Magna Carta Country.

On May 24 and 25, Thursday and Friday, my daughter Nancy and I are staying in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England at the Ounce House.

This is only 24 miles from Rattlesden where my 8th great grandfather, Thomas Munson was baptized in 1612. My desire to visit Rattlesden was the spark that led to Nancy and I planning our trip to England.

Bury St Edmunds enters into the history of the Magna Carta. The nobles of England met at the Abbey in Bury St Edmunds in 1214 and swore to demand that King John sign the Magna Carta. 

This is the ruins of the Abbey.

The following year, 1215, King John signed the Magna Carta in Runnymede. This is considered the first  constitutional document that the formed the basis of modern democracy. The Founding Fathers of the United States wrote many parts of the Magna Carta into State Constitutions and the Federal Constitution. One important little item was that no person shall be sentenced to death except by a jury of peers. Seems like a good idea.