Story highlights A version of the Magna Carta published in 1300 has apparently been found in an English town

The document was discovered by chance in council archives

Historian Nicholas Vincent said "it's certainly worth in the millions"

(CNN) Just days after four Magna Cartas were united for the first time in 800 years at the British Library in London, another ancient version of the document has been discovered by chance in a medieval coastal town in England.

Mark Bateson, an archivist in Sandwich, southern England, found the previously unknown version of the Magna Carta -- which established the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law -- after historian Nicholas Vincent had asked him to look for a separate document dealing with a local forest that he was researching.





"He wasn't really aware of the fact that they were either rare or that this one was indeed what it purported to be. I think, from his point of view, it was all a bit of a shock," said Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia. After rummaging through a scrapbook of council archives, Bateson found the Forest Charter, a document issued by King Henry III in 1217, as well as a tattered page that he thought looked like the Magna Carta."He wasn't really aware of the fact that they were either rare or that this one was indeed what it purported to be. I think, from his point of view, it was all a bit of a shock," said Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia.

But he says there is no doubt that this is a version of the Magna Carta, or "The Great Charter," that was published in 1300 under the reign of King Edward I. The original document was issued by England's King John in 1215.

The document is badly damaged, with a third of its text and the royal seal of Edward I missing and the back of it firmly stuck down. But despite its deformities, Vincent said it could fetch millions. "It [the damage] probably would interfere with the value of it if someone were foolish enough to sell it," he said. "But I think there's no question of that.

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