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CHARTERS OF HENRY III.

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made forest of his own wood, then it should remain forest; saving the common of herbage, and of other things in the same forest, to them which were before accustomed to have the same.

rights.'

Sixteen articles regulate the enjoyment of these

John, by the aid of the Pope, who interposed as feudal lord of the kingdom, took measures to recover the power of which the barons had deprived him. He hired foreign troops, and renewed the civil war. The Pope issued a Bull, which prohibited the barons from exacting the observance of the Charter, and the king from paying any regard to it. The barons had recourse to the desperate expedient of calling in Lewis, the eldest son of the King of France, offering to transfer their allegiance to him. Lewis landed in England on the 21st of May, 1216, and he reduced John to great difficulties; but in the midst of these commotions John unexpectedly died at Newark, on the 19th of October following, little more than a year after the grant of Magna Charta.

Henry III., son of John, succeeded him, being then only nine years old. The country was in confusion, great numbers having transferred their allegiance to Lewis. William Marescall, Earl of Pembroke, assumed the guardianship of the young king, and of the realm; and he brought about an arrangement by which Lewis quitted the kingdom. Pembroke, to conciliate the people, issued a charter, dated the 12th of November, 1216, twenty-four days after the death of John. Another charter was issued, in the second, and a third followed in the ninth year of Henry's reign. The latter, transcribed from the Great Charter, but with some alterations, which will be hereafter noticed, came to be considered as the great charter of liberties of the kingdom," and it is this charter which appears in our statute-book as "Magna Charta."

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The charter of 9 Henry III. differs from its great original by the omission of those clauses which have been

1 See the Charta de Forestâ, Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i. p. 133.

described as of a temporary nature. The 14th and 17th Articles, relating to the imposition of aids, and the mode of summoning the great council to assess them, are also omitted, an omission which probably arose from a feeling that it was not desirable to record an undertaking so adverse to the king's prerogative. There are verbal alterations in several of the remaining clauses, which will receive attention as occasion requires. The additions are a clause declaring that the County Court shall be holden but from month to month,-that the Sheriff shall keep his Turn in the Hundred, but twice in the year,—and that the View of Frankpledge shall be held at Michaelmas. There is also an article for the suppression of Mortmain, and of some modes of evading that law. It declared that it shall not be lawful from thenceforth to any to give his lands to any religious house, and to take the same land again to hold of the same house. 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 give his lands to any religious house, and thereupon be convict, the gift shall be utterly void, and the land shall accrue to the lord of the fee.'

This charter and the Charter of the Forest were granted by Henry in consideration of an aid of a fifteenth part of the movables of all persons in the kingdom. In the

1 The following is the opening and conclusion of the Magna Charta of Henry:-" Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Guyenne, 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 Honour 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 the amendment of our Realm, of our mere 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 for ever.

"Given at Westminster, in the ninth year of our reign.”

1254.]

CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM.

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twenty-first year of his reign, Henry granted another confirmation, receiving for the gift and grant an aid of the thirtieth part of movables of certain descriptions; and again, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, receiving a fifteenth part of movables. But neither the repeated grants, nor the pecuniary considerations which Henry received for them from his subjects, could ensure his observance of the charter, and resort was had to a solemn religious ceremony, by which it was hoped to affect his conscience by oaths and imprecations. At a great council, held in the great hall of the king at Westminster, on the 3rd of May, 1254, a ceremonial was prepared, at which the King was present, with his barons and prelates; the latter in pontificals, and holding burning tapers in their hands. The Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest were read before them. They pronounced the sentence of excommunication against every one who should thenceforth violate these fundamental laws. They threw their tapers on the ground, and exclaimed, "May the soul of every one who incurs this sentence so stink and corrupt in hell." The king added, "So help me God, I will keep all these articles inviolate, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as I am a knight, and as I am a king crowned and anointed." It is melancholy to reflect that so tremendous a ceremony was of no avail. Henry's conscience was relieved by the dispensations of the Pope, and he died regardless of his subjects' rights, and of his own solemn engagements.1

The laxity of Henry in the observance of Magna Charta passed to his son Edward I. Another interference of the barons took place, and, in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, eighty-two years after the grant of the charter by John, "a confirmation of the Great Charter, and the Charter of the Forest was granted by Edward. Although in form a charter, it appears in the statute-book as a statute, and is

1 The Sentence of Curse sworn by the Bishops against the breakers of the Great Charter, will be found in Pickering's Statutes, vol. i. p. 33, ed. 1762.

called "CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM." It enjoined that the charters should be sent, under the king's seal, as well to the Justices of the Forest as to others,-to all sheriffs of shires, and other officers, and to all cities,-with the king's writs, directing them to cause the charters to be published, and to declare to the people, that he had confirmed them in all points; and that "the justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other ministers which had, under the king, the laws of the land to guide, should allow the charters to be pleaded before them in judgment, in all their points; the Great Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the Forest according to the assize of the forest, for the wealth of the realm." It was also declared that "judgments contrary to the points of the charters, should be undone and holden for nought;"-that the charters should be sent, under seal, to cathedral churches throughout the realm, there to remain, and should be read before the people two times by the year;"-and that "all archbishops and bishops should pronounce the sentence of excommunication against all those that by word, deed, or counsel, did contrary to the charters; and that the curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates."

These provisions seem to have been insufficient, for, in three years afterwards another statute appears, entitled "ARTICULI SUPER CHARTAS." It states that "forasmuch as the charters had not been observed nor kept, because there was no punishment executed upon them which offended against the points of the charters; the King had again granted, renewed, and confirmed them, at the request of his prelates, earls, and barons, assembled in his Parliament holden at Westminster; and had ordained, enacted, and established certain articles against all those that offend contrary to the points of the charters, or that in anywise transgress them." These articles required that the charters be delivered to every sheriff of England, under the king's seal, to be read four times in the year before the people in 125 Edw. I., Stat. 1, 1297. 2 28 Edw. I., Stat. 3, 1300.

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CONFIRMATIONS OF MAGNA CHARTA.

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the full county, at the usual quarterly feasts;-and for these two charters to be firmly observed in every point and article (where before no remedy was at the common law) there should be chosen, in every shire-court, by the commonalty of the shire, three substantial men, knights or other lawful, wise, or well-disposed persons, which should be justices, sworn and assigned by the king's letters-patent, to hear (without any other writ, but only their commission) such plaints as should be made upon all those that commit or offend against the charters ;—and to determine them without allowing the delays which should be allowed by the common law;—with power to punish by imprisonment, by ransom, or by amerciament, according to the trespass.

This statute afterwards states that, "besides these things granted upon the articles of the charters aforesaid, the King, of his special grace, for redress of the grievances that his people had sustained by reason of his wars, and for the amendment of their estate, and to the intent that they may be more ready to do him service, and more willing to assist and aid him in time of need, had granted certain articles, the which he supposeth shall not only be observed of his liege people, but also shall be as much profitable, or more than the articles heretofore granted." Nineteen articles then follow, which relate to matters that have little bearing on our modern constitution, but which so far as they appear to be interesting, will be hereafter noticed.

There is no further evidence in the statute-book that Magna Charta continued to be unobserved; unless it be so inferred from the fact that, between the twenty-eighth year of Edward I. and the fourth year of Henry V.,-the last statute of confirmation,-there are no less than twenty-nine statutes for confirming it. It seems to have been the first proceeding of each new Parliament, to pass a short statute to confirm the great charter. There are fourteen statutes of confirmation in the reign of Edward III. In the first Parliament of Richard II. it appears that the Great Charter, and the Charter of the Forest, were read before the Parlia

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