Sir James Holt FBA was Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge, and Master of Fitzwilliam College from 1981-8. He died in 2014. George Garnett is a Fellow and Tutor of St Hugh's College, Oxford. He is the author of Conquered England: Kingship, Succession, and Tenure, 1066-1166, Marsilius of Padua and 'the Truth of History', and The Norman Conquest: A Very Short Introduction. He was also joint editor, with John Hudson, of Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy: Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt. John Hudson is Professor of Legal History at the University of St Andrews and William W. Cook Global Law Professor at University of Michigan Law School. His books include The Formation of the English Common Law and The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Volume 2: 871-1216. He was also joint editor, with George Garnett, of Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy: Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt.

Introduction; 1. The Charter and its history; 2. Government and society in the twelfth century; 3. Privilege and liberties; 4. Custom and law; 5. Justice and jurisdiction; 6. Crisis and civil war; 7. Quasi Pax; 8. The quality of the Great Charter; 9. The achievement of 1215; 10. From distraint to war; 11. The re-issues and the beginning of the myth; Appendices; References; Index.