- In 2018 Mark Royden attacked the Salisbury Cathedral copy of the Magna Carta with a hammer.
- American tourists were among the bystanders who stopped the attack and detained Royden.
In National Treasure, Nicolas Cage gazes down at the Declaration of Independence. He vows to steal it, to protect it from evil treasure hunters. It’s one of the weirdest Nicolas Cage movies, in the sense that it’s just so–mainstream. Glossy. Family-friendly. If you have taste, you may not be familiar with the plot, so here’s a quick primer.
Nicolas Cage is a descendent of a lengthy line of American history aficionados and treasure hunters. He believes the freemasons hid a massive treasure somewhere in the original 13 colonies. Documents from history contain secret clues, like the Silence Dogood letters, the Declaration of Independence, and the dollar bill. The movie title, National Treasure, is literally about some treasure, and also figuratively about what a gift Nicolas Cage’s acting career is.
A Less Farfetched Plot That It Seems
Based on a quick skim of Wikipedia, the Magna Carta has similar significance to the British as our Declaration of Independence has to us. It establishes British democracy and establishes that the king is subject to the rule of law.
In a case of life imitating art, a love of history drove Mark Royden to try to steal the Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral. His goal was to prove it was a fake. However, Royden’s attempt showed less grace than the caper in National Treasure. He took a claw hammer to the display case, which cost the cathedral £15,000 to repair.
The attempt took place back in 2018 (14 years after the release of National Treasure). Just this week, a judge just sentenced Roydento four years in prison for his “determined attempt on a document of huge historical importance.” It was a group of passionate bystanders who defended history and thwarted Royden’s attempts. Namely, tourists, church staff, and stonemasons detained Royden until the police arrived. Those masons seem to pop up in these stories about historical documents, don’t they?
Americans Snapped into Action
In fact, two Americans were part of the team to thwart Royden. Matthew Delcambre, a professor at the University of Louisiana and his wife were on vacation in the Cotswolds and stopped by Salisbury Cathedral.
“The fire alarm went off when my wife saw a man walking out of the disabled bathroom with a hammer towards the chapter house,” Delcambre told the UL school paper.
He chased after Royden while his wife alerted church staff. Reading his interview with The Vermillion, he sounds an awful lot like National Treasure’s Nicolas Cage.
“We have to make decisions that we think are right and wrong and we just have to be prepared to stand for those decisions.”