HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2025-02-20T16:55:05.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Henry III and the Magna Carta that mattered
items: “He was not a great king but he was respected as a most Christian one” | David Carpenter on Henry III
items: Why are British monarchs traditionally crowned in Westminster Abbey?
items: Video podcast | David Carpenter on history of Westminster Abbey
items: Westminster Abbey: everything you wanted to know
items: 1215: Magna Carta
items: Is 15 June 1215 the true date of Magna Carta? Two historians debate

Henry III and the Magna Carta that mattered
type: item
date: 2025-02-20T16:19:13.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Plantagenet
description: King John’s sealing of a charter at Runnymede in 1215 is one of the most feted moments of the Middle Ages. Yet, writes David Carpenter, it was the charter issued by his son 10 years later that became fundamental to England’s history
encoded: February 2025 marks the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. But wait – surely we already commemorated that milestone in 2015? Certainly, on 15 June that year, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the archbishop of Canterbury, prime minister David Cameron and assorted dignitaries gathered at Runnymede. At the meadow by the Thames between Windsor and Staines, they celebrated the charter King John had sealed there exactly 800 years earlier. That document, sealed under duress from rebel barons and famously subjecting the king to the law and promising justice to all, is widely lauded today as a milestone in the establishment of English law. Read more | What did Magna Carta mean to the English in 1215? Yet the fact is that, in the centuries after 1215, the term Magna Carta was hardly ever used for John’s document. Rather, that was the name given to the charter issued nearly a decade later by King John’s son, Henry III, at Westminster on 11 February 1225. Although Henry’s charter was based on his father’s, the earlier iteration was usually called simply the ‘Charter of Runnymede’. So when, in 1297 and 1300, Henry’s son Edward I confirmed Magna Carta, he meant the charter of 1225 – and the same was true of all later confirmations. Indeed, though most of its provisions have since been repealed, those chapters that remain on the statute book of the UK today are from the 1225 version. So how did the Charter of Runnymede in 1215 become Magna Carta in 1225? On the podcast | Are we celebrating the wrong Magna Carta? Abandoned promises At the end of 1215 any progression beyond the Charter of Runnymede would have seemed unlikely, for it appeared to be a failure without a future – quashed by the pope, at the king’s behest. It had also, in effect, been abandoned by the rebel barons. Having failed to hold the king to its terms, they had taken another route: they deposed John and offered the throne to Louis, eldest son of the king of France. Louis came to England in May 1216, on a wave of s…

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“He was not a great king but he was respected as a most Christian one” | David Carpenter on Henry III
type: item
date: 2023-06-05T07:20:33.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Plantagenet
description: David Carpenter talks to David Musgrove about the second part of his biography of King Henry III, and the extraordinary revolution that removed him from power in 1258
encoded: This is the second volume of a two-part biography of Henry III, covering the period 1258 down to the king’s death in 1272. The year 1258 saw revolt against the king, so had Henry’s reign gone well up to this point? King Henry III would have said that he had given long years of peace to England, linked to an absence of foreign war. He was a pacific king as well as a most Christian one. He had none of the cruelty and irreligion of his father, King John. He gave huge alms to the poor, attended multiple masses, and, most importantly, was rebuilding Westminster Abbey in honour of his patron saint, Edward the Confessor. Henry had accepted Magna Carta, and his financial exactions (though still resented) were far lower than John’s as a result. His critics, though, saw him as a simple-minded, naive king who had plunged into ill-advised projects, including trying to place his second son on the throne of Sicily. In his open-handed way, Henry had also given gigantic rewards to his foreign relatives, thus creating tensions at court and divisions with his English subjects. And Henry, politically unaware, had failed to reform local government. This meant his sheriffs and judges had become increasingly oppressive. Magnates, too, had been allowed to expand their local power. If there was peace, it seemed to be peace with injustice. So when we get to 1258, there was revolution in the court of Henry, with one group of courtiers turning on another, led by Henry’s half-brothers from Poitou. You state that Henry is less central to volume two than to volume one. Who is the key figure in this story? The central character is Henry III’s brother in-law Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, one of the most extraordinary people to have ever dignified and defiled – at the same time – English history. He is central to the seizure of power in 1258, in which a baronial council took over the government of the kingdom in a revolution far more radical than Magna Carta. The sealing of Magna Carta in 1…

