Event Details

Lancaster University History Department presents a free talk by Professor David Carpenter (KCL) and Professor Nicholas Vincent (UEA), who discovered the Appleby Magna Carta.

In May 2025, Cumbria hit the headlines worldwide when two historians announced they had discovered an original Magna Carta once belonging to Appleby.

Professor David Carpenter (KCL) and Professor Nicholas Vincent (UEA) unearthed the document in the collections of the Harvard Law Library. For generations it was thought to be a late copy, but in fact it is an original Magna Carta, issued by King Edward I in 1300.

The document, containing what is generally thought to be the most important and influential text in western history, is extremely rare. It is one of only seven surviving originals from 1300, and one of only twenty-five original Magna Cartas surviving from the various issues and confirmations made across the thirteenth century since 1215.

This Magna Carta is thought to have been issued to the county of Westmorland and was held by the borough of Appleby until it came, through a fascinating series of events, to Harvard in the mid-twentieth century.

In this free talk, Professors Carpenter and Vincent will reveal how the discovery was made and the story of Appleby’s Magna Carta.

David Carpenter and Nicholas Vincent are leading authorities on the history of Britain in the central Middle Ages and on Magna Carta. Via the AHRC’s Magna Carta Project, they have led the way in revolutionising our understanding of the Charter, and have been involved in several major discoveries.

Friday 27th June 20025

Appleby Public Hall

Doors open at 17.00, for a 17.30 start. The event closes at 19.00.

The event is free but registration is essential.