OUR LEGAL HERITAGE The first thousand years: 600 - 1600 King AEthelbert - Queen Elizabeth

Part 3 out of 7

19) They may grind their grain wherever they may choose.

20) They may have their reasonable guilds, as well or better than
they had themin the time of Robert and his son William [John's
wife's grandfather and father, who were earls of Gloucester when
the town and castle of Bristol were part of the honor of
Gloucester].

21) No burgess may be compelled to bail any man, unless he
himself chooses it, although he may be dwelling on his land.

We have also granted to them all their tenures, messuages, in
copses, in buildings on the water or elsewhere to be held in
free burgage [tenant to pay only certain fixed services or
payments to his lord, but not military service (like free
socage)]. We have granted also that any of them may make
improvements as much as he can in erecting buildings anywhere on
the bank and elsewhere, as long as the borough and town are not
damaged thereby. Also, they shall have and possess all waste
land and void grounds and places, to be built on at their
pleasure.

Newcastle-on-Tyne's taxes were simplified in 1175 as follows:

"Know ye that I have granted and by this present charter have
confirmed to my burgesses of Newcastle upon Tyne, and to all
their things which they can assure to be their own, acquittance
from toll and passage and pontage and from the Hanse and from
all other customs throughout all my land. And I prohibit all
persons from vexing or disturbing them therein upon forfeiture to
me."

We grant to our upright men on Newcastle-on-Tyne and their heirs
our town of Newcastle-on-Tyne with all its appurtances at fee
farm for 100 pounds to be rendered yearly to us and our heirs at
our Exchequer by their own hand at the two terms, to wit, at
Easter 50 pounds and at Michaelmas 50 pounds, saving to us our
rents and prizes and assizes in the port of the same town.

Ranulph, earl of Chester, made grants to his burgesses of
Coventry by this charter: "That the aforesaid burgesses and
their heirs may well and honorably quietly and in free burgage
hold of me and my heirs as ever in the time of my father and
others of my ancestors they have held better more firmly and
freer. In the second place I grant to them all the free and good
laws which the burgesses of Lincoln have better and freer. I
prohibit and forbid my constables to draw them into the castle
to plead for any cause, but they may freely have their portimote
[leet court] in which all pleas belonging to me and them may be
justly treated of. Moreover they may choose from themselves one
to act for me whom I approve, who a justice under me and over
them may know the laws and customs, and keep them to my counsel
in all things reasonable, every excuse put away, and may
faithfully perform to me my rights. If any one happen to fall
into my amercement he may be reasonably fined by my bailiff and
the faithful burgesses of the court. Furthermore, whatever
merchants they have brought with them for the improvement of the
town, I command that they have peace, and that none do them
injury or unjustly send them into court. But if any foreign
merchant shall have done anything improper in the town that same
may be regulated in the portimote before the aforesaid justice
without a suit at law."

Henry confirmed this charter of the earl's by 1189 as follows: I
have confirmed all the liberties and free customs the earl of
Chester granted to them, namely, that the same burgesses may
well and honorably hold in free burgage, as ever in the time of
the father of the beforesaid earl, or other of his ancestors,
they may have better or more firmly held; and they may have all
the laws and customs which the citizens of Lincoln have better
and freer [e.g. their merchant guilds; all men brought to trade
may be subject to the guild customs and assize of the town;
those who lawfully hold land in the town for a year and a day
without question and are able to prove that an accuser has been
in the kingdom within the year without finding fault with them,
from thence may hold the land well and in peace without
pleading; those who have remained in the town a year and a day
without question, and have submitted to the customs of the town
and the citizens of the town are able to show through the laws
and customs of the town that the accuser stood forth in the
kingdom, and not a fault is found of them, then they may remain
in peace in the town without question]; and that the constable of
the aforesaid earl shall not bring them into the castle to plead
in any case. But they may freely have their own portmanmote in
which all pleas appertaining to the earl and to them may be
justly treated of. Moreover they may choose one from themselves
to act for the earl, whom I approve, who may be a justice under
the earl and over them, and who to the earl may faithfully
perform his rights, and if anyone happen to fall into the earl's
forfeiture he shall be acquit for 12 pence. If by the testimony
of his neighbors he cannot pay 12 pence coins, by their advice
it shall be so settled as he is able to pay, and besides, with
other acquittances, that the burgesses shall not provide anything
in corrody [allowance in food] or otherwise whether for the
said earl or his men, unless upon condition that their chattels
shall be safe, and so rendered to them.

Furthermore, whatever merchants they have brought with them for
the improvement of the town they may have peace, and none shall
do them injury or unjustly send them into suit at law. But if
any foreign merchant has done anything improper in the town that
shall be amended [or tried] in the portmanmote before the
aforesaid justice without a suit. And they who may be newcomers
into the town, from the day on which they began to build in the
town for the space of two years shall be acquit of all charges.

Mercantile privileges were granted to the shoemakers in Oxford
thus: "Know ye that I have granted and confirmed to the corvesars
of Oxford all the liberties and customs which they had in the
time of King Henry my grandfather, and that they have their
guild, so that none carry on their trade in the town of Oxford,
except he be of that guild. I grant also that the cordwainers who
afterwards may come into the town of Oxford shall be of the same
guild and shall have the same liberties and customs which the
corvesars have and ought to have. For this grant and
confirmation, however, the corvesars and cordwainers ought to
pay me every year an ounce of gold."

A guild merchant for wool dominated and regulated the wool trade
in many boroughs. In Leicester, only guildsmen were permitted to
buy and sell wool wholesale to whom they pleased or to wash
their fells in borough waters. Certain properties, such as those
near running water, essential to the manufacture of wool were
maintained for the use of guild members. The waterwheel was a
technological advance replacing human labor whereby the cloth was
made more compact and thick, "fulled". The waterwheel turned a
shaft which lifted hammers to pound the wet cloth in a trough.
Wool packers and washers could work only for guild members. The
guild fixed wages, for instance to wool wrappers and flock
pullers. Strangers who brought wool to the town for sale could
sell only to guild members. A guildsman could not sell wool
retail to strangers nor go into partnership with a man outside
the guild. Each guild member had to swear the guildsman's oath,
pay an entrance fee, and subject himself to the judgment of the
guild in the guild court, which could fine or suspend a man from
practicing his trade for a year. The advantages of guild
membership extended beyond profit in the wool trade. Members
were free from the tolls that strangers paid. They alone were
free to sell certain goods retail. They had the right to share in
any bargain made in the presence of a guildsman, whether the
transaction took place in Leicester or in a distant market. In
the general interest, the guild forbade the use of false weights
and measures and the production of shoddy goods. It maintained a
wool-beam for weighing wool. It also forbade middlemen from
profiting at the expense of the public. For instance, butchers'
wives were forbidden from buying meat to sell again in the same
market unless they cooked it. The moneys due to the King from
the guilds of a town were collected by the town reeve.

A baron could assemble an army in a day to resist any perceived
misgovernment by a King. Armed conflict did not interfere much
with daily life because the national wealth was still composed
mostly of flocks and herds and simple buildings. Machinery,
furniture, and the stock of shops were still sparse. Life would
be back to normal within a week.

Henry wanted to check this power of the barons. So he restored
the older obligation of every freeman to serve in defense of the
realm, which was a military draft. At the King's call, barons
were to appear in mail suit with sword and horse, knights in
coat of mail with shield and lance, freeholders with lance and
hauberk [coat of armor], burgesses and poorer freemen with lance
and helmet, and such as millers with pike and leather shirt. The
master of a household was responsible for every villein in his
household. Others had to form groups of ten and swear obedience
to the chief of the group. This was implemented in a war with
France.

However, the nobility who were on the borders of the realm had to
maintain their private armies for frequent border clashes. The
other nobility now tended towards tournaments with mock battles
between two sides.

A new land tax replaced the Danegeld tax. Freeholders of land
paid taxes according to their plowable land ("hidage", by the
hide, and later "carucage", by the acre). It was assessed and
collected for the King by knights with little or no
remuneration. The villein class, which in theory included the
boroughs, paid a tax based on their produce ("tallage").
Merchants were taxed on their personal property, which was
determined by an inquest of neighbors. Clergy were also taxed.
This new system of taxation increased the royal income about
threefold.

At the end of this period was the reign of King John, a short
man. After his mother Eleanor's death, John ruled without her
influence. He had a huge appetite for money. He imposed levies
on the capital value of all personal and moveable goods. (This
idea was taken from the tenth of rents and income from moveable
goods which had been imposed for King Richard II's crusade to
recover Jerusalem. It began the occasional subsidies called
"tenths and fifteenths" from all people on incomes from
moveables.) He sold the wardships of minors and the marriages of
heiresses to the highest bidder, no matter how base. He appointed
unprincipled men to be both sheriff and justice, enabling them
to blackmail property holders with vexatious writs and false
accusations. Writs were withheld or sold at exorbitant prices.
Crushing penalties were imposed to increase the profits of
justice. The story of Robin Hood portrays John's attempt to gain
the crown prematurely while Richard was on the Crusades to
recover Jerusalem for Christendom. In 1213, strong northern
barons refused a royal demand for scutage, arguing that the
amount was not within custom or otherwise justified. John's
heavy-handed and arbitrary rule quickly alienated all sectors of
the population. They joined the barons to pressure him to sign
the Magna Carta correcting his abuses. For instance, since John
had extracted many heavy fines from barons by personally
adjudging them blameworthy in disputes with others, the barons
wanted judgment by their peers under the established law of the
courts. In arms, the barons confronted John demanding that he
sign the Magna Carta correcting his abuses, which he did.

The Law

The peace of the sheriff still exists for his shire. The King's
peace may still be specially given, but it will cease upon the
death of the King.

Law required every good and lawful man to be bound to follow the
hue and cry when it was raised against an offender who was
fleeing. The village reeve was expected to lead the chase to the
boundary of the next jurisdiction, which would then take the
responsibility to catch the man.

No one, including the lord of a manor, may take land from anyone
else, for instance, by the customary process of distress,
without a judgment from the Royal Court. This did not apply to
London, where a landlord leasing or renting land could take
distress in his fee.

No one, including the lord of a manor, shall deprive an heir of
the land possessed by his father, i.e. his birthright.

A tenant may marry off a daughter unless his lord shows some just
cause for refusing to consent to the marriage. A tenant had to
pay an "aid" to his lord when the lord's daughter married, when
the lord's son was knighted, or when the lord's person was
ransomed.

A man [or woman] may not will away his land, but he may sell it
during his lifetime.

The land of a knight or other tenant of a military fee is
inherited by his eldest son. The socage land of a free sokeman
goes by its ancient custom before the Norman Conquest.

If a man purchased land after his marriage, his wife's dower is
still one-third of the land he had when they married, or less if
he had endowed her with less. But he could then enlarge her
dower to one-third of all of his lands. The same rule applied if
the man had no land, but endowed his wife with chattel or money
instead.

Dower law prevented a woman from selling her dower during the
life of her husband. But he could sell it or give it away. On
his death, its possessor had to give the widow the equivalent
worth of the property.

