The Magna Carta Hoax
The following is the first long-form article that I published. It was a ‘Member Creation’ on johnlebon.com. Originally published 2 May 2019.
In writing the article I followed JLB’s “Primary Source Research Methodology.” I believe it is still free to the public. I would encourage anyone reading this article to read the methodology first.
The process of researching the article was deeply revealing. What I learned does not just apply to the fabricated tales of history but has far wider implications for the stories that we are fed on a daily basis. I don’t want to spoil the surprise but the implications of what I discovered in this piece changed the way I view the world.
The discoveries in the follow-up, The ‘Alfred the Great Hoax,’ were even greater. If you only read one piece, read the ‘Alfred the Great Hoax.’
If anyone finds anything of significance in this piece and its follow up, I would encourage them to start implementing this type of framework in their own inevitable dealings with the wild claims of authority and consensus.
It is all very well reading someone else’s research, but far better to critically examine for oneself.
After I completed the piece I received a reply to an email I had sent to an ‘expert’ in the field. This tied together the whole piece nicely. I include the response highlights as comments below. I would advise you to read the original article first.
And so here it is: The Magna Carta Hoax
For those interested in more history hoax investigations, the two finest researchers are:
This comment was originally made on JLB’s website where the piece was first published. 03 May 2019.
An Immediate update!!
In the section on the 1215 Salisbury engrossement, I noted that it is claimed to have been always present at Salisbury Cathedral. I mentioned that I had emailed the Cathedral Archives and had no reply. Well, I received one a couple of days ago. As the article had already been submitted I saved the email response for a comment but it tied up the whole project for me.
For anyone who has read the article, this is worth a read for the added lulz.
Here is the relevant section of my email:
The email I received back was from a very nice lady called Emily Naish who was the person that discovered the copy of the Magna Carta mentioned in the “13th-century cartulary” which I referenced in my article and in the email I sent. This is relevant as in the article I mentioned this confirming evidence for the provenance of the 1215 engrossment was found just months before the 800th-anniversary celebrations.
As “History Today” puts it:
Emily Naish, the archivist of Salisbury Cathedral, has recently made the important discovery that there is a copy of the text of the surviving Salisbury copy in another manuscript (ff. 5v-7v of the Salisbury Cathedral cartulary, ‘Liber Evidentiarum C’, compiled before 1284). While there has been discussion of the possible date of the Salisbury Magna Carta, there had been, until recently, few serious attempts to identify the location of its scribe and therefore the place where this copy was produced. Further examination of the handwriting of known Salisbury scribes from the first decades of the 13th century convincingly indicates that the Salisbury Magna Carta was written by a scribe from Salisbury Cathedral.
https://www.historytoday.com/scribes-salisbury-magna-carta
The email I have received back from the archivist at Salisbury Cathedral, Emily Naish herself, explains how we can know that the 1215 Salisbury engrossment as having always been present as follows:
This email is even more startling because in all the official history it was rediscovered in 1810 ish. The cathedrals own archivist says this is untrue, they could not even find it in 1810, it was thought lost! The earliest documentary evidence they have for it is in Salisbury Cathedral is in fact 1901!!!
History Today and other sources I checked say that handwriting comparisons to other 13th-century Salisbury scribes convincingly indicate the provenance. The archivist says that this has not happened and the one that person who tried it came up with no matches!
I had asked for evidence that the 13th-century cartulary was also a primary source from then. No evidence has been provided other than to reiterate the claim that it is a 13th-century cartulary which was discovered in the last few years!!!!!!
To my question, if there is documentary evidence of its presence at Salisbury Cathedral throughout the ages, the lovely Miss Naish comments *
Yes, it is an interesting project. I’ve done it. I had thought the earliest was 1810. Turns out it is 1901 and there aren’t any earlier. No one has investigated earlier documentary evidence. Seems strange no one at the archives has bothered to check!
Wonder why?
This episode makes me question even more strongly the tales of rediscovery in the 17th century by Sir Cotton and that any such tales should be rejected as primary sources until we find them actually documented. Which leaves us with the mid-19th century as the earliest date for any of the engrossments.
I just read through this again, its got to be my sixth time now, the follow up email response is still as mind blowing today as it was when I first read it.
I wish you would repost some of the articles from your old site up here I would love to read them again, but I know you are a lazy so and so. lol.
Do you have them available in pdf or Word?