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Tertiary sourcePainting1885

Little Arthur's History of England, Volume II

1885

A page from a popular Victorian children's history textbook illustrating how the Magna Carta myth was taught to generations of schoolchildren.

Shows how the Magna Carta story was simplified and taught to Victorian schoolchildren as a national myth.

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Title page of 'Little Arthur's History of England, Vol. II', published by Murray, 1885. Decorative title text is above a vignette of a crown, a scroll labeled 'MAGNA CHARTA', and a quill pen over faint background text.
Little Arthur's History of England, Vol. II, Murray, 1885.

About this source

What it is

This is the title page of volume two of 'Little Arthur's History of England', a widely used children's history textbook published by Murray in 1885. It features a decorative vignette with a crown, a scroll labeled 'Magna Charta', and a quill pen.

Why it matters

Textbooks like this one shaped how ordinary Victorian children learned about Magna Carta, often presenting it as a heroic founding moment of English liberty rather than a complicated medieval peace deal between a king and his barons. It shows how historical memory and national myth-making get built into school materials.

Look closer

  • Why do you think the illustrator chose a crown, a scroll, and a quill to represent Magna Carta?
  • What simplified idea about Magna Carta might this image be teaching young readers?
  • How might a children's textbook from the 1880s differ from a modern history lesson on the same topic?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Magna Carta on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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