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Why are British monarchs traditionally crowned in Westminster Abbey?
type: item
date: 2023-05-03T18:17:33.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: London’s history
description: There is no way to tell the story of the English monarchy without Westminster Abbey, the site of royal coronations, weddings, funerals and burials for the last 1,000 years. Professor David Carpenter answers the key questions about the abbey’s long history
encoded: What is Westminster Abbey, and how old is it? A marvel of gothic architecture, it stands on one side of Parliament Square in London, adjoining Big Ben, Victoria Tower and the Houses of Parliament. It is the place of coronations (including that of Charles III) and has many famous (and infamous) people buried and commemorated within it, including monarchs, prime ministers, scientists and poets. Legend has it that it was founded in the reign of an Anglo-Saxon king called Saberht in the early seventh century, after a miraculous appearance by Saint Peter. There’s some reason to think that the site of the abbey was originally an island in the Thames, the island of Thorney, so we have to think of the river as much wider than it was before it was embanked. On the podcast | David Carpenter answers listener questions on the history of Westminster Abbey Until the reformation, the abbey was the home of a community of Benedictine monks ruled by an abbot. Since then, although keeping the name 'abbey', it has been an Anglican church governed by a dean and small group of clergymen called 'canons'. They form the dean and chapter. The abbey is a 'royal peculiar' meaning it is subject only to the monarch. The bishop of London has no jurisdiction over it. When was the Westminster Abbey that we see today constructed? There was an abbey at Westminster in the late-Anglo Saxon period, but the real start came with Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-66), who had a palace essentially on the site of the Houses of Parliament and completely rebuilt the church. The Confessor also richly endowed the abbey. Read more | Edward the Confessor: England’s holy hardman The building of today, however, comes not from the 11th century, but mostly from the 13th during the reign of Henry III (r1216-72). He built all the church we have today save for the nave, Henry VII's chapel and the western towers. That said, the foundations of Edward the Confessor’s abbey and cloisters have been uncovered in excavations, …

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Video podcast | David Carpenter on history of Westminster Abbey
type: item
date: 2023-05-03T17:30:48.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: David Carpenter answers listener questions on the history of Westminster Abbey, which has hosted royal coronations since the Middle Ages
encoded: Westminster Abbey has hosted royal coronations since the medieval period, and the next monarch to be crowned there will be King Charles III. Speaking with David Musgrove, Professor David Carpenter (who grew up in the abbey) answers listener questions on the lengthy history of this iconic building – from marvellous medieval acoustics to the destruction of its brightly coloured art. Related content: Read more | Why are British monarchs traditionally crowned in Westminster Abbey? On the podcast| David Carpenter on history of Westminster Abbey

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Westminster Abbey: everything you wanted to know
type: item
date: 2023-04-30T06:13:20.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
description: David Carpenter answers listener questions on the history of Westminster Abbey, which has hosted royal coronations since the Middle Ages
encoded: Westminster Abbey has hosted royal coronations since the medieval period, and the next monarch to be crowned there will be King Charles III. In our latest Everything You Want to Know episode, David Musgrove speaks to Professor David Carpenter (who grew up in the abbey) to answer listener questions on the lengthy history of this iconic building – from marvellous medieval acoustics to the destruction of its brightly coloured art. Related content: Read more | Why are British monarchs traditionally crowned in Westminster Abbey? Watch now | David Carpenter on history of Westminster Abbey

