[MUSIC]So Magna Carta, was reissued inits final definitive form in 1225.And that's when it became,as it were our basic law,the first statute on the statute book.Now what happened to it, after that?What happened to Magna Carta, in the nextquarter of a century, half a century?Well we can answer those questions.By looking at this other document which wehave here, in the Society of Antiquities.This beautiful parchment roll.A very neat transcription,of the 1225 version of the charter.And it tells us a number of things.First of all, the very factthat the charter was copied outon this long roll,tells us that the charter still mattered.We don't know exactly when this copy wasmade, it was almost certainly made forMalvern Wells-Abbey in Worcestershire.But when it was made,we don't really know, buton the evidence of the handwriting,I would guess, perhaps 1230s,1240s, 1250s, within 20 or30 years of 1225.The charter was stillregarded as important.An Abbey wanted to haveits master copy of it.The charter still mattered,that's what this tells us.But, I think it alsotells us something else,because when you look at it closelyyou can see how beautiful it is.It's very neatly written.The initial letters ofthe clauses are coloured.This is a show piece copy.And note how beautifully preserved it is.The parchment is not discolored.It's immaculate.We're looking at it asit must have looked.When it was written.Now what that tells us,is that it was a document drawn up,as much as a showpiece asa practical working document.I don't think this copy of the charterwas actually used very much.The charter was on its way tobecoming a document more ofsymbolic than of actual, practical use.And that sums up forus I think, the significance ofthe charter in the first centuryof its history after 1225.Initially yes, it was useful.People wanted to have their copy of it.So, this copy for example,I think was probably used.But it was a documentvery much of its time.It dealt with issues that matteredto people in 1215, in 1225.But by 1250, 1270, 1300,things had moved on.It dealt with yesterday's issues,not today's issues.Increasingly over time,it was through the assertion of the powerof the Parliamentary Commons, thatthe rights of the individual against thestate were to be entrenched and embedded.Magna Carta, yes, it still mattered.It was of enormous symbolic importance.It was a document thatwas regarded as iconic.But as a source of practicalhelp to the individual,it was increasingly over taken by events.It became a relic of the historic past.