ischal Earl of Pembroke, William Earl of Salisbury, William Earl of Warren, William Earl of Arundel, Allan of Galloway, Constable of Scotland, at a Warren Fitzgerald, Peter Fitzherbert, Hubert de Burgh, Steward off Poictou, Hugh de Nevil, Matthew Fitzherbert, Thomas Basset, Allan Basset, Philip de Albany, Robert de Roppel, John Marischal, John Fitzhugh, and of others of our liegemen, have granted to God, and by this our present charter, have confirmed, for us and our heirs for ever:

1. That the English Church shall be free, and shall have her whole rights and liberties unhurt; and I will this to be observed in such a manner, that it may appear from them that the freedom of elections, which was reputed most necessary to the English church, which we granted, and by our charter confirmed, and obtained the confirmation of it from Pope Innocent III. before the rupture between us and our barons, was of our own free will.

Which charter we shall observe, and we will it to be observed with good faith by our heirs for ever. We have also granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties, to be enjoyed and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs.

2. If any of our earls or barons, or others who hold of us in chief by military service, shall die, and at his death his heir shall be of full age, and shall owe a relief, he shall have his inheritance for the ancient relief, viz. the heir or heirs of an earl, a whole earl's barony, for one hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a baron, a whole barony, for one hundred marks; the heir or heirs of a knight, a whole knight's-fee, for one hundred shillings at most; and he who owes less, shall give less, according to the ancient custom of fees.

3. But if the heir of any such be under age, and in wardship, when he comes to age he shall have his inheritance without relief and without fine.

4. The warden of an heir, who is under age, shall not take of the lands of the heir, any but reasonable issues and reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without destruction, and waste of the men or the goods; and if we commit the custody of any such lands to a sheriff, or to any other person who is bound to answer to us for the issues of them, and he shall make destruction or waste upon the ward-lands, we will recover damages from him, and the lands shall be submitted to two legal and discreet men of that fee, who shall answer for the issues to us, or to him to whom we have assigned them; and if we granted or sold to any one, the custody of any such lands, and he shall make destruction or waste, he shall lose the custody; and it shall be submitted to two legal and discreet men of that fee, who shall answer to us in like manner as was said before.

5. Besides, the warden, as long as he hath the custody of the lands, shall keep in order the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills, and other things

belonging to them, out of their issues; and shall deliver to the heir when he is at age, his whole estate, provided with ploughs and other instruments of husbandry, according to what the season requires, and the profits of the lands can reasonably afford.

6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and so that before the marriage is contracted, it shall be notified to the relations of the heir by consanguinity.

7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall immediately, and without difficulty, have her marriage goods and her inheritance; nor shall she give any thing for her dower, or her marriage goods, or her inheritance which her husband and she held on the day of his death; and she may remain in her husband's house forty days after his death, within which time her dower shall be assigned. No widow shall be compelled to marry herself while she chooses to live without a husband, but so that she shall give security that she will not marry herself without our consent, if she holds of us, or without the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another.

9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any lands or rents for any debt, while the chattels of the debtor are sufficient for the payment of the debt; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained, while the principal debtor is able to pay the debt; and if the principal debtor fail in payment of the debt, not having wherewith to pay, the sureties shall answer for the debt; and if they please they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor until satisfaction be made to them for the debt which they had before paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show that he is discharged from it by the said sureties.

10. If any one hath borrowed any thing from the Jews, more or less, and dies before that debt is paid, the debt shall pay no interest as long as the heir shall be under age, of whomsoever he holds; and if that debt shall fall into our hands, we will not take any thing, except the chattels contained in the bond.

11. And if any one dies indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower, and shall pay nothing of that debt; and if children of the defunct remain who are under age, necessaries shall be provided for them, according to the tenement which belonged to the defunct; and out of the surplus the debt shall be paid, saving the rights of the lords of whom the lands are held. The same rules shall be observed with respect to debts owing to others than Jews.

12. No scutage or aid shall be imposed, except by the common council of our kingdom, but for redeeming our body, for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest daughter; and for these only a reasonable aid shall be demanded. This extends to the aids of the city

of London, and the city of London shall have all its ancient liberties and its free customs, as well by land as by water.

13. Besides, we will grant, that all other cities and boroughs, and towns, and sea-ports, shall have all their liberties and free customs.

14. And to have a common council of the kingdom to assess and aid, otherwise than in the three foresaid cases, or to assess a scutage, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater barons, personally by our letters; and besides, we will cause to be summoned in general, by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all those who hold of us in chief, to a certain day, at the distance of forty days at least, and to a certain place; and in all the letters of summons, we will express the cause of the summons, and the summons being thus made, the business shall go on at the day appointed, according to the advice of those who shall be present, although all who had been summoned have not come.

15. We will not give leave to any one, for the future, to take an aid of his freeman, except for redeeming his own body, making his eldest son a knight, and marrying once his eldest daughter; and that only a reasonable aid.

16. Let none be distrained to do more service for a knight's fee, nor for any free tenement, than what is due from them.

17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be held in some certain place.

