that has not come down to us. Captives were to be released, debts forgiven, good and holy laws maintained. . . . Henry at his coronation, compelled to purchase adherents, granted a charter full of valuable and fairly definite concessions. He was going back to his father's ways. (William I.) . . . Above all the laga Eadwardi as amended by William I. was to be restored.

POLLOCK AND MAITLAND, History of English Law. I. 73.

RANSOME (1895)

Henry's charter is a very important document, for it shows us what were the chief grievances of which nobles and clergy complained, and the way in which they might be remedied.

CYRIL RANSOME, Advanced History of England. 112.

GARDINER (1895)

The charter of Henry I., which had been produced at St. Paul's the year before (1213), was again read, and all present swore to force John to accept it as the rule of his own government.

Magna Charta, or the Great Charter, as the articles were called after John confirmed them, was won by a combination between all classes of freemen, and it gave rights to them all.

S. R. GARDINER, Student's History of England. 181.

CHAPTER II

MAGNA CHARTA (1215)

SUGGESTIONS

1215, was the result of Through the winter

THIS Charter, signed by King John, June 15th, the struggle between the king and the barons. of 1215, the barons had presented themselves in arms before the king, and preferred their claims - a resumption of the old English customs and common law, against which the king was openly defiant. At Easter the barons again renewed their demands. London, Exeter, Lincoln one by one city and county joined the barons in defiance of the king. Unconditional submission followed the discussion of the document; it was agreed upon and signed in a single day. One copy of it still remains in the British Museum.

As Magna Charta forms the basis of all later English and American written statements of free institutions, the document as a whole should be read with care, although many of its articles have ceased to have a direct relation with present history. Each article illuminates the legal and constitutional status of the thirteenth century, and should be examined with that point in mind. Articles 36, 39, and 40, the two fundamental principles of all later constitutional government, should be committed to memory, since they are many times referred to throughout this volume.

For Outlines and Material, see Appendix A.

DOCUMENT

Magna Charta (1215)

THE GREAT CHARTER OF KING JOHN, GRANTED JUNE 15, A. D. 1215.

John, by the Grace of God, King of England, The Statutes Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, 9-13, transof the Realm, I. and Count of Anjou, to his Archbishops, Bishops, literated Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries, Foresters, from E. S. Creasy Sheriffs, Governors, Officers, and to all Bailiffs, and (1853).

his faithful subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, and for the salvation of our soul, and the souls of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of God and the advancement of Holy Church, and amendment of our Realm, by advice of our venerable Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; Henry, Archbishop of Dublin; William, of London; Peter, of Winchester; Jocelin, of Bath and Glastonbury; Hugh, of Lincoln; Walter, of Worcester; William, of Coventry; Benedict, of Rochester Bishops: of Master Pandulph, Sub-Deacon and Familiar of our Lord the Pope; Brother Aymeric, Master of the Knights-Templars in England; and of the noble Persons, William Marescall, Earl of Pembroke ; William, Earl of Salisbury; William, Earl of between 1101 Warren; William, Earl of Arundel; Alan de Galand 1215. loway, Constable of Scotland; Warin FitzGerald, Peter FitzHerbert, and Hubert de Burgh, Seneschal of Poitou; Hugh de Neville, Matthew FitzHerbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip of Albiney, Robert de Roppell, John Mareschal, John FitzHugh, and others, our liegemen, have, in the first place, granted to God, and by this our present Charter confirmed, for us and our heirs for

Note the great in

crease of the baronage

The Church:
see Henry
I.'s Charter,
Art. I.

ever:

1. That the Church of England shall be free, and have her whole rights, and her liberties inviolable; and we will have them so observed that it may appear thence that the freedom of elections, which is reckoned chief and indispensable to the English Church, and which we granted and confirmed by our Charter, and obtained the confirmation of the same from our Lord the Pope Innocent III., before the discord between us and our barons, was granted of mere free will; which Charter we shall observe, and we do will it to be faithfully observed by our heirs for ever.

Henry I.'s
Charter, Art.

2. We also have granted to all the freemen of Reliefs: see our kingdom, for us and for our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and holden by II. them and their heirs, of us and our heirs for ever: If any of our earls, or barons, or others, who hold of us in chief by military service, shall die, and at the time of his death his heir shall be of full age, and owe a relief, he shall have his inheritance by the ancient relief that is to say, the heir or heirs Earl's or of an earl, for a whole earldom, by a hundred relief, £100. pounds; the heir or heirs of a baron, for a whole Knight's barony, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a relief, £5. knight, for a whole knight's fee, by a hundred shillings at most; and whoever oweth less shall give less, according to the ancient custom of fees.

Baron's

I.'s Charter,
Art. III.

3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, Wardship: and shall be in ward, when he comes of age he shall see Henry have his inheritance without relief and without fine. 4. The keeper of the land of such an heir being under age, shall take of the land of the heir none but reasonable issues, reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without destruction and waste of his men and his goods; and if he commit the custody of any such lands to the sheriff, or any other who is answerable to us for the issues of the land, and he shall make destruction and waste of the lands which he hath in custody, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall answer for the issues to us, or to him to whom we shall assign them; and if we sell or give to any one the custody of any such lands, and he therein make destruction or waste, he shall lose the same custody, which shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall in like manner answer to us as aforesaid.

5. But the keeper, so long as he shall have the custody of the land, shall keep up the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills, and other things pertaining

See Henry
I.'s Charter,
Art. III.

The Jews were the king's bondsmen: this is

to the land, out of the issues of the same land; and shall deliver to the heir, when he comes of full age, his whole land, stocked with ploughs and carriages, according as the time of wainage shall require, and the issues of the land can reasonably bear.

6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and so that before matrimony shall be contracted, those who are near in blood to the heir shall have notice.

7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage and inheritance; nor shall she give anything for her dower, or her marriage, or her inheritance, which her husband and she held at the day of his death; and she may remain in the mansion house of her husband forty days after his death, within which time her dower shall be assigned.

8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself, so long as she has a mind to live without a husband; but yet she shall give security that she will not marry without our assent, if she hold of us; or without the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she hold of another.

9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any debt so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to pay the debt; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the principal debtor has sufficient to pay the debt; and if the principal debtor shall fail in the payment of the debt, not having wherewithal to pay it, then the sureties shall answer the debt; and if they will they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor, until they shall be satisfied for the debt which they paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show himself acquitted thereof against the said sureties.

10. If any one have borrowed anything of the Jews, more or less, and die before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no interest paid for that