The Great Charter is the first great public act of the nation, after it has realised its own identity: the consummation of the work for which unconsciously kings, prelates, and lawyers have been labouring for a century. There is not a word in it that recalls the distinctions of race and blood, or that maintains the differences of English and Norman law. It is in one view the summing up of a period of national life, in another the starting-point of a new, not less eventful, period than that which it closes.

— William Stubbs The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, Vol. I (1874)

More quotes by William Stubbs

Lectures on Early English History (1906)

The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, Vol. I (1874)

Lectures on Early English History (1906)

The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, Vol. I (1874)

The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, Vol. I (1874)

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