18. Assizes upon the writs of Novel desseisin, Mort d'ancester (death of the ancestor), and Dernier presentment, (last presentation), shall not be taken but in their proper counties, and in this manner :-We, or our chief justiciary when we are out of the kingdom, shall send two justiciaries into each county, four times a-year, who, with four knights of each county, chosen by the county, shall take the foresaid assizes, at a stated time and place within the county.

19. And if the foresaid assizes cannot be taken on the day of the county court, let as many knights and freeholders, of those who were present at the county court, remain behind, as by them the aforesaid assizes may be taken, according to the greater or less importance of the business.

20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a small offence, but only according to the degree of the offence; for a great delinquency according to the magnitude of the delinquency, saving his contenement; a merchant shall be amerced in the same manner, saving his merchandise, and a villein saving his implements of husbandry. If they fall into our mercy, none of the aforesaid amercements shall be assessed but by the oath of honest men of the vicinage.

21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by their peers, and that only according to their delinquency.

22. No clerk (clergyman) shall be amerced for his lay tenement, but according to the manner of others as aforesaid, and not according to the quantity of his ecclesiastical benefice.

23. Neither a town nor a particular person shall be distrained to build bridges or embankments except those who anciently and of right are bound to do it.

24. No sheriff, constable, coroner, or bailiff of ours, shall hold pleas of our crown.

25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and tithings, shall be at the ancient rent without any increment, except our demesne-manors.

26. If any one holding of us a lay fee dies, and the sheriff or our bailiff shall show our letters-patent of our summons for a debt which the defunct owed to us, it shall be lawful for the sheriff or our bailiff to attach and register the chattels of the defunct found on that fee, to the amount of that debt, at the view of lawful men, so that nothing shall be removed from them until our debt is paid to us. The clear overplus shall be left to the executors to fulfil the last will of the defunct and if nothing is owing to us by him, all the chattels shall fall to the defunct, saving to his wife and children their reasonable shares.

27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be distributed by his nearest relations and friends at the view of the church, saving to every one his debts which the defunct owed to him.

28. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take the corn or other goods of any one without instantly paying money for them, unless he can obtain respite from the free will of the seller.

29. No constable (governor of a castle) shall, distrain any knight to give money for castle-guard, if he is willing to perform it himself, for a reasonable cause. Or if he have carried or sent him into the army, he shall be excused from castle-guard, according to the space of time he hath been in the army at our command.

30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other person, shall take the horses or carts of any freeman, to perform carriages, without the consent of the said freeman.

31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take another man's wood, for our castles or other uses, without the consent of him to whom the wood belongs.

32. We will not retain the lands of those who have been convicted of felony above one year and one day, and then they shall be given up to the lord of the fee.

33. All kydells (wears) for the future shall be quite removed out of the Thames, the Medway, and through all England, except on the sea-coast. 34. The writ, which is precipe, for the future shall not be granted to any one concerning any tenement by which a freeman may lose his court.

35. There shall be one measure of wine through all our kingdom, and one measure of ale and one measure of corn, viz. the quarter of London; and one breadth of dyed cloth and of russets, and of halberjects, viz. two ells within the lists. It shall be the same with weights as with mea

sures.

36. Nothing shall be given or taken for the future for the writ of inquisition of life or limb, but it shall be given gratis, and not denied.

37. If any hold of us by fee-farm, or soccage, or burgage, and hold an estate of another by military service, we shall not have the custody of the heir, or of his land, which is of the fee of another, on account of that fee-farm, or soccage, or burgage, unless the fee-farm owes military service. We shall not have the custody of the heir, or of the land of any one, which he holds of another by military service, on account of any petty sergeanty which he holds of us by giving us knives, arrows, or the like. 38. No bailiff for the future shall put any man to his law, upon his own simple affirmation, without credible witnesses produced to that purpose. 39. No freeman shall be seized, or imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. 40. To none will we sell, to none will we deny, to none will we delay, right or justice.

41. All merchants shall be safe and secure in coming into England, and going out of England, and staying and travelling through England, as well by land as by water, to buy and to sell, without any unjust exactions, according to ancient and right customs, except in time of war, and if they be of a country at war against us. And if such are found in our dominions at the beginning of a war, they shall be apprehended without injury of their bodies or goods, until it be known unto us, or to our chief justiciary, how the merchants of our country are treated in the country at war against us; and if ours are safe there, the others shall be safe in our country.

42. It shall be lawful for any person for the future to go out of our kingdom, and to return safely and securely, by land and by water, saving his allegiance, except in time of war, for some short space, for the common good of the kingdom, except prisoners, outlaws according to the law of the land, and people of the nation at war against us, and merchants, who shall be treated as is said above.

43. If any one holdeth of any escheat, as of the honour of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats which are in our hands, and shall die, his heir shall not give any other relief, or do any other service to us, than he should have done to the baron, if that barony had been in the hands of the baron; and we will hold it in the same manner that the baron held it.

44. Men who dwell without the forest shall not come for the future