OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Thursday March 5 we stayed in Salisbury very close to the Avon River which has been experiencing localised flooding. 

Salisbury is a Cathedral city in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 40,302. It is  at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately 20 miles (32 km) from Southampton and 30 miles (48 km) from Bath. The Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. Its main body was completed in 38 years, from 1220 to 1258.

Since 1549, the cathedral has had the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom, at 404 feet (123 m).

The Magna Carta is located in Chapter House, Salisbury Cathedral in a glass cabinet in a darkened tent. It is in the best condition of the four remaining copies. It was penned in 3,500 words of abbreviated Latin on sheepskin.

In 2015 the cathedral celebrated the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede, near Windsor. King John’s ‘Great Charter’ was a bill of rights first drawn up by his rebellious barons and later refined by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

The Magna Carta was designed to regulate the feudal relationship between the King and his subjects who were on a lesser standing than him, ensuring the Crown (and now the State) would act only by recognised procedures. The most famous of the 63 clauses states the fundamental principles  of a fair trial: ‘No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or deprived or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined . . .except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.’ The most significant aspect was that the King was not above the law. 

The Magna Carta survived an initial annulment by the Pope, civil wars and various rewritings. The 1225 version, amended and reissued several times until 1297, still forms the basis of English law.