Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to his
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries,
Foresters, Sheriffs, Governors, Officers, and to all Bailiffs,
and his faithful subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the
presence of God, and for the salvation of our soul, and the
souls of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of
God and the advancement of Holy Church, and amendment of our
Realm, by advice of our venerable Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop
of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Cardinal of the Holy
Roman Church; Henry, Archbishop of Dublin; William, of London;
Peter, of Winchester; Jocelin, of Bath and Glastonbury; Hugh,
of Lincoln; Walter, of Worcester; William, of Coventry;
Benedict, of Rochester--Bishops; of Master Pandulph,
Sub-Deacon and Familiar of our Lord the Pope; Brother Aymeric,
Master of the Knights-Templars in England; and of the noble
Persons, William Marescall, Earl of Pembroke; William, Earl of
Salisbury; William, Earl of Warren; William, Earl of Arundel;
Alan de Galloway, Constable of Scotland; Warin FitzGerald,
Peter FitzHerbert, and Hubert de Burgh, Seneschal of Poitou;
Hugh de Neville, Matthew FitzHerbert, Thomas Basset, Alan
Basset, Philip of Albiney, Robert de Roppell, John Mareschal,
John FitzHugh, and others, our liegemen, have, in the first
place, granted to God, and by this our present Charter
confirmed, for us and our heirs forever;
1. That the Church of England shall be free, and have her
whole rights, and her liberties inviolable; and we will have
them so observed, that it may appear thence that the freedom
of elections, which is reckoned chief and indispensable to the
English Church, and which we granted and confirmed by our
Charter, and obtained the confirmation of the same from our
Lord the Pope Innocent III., before the discord between us and
our barons, was granted of mere free will; which Charter we
shall observe, and we do will it to be faithfully observed by
our heirs for ever.
2. We also have granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, for
us and for our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties,
to be had and holden by them and their heirs, of us and our
heirs for ever; If any of our earls, or barons, or others, who
hold of us in chief by military service, shall die, and at the
time of his death his heir shall be of full age, and owe a
relief, he shall have his inheritance by the ancient
relief--that is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl, for a
whole earldom, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a
baron, for a whole barony, by a hundred pounds; the heir or
heirs of a knight, for a whole knight's fee, by a hundred
shillings at most; and whoever oweth less shall give less,
according to the ancient custom of fees.
3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, and shall
be in ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance
without relief and without fine.
4. The keeper of the land of such an heir being under age,
shall take of the land of the heir none but reasonable issues,
reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without
destruction and waste of his men and his goods; and if we
commit the custody of any such lands to the sheriff, or any
other who is answerable to us for the issues of the land, and
he shall make destruction and waste of the lands which he hath
in custody, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be
committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who
shall answer for the issues to us, or to him to whom we shall
assign them; and if we sell or give to anyone the custody of
any such lands, and he therein make destruction or waste, he
shall lose the same custody, which shall be committed to two
lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall in like manner
answer to us as aforesaid.
5. But the keeper, so long as he shall have the custody of the
land, shall keep up the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills,
and other things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of
the same land; and shall deliver to the heir, when he comes of
full age, his whole land, stocked with ploughs and carriages,
according as the time of wainage shall require, and the issues
of the land can reasonably bear.
6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and so that
before matrimony shall be contracted, those who are near in
blood to the heir shall have notice.
7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith
and without difficulty have her marriage and inheritance; nor
shall she give anything for her dower, or her marriage, of her
inheritance, which her husband and she held at the day of his
death; and she may remain in the mansion house of her husband
forty days after his death, within which time her dower shall
be assigned.
8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself, so long as
she has a mind to live without a husband; but yet she shall
give security that she will not marry without our assent, if
she hold of us; or without the consent of the lord of whom she
holds, if she hold of another.
{804}
9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent
for any debt so long as the chattels of the debtor are
sufficient to pay the debt; nor shall the sureties of the
debtor be distrained so long as the principal debtor has
sufficient to pay the debt; and if the principal debtor shall
fail in the payment of the debt, not having wherewithal to pay
it, then the sureties shall answer the debt; and if they will
they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor, until they
shall be satisfied for the debt which they paid for him,
unless the principal debtor can show himself acquitted thereof
against the said sureties.
10. If anyone have borrowed anything of the Jews, more or
less, and die before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no
interest paid for that debt, so long as the heir is under age,
of whomsoever he may hold; and if the debt falls into our
hands, we will only take the chattel mentioned in the deed.