A widower had all his wife's lands by curtesy of the nation for
his lifetime to the exclusion of her heirs.

The Capital Messuage [Chief Manor] could not be given in dower or
divided, but went in its entirety to its heir.

Heirs were firstly sons, then daughters, then grandsons per
stirpes, then granddaughters per stirpes, then brothers, and
then sisters of the decedent. Male heirs of land held by
military service or sons of knights who were under the age of
twenty-one were considered to be in custody of their lords. The
lord had wardship over the heir's land, excluding the third that
was the widow's dower for her life. He had to maintain the heir
in a manner suitable to his dignity and restore to him when he
came of age his inheritance in good condition discharged from
debts. Male heirs of sokemen who were under the age of fifteen
were in the custody of their nearest kindred. The son of a
burgess came of age when he could count money, measure cloth,
and manage his father's concerns.

Female heirs remained in the custody of their lords until they
married. The lord was bound to find a marriage for his ward when
she became fourteen years of age and then deliver her
inheritance to her. She could not marry without her lord's
consent, because her husband was expected to be the lord's ally
and to do homage to him. But if a female heir lost her
virginity, her inheritance escheated to her lord.

Bastards were not heirs, even if their father married their
mother after their birth.

Any adult inheriting land had to pay a "relief" to the lord of
the land. For a knight's fee, this was 100s. For socage land,
this was one year's value. The amount for a barony depended upon
the King's pleasure.

Heirs (but not widows) were bound to pay the debts of their
fathers and ancestors. A man who married a woman who had
inherited land could not sell this land without the consent of
its heirs.

When a man dies, his wife shall take one-third and his heirs
shall take one- third of his chattels [moveables]. The other
third he may dispose of by will. If he had no heirs and no will
[intestate], all his chattels would escheat to his lord. Any
distribution of chattels would take place after all the
decedent's debts were paid from the property.

A will required two witnesses. The testator could name an
executor, but if he did not, the next of kin was the executor. A
will could not be made by a man on his death bed because he may
well have lost his memory and reason. Also, he could not give to
a younger son if in so doing, he would deprive his lawful heir.
But he could give a marriage gift to a daughter regardless of the
lawful heir.

Usury was receiving back more than what was lent, such as
interest on a loan of money. When a usurer died, all his
moveables went to the King.

A villein may not buy his own freedom (because all that he has is
his lord's), but may be set free by his lord or by someone else
who buys his freedom for him. He shall also be freed if the lord
seduced his wife, drew his blood, or refused to bail him either
in a civil or criminal action in which he was afterwards
cleared. But a freed villein did not have status to plead in
court, even if he had been knighted. If his free status were
tried in court, only a freeman who was a witness to his being
set free could avail himself of the duel to decide the issue.
However, if the villein remained peacefully in a privileged town
a year and a day and was received into its guild as a citizen,
then he was freed from villeinage in every way.

A freeman who married a villein lost his freedom. If any parent
of a child was a villein, then the child was also a villein.

All shipwrecked persons shall be treated with kindness and none
of their goods or merchandise shall be taken from them.

If one kills another on a vessel, he shall be fastened to the
dead body and thrown with it into the sea.

If one steals from another on a vessel, he shall be shaven,
tarred and feathered, and turned ashore at the first land.

Passage on the Thames River may not be obstructed by damming up
the river on each side leaving a narrow outlet to net fish. All
such wears shall be removed.

Judicial Procedure

Henry II wanted all freemen to be equally protected by one system
of law and government. So he opened his court, the Royal Court,
to all people of free tenure. A court of five justices
professionally expert in the law sat in permanence, traveled
with the King, and on points of difficulty consulted with him.
Other professional justices, on eyre [journey], appeared
periodically in all shires of the nation. They came to perform
many tasks besides adjudging civil and criminal pleas, including
promulgating and enforcing new legislation, seeking out
encroachments on royal rights, reviewing the local communities'
and officials' performance of their public duties, imposing
penalties for failure to do them or for corruption, gathering
information about outlaws and non- performance of homage, and
assessing feudal escheats to the Crown, wardships to which the
King was entitled, royal advowsons, feudal aids owed to the King,
tallages of the burgesses, and debts owed to the Jews. assessing
feudal escheats to the Crown, wardships to which the King was
entitled, royal advowsons, feudal aids owed to the King,
tallages of the burgesses, and debts owed to the Jews; The
decision-making of justices in eyre begins the process which
makes the custom of the Royal Court the common law of the
nation. The shire courts, where the travelling justices heard
all manner of business in the shires, adopted the doctrines of
the Royal Court, which then acquired an appellate jurisdiction.
The three royal courts and justices in eyre all drew from the
same small group of royal justices.

Henry erected a basic, rational framework for legal processes
which drew from tradition but lent itself to continuous
expansion and adaptation.

The Royal Court was chiefly concerned with 1) the due regulation
and supervision of the conduct of local government, 2) the
ownership and possession of land held by free tenure, 3) the
repression of serious crime, and 4) the relations between the
lay and the ecclesiastical courts.

The doctrine of tenure applied universally to the land law formed
the basis for judicial procedure in determining land rights.
Those who held lands "in fee" from the King in turn
subinfeudated their land to men of lesser rank. The concept of
tenure covered the earl, the knight (knight's service), the
church (frank-almoin [free alms]), the tenant who performed
labor services, and the tenant who paid a rent (socage). Other
tenures were: serjeanty [providing an implement of war or
performing a nonmilitary office] and burgage. All hold the land
of some lord and ultimately of the King.

Henry was determined to protect lawful seisin of land and issued
assizes [legal promulgations] giving the Royal Court authority
to decide land law issues which had not been given justice in
the shire or lord's court. These included issues of disseisin
[ejectment] of a person's free tenement or of his common of
pasture which belonged to his freehold. The writ praecipe
directed the sheriff to order the overlord of any land seized to
restore it immediately or answer for his failure in the royal
court. Though this petty assize of disseisin only provided a
swift preliminary action to protect possession pending the
lengthy and involved action [grand assize] on the issue of which
party had the more just claim or ultimate right of seisin, the
latter action was only infrequently invoked. The temptation of a
strong man to seize a neighbor's land to reap its profits for a
long time until the neighbor could prove and enforce his right
was deterred. Any such claim of recent dispossession [novel
disseisin] had to be made within three years of the disseisin.

An assize [now a judicial body] of recognition viewed the land in
question and answered these questions of fact: 1) Was the
plaintiff disseised of the freeholdin question, unjustly and
without judgment? 2) Did the defendant commit the disseisin?
Testimony of a warrantor (or an attorney sent by him in his
place) or a charter of warranty served to prove seisin by gift,
sale, or exchange. No pleadings were necessary and the action
could proceed and judgment given even without the presence of
the defendant. The justices amerced the losing party with a
monetary penalty. A successful plaintiff might be awarded
damages to compensate for the loss of revenue. Eventually royal
justices acquired authority to decide the ultimate question of
right to land using the grand assize and the alternative of an
assize instead of the traditional procedures which ended in
trial by battle.

There was also a writ for issues of inheritance of land. By law
the tenure of a person who died seised of a tenure in a lord's
demesne which was hereditary [seisin of fee] returned to the
lord, who had to give it to the heir of the decedent. If the
lord refused and kept it for himself or gave it to someone else,
the heir could sue in the Royal Court, which would decide whether
the ancestor was seised as of fee in his demesne, if the
plaintiff was the nearest heir, and whether the ancestor had
died, gone on a crusade but not returned, or had become a monk.

Issues of seisin were brought to the Royal Court by a contestant
in a local court who "put himself [or herself] upon the King's
grand assize". Then his action would be removed to the Royal
Court. The assize would consist of twelve knights from the
district who were elected by four knights and who were known as
truthful men and who were likely to possess knowledge of the
facts.

The tenant could object to any of the twelve knights for just
cause as determined by the court. Each of the twelve gave an
oath as to whether the plaintiff's or the defendant's position
was correct. If any did not know the truth of the matter, others
were found until twelve agreed [the recognitors] in favor of one
side. Perjury was punished by forfeiture of all one's goods and
chattels to the King and at least one year's imprisonment.

Alternately, the tenant-defendant could still chose trial by
duel. A duel was fought between the parties or their champions.
The losing party of a duel had to pay a fine of 60s.

However, if the parties were relatives, neither the assize nor
the duel was available to them, but the matter had to be decided
by the law of inheritance. Nor was burgage tenure usually
decided by assize.

This assize procedure extended in time to all other types of
civil actions.

Also removable to the Royal Court from the shire courts were
issues of a lord's claim to a person as his villein (duel not
available), service or relief due to a lord, dower rights, a
creditor's refusal to restore a gage [something given as
security] to a debtor who offered payment or a deposit, money due
to a lender, a seller, or a person to whom one had an obligation
under a charter, fish or harvest or cattle taken from lands
unjustly occupied, cattle taken from pasture, rights to enjoy a
common, to stop troubling someone's transport, to make
restitution of land wrongfully occupied, to make a lord's bailiff
account to him for the profits of the manor.

A person who felt he had not had justice in the manor court could
appeal to the King for a writ of right after the manor court's
decision or for a writ praecipe during the manor court's
proceeding.

The Royal Court also decided disputes regarding baronies,
nuisance or encroachments on royal land or public ways or public
waterways, such as diverting waters from their right course and
issues of nuisance by the making or destroying of a ditch or the
destruction of a pond by a mill to the injury of a person's
freehold. Other pleas of the Crown were: insult to the royal
dignity, treason, breaches of safe-conducts, and injury to the
King's servants.

Henry involved the Royal Court in many criminal issues, formerly
decided in the shire and hundred courts. To detect crimes, he
required royal officers to routinely ask selected
representatives: knights or other landholders, of every
neighborhood if any person were suspected of any murder,
robbery, etc. A traveling royal justice or a sheriff would then
hold an inquest, in which the representatives answered by oath
what people were reputed to have done certain crimes. They made
such inquiries through assizes of presentment, usually composed
of twelve men from each hundred and four men for each township.
(These later evolved into grand juries). These assizes were an
ancient institution in many parts of the country. They consisted
of representatives of the hundreds, usually knights, and
villages who testified under oath to all crimes committed in
their neighborhood, and indicted those they suspected as
responsible and those harboring them. What the assize did was to
insist upon the adoption of a standard procedure everywhere
systematically. The procedure was made more regular instead of
depending on crime waves. If indicted, the suspected persons
were then sent to the ordeal. There was no trial by compurgation,
which was abolished by Henry. If determined guilty, he forfeited
his chattels to the King and his land reverted to his landlord.
If he passed the ordeal but was ill-famed in the community, he
could be banished from the community. Later the ordeal was
abolished.

As before, a person could also be brought to trial by the
accusation of the person wronged. If the accused still denied
the charge after the accuser testified and the matter
investigated by inquiries and interrogation and then analyzed, a
duel was held, unless the accuser was over the age of sixty or
maimed, in which case the accused went to the ordeal.

