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Magna Carta, translated in Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages

Ernest Flagg Henderson (translator) · 1892

An 1892 English translation of the full 1215 charter, made for students and historians to study the original clauses.

This is a translation of the Magna Carta text itself, letting students read the 1215 charter in English.

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About this source

What it is

This is an 1892 English translation of the 1215 Magna Carta, the charter agreed between King John of England and his barons. It appears in a collection called Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, translated by Ernest Flagg Henderson.

Why it matters

Magna Carta set out limits on royal power and listed rights owed to free men, church leaders and nobles. This translation let English-speaking readers in the 1890s, and ever since, read the whole document rather than only summaries of it. It shows how later generations kept returning to this 1215 agreement to understand the roots of law and government.

Look closer

  • Why might a translator in 1892 want ordinary readers to have the full text, not just a summary?
  • What do the long lists of names at the start tell you about who was involved in making this agreement?
  • What might be lost or changed when a medieval Latin document is translated centuries later?

This document 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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