For about a century after 1215, and about a century before 1689, Magna Carta played a critical role in the constitutional development of England. Between those centuries, although it was sometimes invoked in statements of grievance or referred to as a touchstone of good governance, it played an ever-reducing role in political discourse. Shakespeare could write a play about King John without mentioning it. Victorian theatre proprietors often added a Runnymede scene, as something which Shakespeare had inadvertently overlooked. When looking back at the medieval context of the Charter, it is always necessary to beware of that imperialism of the…
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