Criminal matters such as killing the King or sedition or
betraying the nation or the army, fraudulent concealment of
treasure trove [finding a hoard of coins which had been buried
when danger approached], breach of the King's peace, homicide,
murder (homicide for which there were no eye-witnesses), burning
(a town, house, men, animals or other chattel for hatred or
revenge), robbery, rape and falsifying (e.g. false charters or
false measures or false money) were punishable by death or loss
of limb. House-breaking, harboring outlaws, the royal
perquisites of shipwreck and the beasts of the sea which were
stranded on the coast were also punishable in the Royal Court.

The Royal Court had grown substantially and was not always
presided over by the King. To avoid court agents from having too
much discretionary power, there was a systematic procedure for
bringing cases to the Royal Court. First, a plaintiff had to
apply to the King's Chancery for a standardized writ into which
the cause had to fit. The plaintiff had to pay a fee and provide
a surety that the plea was brought in good faith. The progress
of the suit was controlled at crucial points by precisely
formulated writs to the sheriff, instructing him for instance,
to put the disputed property under royal protection pending a
decision, to impanel an assize and have it view the property in
advance of the justices' arrival, to ascertain a point of fact
material to the plea, or to summon a 'warrantor' to support a
claim by the defendant.

The Royal Court kept a record on its cases on parchment kept
rolled up: its "rolls". The oldest roll of 1194 is almost
completely comprised of land cases.

Anyone could appoint an agent, an "attorney", to appear in court
on his behalf, it being assumed that the principal could not be
present. The principal was then bound by the actions of his
agent. The common law system became committed to the "adversary
system" with the parties struggling judicially against each
other.

The Royal Court took jurisdiction over issues of whether certain
land was civil or ecclesiastical [assize utrum], and therefore
whether the land owed services or payment to the Crown or not.
It also heard issues of disturbance of advowson, a complex of
rights to income from a church and to the selection of a parson
for the church [assize of darrein [last] presentment]. Many
churches had been built by a lord on his manor for his villeins.
The lord had then appointed a parson and provided for his upkeep
out of the income of the church. In later times, the lord's
chosen parson was formally appointed by the bishop. By the 1100s,
many lords had given their advowsons to abbeys.

As before, the land of any person who had been outlawed or
convicted of a felony escheated to his lord. His moveable goods
and chattels became the King's.

The manor court heard cases which arose out of the unfree tenures
of the lord's peasantry.

The honorial court, part of the manor court, heard distraint,
also called "distress", issues. Distraint was a landlord's
method of forcing a tenant to perform the services of his fief.
To distrain by the fief, a lord first obtained a judgment of his
court. Otherwise, he distrained only by goods and chattels
without judgment of his court. A distraint was merely a security
to secure a person's services, if he agreed he owed them, or his
attendance in court, if he did not agree that he owed them. Law
and custom restricted the type of goods and chattels
distrainable, and the time and manner of distraint. For instance,
neither clothes, household utensils, nor a riding horse was
distrainable. The lord could not use the chattels taken while
they were in his custody. If cattle in custody were not
accessible to the tenant, the lord had to feed them at his
expense. The lord, if he were not the King, could not sell the
chattel. The action of replevin was available to the tenant to
recover property which had been wrongly distressed. This court
also determined inheritance and dower issues.

The court of the vill enforced the village ordinances. The
hundred court dealt with the petty crimes of lowly men in the
neighborhood of a few vills. The shire and borough courts heard
cases of felonies, accusations against freemen, tort, and debts.
The knights make the shire courts work as legal and
administrative agencies of the Crown.

Admiralty issues (since no assize could be summoned on the high
seas), and tenement issues of land held in frankalmoin ["free
alms" for the poor to relieve the King of this burden], where
the tenant was a cleric were heard in the ecclesiastical courts.

The church copied the assize procedure developed by the Royal
Court to detect ecclesiastical offenses. Trial was still by
compurgation. Bishops could request the Chancery to imprison an
offender who had remained excommunicant for forty days, until he
made amends. Chancery complied as a matter of course. This went
on for six centuries.

The delineations of jurisdiction among these courts was confused
and there was much competing and overlapping of jurisdictions.
However, the court could appoint arbitrators or suggest to the
parties to compromise to avoid the harshness of a decisive
judgment which might drive the losing party to violent
self-help.

The office of coroner was established in the last years of
Richard's reign to determine if sudden deaths were accidental or
due to murder.

Chief Justice Ranulph Glanville wrote a treatise on the writs
which could be brought in the Royal Court and the way they could
be used. It was a practical manual of procedure and of the law
administered in the Royal Court.

Chapter 7

The Times 1215-1272

Baron landholders' semi-fortified stone manor houses were
improved and extended. They were usually quadrangular around a
central courtyard. The central and largest room was the hall,
where people ate and slept. If the hall was on the first floor,
the fire might be at a hearth in the middle of the floor.
Sometimes the lord had his own parlor, with a sleeping loft
above it. Having a second floor necessitated a fireplace in the
wall so the smoke could go up two floors to the roof. Other
rooms each had a fireplace. Often the hall was on the second
floor and took up two stories. There was a fireplace on one wall
of the bottom story. There were small windows around the top
story. Windows of large houses were of opaque glass supplied by
a glass-making craft. The glass was thick, uneven, and greenish
in color. The walls were plastered. The floor was wood with some
carpets. Roofs were timbered with horizontal beams. Many roofs
had tiles supplied by the tile craft, which baked the tiles in
kilns or over an open fire. Because of the hazard of fire, the
kitchen was often a separate building, with a covered way
connecting it to the hall. It had one or two open fires in
fireplaces, and ovens. Sometimes there was a separate room for a
dairy.

Furniture included heavy wood armchairs for the lord and lady,
stools, benches, trestle tables, chests, and cupboards. Outside
was an enclosed garden with cabbages, peas, beans, beetroots,
onions, garlic, leeks, lettuce, watercress, hops, herbs, nut
trees for oil, some flowers, and a fish pond and well. Bees were
kept for their honey.

Nobles, doctors, and lawyers wore tunics to the ankle and an
over-tunic almost as long, which was lined with fur and had long
sleeves. A hood was attached to it. A man's hair was short and
curled, with bangs on the forehead. The tunic of merchants and
middle class men reached to the calf. The laborer wore a tunic
that reached to the knee, cloth stockings, and shoes of heavy
felt, cloth, or perhaps leather. Ladies wore a full length tunic
with moderate fullness in the skirt, and a low belt, and tight
sleeves. Her hair was concealed by a round hat tied on the top
of her head. Over her tunic, she wore a cloak. Monks and nuns
wore long black robes with hoods.

The barons now managed and developed their estates to be as
productive as possible, often using the successful management
techniques of church estates. They kept records of their fields,
tenants, services owed by each tenant, and duties of the manor
officers, such as supervision of the ploughing and harrowing.
Annually, the manor's profit or loss for the year was calculated.
Most manors were self-supporting except that iron for tools and
horseshoes and salt for curing usually had to be obtained
elsewhere. Wine, tar, canvas and millstones were imports from
other countries and bought at fairs, as was fish, furs, spices,
and silks. Sheep were kept in such large numbers that they were
susceptible to a new disease "scab".

Manors averaged about ten miles distance between each other, the
land in between being unused and called "wasteland". Statutes
after a civil war proscribing the retaking of land discouraged
the enclosure of waste land.

Some villeins bought out their servitude by paying a substitute
to do his service or paying his lord a firm (from hence, the
words farm and farmer) sum to hire an agricultural laborer in
his place. This made it possible for a farm laborer to till one
continuous piece of land instead of scattered strips.

Looms were now mounted with two bars. Women did embroidery. The
clothing of most people was made at home, even sandals. The
village tanner and bootmaker supplied long pieces of soft
leather for more protection than sandals. Tanning mills replaced
some hand labor. The professional hunter of wolves, lynx, or
otters supplied head coverings. Every village had a smith and
possibly a carpenter for construction of ploughs and carts. The
smith obtained coal from coal fields for heating the metal he
worked. Horse harnesses were home-made from hair and hemp. There
were water mills and/or wind mills for grinding grain, for malt,
and/or for fulling cloth.

Most men wore a knife because of the prevalence of murder and
robbery. It was an every day event for a murderer to flee to
sanctuary in a church, which would then be surrounded by his
pursuers while the coroner was summoned. Usually, the fugitive
would confess and agree to leave the nation and never return.

It had been long customary for the groom to endow his bride in
public at the church door. This was to keep her and her children
if he died first. If dower was not specified, it was understood
to be one-third of all lands and tenements.

The county offices were: sheriff, coroner, escheator, and
constable or bailiff. There were 28 sheriffs for 38 counties. No
longer did the sheriff buy his office and collect certain rents
for himself. The sheriff now was a salaried political appointee
of the King and employed a deputy or undersheriff, who was a
lawyer, and clerks. If there was civil commotion or contempt of
royal authority, the sheriff had power to raise a posse of armed
men to restore order [posse comitatus: power of the county].
There were about five coroners in each county and they served
for a number of years. They were chosen locally under the
sheriff's supervision. The escheator was appointed annually by
the Treasurer to administer the Crown's rights in feudal land in
the county. The constables and bailiffs operated at the hundred
and parish level to detect crime and keep the peace. They
assisted sheriffs and Justices of the Peace, organized "watches"
for criminals and vagrants at the village level, and raised the
"hue and cry" along the highway and from village to village in
pursuit of offenders who had committed felony or robbery in
their districts.

Shire knights performed a number of duties. They served a
sheriffs, escheators, coroners, and justices on special royal
commissions of gaol-delivery. They sat in judgment in the shire
court at its monthly meetings, attended the two great annual
assemblies when the lord, knights and freeholders of the shire
gathered to meet the justices on eyre, who came escorted by the
sheriff and weapon bearers. They served on the committees which
reviewed the presentments of the hundreds and village, and
carried the record of the shire court to Westminster when
summoned there by the kings' judges. They served on the grand
assize. As elected representatives of their fellow knights of
the shire, they assessed any taxes due from each hundred. They
investigated and reported on local abuses and grievances. The
king's judges and council often called on them to answer
questions put to them on oath. In the villages, humbler
freeholders and sokemen were elected to assess the village
taxes. Six villeins answered for the village's offenses at the
royal eyre.

Everyone was taught to read and write in English. Even obscure
villages gathered children together for this schooling. Boys of
noblemen were taught reading, writing, Latin, a musical
instrument, athletics, riding, and gentlemanly conduct. Girls
were taught reading, writing, music, dancing, and perhaps
household nursing and first aid, spinning, embroidery, and
gardening. Girls of high social position were also taught riding
and hawking. Grammar schools taught, in Latin, grammar, logic
[dialectic], and rhetoric [art of public speaking and debate].
The teacher possessed the only complete copy of the Latin text,
and most of the school work was done orally. Though books were
few and precious, the students read several Latin works. Girls
and boys of high social position usually had private teachers
for grammar school, while boys of lower classes were sponsored
at grammar schools such as those at Oxford. Discipline was
maintained by the birch or rod.

There was no examination for admission as an undergraduate to
Oxford, but a knowledge of Latin with some skill in speaking
Latin was a necessary background. The students came from all
backgrounds. Some had their expenses paid by their parents,
while others had the patronage of a churchman, a religious house,
or a wealthy layman.

