of the Magna Carta are still in use. They include a defense of the rights of the English church, the liberties and customs of London and the right to a fair trial and only being arrested for a just cause.

3. The Magna Carta was valid for just 10 weeks.

4. Originally Magna Carta (Great Charter) was known as the Charter of Liberties. It became Magna Carta when a smaller Charter of the Forest was issued in 1217.

5. In August 1215, Pope Innocent III annulled Magna Carta, declaring it null and void and having been sealed under duress.

6.  It was sealed, not signed, and the new £2 coin to celebrate the anniversary mistakenly depicts King John with a quill pen in one hand.

7.  We know who sealed it, but we’ll never be sure who wrote it.
 

8.  There’s no single “original” copy, though only four copies written during 1215 remain today.

9.   If you call it “the Magna Carta,” you’re probably not English, who call it simply, “Magna Carta.”

10. Even though he affixed his seal to the Magna Carta, King John was so hated that no English king has been named John since.