Most of the celebrations of Magna Carta in 2015 concentrated on it in a more or less exclusively English context. It is the argument of this article that the ideas of Englishmen about society, government and law were much the same as those of other Europeans at the time and that Magna Carta can best be understood in that wider context. Contemporary communities in other kingdoms were also securing charters of liberties. What distinguished Magna Carta was not the character of the liberties it granted, but its length and detail; these, however, reflected not different aspirations, but rather the particularly centralized and demanding character of English royal government.

中文翻译：

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欧洲背景下的大宪章

2015 年《大宪章》的大部分庆祝活动都或多或少地集中在英语环境中。这篇文章的论点是，英国人对社会、政府和法律的看法与当时其他欧洲人的看法大同小异，并且在更广泛的背景下才能最好地理解《大宪章》。其他王国的当代社区也在确保自由宪章。使《大宪章》与众不同的不是它授予的自由的性质，而是它的长度和细节；然而，这些反映的并不是不同的愿望，而是英国王室政府特别集中和苛刻的特征。