A student at Oxford would become a master after graduating from a
seven year course of study of the seven liberal arts: [grammar,
rhetoric (the source of law), Aristotelian logic (which
differentiates the true from the false), arithmetic, including
fractions and ratios, (the foundation of order), geometry,
including methods of finding the length of lines, the area of
surfaces, and thevolume of solids, (the science of measurement),
astronomy (the most noble of the sciences because it is
connected with divinity and theology), music, and Aristotle's
philosophy of physics, metaphysics, and ethics; and then
lecturing and leading disputations for two years. He also had to
write a thesis on some chosen subject and defend it against the
faculty. A Master's degree gave one the right to teach. Further
study for four years led to a doctorate in one of the
professions: theology and canon or civil law.

There were about 1,500 students in Oxford. They drank, played
dice, quarreled a lot and begged at street corners. There were
mob fights between students from the north and students from the
south and between students and townsmen. But when the mayor of
Oxford hanged two students accused of being involved in the
killing of a townswoman, many masters and students left for
Cambridge. In 1214, a charter created the office of Chancellor
of the university at Oxford. He was responsible for law and
order and, through his court, could fine, imprison, and
excommunicate offenders and expel undesirables such as
prostitutes from the town. He had authority over all crimes
involving scholars, except murder and mayhem. The Chancellor
summoned and presided over meetings of the masters and came to
be elected by indirect vote by the masters who had schools,
usually no more than a room or hall with a central hearth which
was hired for lectures. Students paid for meals there. Corners
of the room were often partitioned off for private study. At
night, some students slept on the straw on the floor. Six hours
of sleep were considered sufficient.

In 1221 the Friars established their chief school at Oxford. They
were bound by oaths of poverty, obedience, and chastity, but
were not confined within the walls of a monastery. They walked
barefoot from place to lace preaching. They begged for their
food and lodgings. They replaced monks, who had become self-
indulgent, as the most vital spiritual force among the people. In
1231, the King ordered that every student must have his name on
the roll of a master and the masters had to keep a list of those
attending his lectures.

The first college was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, former
Chancellor to the King, at Oxford. A college had the living
arrangements of a Hall, with the addition of monastic-type
rules. A warden and about 30 scholars lived and ate meals
together in the college buildings. Merton College's founding
documents provided that: "The house shall be called the House of
the Scholars of Merton, and it shall be the residence of the
Scholars forever. . . There shall be a constant succession of
scholars devoted to the study of letters, who shall be bound to
employ themselves in the study of Arts or Philosophy, the Canons
or Theology. Let there also be one member of the collegiate
body, who shall be a grammarian, and must entirely devote
himself to the study of grammar; let him have the care of the
students in grammar, and to him also let the more advanced have
recourse without a blush, when doubts arise in their faculty. . .
There is to be one person in every chamber, where Scholars are
resident, of more mature age than the others, who is to make his
report of their morals and advancement in learning to the
Warden. . . The Scholars who are appointed to the duty of
studying in the House are to have a common table, and a dress as
nearly alike as possible. . . The members of the College must
all be present together, as far as their leisure serves, at the
canonical hours and celebration of masses on holy and other
days. . . The Scholars are to have a reader at meals, and in
eating together they are to observe silence, and to listen to
what is read. In their chambers, they must abstain from noise
and interruption of their fellows; and when they speak they must
use the Latin language. . . A Scrutiny shall be held in the
House by the Warden and the Seniors, and all the Scholars there
present, three times a year; a diligent enquiry is to be
instituted into the life, conduct, morals, and progress in
learning, of each and all; and what requires correction then is
to be corrected, and excesses are to be visited with condign
punishment. . ."

Issues frequently argued concerned the newly discovered
philosophies of Aristotle vis a vis the accepted Christian
philosophy. Aristotle emphasized the intellectual use of reason
as a road to understanding whereas the church had always taught
that understanding came from revelation by God.

Roger Bacon, an Oxford master, applied mathematical knowledge to
natural phenomena such as metal work, mineral work, the making
of weapons, agriculture, and the remedies and charms of wizards
and magicians. He studied angles of reflection in plane,
spherical, cylindrical, and conical mirrors, in both their
concave and convex aspects. He did experiments in refraction in
different media, e.g. air, water, and glass, and knew that the
human cornea refracted light and that the human eye lens was
doubly convex. (However it was another 400 years before the
discovery of the image on the retina.) He comprehended the
magnifying power of convex lenses and conceptualized the
combination of lenses which would increase the power of vision
by magnification. Soon afterwards, eyeglasses were available to
correct farsightedness.

Bacon studied gravity and the propagation of force, specifically
illustrated by the radiation of light and heat. He realized that
rays of light pass so much faster than those of sound or smell
that the time is imperceptible to humans. He knew that rays of
heat and sound penetrate all matter without our awareness and
that opaque bodies offered resistance to passage of light rays.
This was the beginning of the science of physics.

He took the empirical knowledge as to a few metals and their
oxides and some of the principal alkalis, acids, and salts to
the abstract level of metals as compound bodies the elements of
which might be separated and recomposed and the general concept
of generation of liquids, gases, and solids, which was the
beginning of the science of chemistry. He made experiments that
led the way to saltpeter being made to explode, which led the
way to the formulation of gunpowder. He believed that the
principle of explosive energy would one day carry ships across
the seas without sails and propel carriages down the streets,
and flying machines. He knew the power of parabolic concave
mirrors to cause parallel rays to converge after reflection to a
focus and was familiar with work done to produce a mirror that
would induce combustion at a fixed distance.

He studied man's physical nature, health, and disease, the
beginning of the science of biology and medicine. He opined that
the use of a talisman was not to bring about a change, but to
bring the patient into a frame of mind more conducive to
physical healing.

Bacon studied different kinds of plants and the differences
between arable land, forest land, pasture land, and garden land.

Like other educated men of his day (and those of the 1200s
through the 1500s), he believed that the earth was the center of
the universe and in astrology, that is, that the position of the
stars and planets influenced man and other earthly things. For
instance, the position of the stars at a person's birth
determined his character. The angle and therefore potency of the
sun's rays influenced climate, temperament, and changes of
mortal life such as disease and revolutions. There was a
propitious time to have a marriage, go on a journey, make war,
and take herbal medicine or be bled by leeches, the latter of
which was accompanied by religious ceremony. Cure was by God,
with medical practitioners only relieving suffering. Pressure
and binding were applied to bleeding. Arrow and sword wounds to
the skin or to any protruding intestine were washed with warm
water and sewn up with needle and silk thread. Ribs were spread
apart by a wedge to remove arrow heads. Fractured bones were
splinted or encased in plaster. Dislocations were remedied.
Hernias were trussed. Bladder stones blocking urination were
pushed back into the bladder or removed through an artificial
opening in the bladder.

Bacon studied the planetary motions and astronomical tables to
forecast future events. He did calculations on days in a month
and days in a year which later contributed to the legal
definition of a leap year. He knew about magnetic poles
attracting if different and repelling if the same and the
relation of magnets' poles to those of the heavens and earth. He
calculated the circumference of the world and the latitude and
longitude of terrestrial positions, which was the beginning of
the study of geography. He foresaw sailing around the world and
pointed the way to the Copernican astronomy, which was founded on
the concept of the earth and planets revolving around the sun.

His contribution to the development of science was abstracting
the method of experiment from the concrete problem to see its
bearing and importance as a universal method of research. He
advocated changing education to include studies of the natural
world using observation, exact measurement, and experiments.

The making and selling of goods diverged e.g. as the cloth
merchant severed from the tailor and the leather merchant
severed from the butcher. These craftsmen formed themselves into
guilds. They sought charters to require all craftsmen to belong
to the guild of their craft, to have legal control of the craft
work, and be able to expel any craftsman for disobedience. These
guilds determined the wages and working conditions of the
craftsmen and petitioned the borough authorities for ordinances
restraining trade, for instance by controlling the admission of
outsiders to the craft, preventing foreigners from selling in the
town except at fairs, limiting purchases of raw materials to
suppliers within the town, forbidding night work, restricting
the number of apprentices to each master craftsmen, and
requiring a minimum number of years for apprenticeships. In
return, these guilds assured quality control. In some boroughs,
they did work for the town, such as maintaining certain
defensive towers or walls of the town near their respective
wards. In some boroughs, fines for infractions of these
regulations were split between the guild and the government.

This jurisdiction was sought from the towns governments, which
were controlled by the merchant guilds, with great difficulty.
In London, this power was broken in 1261 by the craftsmen
forcing their way into the town-mote. By this brute show of
strength, they set aside the opinion of the magnates and selected
their own candidate to be mayor.

The citizens of London had a common seal for the city. London
merchants traveled throughout the nation with goods to sell
exempt from tolls. Most of the London aldermen were woolmongers,
vintners, skinners, and grocers by turns or carried on all these
branches of commerce at once. There are three inns in London.
Care- giving hospitals such as "Bethleham Hospital" were
established in London. Only tiles were used for roofing in
London, because wood shingles were fire hazards and fires in
London had been frequent. Some areas near London are disclaimed
by the King to be royal forest land, so all citizens could hunt
there and till their land there without interference by the
royal foresters.

A gold penny was minted, which was worth 2s. of silver. Jews were
allowed to make loans with interest up to 2d. a week for 20s.
lent.

English ships had one mast with a square sail. The hulls were
made of planks overlapping each other. There was a high
forecastle on the bow, a top castle on the mast, and a high
stern castle from which to shoot arrows down on other ships.
There were no rowing oars, but steering was still by an oar on
the starboard side of the ship. The usual carrying capacity was
30 tuns [big casks of wine each with about 250 gallons]. On the
coasts there were lights and beacons. Harbors at river mouths
were kept from silting up. Ships were loaded from piers. The
construction of London Bridge had just been finished. Coal was
mined. Bricks began to be imported for building.

Churches had stained glass windows.

Newcastle-on-Tyne received these new rights:

1. And that they shall justly have their lands and tenures and
mortgages and debts, whoever owes them to them.

2. Concerning their lands and tenures within the town, right
shall be done to them according to the custom of the city
Winton.

3. And of all their debts which are lent in Newcastle-on-Tyne and
of mortgages there made, pleas shall be held at
Newcastle-on-Tyne.

4. None of them shall plead outside the walls of the City of
Newcastle-on-Tyne on any plea, except pleas of tenures outside
the city and except the minters and my ministers.

5. That none of them be distrained by any without the said city
for the repayment of any debt to any person for which he is not
capital debtor or surety.

6. That the burgesses shall be quit of toll and lastage [duty on
a ship's cargo] and pontage [tax for repairing bridges] and have
passage back and forth.

7. Moreover, for the improvement of the city, I have granted them
that they shall be quit of year's gift and of scotale [pressure
to buy ale at the sheriff's tavern], so that my sheriff of
Newcastle-on-Tyne or any other minister shall not make a
scotale.

8. And whosoever shall seek that city with his merchandise,
whether foreigners or others, of whatever place they may be,
they may come sojourn and depart in my safe peace, on paying the
due customs and debts, and any impediment to these rights is
prohibited.

