Magna Carta (the Great Charter) was remembered in glorious sunshine at a ceremony in Surrey marking the 800th anniversary of the document that heralded the rule of law so important to our democracy.
The event at Runnymede, where King John agreed the original accord in 1215, was attended by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Royal and Duke of Cambridge.
800 years ago the Lord Mayor of the City of London, William Hardell, was appointed to be one of the Enforcers, sometimes called Sureties, of the Magna Carta. As a result a delegation from the City of London including myself attended the ceremony. Also in attendance were the Archbishop of Canterbury (whose predecssor wrote the Magna Carta), senior judges of the UK Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and members of the American Bar Association, which erected a memorial to the charter at Runnymede in the 1950s.
Magna Carta originated as a peace treaty between King John and a group of rebellious barons. However, its influence can be seen in other documents across the world including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.