Coffee Morning: It's hammer time!
A project manager and priceless charter...
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Popping in early this week with another Coffee Morning and a quick piece on a more recent event for us to natter about. I'm going to be away for a good few days in the South-West, where I'll be leading tours of Wells, Salisbury, and Winchester cathedrals for Andante Travels. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. Do not fear, I shall keep you updated and post lots of pics.
So, excuse the awful pun of today’s title, and please enjoy…
When soon-to-be cathedral project manager, Elias of Dereham, witnessed King John seal Magna Carta back at Runnymede in 1215, before delivering one of the engrossments (copies) to Old Sarum cathedral, little did he know that just over 1,000 years later, someone would venture to poach his special delivery.
Shortly before 5pm on 25 October 2018, alarms at Salisbury Cathedral were sounded when forty-five-year-old Mark Royden struggled to smash his way through the glass box encasing one of only four surviving copies. Brandishing a hammer and draped in a hood, the lone intruder managed to wield three single blows to the protective casing, before being wrestled to the ground by cathedral staff as he attempted to flee. As the hammer hurtled to the intricately tiled nineteenth-century Minton pavement of the Chapter House where the document resided, his hands were forcefully thrown behind his back—as the surrounding sculptural figures of the sixty Old Testament frieze scenes looked on at the commotion in muted stony judgment.
Although claiming he doubted the document’s authenticity—declaring:
“You can’t talk to me about the holy grail so to speak, if you find a bag on the floor which says cocaine on it, you would have to test that bag forensically, as for your holy grail, you would need a carbon test and a trace element test!”
(yes, he really said that!), perhaps Royden’s puerile attempt was to reduce the ‘Great Charter’ to nothing but a crumbling relic, redundant in law and practice, and akin to the fantastical reputation of the iconic Holy Grail (the alleged cup used by Christ during the Last Supper then employed to collect his flowing blood at the crucifixion), which can be owed, in part, to the dramatic fictionalised tales of Dan Brown, not to mention the trials and tribulations of the risible Python posse and that elusive killer rabbit! In reality, the determination and passion displayed by the cathedral workers that autumnal day were a clear illustration of England’s, as well as the Church’s, freedoms and rights secured by that very parchment. Indeed, Royden was certainly not seized nor was force proceeded with against him, without lawful judgement—and he received a fair trial resulting in a fine and imprisonment. All thanks to the document Dereham delivered to the old cathedral a millennium earlier—and which, ironically, Royden endeavoured to destroy.
I’m eager to read your thoughts below. And do pop your questions for me on this or anything at all there, too—I will respond in the next podcast.
And a huge thanks to all my lovely Eccesiasticals (yes, that’s apparently our name now—you chose it 🤣)! You’re blooming awesome! More to come this week…
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Although I wasn't there on the day that it happened, I certainly know the people who were and the psychological impact that the incident caused. The irony is that Magna Carta is one of several early charters that in part mapped out freedoms that today we take for granted and that are enshrined in our laws. The attack on the charter has a symbolism that was lost on the very sad man who took his hammer to the display case. The smashed case went on display afterwards and drew more attention than Magna Carta itself! I have often wondered what that says about us in the 21st Century.