9. We have granted them also a merchant guild.

10. And that none of them [in the merchant guild] shall fight a
duel.

The King no longer lives on his own from income from his own
lands, but takes money from the treasury. Elected men from the
baronage met with the King and his council in several
conferences called Parliaments to discuss the levying of taxes
and the solution of difficult legal cases, and to receive
petitions. Statutes were enacted. Landholders were given the
duty of electing four of their members in every shire to ensure
that the sheriff observed the law and to report his
misdemeanors to the justiciar. They were also given the duty of
electing four men from the shire from whom the exchequer was to
choose the sheriff of the year. Earl Montfort and certain barons
forced King Henry III to summon a Parliament in 1265 in which
the common people were represented officially by four knights
from every shire [county] and two burgesses from every borough.
This seems to be the time that the legend of Robin Hood robbing
the rich to give to the poor arose.

The Law

The barons forced successive Kings to sign the Magna Carta until
it became the law of the land. It became the first statute of
the official statute book. It's provisions express the principle
that a King is bound by the law and is not above it. However,
there is no redress if the King breaches the law.

The Magna Carta was issued by John in 1215. A revised version was
issued by Henry III in 1225 with the forest clauses separated
out into a forest charter. The two versions are replicated
together, with the formatting of each indicated in the titles
below.

{Magna Carta - 1215}
Magna Carta - 1215 & 1225
MAGNA CARTA - 1225

{John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland,
Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou: To the
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries,
Foresters, Sheriffs, Reeves, Ministers, and all Bailiffs and
others, his faithful subjects, Greeting. Know ye that in the
presence of God, and for the health of our soul, and the souls
of our ancestors and heirs, to the honor of God, and the
exaltation of Holy Church, and amendment of our realm, by the
advice of our reverend 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, and Benedict
of Rochester, Bishops; Master Pandulph, the Pope's subdeacon and
familiar; Brother Aymeric, Master of the Knights of the Temple in
England; and the noble persons, William Marshall, Earl of
Pembroke; William, Earl of Salisbury; William, Earl of Warren;
William, Earl of Arundel; Alan de Galloway, Constable of
Scotland; Warin Fitz-Gerald, Peter Fitz-Herbert, Hubert de
Burgh, Seneshal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew
Fitz-Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert
de Roppelay, John Marshall, John Fitz-Hugh, and others, our
liegemen:}

HENRY BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF ENGLAND, LORD OF IRELAND, DUKE
OF NORMANDY AND GUYAN AND EARL OF ANJOU, TO ALL ARCHBISHOPS,
BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, SHERIFFS, PROVOSTS,
OFFICERS AND TO ALL BAILIFFS AND OTHER OUR FAITHFUL SUBJECTS
WHICH SHALL SEE THIS PRESENT CHARTER, GREETING.

KNOW YE THAT WE, UNTO THE HONOR OF ALMIGHTY GOD, AND FOR THE
SALVATION OF THE SOULS OF OUR PROGENITORS AND SUCCESSORS KINGS
OF ENGLAND, TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF HOLY CHURCH AND AMENDMENT OF
OUR REALM, OF OUR MEER AND FREE WILL, HAVE GIVEN AND GRANTED TO
ALL ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, AND TO
ALL FREE MEN OF THIS OUR REALM, THESE LIBERTIES FOLLOWING, TO BE
KEPT IN OUR KINGDOM OF ENGLAND FOREVER.

[I. A CONFIRMATION OF LIBERTIES]

First, we have granted to God, and by this our present Charter
confirmed, for us and our heirs forever, that the English Church
shall be free and enjoy her whole rights and her liberties
inviolable. {And that we will this so to be observed appears
from the fact that we of our own free will, before the outbreak
of the dissensions between us and our barons, granted,
confirmed, and procured to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III the
freedom of elections, which is considered most important and
necessary to the English Church, which Charter we will both keep
ourself and will it to be kept with good faith by our heirs
forever.} We have also granted to all the free men of our
realm, for us and our heirs forever, all the liberties
underwritten, to have and to hold to them and their heirs of us
and our heirs.

[II. THE RELIEF OF THE KING'S TENANT OF FULL AGE]

If any of our earls, barons, or others who hold of us in chief by
knight's service dies, and at the time of his death his heir is
of full age and owes to us a relief, he shall have his
inheritance on payment of [no more than] the old relief; to wit,
the heir or heirs of an earl, for an entire earldom, 100 pounds
[2,000s.]; the heir or heirs of a baron of an entire barony, {100
pounds} 100 MARKS [67 POUNDS OR 1340s.]; the heir or heirs of an
entire knight's fee, 100s. at the most [about 1/3 of a knight's
annual income]; and he who owes less shall give less, according
to the old custom of fees.

[III. THE WARDSHIP OF AN HEIR WITHIN AGE. THE HEIR A KNIGHT]

BUT IF THE HEIR OF SUCH BE UNDER AGE, HIS LORD SHALL NOT HAVE THE
WARD OF HIM, NOR OF HIS LAND, BEFORE THAT HE HAS TAKEN OF HIM
HOMAGE. If, however, any such heir is under age and in ward, he
shall have his inheritance without relief or fine when he comes
of age, THAT IS, TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE. SO THAT IF SUCH AN
HEIR NOT OF AGE IS MADE A KNIGHT, YET NEVERTHELESS HIS LAND SHALL
REMAIN IN THE KEEPING OF HIS LORD UNTO THE AFORESAID TERM.

[IV. NO WASTE SHALL BE MADE BY A GUARDIAN IN WARD'S LANDS]

The guardian of the land of any heir thus under age shall take
therefrom only reasonable issues, customs, and services, without
destruction or waste of men or goods. And if we commit the
custody of any such land to the sheriff or any other person
answerable to us for the issues of the same land, and he commits
destruction or waste, we will take an amends from him and
recompense therefore. And the land shall be committed to two
lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall be answerable for
the issues of the same land to us or to whomsoever we shall have
assigned them. And if we give or sell the custody of any such
land to any man, and he commits destruction or waste, he shall
lose the custody, which shall be committed to two lawful and
discreet men of that fee, who shall, in like manner, be
answerable to us as has been aforesaid.

[V. GUARDIANS SHALL MAINTAIN THE INHERITANCE OF THEIR WARDS AND
OF BISHOPRICKS, ETC.]

The guardian, so long as he shall have the custody of the land,
shall keep up and maintain the houses, parks, fishponds, pools,
mills, and other things pertaining thereto, out of the issues of
the same, and shall restore to the heir when he comes of age,
all his land stocked with {ploughs and tillage, according as the
season may require and the issues of the land can reasonable
bear} PLOUGHS AND ALL OTHER THINGS, AT THE LEAST AS HE RECEIVED
IT. ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE OBSERVED IN THE CUSTODIES OF
VACANT ARCHBISHOPRICKS, BISHOPRICKS, ABBEYS, PRIORIES, CHURCHES,
AND DIGNITIES, WHICH APPERTAIN TO US; EXCEPT THIS, THAT SUCH
CUSTODY SHALL NOT BE SOLD.

[VI. HEIRS SHALL BE MARRIED WITHOUT DISPARAGEMENT]

Heirs shall be married without loss of station. {And the marriage
shall be made known to the heir's nearest of kin before it is
contracted.}

[VII. A WIDOW SHALL HAVE HER MARRIAGE, INHERITANCE, AND
QUERENTINE. THE KING'S WIDOW, ETC.]

A widow, after the death of her husband, shall immediately and
without difficulty have her marriage portion [property given to
her by her father] and inheritance. She shall not give anything
for her marriage portion, dower, or inheritance which she and
her husband held on the day of his death, and she may remain in
her husband's house for forty days after his death, within which
time her dower shall be assigned to her. IF THAT HOUSE IS A
CASTLE AND SHE LEAVES THE CASTLE, THEN A COMPETENT HOUSE SHALL
FORTHWITH BE PROVIDED FOR HER, IN WHICH SHE MAY HONESTLY DWELL
UNTIL HER DOWER IS ASSIGNED TO HER AS AFORESAID; AND IN THE
MEANTIME HER REASONABLE ESTOVERS [NECESSARIES OR SUPPLIES] OF THE
COMMON, ETC.

No widow shall be compelled [by penalty of fine] to marry so long
as she has a mind to live without a husband, provided, however,
that she gives security that she will not marry without our
assent, if she holds of us, or that of the lord of whom she
holds, if she holds of another.

[VIII. HOW SURETIES SHALL BE CHARGED TO THE KING]

Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any
debt as long as the debtor's goods and chattels suffice to pay
the debt AND THE DEBTOR HIMSELF IS READY TO SATISFY THEREFORE.
Nor shall the debtor's sureties be distrained as long as the
debtor is able to pay the debt. If the debtor fails to pay, not
having the means to pay, OR WILL NOT PAY ALTHOUGH ABLE TO PAY,
then the sureties shall answer the debt. And, if they desire,
they shall hold the debtor's lands and rents until they have
received satisfaction of that which they had paid for him,
unless the debtor can show that he has discharged his obligation
to them.

{If anyone who has borrowed from the Jews any sum of money, great
or small, dies before the debt has been paid, the heir shall pay
no interest on the debt as long as he remains under age, of
whomsoever he may hold. If the debt falls into our hands, we
will take only the principal sum named in the bond.}

{And if any man dies indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have
her dower and pay nothing of that debt; if the deceased leaves
children under age, they shall have necessaries provided for
them in keeping with the estate of the deceased, and the debt
shall be paid out of the residue, saving the service due to the
deceased's feudal lords. So shall it be done with regard to debts
owed persons other than Jews.}

[IX. THE LIBERTIES OF LONDON AND OTHER CITIES AND TOWNS
CONFIRMED]

The City of London shall have all her old liberties and free
customs, both by land and water. Moreover, we will and grant
that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all
their liberties and free customs.

{No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm unless by common
counsel thereof, except to ransom our person, make our eldest
son a knight, and once to marry our eldest daughter, and for
these only a reasonable aid shall be levied. So shall it be with
regard to aids from the City of London.}

{To obtain the common counsel of the realm concerning the
assessment of aids (other than in the three aforesaid cases) or
of scutage, we will have the archbishops, bishops, abbots,
earls, and great barons individually summoned by our letters; we
will also have our sheriffs and bailiffs summon generally all
those who hold lands directly of us, to meet on a fixed day, but
with at least forty days' notice, and at a fixed place. In all
such letters of summons, we will explain the reason therefor.
After summons has thus been made, the business shall proceed on
the day appointed, according to the advice of those who are
present, even though not all the persons summoned have come.}

{We will not in the future grant permission to any man to levy an
aid upon his free men, except to ransom his person, make his
eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter, and
on each of these occasions only a reasonable aid shall be
levied.}

[X. NONE SHALL DISTRAIN FOR MORE SERVICE THAN IS DUE.]

No man shall be compelled to perform more service for a knight's
fee nor any freehold than is due therefrom.