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1215: Magna Carta
type: item
date: 2021-12-27T07:05:56.000Z
creator: Professor David Carpenter
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Turning points in British history
description: Part five in our 20-part series looking at decisive moments of the last 1,000 years in British history explores 1200–1249. In 1215, when England's barons clipped the wings of a tyrannical king, they established principles that still influence British justice 800 years on
encoded: The year of Magna Carta, 1215, when an English ruler was first subjected to the law, has resonated down the ages as a landmark in Britain’s constitutional history. The Charter itself still lives. Its most fundamental chapters remain on the Statute Book of the UK as barriers to arbitrary rule. They condemn the denial, sale and delay of justice, and forbid imprisonment and dispossession save by lawful judgement of one’s peers (social equals), or the law of the land. The Charter was negotiated at Runnymede between 10 and 15 June 1215, with King John riding down each day from Windsor, and the barons encamped in their tents across the meadows beside the Thames. On 15 June, John, tricky to the end, refused more concessions and simply sealed the Charter – “take it or leave it” – thereby cleverly keeping the names of the 25 barons who were to enforce its terms out of the document, this because they had still to be chosen. John hoped the Charter would become no more than a toothless symbol of his generosity to the kingdom; the barons hoped that its terms would be rigorously enforced and indeed extended. The result was civil war. By September, John had got the pope to quash the Charter. That month, the opposition barons deposed John and offered the throne to Louis, eldest son of King Philip II of France. He came to England in May 1216 and by the time of John’s death in October controlled more than half the kingdom. In the north Alexander II of Scotland had gained Carlisle, and was making good his claims to Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland. In Wales, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, ruler of Gwynedd, had swept through the south and taken the royal bases of Cardigan and Carmarthen. Yet John’s dynasty survived, and with it, paradoxically, the Charter. Its implantation into English political life was the work of the minority government of John’s son, Henry III, who was only nine on his accession. Magna Carta was also a British document. Both Alexander and Llywelyn had been with th…

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Is 15 June 1215 the true date of Magna Carta? Two historians debate
type: item
date: 2021-06-15T05:02:00.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: In 1215, King John sealed Magna Carta, a document that safeguarded basic freedoms and placed limits on the power of the crown. The event was a turning point in British constitutional history, but are we marking its anniversary on the correct date? Professors David Carpenter and George Garnett debate...
encoded: The sealing of Magna Carta was a turning point in British constitutional history, but are we marking its anniversary on the correct date? Was it really sealed on 15 June 1215? Two historians debate... Yes, it is – Professor David Carpenter The date 15 June seems fixed by Magna Carta itself. King John ends the Charter by stating that it has been “given by our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede between Windsor and Staines on the 15th day of June in the 17th year of our reign”. This conclusion appears in all four surviving originals of the 1215 Magna Carta, and in the letter issued by Archbishop Langton and his fellow bishops setting out and guaranteeing the final text. The “given by the hand” formula is standard in royal charters: it indicates the day and place on which the ‘giver’ – either the king or a chancery official – authorised the drawing up and sealing of the charter in question, perhaps indeed by handing the final draft to the clerk who was going to write it out. King John, therefore, authorised the writing out and sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. 6 Magna Carta myths explained That all seems clear enough, yet distinguished historians have argued that the 15 June date is nothing more than “fictitious”. In their view, it took several more days for the details of the charter to be hammered out, and it was not till 19 June that John authorised its issue. If they are to be believed, we should not be celebrating the anniversary of Magna Carta on 15 June. The argument for a later date for Magna Carta was propounded by Sir James Holt in both the first and second editions (1965/1992) of his magisterial book Magna Carta. His opinions have not gone unchallenged. In a paper in 1996 and in my own book Magna Carta, recently published in the Penguin Classics series, I have sought to vindicate the 15 June date. The debate, however, continues. Why Magna Carta matters In their introduction to the third edition of Holt’s Magna Carta, which appears…

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