Part 2 (1/2)
THE GREAT CHARTER
In May a list of articles to be signed was sent to John; and on his refusal the barons formally renounced their homage and fealty and flew to arms.
John was forced to surrender before this host. On June 15th he met the barons at Runnymede, between Staines and Windsor, and there, in the presence of Archbishop Stephen and ”a mult.i.tude of most ill.u.s.trious knights,” sealed the Great Charter of the Liberties of England.
This Great Charter was in the main a renewal of the old rights and liberties promised by Henry I. It set up no new rights, conferred no new privileges, and sanctioned no changes in the Const.i.tution. Its real and lasting importance is due to its being a written doc.u.ment--for the first time in England it was down in black and white, for all to read, what the several rights and duties of King and people were, and in what the chief points of the Const.i.tution consisted.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MAGNA CHARTA
A facsimile of the Original in the British Museum.]
The Great Charter is a great table of laws. It marks the beginning of written legislation, and antic.i.p.ates Acts of Parliament. Unwritten laws and traditions were not abolished: they remain with us to this day; but the written law had become a necessity when ”the bonds of unwritten custom”
failed to restrain kings and barons. The Great Charter also took into account the rights of free men, and of the tenants of the King's va.s.sals.
If the barons and knights had their grievances to be redressed, the commons and the freeholding peasants needed protection against the lawless exactions of their overlords.[12]
Sixty-three clauses make up Magna Charta, and we may summarise them as follows:--
(1) The full rights and liberties of the Church are acknowledged; bishops shall be freely elected, so that the Church of England shall be free.[13]
(2-8) The King's tenants are to have their feudal rights secured against abuse. Widows--in the wards.h.i.+p of the Crown--are to be protected against robbery and against compulsion to a second marriage.
(9-11) The harsh rules for securing the payment of debts to the Crown and to the Jews (in whose debts the Crown had an interest) are to be relaxed.
(12-14) No scutage or aid (save for the three regular feudal aids--the ransom of the King, the knighting of his eldest son, and the marriage of his eldest daughter) is to be imposed except by the Common Council of the nation; and to this Council archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons are to be called by special writ, while all who held their land directly from the King, and were of lesser rank, were to be summoned by a general writ addressed to the sheriff of the county. Forty days'
notice of the meeting was to be given, and also the cause of the a.s.sembly.
The action of those who obeyed the summons was to be taken to represent the action of all.[14] (This last clause is never repeated in later confirmations of the Great Charter.)
(15-16) The powers of lords over their tenants are limited and defined.
(17-19) A Court of Common Pleas is to be held in some fixed place so that suitors are not obliged to follow the King's Curia. Cases touching the owners.h.i.+p of land are to be tried in the counties by visiting justices, and by four knights chosen by the county.
(20-23) No freeman is to be fined beyond his offence, and the penalty is to be fixed by a local jury. Earls and barons to be fined by their peers; and clerks only according to the amount of their lay property.
(24-33) The powers of sheriffs, constables, coroners, and bailiffs of the King are strictly defined. No sheriff is to be a justice in his own county.
Royal officers are to pay for all the goods taken by requisition; money is not to be taken in lieu of service from those who are willing to perform the service. The horses and carts of freemen are not to be seized for royal work without consent. The weirs in the Thames, Medway, and other rivers in England are to be removed.
(34-38) Uniformity of weights and measures is directed. Inquests are to be granted freely. The sole wards.h.i.+p of minors who have other lords will not be claimed by the King, except in special cases. No bailiff may force a man to ordeal without witnesses.
(39-40) No free man is to be taken, imprisoned, ousted of his land, outlawed, banished, or hurt in any way save by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. The King is not to sell, delay, or deny right or justice to anyone.
(41-42) Merchants may go out or come in without paying exorbitant customs.
All ”lawful” men are to have a free right to pa.s.s in and out of England in time of peace.
(44-47) An inquiry into the Forest Laws and a reform of the forest abuses are promised. All forests made in present reign to be disforested, and all fences in rivers thrown down.
(49-60) The foreign mercenaries of the King, all the detested gang that came with horses and arms to the hurt of the realm, are to be sent out of the country. The Welsh princes and the King of Scots (who had sided with the barons) are to have justice done. A general amnesty for all political offences arising from the struggle is made.
The last three articles appointed twenty-five barons, chosen out of the whole baronage, to watch over the keeping of the Charter. They were empowered to demand that any breach of the articles should at once be put right, and, in default to make war on the King till the matter was settled to their satisfaction. Finally there was the oath to be taken on the part of the King, and on the part of the barons that the articles of the Charter should be observed in good faith according to their plain meaning.