[XI. COMMON PLEAS SHALL NOT FOLLOW THE KING'S COURT]

People who have Common Pleas shall not follow our Court traveling
about the realm, but shall be heard in some certain place.

[XII. WHERE AND BEFORE WHOM ASSIZES SHALL BE TAKEN. ADJOURNMENT
FOR DIFFICULTY]

{Land assizes of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor and darrein
presentment shall be heard only in the county where the property
is situated, and in this manner: We or, if we are not in the
realm, our Chief Justiciary, shall send two justiciaries through
each county four times a year [to clear and prevent backlog],
and they, together with four knights elected out of each county
by the people thereof, shall hold the said assizes in the county
court, on the day and in the place where that court meets.}

ASSIZES OF NOVEL DISSEISIN, MORT D'ANCESTOR SHALL BE HEARD ONLY
IN THE COUNTY WHERE THE PROPERTY IS SITUATED, AND IN THIS
MANNER: WE, OR IF WE ARE NOT IN THE REALM, OUR CHIEF JUSTICIARY,
SHALL SEND JUSTICIARIES THROUGH EACH COUNTY ONCE A YEAR, AND
THEY TOGETHER WITH KNIGHTS OF THAT COUNTY SHALL HOLD THE SAID
ASSIZES IN THE COUNTY.

{If the said assizes cannot be held on the day appointed, so many
of the knights and freeholders as were present on that day shall
remain as will be sufficient for the administration of justice,
according to the amount of business to be done.}

AND THOSE THINGS THAT AT THE COMING OF OUR FORESAID JUSTICIARIES,
BEING SENT TO TAKE THOSE ASSIZES IN THE COUNTIES, CANNOT BE
DETERMINED, SHALL BE ENDED BY THEM IN SOME OTHER PLACE IN THEIR
CIRCUIT; AND THOSE THINGS WHICH FOR DIFFICULTY OF SOME ARTICLES
CANNOT BE DETERMINED BY THEM, SHALL BE REFERRED TO OUR JUSTICES
OF THE BENCH AND THERE SHALL BE ENDED.

[XIII. ASSIZES OF DARREIN PRESENTMENT]

ASSIZES OF DARREIN PRESENTMENT SHALL ALWAYS BE TAKEN BEFORE OUR
JUSTICES OF THE BENCH AND THERE SHALL BE DETERMINED.

[XIV. HOW MEN OF ALL SORTS SHALL BE AMERCED AND BY WHOM]

A free man shall be amerced [made to pay a fine to the King] for
a small offence only according to the degree thereof, and for a
serious offence according to its magnitude, saving his position
and livelihood; and in like manner a merchant, saving his trade
and merchandise, and a villein saving his tillage, if they
should fall under our mercy. None of these amercements shall be
imposed except by the oath of honest men of the neighborhood.

Earls and barons shall be amerced only by their peers, and only
in accordance with the seriousness of the offense.

{No amercement shall be imposed upon a cleric's lay tenement,
except in the manner of the other persons aforesaid, and without
regard to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.}

NO MAN OF THE CHURCH SHALL BE AMERCED EXCEPT IN ACCORDANCE WITH
THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE OFFENCE AND AFTER HIS LAY TENEMENT, BUT
NOT AFTER THE QUANTITY OF HIS SPIRITUAL BENEFICE.

[XV. MAKING OF BRIDGES AND BANKS]

No town or freeman shall be compelled to build bridges over
rivers OR BANKS except those bound by old custom and law to do
so.

[XVI. DEFENDING OF BANKS]

NO BANKS [LAND NEAR A RIVER] SHALL BE DEFENDED [USED BY THE KING
ALONE, E.G. FOR HUNTING], FROM HENCEFORTH, BUT SUCH AS WERE IN
DEFENCE IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY [II] OUR GRANDFATHER, BY THE
SAME PLACES AND IN THE SAME BOUNDS AS IN HIS TIME.

[XVII. HOLDING PLEAS OF THE CROWN]

No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other of our bailiffs shall
hold pleas of our Crown [but only justiciars, to prevent
disparity of punishments and corruption].

{All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and tithings (except our
demesne manors) shall remain at the old rents, without any
increase.}

[XVIII. THE KING'S DEBTOR DYING, THE KING SHALL BE FIRST PAID]

If anyone holding a lay fee of us dies, and our sheriff or our
bailiff show our letters patent [public letter] of summons for a
debt due to us from the deceased, it shall be lawful for such
sheriff or bailiff to attach and list the goods and chattels of
the deceased found in the lay fee to the value of that debt, by
the sight and testimony of lawful men [to prevent taking too
much], so that nothing thereof shall be removed therefrom until
our whole debt is paid; then the residue shall be given up to
the executors to carry out the will of the deceased. If there is
no debt due from him to us, all his chattels shall remain the
property of the deceased, saving to his wife and children their
reasonable shares.

{If any free man dies intestate, his chattels shall be
distributed by his nearest kinfolk and friends, under
supervision of the Church, saving to each creditor the debts
owed him by the deceased.}

[XIX. PURVEYANCE FOR A CASTLE]

No constable or other of our bailiffs shall take grain or other
chattels of any man without immediate payment, unless the seller
voluntarily consents to postponement of payment. THIS APPLIES
IF THE MAN IS NOT OF THE TOWN WHERE THE CASTLE IS. BUT IF THE
MAN IS OF THE SAME TOWN AS WHERE THE CASTLE IS, THE PRICE SHALL
BE PAID TO HIM WITHIN 40 DAYS.

[XX. DOING OF CASTLE-GUARD]

No constable shall compel any knight to give money for keeping of
his castle in lieu of castle-guard when the knight is willing to
perform it in person or, if reasonable cause prevents him from
performing it himself, by some other fit man. Further, if we
lead or send him into military service, he shall be excused from
castle-guard for the time he remains in service by our command.

[XXI. TAKING OF HORSES, CARTS, AND WOOD]

No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other man, shall take
horses or carts of any free man for carriage without the owner's
consent. HE SHALL PAY THE OLD PRICE, THAT IS, FOR CARRIAGE WITH
TWO HORSES, 10d. A DAY; FOR THREE HORSES, 14d. A DAY. NO DEMESNE
CART OF ANY SPIRITUAL PERSON OR KNIGHT OR ANY LORD SHALL BE
TAKEN BY OUR BAILIFFS.

Neither we nor our bailiffs will take another man's wood for our
castles or for other of our necessaries without the owner's
consent.

[XXII. HOW LONG FELONS' LANDS SHALL BE HELD BY THE KING]

We will hold the lands of persons convicted of felony for only a
year and a day [to remove the chattels and moveables], after
which they shall be restored to the lords of the fees.

[XXIII. IN WHAT PLACE WEIRS SHALL BE REMOVED]

All fishweirs [obstructing navigation] shall be entirely removed
by the Thames and Medway rivers, and throughout England, except
upon the seacoast.

[XXIV. IN WHAT CASE A PRAECIPE IN CAPITE IS NOT GRANTABLE]

The [royal] writ called "praecipe in capite" shall not in the
future be granted to anyone respecting any freehold if thereby a
free man may not be tried in his lord's court.

[XXV. THERE SHALL BE BUT ONE MEASURE THROUGHOUT THE REALM]

There shall be one measure of wine throughout our realm, one
measure of ale, and one measure of grain, to wit, the London
quarter, and one breadth of dyed cloth, russets, and haberjets,
to wit, two {ells} YARDS within the selvages. As with measures
so shall it also be with weights.

[XXVI. INQUISITION OF LIFE AND LIMB]

Henceforth nothing shall be given or taken for a writ of
inquisition upon life or limb, but it shall be granted freely
and not denied.

[XXVII. TENURE OF THE KING IN SOCAGE AND OF ANOTHER BY KNIGHT'S
SERVICE. PETIT SERJEANTY.]

If anyone holds of us by fee farm, socage, or burgage, and also
holds land of another by knight's service, we will not by reason
of that fee farm, socage, or burgage have the wardship of his
heir, or the land which belongs to another man's fee. Nor will
we have the custody of such fee farm, socage, or burgage unless
such fee farm owe knight's service. We will not have the wardship
of any man's heir, or the land which he holds of another by
knight's service, by reason of any petty serjeanty which he
holds of us by service of rendering us knives, arrows, or the
like.

[XXVIII. WAGES OF LAW SHALL NOT BE WITHOUT WITNESS]

In the future no [royal] bailiff shall upon his own unsupported
accusation put any man to trial or oath without producing
credible witnesses to the truth of the accusation.

[XXIX. NONE SHALL BE CONDEMNED WITHOUT TRIAL. JUSTICE SHALL NOT
BE SOLD OR DELAYED.]

No free man shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised OF HIS FREEHOLD
OR LIBERTIES OR FREE CUSTOMS, OR BE outlawed, banished, or in
any way ruined, nor will we prosecute or condemn him, except by
the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

To no one will we sell [by bribery], to none will we deny or
delay, right or justice.

[XXX. MERCHANT STRANGERS COMING INTO THIS REALM SHALL BE WELL
USED]

All merchants shall have safe conduct to go and come out of and
into England, and to stay in and travel through England by land
and water, to buy and sell, without evil tolls, in accordance
with old and just customs, except, in time of war, such
merchants as are of a country at war with us. If any such be
found in our realm at the outbreak of war, they shall be
detained, without harm to their bodies or goods, until it be
known to us or our Chief Justiciary how our merchants are being
treated in the country at war with us. And if our merchants are
safe there, then theirs shall be safe with us.

{Henceforth anyone, saving his allegiance due to us, may leave
our realm and return safely and securely by land and water,
except for a short period in time of war, for the common benefit
of the realm.}

[XXXI. TENURE OF A BARONY COMING INTO THE KING'S HANDS BY
ESCHEAT]

If anyone dies holding of any escheat, such as the honor of
Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, {Lancaster,} or other
escheats which are in our hands and are baronies, his heir shall
not give any relief or do any service to us other than he would
owe to the baron, if such barony had been in the baron's hands.
And we will hold the escheat in the same manner in which the
baron held it. NOR SHALL WE HAVE, BY OCCASION OF ANY BARONY OR
ESCHEAT, ANY ESCHEAT OR KEEPING OF ANY OF OUR MEN, UNLESS HE WHO
HELD THE BARONY OR ESCHEAT ELSEWHERE HELD OF US IN CHIEF.

Persons dwelling outside the forest need not in the future come
before our justiciaries of the forest in answer to a general
summons unless they are impleaded or are sureties for any person
or persons attached for breach of forest laws.

[XXXII. LANDS SHALL NOT BE ALIENED TO THE PREJUDICE OF THE
LORD'S SERVICE]

NO FREEMAN FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL GIVE OR SELL ANY MORE OF HIS
LAND, BUT SO THAT OF THE RESIDUE OF THE LANDS THE LORD OF THE
FEE MAY HAVE THE SERVICE DUE TO HIM WHICH BELONGS TO THE FEE.

{We will appoint as justiciaries, constables, sheriffs, or
bailiffs only such men as know the law of the land and will keep
it well.}

[XXXIII. PATRONS OF ABBEYS SHALL HAVE THE CUSTODY OF THEM WHEN
VACANT]

All barons who had founded abbeys of which they have charters of
English Kings or old tenure, shall have the custody of the same
when vacant, as is their due.

