Magna Carta Island

Small Thames island opposite Runnymede, traditionally linked to the sealing of Magna Carta. Three Men in a Boat ends its Runnymede daydream with the royal barges grounding on its bank.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Three Men in a Boat	Jerome K. Jerome	subject	The narrator’s daydream ends with the barges grating against the island ‘that from this day will bear the name of Magna Charta Island’.

Three Men in a Boat — Jerome K. Jerome (1889)

Source: Exploration of Three Men in a Boat · Three Men in a Boat · Original · Readwise highlight

they grate against the bank of the little island that from this day will bear the name of Magna Charta Island.

• Role: subject
• In the book: The climax of the narrator’s 1215 reverie: the barges carrying King John and the barons work upstream from Runnymede and ground on the little island, where the Charter is sealed. The next day the friends visit the island and its cottage.
• Why it matters: It gives the Runnymede chapter its endpoint and turns a minor island into the scene of the book’s grand historical moment.