11. And if anyone shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife
shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if the
deceased left children under age, they shall have necessaries
provided for them, according to the tenement of the deceased;
and out of the residue the debt shall be paid, saving,
however, the service due to the lords, and in like manner
shall it be done touching debts due to others than the Jews.
12. No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless
by the general council of our kingdom; except for ransoming
our person, making our eldest son a knight, and once for
marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall be
paid no more than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be
concerning the aids of the City of London.
13. And the City of London shall have all its ancient
liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water:
furthermore, we will and grant that all other cities and
boroughs, and towns and ports, shall have all their liberties
and free customs.
14. And for holding the general council of the kingdom
concerning the assessment of aids, except in the three cases
aforesaid, and for the assessing of scutages, we shall cause
to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and
greater barons of the realm, singly by our letters. And
furthermore, we shall cause to be summoned generally, by our
sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief, for
a certain day, that is to say, forty days before their meeting
at least, and to a certain place; and in all letters of such
summons we will declare the cause of such summons. And summons
being thus made, the business shall proceed on the day
appointed, according to the advice of such as shall be
present, although all that were summoned come not.
15. We will not for the future grant to anyone that he may
take aid of his own free tenants, unless to ransom his body,
and to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his
eldest daughter; and for this there shall be only paid a
reasonable aid.
16. No man shall be distrained to perform more service for a
knight's fee, or other free tenement, than is due from thence.
17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be
holden in some place certain.
18. Trials upon the Writs of Novel Disseisin, and of Mort
d'ancestor, and of Darrein Presentment, shall not be taken but
in their proper counties, and after this manner: We, or if we
should be out of the realm, our chief justiciary, will send
two justiciaries through every county four times a year, who,
with four knights of each county, chosen by the county, shall
hold the said assizes in the county, on the day, and at the
place appointed.
19. And if any matters cannot be determined on the day
appointed for holding the assizes in each county, so many of
the knights and freeholders as have been at the assizes
aforesaid shall stay to decide them as is necessary, according
as there is more or less business.
20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a small offence, but
only according to the degree of the offence; and for a great
crime according to the heinousness of it, saving to him his
contenement; and after the same manner a merchant, saving to
him his merchandise. And a villein shall be amerced after the
same manner, saving to him his wainage, if he falls under our
mercy; and none of the aforesaid amerciaments shall be
assessed but by the oath of honest men in the neighbourhood.
21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by their peers,
and after the degree of the offence.
22. No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced for his lay
tenement, but according to the proportion of the others
aforesaid, and not according to the value of his
ecclesiastical benefice.
23. Neither a town nor any tenant shall be distrained to make
bridges or embankments, unless that anciently and of right
they are bound to do it.
24. No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bailiffs,
shall hold "Pleas of the Crown."
25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trethings, shall
stand at the old rents, without any increase, except in our
demesne manors.
26. If anyone holding of us a lay fee die, and the sheriff, or
our bailiffs, show our letters patent of summons for debt
which the dead man did owe to us, it shall be lawful for the
sheriff or our bailiff to attach and register the chattels of
the dead, found upon his lay fee, to the amount of the debt,
by the view of lawful men, so as nothing be removed until our
whole clear debt be paid; and the rest shall be left to the
executors to fulfil the testament of the dead; and if there be
nothing due from him to us, all the chattels shall go to the
use of the dead, saving to his wife and children their
reasonable shares.
27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be
distributed by the hands of his nearest relations and friends,
by view of the Church, saving to everyone his debts which the
deceased owed to him.
28. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn or other
chattels of any man unless he presently give him money for it,
or hath respite of payment by the good-will of the seller.
29. No constable shall distrain any knight to give money for
castle-guard, if he himself will do it in his person, or by
another able man, in case he cannot do it through any
reasonable cause. And if we have carried or sent him into the
army, he shall be free from such guard for the time he shall
be in the army by our command.
30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take
horses or carts of any freeman for carriage, without the
assent of the said freeman.
31. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take any man's timber
for our castles or other uses, unless by the consent of the
owner of the timber.
32. We will retain the lands of those convicted of felony only
one year and a day, and then they shall be delivered to the
lord of the fee.
33. All kydells (wears) for the time to come shall be put down
in the rivers of Thames and Medway, and throughout all
England, except upon the seacoast.
{805}
34. The writ which is called prœcipe, for the future, shall
not be made out to anyone, of any tenement, whereby a freeman
may lose his court.