All forests which have been created in our time shall forthwith
be disafforested. {So shall it be done with regard to river
banks which have been enclosed by fences in our time.}

{All evil customs concerning forests and warrens [livestock
grounds in forests], foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their
officers, or riverbanks and their conservators shall be
immediately investigated in each county by twelve sworn knights
of such county, who are chosen by honest men of that county, and
shall within forty days after this inquest be completely and
irrevocably abolished, provided always that the matter has first
been brought to our knowledge, or that of our justiciars, if we
are not in England.}

{We will immediately return all hostages and charters delivered
to us by Englishmen as security for the peace or for the
performance of loyal service.}

{We will entirely remove from their offices the kinsmen of Gerald
de Athyes, so that henceforth they shall hold no office in
England: Engelard de Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew de
Chanceaux, Guy de Cigogne, Geoffrey de Martigny and his
brothers, Philip Mark and his brothers, and Geoffrey his nephew,
and all their followers.}

{As soon as peace is restored, we will banish from our realm all
foreign knights, crossbowmen, sergeants, and mercenaries, who
have come with horses and arms, to the hurt of the realm.}

{If anyone has been disseised or deprived by us, without the
legal judgment of his peers, of lands, castles, liberties, or
rights, we will immediately restore the same, and if any
disagreement arises on this, the matter shall be decided by
judgment of the twenty-five barons mentioned below in the clause
for securing the peace. With regard to all those things,
however, of which any man was disseised or deprived, without the
legal judgment of his peers, by King Henry [II] our Father or
our Brother King Richard, and which remain in our hands or are
held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite during
the term commonly allowed to the Crusaders, excepting those
cases in which a plea was begun or inquest made on our order
before we took the cross; when, however, we return from our
pilgrimage, or if perhaps we do not undertake it, we will at
once do full justice in these matters.}

{Likewise, we shall have the same respite in rendering justice
with respect to the disafforestation or retention of those
forests which Henry [II] our Father or Richard our Brother
afforested, and concerning custodies of lands which are of the
fee of another, which we hitherto have held by reason of the fee
which some person has held of us by knight's service, and to
abbeys founded on fees other than our own, in which the lord of
that fee asserts his right. When we return from our pilgrimage,
or if we do not undertake it, we will forthwith do full justice
to the complainants in these matters.}

[XXXIV. IN WHAT ONLY CASE A WOMAN SHALL HAVE AN APPEAL OF DEATH]

No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon a woman's appeal for
the death of any person other than her husband [since no woman
was expected to personally engage in trial by battle].

[XXXV. AT WHAT TIME SHALL BE KEPT A COUNTY COURT, SHERIFF'S TURN
AND A LEET (COURT OF CRIMINAL JURISDICTION EXCEPTING FELONIES)]

NO COUNTY COURT FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL BE HELD, BUT FROM MONTH TO
MONTH; AND WHERE GREATER TIME HAS BEEN USED, THERE SHALL BE
GREATER. NOR SHALL ANY SHERIFF, OR HIS BAILIFF, KEEP HIS TURN IN
THE HUNDRED BUT TWICE IN THE YEAR; AND NO WHERE BUT IN DUE PLACE
AND ACCUSTOMED TIME, THAT IS, ONCE AFTER EASTER, AND AGAIN AFTER
THE FEAST OF SAINT MICHAEL. AND THE VIEW OF FRANKPLEDGE [THE
RIGHT OF ASSEMBLING THE WHOLE MALE POPULATION OVER 12 YEARS
EXCEPT CLERGY, EARLS, BARONS, KNIGHTS, AND THE INFIRM, AT THE
LEET OR SOKE COURT FOR THE CAPITAL FRANKPLEDGES TO GIVE ACCOUNT
OF THE PEACE KEPT BY INDIVIDUALS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE TITHINGS]
SHALL BE LIKEWISE AT THE FEAST OF SAINT MICHAEL WITHOUT
OCCASION, SO THAT EVERY MAN MAY HAVE HIS LIBERTIES WHICH HE HAD,
OR USED TO HAVE, IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY [II] OUR GRANDFATHER,
OR WHICH HE HAS SINCE PURCHASED. THE VIEW OF FRANKPLEDGE SHALL
BE SO DONE, THAT OUR PEACE MAY BE KEPT; AND THAT THE TYTHING BE
WHOLLY KEPT AS IT HAS BEEN ACCUSTOMED; AND THAT THE SHERIFF SEEK
NO OCCASIONS, AND THAT HE BE CONTENT WITH SO MUCH AS THE SHERIFF
WAS WONT TO HAVE FOR HIS VIEW-MAKING IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY
OUR GRANDFATHER.

[XXXVI. NO LAND SHALL BE GIVEN IN MORTMAIN]

IT SHALL NOT BE LAWFUL FROM HENCEFORTH TO ANY TO GIVE HIS LAND TO
ANY RELIGIOUS HOUSE, AND TO TAKE THE SAME LAND AGAIN TO HOLD OF
THE SAME HOUSE [THEREBY EXTINGUISHING THE FEUDAL RIGHTS OF THE
TEMPORAL LORD]. NOR SHALL IT BE LAWFUL TO ANY HOUSE OF RELIGION
TO TAKE THE LANDS OF ANY, AND TO LEASE THE SAME TO HIM OF WHOM
HE RECEIVED IT. IF ANY FROM HENCEFORTH GIVE HIS LANDS TO ANY
RELIGIOUS HOUSE, AND THEREUPON BE CONVICTED, THE GIFT SHALL BE
UTTERLY VOID, AND THE LAND SHALL ACCRUE TO THE LORD OF THE FEE.

{All fines unjustly and unlawfully given to us, and all
amercements levied unjustly and against the law of the land,
shall be entirely remitted or the matter decided by judgment of
the twenty-five barons mentioned below in the clause for
securing the peace, or the majority of them, together with the
aforesaid Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he himself can be
present, and any others whom he may wish to bring with him for
the purpose; if he cannot be present, the business shall
nevertheless proceed without him. If any one or more of the said
twenty-five barons has an interest in a suit of this kind, he or
they shall step down for this particular judgment, and be
replaced by another or others, elected and sworn by the rest of
the said barons, for this occasion only.}

{If we have disseised or deprived the Welsh of lands, liberties,
or other things, without legal judgment of their peers, in
England or Wales, they shall immediately be restored to them,
and if a disagreement arises thereon, the question shall be
determined in the Marches by judgment of their peers according
to the law of England as to English tenements, the law of Wales
as to Welsh tenements, the law of the Marches as to tenements in
the Marches. The same shall the Welsh do to us and ours.}

{But with regard to all those things of which any Welshman was
disseised or deprived, without legal judgment of his peers, by
King Henry [II] our Father or our Brother King Richard, and
which we hold in our hands or others hold under our warranty, we
shall have respite during the term commonly allowed to the
Crusaders, except as to those matters whereon a suit had arisen
or an inquisition had been taken by our command prior to our
taking the cross. Immediately after our return from our
pilgrimage, or if by chance we do not undertake it, we will do
full justice according to the laws of the Welsh and the
aforesaid regions.}

{We will immediately return the son of Llywelyn, all the Welsh
hostages, and the charters which were delivered to us as
security for the peace.}

{With regard to the return of the sisters and hostages of
Alexander, King of the Scots, and of his liberties and rights,
we will do the same as we would with regard to our other barons
of England, unless it appears by the charters which we hold of
William his father, late King of the Scots, that it ought to be
otherwise; this shall be determined by judgment of his peers in
our court.}

[XXXVII. SUBSIDY IN RESPECT OF THIS CHARTER, AND THE CHARTER OF
THE FOREST, GRANTED TO THE KING.]

ESCUAGE [SHIELD MILITARY SERVICE] FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL BE TAKEN
AS IT WAS WONT TO BE IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY [II] OUR
GRANDFATHER; RESERVING TO ALL ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS,
PRIORS, TEMPLERS, HOSPITALLERS, EARLS, BARONS, AND ALL PERSONS
AS WELL SPIRITUAL AS TEMPORAL; ALL THEIR FREE LIBERTIES AND FREE
CUSTOMS, WHICH THEY HAVE HAD IN TIME PASSED. AND ALL THESE
CUSTOMS AND LIBERTIES AFORESAID, WHICH WE HAVE GRANTED TO BE
HELD WITHIN THIS OUR REALM, AS MUCH AS PERTAINS TO US AND OUR
HEIRS, WE SHALL OBSERVE.

{All the customs and liberties aforesaid, which we have granted
to be enjoyed, as far as it pertains to us towards our people
throughout our realm, let all our subjects, whether clerics or
laymen, observe, as far as it pertains toward their dependents.}

AND ALL MEN OF THIS OUR REALM, AS WELL SPIRITUAL AS TEMPORAL (AS
MUCH AS IN THEM IS) SHALL OBSERVE THE SAME AGAINST ALL PERSONS
IN LIKE WISE. AND FOR THIS OUR GIFT AND GRANT OF THESE
LIBERTIES, AND OF OTHER CONSTRAINED IN OUR CHARTER OF LIBERTIES
OF OUR FOREST, THE ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS,
BARONS, KNIGHTS, FREEHOLDERS, AND OUR OTHER SUBJECTS, HAVE GIVEN
UNTO US THE FIFTEENTH PART OF ALL THEIR MOVEABLES. AND WE HAVE
GRANTED UNTO THEM ON THE OTHER PART, THAT NEITHER WE, NOR OUR
HEIRS, SHALL PROCURE OR DO ANY THING WHEREBY THE LIBERTIES IN
THIS CHARTER CONTAINED SHALL BE INFRINGED OR BROKEN. AND IF ANY
THING BE PROCURED BY ANY PERSON CONTRARY TO THE PREMISES, IT
SHALL BE HAD OF NO FORCE NOR EFFECT.

