Secret Wartime Plan to Give US Magna Carta

The origins of the Magna Carta date back to June 15th 1215 when the then King John applied his seal to the original document at Runnymede on the River Thames near London. Several copies of the Magna Carta were then made and four of these still exist today. One of these treasured copies belongs to Lincoln Cathedral where it is usually on display within the nearby Lincoln Castle. The Magna Carta is also well known and celebrated within the US as it is generally accepted to have been a major influence on the wording of the Bill Of Rights, one of the foundations on which America's democracy is built.

Full background to the history of Magana Carta can be found at Wikipedia.

But it has recently emerged that Winston Churchill wanted to gift Lincoln's copy of Magna Carta to the US as a 'goodwill gesture' likely to garner support for Britain as she faced what appeared to be certain invasion by Nazi Germany. Lincoln's 1215 copy of Magna Carta happened to be in the US at the outbreak of War in Britain. Until recently the plan to gift Lincoln's Magna Carta to the US was unknown as the files containing correspondence were still closed under Britain's secrecy laws.