Runnymede including the Magna Carta Memorial and Magna Carta Island where in 1215, King John was forced to meet the powerful barons and seal the historic document.
We visit the Runnymede Memorial near the river, commemorating the day in 1215 when King John faced the barons and was forced to put his seal on the document which became the very first Bill of Rights and from which our vessel takes its name. This charter established the principle of constitutional monarchy and affirmed the individual's right to justice and liberty. The American Constitution is based on the Magna Carta. To commemorate this the American Bar Association erected a memorial on the hillside overlooking the water meadows in 1957. Nearby on an acre of ground given to the USA by Her Majesty The Queen, a memorial to the memory of President John F. Kennedy was erected in 1965. Also at Runnymede is a memorial erected as a tribute to "the men and women of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth who lost their lives in the Second World War and who have no known grave."
www.europeanwaterways.com/