… King John bowed to pressure from the rebellious barons and assented to the demands of the barons at Runnymede. For the first time in English history a king had agreed to limit his own power. As importantly, his assent was agreed in writing in the Magna Carta (which means 'Great Charter'). The physical document meant that the details could be widely distributed and remembered. The importance of the event was apparent immediately, but the long-term consequences across the centuries were unforeseen. Four hundred years later the Magna Carta was used as a crucial political weapon in the fight between Parliament and Charles I during the English Civil War.

He fell from one state of anxiety to the next and worried himself almost to death with hypochondriacal mopings.

He fussed the cat.

On the forecover of the Fine Binding is the Crown of England in Mosaic, a large Shield of Red levant containing the “White Rose of York” and a White Shield with the “Red Rose of Lancaster,” each surmounted by a Heraldic Lion.