7 – 9th April
Lincoln Cathedral’s 1215 Magna Carta is one of only four surviving originals. Copies of the documents were distributed to sheriffs, to important religious houses and to cathedrals, including Lincoln where the then bishop, Hugh of Wells, had been present at Runnymede in June of that year. The Lincoln Magna Carta has travelled the world, including several trips to America. A new, state of the art, exhibition centre will be opened for this charter and Lincoln’s Charter of the forest at Lincoln Castle, where the charter has been housed since 1993, in 2015, the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.
As part of these 800th celebrations, Lincoln Record Society and the University of Lincoln are delighted to co-sponsor an international conference on Magna Carta at the University of Lincoln on 7-9 April 2015. The conference will include a keynote address from one of the leading scholars on Magna Carta, professor David Carpenter, and academics working in areas of medieval law and society upon which Magna Carta, and the assumptions and myths which grew up around it, had an influence. Delegates will have the option to attend a conference dinner in the Chapter house at Lincoln cathedral on Wednesday night. On Tuesday night it will also be possible to attend a sung evensong at Langton-by-Wragby, home parish of Stephen Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury said to have influenced the terms of the charter. There will be opportunities on Thursday morning to take a walking tour of Lincoln, to visit the Lincoln Cathedral Library or to take a tour of the new display of the Lincoln Magna Carta at Lincoln Cathedral. places on all these events will be limited.