{Whereas we, for the honor of God and the reform of our realm,
and in order the better to allay the discord arisen between us
and our barons, have granted all these things aforesaid. We,
willing that they be forever enjoyed wholly and in lasting
strength, do give and grant to our subjects the following
security, to wit, that the barons shall elect any twenty-five
barons of the realm they wish, who shall, with their utmost
power, keep, hold, and cause to be kept the peace and liberties
which we have granted unto them and by this our present Charter
have confirmed, so that if we, our Justiciary, bailiffs, or any
of our ministers offends in any respect against any man, or
transgresses any of these articles of peace or security, and the
offense is brought before four of the said twenty- five barons,
those four barons shall come before us, or our Chief Justiciary
if we are out of the realm, declaring the offense, and shall
demand speedy amends for the same. If we or, in case of our
being out of the realm, our Chief Justiciary fails to afford
redress within forty days from the time the case was brought
before us or, in the event of our having been out of the realm,
our Chief Justiciary, the aforesaid four barons shall refer the
matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who, together with
the commonalty of the whole country, shall distrain and
distress us to the utmost of their power, to wit, by capture of
our castles, lands, and possessions and by all other possible
means, until compensation is made according to their decision,
saving our person and that of our Queen and children; as soon as
redress has been had, they shall return to their former
allegiance. Anyone in the realm may take oath that, for the
accomplishment of all the aforesaid matters, he will obey the
orders of the said twenty-five barons and distress us to the
utmost of his power; and we give public and free leave to
everyone wishing to take oath to do so, and to none will we deny
the same. Moreover, all such of our subjects who do not of their
own free will and accord agree to swear to the said twenty-five
barons, to distrain and distress us together with them, we will
compel to do so by our command in the aforesaid manner. If any
one of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country or is
in any way hindered from executing the said office, the rest of
the said twenty-five barons shall choose another in his stead, at
their discretion, who shall be sworn in like manner as the
others. In all cases which are referred to the said twenty-five
barons to execute, and in which a difference arises among them,
supposing them all to be present, or in which not all who have
been summoned are willing or able to appear, the verdict of the
majority shall be considered as firm and binding as if the whole
number had been of one mind. The aforesaid twenty-five shall
swear to keep faithfully all the aforesaid articles and, to the
best of their power, to cause them to be kept by others. We will
not procure, either by ourself or any other, anything from any
man whereby any of these concessions or liberties may be revoked
or abated. If any such procurement is made, let it be null and
void; it shall never be made use of either by us or by any
other.}

{We have also fully forgiven and pardoned all ill-will, wrath,
and malice which has arisen between us and our subjects, both
clergy and laymen, during the disputes, to and with all men.
Moreover, we have fully forgiven and, as far as it pertains to
us, wholly pardoned to and with all, clergy and laymen, all
offences made in consequence of the said disputes from Easter in
the sixteenth year of our reign until the restoration of peace.
Over and above this, we have caused letters patent to be made
for Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry, Archbishop of
Dublin, the above-mentioned Bishops, and Master Pandulph, for the
aforesaid security and concessions.}

{Wherefore we will that, and firmly command that, the English
Church shall be free and all men in our realm shall have and
hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well
and peaceably, freely, quietly, fully, and wholly, to them and
their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and places
forever, as is aforesaid. It is moreover sworn, as will on our
part as on the part of the barons, that all these matters
aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without deceit.
Witness the above-named and many others. Given by our hand in the
meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines,
on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our
reign.}

THESE BEING WITNESSES: LORD S. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, E.
BISHOP OF LONDON, F. BISHOP OF BATHE, G. OF WINCESTER, H. OF
LINCOLN, R. OF SALISBURY, W. OF ROCHESTER, X. OF WORCESTER, F.
OF ELY, H. OF HEREFORD, R. OF CHICHESTER, W. OF EXETER,
BISHOPS; THE ABBOT OF ST. EDMONDS, THE ABBOT OF ST. ALBANS, THE
ABBOT OF BELLO, THE ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINES IN CANTERBURY, THE
ABBOT OF EVESHAM, THE ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, THE ABBOT OF BOURGH
ST. PETER, THE ABBOT OF REDING, THE ABBOT OF ABINDON, THE ABBOT
OF MALMBURY, THE ABBOT OF WINCHCOMB, THE ABBOT OF HYDE, THE ABBOT
OF CERTESEY, THE ABBOT OF SHERBURN, THE ABBOT OF CERNE, THE
ABBOT OF ABBOREBIR, THE ABBOT OF MIDDLETON, THE ABBOT OF
SELEBY, THE ABBOT OF CIRENCESTER, H. DE BURGH JUSTICE, H. EARL
OF CHESTER AND LINCOLN, W. EARL OF SALISBURY, W. EARL OF
WARREN, G. DE CLARE EARL OF GLOUCESTER AND HEREFORD, W. DE
FERRARS EARL OF DERBY, W. DE MANDEVILLE EARL OF ESSEX, H. DE
BYGOD EARL OF NORFOLK, W. EARL OF ALBEMARLE, H. EARL OF
HEREFORD, F. CONSTABLE OF CHESTER, G. DE TOS, H. FITZWALTER,
R. DE BYPONTE, W. DE BRUER, R. DE MONTEFICHET, P. FITXHERBERT, W.
DE AUBENIE, F. GRESLY, F. DE BREUS, F. DE MONEMUE, F. FITZALLEN,
H. DE MORTIMER, W. DE BEUCHAMP, W. DE ST. JOHN, P. DE MAULI,
BRIAN DE LISLE, THOMAS DE MULTON, R. DE ARGENTEYN, G. DE NEVIL,
W. DE MAUDUIT, F. DE BALUN, AND OTHERS. GIVEN AT WESTMINSTER THE
11TH DAY OF FEBRUARY THE 9TH YEAR OF OUR REIGN.

WE, RATIFYING AND APPROVING THESE GIFTS AND GRANTS AFORESAID,
CONFIRM AND MAKE STRONG ALL THE SAME FOR US AND OUR HEIRS
PERPETUALLY, AND BY THE TENOUR OF THESE PRESENTS, DO RENEW THE
SAME; WILLING AND GRANTING FOR US AND OUR HEIRS, THAT THIS
CHARTER, AND ALL SINGULAR HIS ARTICLES, FOREVER SHALL BE
STEDFASTLY, FIRMLY, AND INVIOLABLY OBSERVED; AND IF ANY ARTICLE
IN THE SAME CHARTER CONTAINED, YET HITHERTO PERADVENTURE HAS NOT
BEEN KEPT, WE WILL, AND BY ROYAL AUTHORITY, COMMAND, FROM
HENCEFORTH FIRMLY THEY BE OBSERVED.

Statutes which were enacted after the Magna Carta follow:

Nuisance is recognized by this statute: "Every freeman, without
danger, shall make in his own wood, or in his land, or in his
water, which he has within our Forest, mills, springs, pools,
clay pits, dikes, or arable ground, so that it does not annoy
any of his neighbors."

Anyone taking a widow's dower after her husband's death must not
only return the dower, but pay damages in the amount of the
value of the dower from the time of death of the husband until
her recovery of seisin.

Widows may bequeath the crop of their ground as well of their
dowers as of their other lands and tenements.

Freeholders of tenements on manors shall have sufficient ingress
and egress from their tenements to the common pasture and as
much pasture as suffices for their tenements.

"Grain shall not be taken under the pretense of borrowing or the
promise of after-payment without the permission of the owner."

"A parent or other who forcefully leads away and withholds, or
marries off, an heir who is a minor (under 14), shall yield the
value of the marriage and be imprisoned until he has satisfied
the King for the trespass. If an heir 14 years or older marries
without his Lord's permission to defraud him of the marriage and
the Lord offers him reasonable and convenient marriage, without
disparagement, then the Lord shall hold his land beyond the term
of his age, that, of twenty one years, so long that he may
receive double the value of the marriage as estimated by lawful
men, or after as it has been offered before without fraud or
collusion, and after as it may be proved in the King's Court.
Any Lord who marries off a ward of his who is a minor and cannot
consent to marriage, to a villain or other, such as a burgess,
whereby the ward is disparaged, shall lose the wardship and all
its profits if the ward's friends complain of the Lord. The
wardship and profit shall be converted to the use of the heir,
for the shame done to him, after the disposition and provision of
his friends." (The marriage could be annulled by the church.)

"If an heir of whatever age will not marry at the request of his
Lord, he shall not be compelled thereunto; but when he comes of
age, he shall pay to his Lord the value of the marriage before
receiving his land, whether or not he himself marries."

"Interest shall not run against any minor, from the time of death
of his ancestor until his lawful age; so nevertheless, that the
payment of the principal debt, with the interest that was before
the death of his ancestor shall not remain."

The value of debts to be repaid to the King or to any man shall
be reasonably determined by the debtor's neighbors and not by
strangers. A debtors' plough cattle or sheep cannot be taken to
satisfy a debt.

The wards and escheats of the King shall be surveyed yearly by
three people assigned by the King. The Sheriffs, by their
counsel, shall approve and let to farm such wards and escheats
as they think most profitable for the King. The Sheriffs shall
be answerable for the issues thereof in the Exchequer at
designated times. The collectors of the customs on wool exports
shall pay this money at the two designated times and shall make
yearly accounts of all parcels in ports and all ships.

By statute leap year was standardized throughout the nation, "the
day increasing in the leap year shall be accounted in that
year", "but it shall be taken and reckoned in the same month
wherein it grew and that day and the preceding day shall be
counted as one day."

"An English penny, called a sterling, round and without any
clipping, shall weigh 32 wheat grains dry in the middle of the
ear."

Measurements of distance were standardized to twelve inches to a
foot, three feet to a yard, and so forth up to an acre of land.

Goods which could only be sold by the standard weights and
measures (such as ounces, pounds, gallons, bushels) included
sacks of wool, leather, skins, ropes, glass, iron, lead, canvas,
linen cloth, tallow, spices, confections cheese, herrings,
sugar, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, wheat, barley, oats, bread, and
ale. The prices required for bread and ale were based on the
market price for the wheat, barley, and oats from which they
were made.

The punishment for repeated violations of required measures,
weights, or prices of bread and ale by a baker or brewer;
selling of spoiled or unwholesome wine, meat, fish by brewers,
butchers, or cooks; or a steward or bailiff receiving a bribe
was reduced to placement in a pillory with a shaven head so that
these men would still be fit for military service and not
overcrowd the jails.

Forest penalties were changed so that "No man shall lose either
life or member [limb] for killing of our deer. But if any man be
taken and convicted for taking our venison, he shall make a
grievous fine, if he has anything. And if he has nothing to
lose, he shall be imprisoned for a year and a day. And after
that, if he can find sufficient sureties, he shall be delivered,
and, if not, he shall abjure the realm of England."

The Forest Charter provided that: Every freeman may allow his
pigs to eat in his own wood in the King's forest. He may also
drive his pigs there through the King's forest and tarry one
night within the forest without losing any of his pigs. But
people having greyhounds must keep them out of the forest so they
don't maim the deer.

The Forest Charter also allowed magnates traveling through the
King's forest on the King's command to come to him, to kill one
or two deer as long as it was in view of the forester if he was
present, or while having a horn blown, so it did not seem to be
theft.

After a period of civil war, the following statutes were enacted:

"All persons, as well of high as of low estate, shall receive
justice in the King's Court; and none shall take any such
revenge or distress by his own authority, without award of our
court, although he is damaged or injured, whereby he would have
amends of his neighbor either higher or lower." The penalty is a
fine according to the trespass.

A fraudulent conveyance to a minor or lease for a term of years
made to defraud a Lord of a wardship shall be void. A Lord who
maliciously and wrongfully alleges this to a court shall pay
damages and costs.

If a Lord will not render unto an heir his land when he comes of
age or takes possession away from an heir of age or removes
anything from the land, he shall pay damages.

Kinsmen of a minor heir who have custody of his land held in
socage shall make no waste, sale, nor destruction of the
inheritance and shall answer to the heir when he comes of age
for the issues of the land, except for the reasonable costs of
these guardians.

No lord may distrain any of his tenants. No one may drive animals
taken by distraint out of the shire where they have been taken.

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