Magna Carta (1215) and the Charte aux Normands (1315): Some Anglo-Norman Connections and Correspondences

The present year marks the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, with celebrations held across the English speaking world. There is a major British Library exhibition, a major government-sponsored research project <http://magnacarta.cmp.uea.ac.uk> and certainly as much rejoicing in Washington or Canberra as there will be in London or, on 15 June, at Runnymede itself. Much less feted is the second of this year’s great legal anniversaries. Yet 19 March 2015 marked the 700th anniversary of a document that, in the history of the Channel Islands, ranks second only to Magna Carta in terms of its longer-term significance. It was Louis X’s Charte aux normands, issued in March 1315, more or less exactly a century after Runnymede, that confirmed the special privileges of the men of Normandy, confirming their right to be judged according to their own customs, and their liberty from arbitrary taxation imposed by the kings of France.