“Celebrate” the Magna Carta

As “we” have the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta and on June 15th it was 800 years since it was signed, there have been celebrations in the city.  I can’t really imagine why.  King John appealed to the pope and tore it up within 3 months and most of it is now totally irrelevant.  The copy is written in Mediaeval Latin and uses abbreviations that most of us cannot understand so we can’t actually read it.  I believe 2 clauses still have relevance:  one saying in effect that the king is not above the law and the other that freemen must be judged by their peers – in effect trial by jury.  The second would, at the time, not have applied to the vast majority of people who were peasants and almost certainly not to women.  I am told that all this (eventually) led to our democratic system and fair trials.  Maybe – but it took a long time and a lot of other things before it got there.

The big celebration was a “pageant” through the streets of the city……

Start of the pageant procession
Start of the pageant procession

…..to the Cathedral on the evening of the 15th.  Each of the community areas of Wiltshire had…….

....a puppet baron.....
….a puppet baron…..
...although I thought Royal Wootton Bassett's looked more like a king (King John?)....
…although I thought Royal Wootton Bassett’s looked more like a king (King John?)….

…….and paraded them through the streets with…..

.....banners....
…..banners….
.....with designs appropriate to the area....
…..with designs appropriate to the area….

……and…….

....."music".....
…..”music”…..
.......of sorts.
…….of sorts.

There were also various other……..

......acts......
……acts……
......displays......
……displays……
.....historical representations......
…..historical representations……
.......amusements....
…….amusements…..
.......and delights.
…….and delights.

There were some interesting things represented.

Bit different
Bit different

They finished in the Close, where there were speeches and music and (after a long wait for it to be dark enough, I am told) a firework display.  I watched the procession, but didn’t go on to the last part as I had a busy day next day.  It was quite fun.

There have been 25 “barons”……..

A Baron
A Baron

………placed at various points around the city – they have all been painted by local people and come in a variety of designs.  They were apparently “delivered” by the fire service on the night between the 11th and 12th June.

Fire Station Baron - front
Fire Station Baron – front…
.....and back.
…..and back.

There is a trail to follow to see them all and I saw many as I have gone about as normal.  Some were relevant to the place they were in, such as…….

Salisbury Market Baron
Salisbury Market Baron

….but others showed different Salisbury features, such as the one showing the story of…..

......shooting an arrow from Old Sarum....
……shooting an arrow from Old Sarum….

……..to find the place to build the new Cathedral.  Some were quite amusing such as the back of Busy Bee Baron, showing……

.....a monk resting under a tree.
…..a monk resting under a tree.

Tom. a friend of mine, painted……

......the Runnymede Baron.......
……the Runnymede Baron…….

……that was actually relevant to…..

.....the signing of the Magna Carta....
…..the signing of the Magna Carta.

Someone else I knew painted a baron representing……..

.....the peregrine falcons...
…..the peregrine falcons…

…….that nest on the Cathedral.  Both said how long it took – but then it was equivalent to 2 large pictures.  The varnish on the top was also a bit of a problem, causing smudging in some cases.

I used the afternoon of bank holiday Monday to look at the remaining 8, visiting some places that I have never been before despite having lived here for over 20 years!  There were some I hated and some beautiful ones and some that were just OK.  The one painted by Terry Pratchett’s illustrator was good (if not relevant to anything much!) and was supposed to look like…..

.....Terry Pratchett from the front......
…..Terry Pratchett from the front……

…….and the back showed illustrations of…..

.....the Disc World characters.
…..the Disc World characters.

Schools produced smaller barons which were displayed in the Cathedral for a while.  The larger ones will be auctioned on 1st October for the Trussell Trust.

And so…?  Well, I am not convinced that either the pageant or the barons had much to do with the Magna Carta but they were both quite fun and provided things to entertain tourists to the city – as well as locals.  There do seem to have been more tourists this year which hopefully has been good for local businesses, although is quite annoying when one is trying to do ones shopping!

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