"Magna Carta" by Nicholas Vincent

If there is a document that is the fount of constitutionalism, it is the Magna Carta, or Great Charter, signed by King John of England and his barons at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle. Together with American Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta became the inspiration for the idea of citizen rights and (eventually) constitutional government. 

 

The original Magna Carta, the one containing the seal of King John affixed in 1215, no longer exists. What happened to it is a mystery. Four original copies were made at the time of the signing. Two of those copies, one of which was badly burned, are held by the British Library. The remaining two are at Lincoln Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral. Some 200 others, copied off and on during the Middle Ages, also exist.

 

For the 800^th anniversary of the signing of the document, Oxford’s Bodleian Library commissioned Nicholas Vincent, professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, to write a history of the document – what led to it, what happened as a result, its tumultuous history, and its influence and legacy. The result is Magna Carta: Origins and Legacy.

 

Nicholas Vincent

The book is a well-illustrated, well-written account of the document. It’s a traditional historical account, but it’s also filled with facts and stories that don’t quit make the textbooks. Like how the Lincoln Cathedral original was loaned (after extensive lobbying) to the United States for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, not long before World War II broke out, and spent the war years under the protection of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. (it was returned after the war). 

 

Magna Carta is divided into two roughly equal parts. The first is the history and legacy. The second is the “Archival and Documentary Evidences,” reminding the reader that the volume is both a highly readable history and a research publication. Vincent also traces where all of the 200 copies now reside.

 

Vincent has published some 25 books and 150 academic papers in English and European history of the 12^th and 13^thcenturies. In addition to the Magna Carta and general medieval history, his areas of expertise include the Plantagenet kingship, Thomas Becket, and medieval relics. He’s taught at Oxford, Cambridge, the University of Poitiers and the Ecole des Chartres in Paris. Vincent is also a Fellow of the British Academy and a Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. He’s taught at East Anglia since 2003.

 

Magna Carta tells a fascinating story of how feudal lords’ rebellious dissatisfaction with a profligate king would eventually influence and shape constitutional governments across the globe. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The paint was still wet: A closer look at three Van Gogh paintings heading to the Rijksmuseum – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.

 

Fallen – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

The Work of Spring – Hadden Turner at Heart and Field.

 

The Biggest Threat to America’s Liberty – Douglas Murray at The Free Press on a speech by Abraham Lincoln. 

Stone Cold Love – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian. 

“Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace” by Amanda Foreman and Lucy Peter

Two weeks after becoming queen, the 18-year-old Victoria moved the household from Kensington Palace to Buckingham Palace. The new home was still a work in progress; it had been a country estate until William IV convinced Parliament to fund an expansion. The money ran out before it was finished and then William died.

It would be Victoria and her soon-to-be husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg to complete the palace to the point where it would be recognizable today. But as Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace makes clear, they did more than finish a building. Victoria and Albert turned the palace into an icon of the royal family and Britain in general. 

Written by Amanda Foreman and Lucy Peter, the book serves as the catalog and introduction to the “Queen Victoria’s Palace” exhibition which concluded yesterday. The exhibition was staged in honor of the 200^th anniversary of Victoria’s birth. The book, however, is more than an exhibition souvenir; it stands on its own as a succinct account of how Victoria and Albert transformed Buckingham Palace. 

The transformation was profound. What had been a “country townhouse” for Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, would become a family home, a venue for grand state occasions, and a symbol of the British monarchy. The vision for the palace would outlast Victoria’s self-imposed exile at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after Albert’s death from what was likely typhoid in 1861. Even after she returned more than a decade later, she generally refused to host any event similar to what she and Albert had done together. It was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli who suggested she host something that was entirely different – and it became one of the best known events associated with the palace and the royal family: the summer garden party.

The book makes generous use of the photographs, paintings, and artifacts maintained by the Royal Collections Trust. And it includes far more than Victoria’s dresses. We can see paintings and drawings of the royal children, the fancy costume balls, the prime ministers, the state events, how the palace structure grew, and what many of the state and private rooms looked like.

Amanda Foreman

Foreman is a historian, columnist, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the History Department at the university of Liverpool. She is the author of the prize-winning best sellers Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire: A Epic History of Two Nations Divided; Georgiana’s World; and the forthcoming The World Made by Women: A History of Women from the Apple to the Pill. She lives in New York. Lucy Peter is assistant curator of Paintings for the Royal Collection Trust and co-author of Portrait of the Artist and Royal Childhood. She lives in London. 

Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace is a well-written and well-researched account of how a building became what is likely the most recognizable symbol of Great Britain.

Top photograph: Lucy Peter with one of the dresses include in the Queen Victoria exhibition at the palace.

Saturday Good Reads

What’s old is new again. In the days of the Roman Empire, Christianity was forbidden and periodically persecuted for a variety of reasons. The most common reason was “atheism,” because Christians would not worship the emperor. Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder has the details, and he notes what happens when Christians refuse to worship the cultural gods (not that he’s drawing any contemporary comparisons). 

Stewart MacAlpine has an issue with Christian book marketing, and how we Christians are under a constant barrage of books explaining how to unlock the true meaning of the faith that’s been lost in the mists of time. The latest is Andy Stanley’s Irresistible(and this is likely the least of Andy Stanley’s problems).

If I watched “The Wizard of Oz” once as a child, I watched it dozens of times – every time it came on television. But the movie has a back story, and it’s rather ugly, says Peggy Rosenthal at Image Journal.

There are still descendants of French Huguenots who worship at Canterbury Cathedral – in French, reports the BBC. And you may know the parable from the Gospel of Luke about the Good Samaritan, but did you know there are still Samaritans living in the Holy Land?  The BBC has that story, too (Hat tip for both links: J of India). 

The Catholic Church has been taking it on the chin lately, in some cases deservedly so. But there are some good things happening, too. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia recently spoke at the Salinas Men’s Conference, and he had something valuable to say about why men matter.

Early library

Is it Trumpian deplorables, backwater rednecks, and fire breathing evangelicals from whom academics have the most to fear? No, it’s their own colleagues. Theodore Hill at Quillette tells a story in which academic colleagues, scientific journal publishers, and even the National Science Foundation act disgracefully. 

The first circulating library was established in England in 1728. It’s no surprise – literacy rates were rising but the cost of books was high (how about a novel for $240?). Maria Grace at English Historical Fiction Authors describes how the circulating library arose.

More Good Reads

British History

Winchcombe and its Royal Connections – Annie Whitehead at English Historical Fiction Authors.

Faith

Hidden Gems – Nathan Young at New Life Middleborough Church.

Poetry

Randburg Harriers Road Race – Joe Spring.

Donald Hall, 1928-2018 – Ernest Hilbert at The New Criterion.

Cyrillona – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

First Listen: Helen Sung, “Snug with Words” (a collaboration with Dana Gioia – NPR. 

Writing and Literature

Searching for Walker Percy – Caroline Roberts at The Acton Institute.

Paul Scott’s “Raj Quartet”: The English “War and Peace” – Eva Brann at The Imaginative Conservative.

Art and Photography

Upon the Water – Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.

Never Enough from The Greatest Showman – Peter Hollens

Painting: Girl Reading at a Window, oil on canvas by Gwen John (1911); Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

“Glass Island” by Gareth Griffith

While it’s not as common as it once was, the use of the term “Dark Ages” had some justification behind it. The period from the fall of Rome to the 700-800s was “dark” because written records had largely ceased to exist. Historical records were carried largely in oral storytelling, through the use of myth and stories. What accounts of the period exist do so in records written 200 to 300 years later. 

After Rome withdrew the last troops and authority from Britain late in the fourth century, the island was subject to repeated invasions that continued off and on until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians, Irish, Scots, and Vikings all found their way to Britain. The Saxons in particular invaded and fought the last of the native Britons; survivors were pushed in Wales, Cornwall, and what came to be called Brittany. What’s known about this period, and especially the 6^thcentury, is what’s been gleaned from archaeology and legends.

One story concerns the Battle of Dyrham, thought to have been fought in 577 A.D. close to the city of Bath. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says three British kinds were killed in the battle, but little is known other than the names listed and the areas they likely ruled. It was a fierce battle, with the British defending and outnumbered by a large Saxon force. 

In the novel Glass Island, author Gareth Griffith builds a story around the battle, and a fascinating one it is. He tells the story of Eleri Gwir, the daughter of Arawn, king of the Summer Land in western England and eastern Cornwall. Arawn and his people face the inevitability of fighting the Saxons, who are drawing ever closer. It is a story about warfare, strategy, diplomacy, and treachery, and suggests that the British were as much defeated by their mutual suspicions and squabbling as they were by the Saxons. 