35. There shall be one measure of wine and one of ale through
our whole realm; and one measure of corn, that is to say, the
London quarter; and one breadth of dyed cloth, and russets,
and haberjeets, that is to say, two ells within the lists; and
it shall be of weights as it is of measures.
36. Nothing from henceforth shall be given or taken for a writ
of inquisition of life or limb, but it shall be granted
freely, and not denied.
37. If any do hold of us by fee-farm, or by socage, or by
burgage, and he hold also lands of any other by knight's
service, we will not have the custody of the heir or land,
which is holden of another man's fee by reason of that
fee-farm, socage, or burgage; neither will we have the custody
of the fee-farm, or socage, or burgage, unless knight's
service was due to us out of the same fee-farm. We will not
have the custody of an heir, nor of any land which he holds of
another by knight's service, by reason of any petty serjeanty
by which he holds of us, by the service of paying a knife, an
arrow, or the like.
38. No bailiff from henceforth shall put any man to his law
upon his own bare saying, without credible witnesses to prove
it.
39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseised, or
outlawed, or banished, or any ways destroyed, nor will we pass
upon him, nor will we send upon him, unless by the lawful
judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.
40. We will sell to no man, we will not deny to any man,
either justice or right.
41. All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct, to go
out of, and to come into England, and to stay there and to
pass as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by
the ancient and allowed customs, without any unjust tolls;
except in time of war, or when they are of any nation at war
with us. And if there be found any such in our land, in the
beginning of the war, they shall be attached, without damage
to their bodies or goods, until it be known unto us, or our
chief justiciary, how our merchants be treated in the nation
at war with us; and if ours be safe there, the others shall be
safe in our dominions.
42. It shall be lawful, for the time to come, for anyone to go
out of our kingdom, and return safely and securely by land or
by water, saving his allegiance to us; unless in time of war,
by some short space, for the common benefit of the realm,
except prisoners and outlaws, according to the law of the
land, and people in war with us, and merchants who shall be
treated as is above mentioned.
43. If any man hold of any escheat, as of the honour of
Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other
escheats which be in our hands, and are baronies, and die, his
heir shall give no other relief, and perform no other service
to us than he would to the baron, if it were in the baron's
hand; and we will hold it after the same manner as the baron
held it.
44. Those men who dwell without the forest from henceforth
shall not come before our justiciaries of the forest, upon
common summons, but such as are impleaded, or are sureties for
any that are attached for something concerning the forest.
45. We will not make any justices, constables, sheriffs, or
bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the realm and mean
duly to observe it.
46. All barons who have founded abbeys, which they hold by
charter from the kings of England, or by ancient tenure, shall
have the keeping of them, when vacant, as they ought to have.
47. All forests that have been made forests in our time shall
forthwith be disforested; and the same shall be done with the
water-banks that have been fenced in by us in our time.
48. All evil customs concerning forests, warrens, foresters,
and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, water-banks and
their keepers, shall forthwith be inquired into in each
county, by twelve sworn knights of the same county, chosen by
creditable persons of the same county; and within forty days
after the said inquest be utterly abolished, so as never to be
restored: so as we are first acquainted therewith, or our
justiciary, if we should not be in England.
49. We will immediately give up all hostages and charters
delivered unto us by our English subjects, as securities for
their keeping the peace, and yielding us faithful service.
50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks the
relations of Gerard de Atheyes, so that for the future they
shall have no bailiwick in England; we will also remove
Engelard de Cygony, Andrew, Peter, and Gyon, from the
Chancery; Gyon de Cygony, Geoffrey de Martyn, and his
brothers; Philip Mark, and his brothers, and his nephew,
Geoffrey, and their whole retinue.
51. As soon as peace is restored, we will send out of the
kingdom all foreign knights, cross-bowmen, and stipendiaries,
who are come with horses and arms to the molestation of our
people.
52. If anyone has been dispossessed or deprived by us, without
the lawful judgment of his peers, of his lands, castles,
liberties, or right, we will forthwith restore them to him;
and if any dispute arise upon this head, let the matter be
decided by the five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned, for
the preservation of the peace. And for all those things of
which any person has, without the lawful judgment of his
peers, been dispossessed or deprived, either by our father
King Henry, or our brother King Richard, and which we have in
our hands, or are possessed by others, and we are bound to
warrant and make good, we shall have a respite till the term
usually allowed the crusaders; excepting those things about
which there is a plea depending, or whereof an inquest hath
been made, by our order before we undertook the crusade; but
as soon as we return from our expedition, or if perchance we
tarry at home and do not make our expedition, we will
immediately cause full justice to be administered therein.
