A revised edition of J. C. Holt's classic study of Magna Carta, the Great Charter, offering the most authoritative analysis of England's most famous constitutional text. The book sets the events of 1215 and the Charter itself in the context of the law, politics and administration of England and Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Additionally, a lengthy new introduction by two of Holt's former pupils, George Garnett and John Hudson, examines a range of issues raised by scholarship since publication of the second edition in 1992. These include the possible role of Archbishop Stephen Langton; the degree of influence of Roman and Canon Law upon those who drafted the Charter; other aspects of the intellectual setting of the Charter, in particular political thinking in London; the Continental context of the events of 1212–15; and the legal and jurisdictional issues that affected the Charter's clauses on justice.

'There are … some valuable additions and corrections made by the coeditors of the edition, George Garnett and John Hudson. … The editors have updated the references to take account of recent scholarship, tweaked the translation of Magna Carta provided in an appendix, and provided new translations of some key documents that were included in earlier editions only in their Latin form. The most important addition to the third edition is a new thirty-two-page introduction that assesses the historiographical significance of the work’s first two editions and considers how it relates to more recent scholarship.'

James Masschaele Source: Speculum