The Magna Carta is widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy. (National Archives and Records Administration)

The Magna Carta, the almost 800-year-old Great Charter of Liberty, may be paying a visit to Winnipeg.

Issued in the year 1215, when it was signed by King John in England, the Magna Carta is the first document to limit the monarchy and enshrine the rights of the people.

A group of rebellious barons forced him to sign the document, in which he agreed to renounce certain rights and accept that the king's will could be bound by the law.

The document is considered a foundation of modern democracy.

When the Queen visits Manitoba on Saturday, she will bring a stone from the field where the Magna Carta was signed.

She will then dedicate the stone, which will form the cornerstone of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, set to open in 2012 at The Forks national historic market in Winnipeg.

Dwight MacAuley, Manitoba's protocol chief, says there is a good chance the stone and an original version of the historic document could be reunited at that time — albeit just briefly.

"I have been working on this for a long time …," MacAuley said Wednesday. "Am I optimistic? Very. But it's not done till it's done."

The province has asked to have it on loan for three months, the longest period allowed, and have it on display at the Manitoba legislature.

There are many copies, but only four considered to have been made at the time of the signing have survived.