53. The same respite we shall have, and in the same manner,
about administering justice, disafforesting or letting
continue the forests, which Henry our father, and our brother
Richard, have afforested; and the same concerning the wardship
of the lands which are in another's fee, but the wardship of
which we have hitherto had, by reason of a fee held of us by
knight's service; and for the abbeys founded in any other fee
than our own, in which the lord of the fee says he has a
right; and when we return from our expedition, or if we tarry
at home, and do not make our expedition, we will immediately
do full justice to all the complainants in this behalf.
54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the appeal of a
woman, for the death of any other than her husband.
{806}
55. All unjust and illegal fines made by us, and all
amerciaments imposed unjustly and contrary to the law of the
land, shall be entirely given up, or else be left to the
decision of the five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned for
the preservation of the peace, or of the major part of them,
together with the aforesaid Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury,
if he can be present, and others whom he shall think fit to
invite; and if he cannot be present, the business shall
notwithstanding go on without him; but so that if one or more
of the aforesaid five-and-twenty barons be plaintiffs in the
same cause, they shall be set aside as to what concerns this
particular affair, and others be chosen in their room, out of
the said five-and-twenty, and sworn by the rest to decide the
matter.
56. If we have disseised or dispossessed the Welsh of any
lands, liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment
of their peers, either in England or in Wales, they shall be
immediately restored to them; and if any dispute arise upon
this head, the matter shall be determined in the Marches by
the judgment of their peers; for tenements in England
according to the law of England, for tenements in Wales
according to the law of Wales, for tenements of the Marches
according to the law of the Marches: the same shall the Welsh
do to us and our subjects.
57. As for all those things of which a Welshman hath, without
the lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or deprived
of by King Henry our father, or our brother King Richard, and
which we either have in our hands or others are possessed of,
and we are obliged to warrant it, we shall have a respite till
the time generally allowed the crusaders; excepting those
things about which a suit is depending, or whereof an inquest
has been made by our order, before we undertook the crusade:
but when we return, or if we stay at home without performing
our expedition, we will immediately do them full justice,
according to the laws of the Welsh and of the parts before
mentioned.
58. We will without delay dismiss the son of Llewellin, and
all the Welsh hostages, and release them from the engagements
they have entered into with us for the preservation of the
peace.
59. We will treat with Alexander, King of Scots, concerning
the restoring his sisters and hostages, and his right and
liberties, in the same form and manner as we shall do to the
rest of our barons of England; unless by the charters which we
have from his father, William, late King of Scots, it ought to
be otherwise; and this shall be left to the determination of
his peers in our court.
60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties, which we have
granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs to
us, all people of our kingdom, as well clergy as laity, shall
observe, as far as they are concerned, towards their
dependents.
61. And whereas, for the honour of God and the amendment of
our kingdom, and for the better quieting the discord that has
arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these
things aforesaid; willing to render them firm and lasting, we
do give and grant our subjects the underwritten security,
namely that the barons may choose five-and-twenty barons of
the kingdom, whom they think convenient; who shall take care,
with all their might, to hold and observe, and cause to be
observed, the peace and liberties we have granted them, and by
this our present Charter confirmed in this manner; that is to
say, that if we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our
officers, shall in any circumstance have failed in the
performance of them towards any person, or shall have broken
through any of these articles of peace and security, and the
offence be notified to four barons chosen out of the
five-and-twenty before mentioned, the said four barons shall
repair to us, or our justiciary, if we are out of the realm,
and, laying open the grievance, shall petition to have it
redressed without delay: and if it be not redressed by us, or
if we should chance to be out of the realm, if it should not
be redressed by our justiciary within forty days, reckoning
from the time it has been notified to us, or to our justiciary
(if we should be out of the realm), the four barons aforesaid
shall lay the cause before the rest of the five-and-twenty
barons; and the said five-and-twenty barons, together with the
community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and distress us
in all the ways in which they shall be able, by seizing our
castles, lands, possessions, and in any other manner they can,
till the grievance is redressed, according to their pleasure;
saving harmless our own person, and the persons of our Queen
and children; and when it is redressed, they shall behave to
us as before. And any person whatsoever in the kingdom may
swear that he will obey the orders of the five-and-twenty
barons aforesaid in the execution of the premises, and will
distress us, jointly with them, to the utmost of his power;
and we give public and free liberty to anyone that shall
please to swear to this, and never will hinder any person from
taking the same oath.