+Source.+--_Annals of Waverley_, pp. 349-350. (_Annales Monastici_, vol.
ii.--Rolls Series.)
For some years England had been thronged with such a multitude of
foreigners of different nations, on whom had been showered so many
revenues, lands, estates, and other possessions, that they held the
English in the greatest contempt, as inferior beings. It was said by
some, who knew their secrets, that, if their power continued to
increase, they would remove the nobles of England by poison, deprive
King Henry of his kingdom, appoint in his place someone else at their
own pleasure, and so in the end bring all England under their sway for
ever. Further, the four brothers of the lord the King, Aylmer,
Bishop-elect of Winchester, William, Earl of Valence, Guido, and
Godfrey, raised as they were above the other aliens in dignities and
riches, raged against the English in their intolerable arrogance, and
loaded them with many insults and affronts; nor did anyone dare to
oppose their presumptuous deeds for fear of the King. And they were not
the only guilty ones, but--a yet greater matter for sorrow--Englishmen
rose against Englishmen, majors against minors, all aflame with the lust
of gain, and by means of pleas and amercements, talliages,[18]
exactions, and divers other abuses, strove to take from each man what
was his own. Old laws and customs were either broken through or utterly
destroyed and brought to nought; every tyrant's will was a law unto
himself, and except by a money payment could no man procure a right
judgment. It is not within the power of anyone to recount all the evil
doings which in those days took place in England. At length in this year
the Earls and Barons, Archbishops and Bishops, and other nobles of
England, as though aroused from sleep by a divine touch, seeing the
miserable state of the kingdom, banded themselves together, and boldly
assumed the strength and courage of a lion which fears the attack of no
one. First of all, they expelled from England by force the
aforementioned brothers of the King, together with many other aliens,
and then began diligently to renew and amend the old laws and customs.
And lest anyone should presume rashly to violate these customs in the
future, they drew them up in the manner of a charter, sealed, by the
King's permission, with his own royal seal.
[18] Taxes to which the demesne lands of the crown and all royal towns
were subject.