The earliest charter was granted by King John on Sunday 7 August 1205. It confirmed the town's status as a borough, and gave Huntingdon the right to hold a weekly market.

Borough status meant that the town could appeal directly to the King himself in legal disputes, rather than first having to go through local magistrates. It also meant that the town had a definite legal identity of its own, and could use a seal. The application of the seal to the bottom of a written document gave that document the same legal force as a personal signature on a contract.

The advantage to the King was financial, as towns had to pay for their charters. It had long been customary for English rulers to raise cash by granting royal charters to towns, and King John was in dire need of money following the military extravagances of Richard the Lionheart. In the year 1205 King John granted charters to Andover, Ayr, Dover, Hastings, Sandwich, New Romney, Waterford, and Lynn, as well as Huntingdon.

At least sixteen other charters were also granted to Huntingdon after 1205. Most of these charters simply confirmed and consolidated the town's existing rights, but occasionally new rights were granted. The 1349 royal charter, for instance, allowed the borough to build a prison. The 1363 charter allowed the town's officials to confiscate stolen property, a power they made much use of during the 1381 agricultural revolts, which were particularly serious in Huntingdonshire.

The most controversial charter was the one granted in 1630 by King Charles I. For the previous five years the town's annual elections had been marked by violent riots, fought over the issue of whether a bequest of £2,000 should be spent on a series of lectures by the local schoolmaster, or whether it should be spent on the poor. The 1630 charter therefore closed down all elections in Huntingdon on the grounds of public safety, "to prevent and remove all occasions of popular tumult, and to reduce the elections into certainty and constant order." No elections were held in the town for the next two hundred years.

The link in the right-hand column will take you to more detailed notes about all of Huntingdon's charters.