The novel is also a love story. Eleri Gwir, known as the Truth Speaker, is a close friend with Gwion, the boy she grew up with. But then the Red Cloaks arrive – the descendants of the Romans who are still trying to bring some semblance of authority and stability and fight the Saxons. And she meets their captain Macsen.

Gareth Griffith

It’s a time when the old religion, while never having been fully eradicated by the Romans, is still around to vie with the new Christian religion. Eleri is an adherent of the old religion, with its place gods and its sacred island in the Water Land. The island is known as Ynys-Wydr, or Glass Island (and gives its name to the novel). The interim fights and battles include Eleri and other woman warriors, a tradition known from pre-Roman times.

Griffith was born in Wales and moved to Australia. He’s been a teacher, researcher, and writer, and served as the director of research for the parliament of New South Wales for many years. He’s now focused on writing about Wales and the Dark Ages. 

While we know how the great battle will end for the British, that doesn’t stop Griffith from telling a great story, a great national story, in Glass Island, a story about the original British, what they endured, what they sacrificed, and how a remnant managed to survive. 

Top photograph: The site believed to be that of the Battle of Dyrham, just north of Bath in England. The battle was fought between Britons and Saxons, with the Britons defending the hilltop.

Saturday Good Reads

Some 10 years ago, I attended a training seminar for elders and deacons at church that featured a well-known pastor from Nashville. The surprise was his language and how peppered it was with four-letter profanities. I don’t remember a single idea he articulated, but I remember the profanities. John Piper asks the question we were too polite to ask at the seminar: does profanity make us more relevant (and cool) in reaching the culture?

It’s been building for years, perhaps decades. The humanities in our colleges and universities are in serious trouble. This is no longer the worry of only the conservative side the political spectrum. Eric Bennett, a professor of English at Providence College, lets loose in The Chronicle of Higher Educationand puts the blame squarely where it belongs.

What’s the No. 1 bestselling book in America right now? The 12 Rules for Living by Jordan Peterson. Guess which book doesn’t appear on The New York Times Bestseller List? We’ve known for a long time that the Times doesn’t include “overtly religious” books (they would occupy 9 of the first 10 slots) but Jordan Peterson is not a religious writer. The conservative National Review has the story.

Charity Craig tells a story of a man who went from slave to landowner, Vintage posts photographs from the Work Projects Administration of former slaves in the late 1930s, 18^thcentury missionary David Brainerd has a 300^th birthday, Ann Kroeker suggests you write your own obituary, and more.

Faith

Will Profanity Make Us More Relevant in Reaching Our Culture?– John Piper at Desiring God. 

Heroism Deconstructed: Serving Faithfully through Our Work– Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

Love in Action– Kenneth Kovacs at On the Way.

American History

David Brainerd’s 300^thBirthday– Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition.

Reconsidering William Jennings Bryan– Michael Martin at The Imaginative Conservative.

Portraits of African American Ex-Slaves in the Late 1930s– Vintage. 

1989: A Tale of Three Cities & the End of the Old New World Order– Joseph Mussomeli at The Imaginative Conservative.

Foraging Through History– Charity Singleton Craig.

British History

Shakespeare’s Dark Lady of Spitalfields– Niall McDevitt at Spitalfields Life.

Poetry

The Years Were Patient with Me– Jeanne Murray Walker at Image Journal.

Long Enough– Jim Schmotzer at The Faithful Skeptic.

Dark Dancing– Helen at His Refuge Wings.

Art and Photography

Spring’s Popping– Tim Good at National Geographic / Your Shot.

Life and Culture

Is Modernity a Success?– Alastair Roberts at Alastair’s Adversaria. 

Dear Humanities Profs: We Are the Problem– Eric Bennett at The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Children’s Crusades– Alan Jacobs at Snakes and Ladders.

A Sky of Parchment Made– A.G. Harmon at Image Journal.

The Times’ Best-Seller List: Another Reason Americans Don’t Trust the Media– Dennis Prager at National Review. 

Writing and Literature

Write Your Own Obituary– Ann Kroeker.

The Deepest Dive in Antarctica Reveals a Sea Floor Teeming with Life

Image: Girl Reading, illustration for the cover of Good Housekeeping Magazine by Coles Phillips (1915).