(NB: Glossary at the end of the text.)
1. The English church shall be free.
2 - 6. The guardian of an heir who is under age must return the latter's property when he comes of age; the property must be properly looked after while in the guardian's hand; the guardian may not take a fee for handing it back; nor may he marry off the heir to somebody of lower rank.
7.
After her husband's death, a widow shall have her marriage portion and her
inheritance at once and without any hindrance; nor shall she pay anything for
her dower, her marriage portion, or her inheritance which she and her husband
held on the day of her husband's death; and she may stay in her husband's house
for forty days after his death, within which period her dower shall be assigned
to her.
8.
No widow shall be compelled to marry so long as she wishes to live without a
husband, provided that she gives security that she will not marry without our
consent if she holds of us, or without the consent of the lord of whom she
holds, if she holds of another. [if she holds of us: if she is living on
land of ours]
9.
Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt so
long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to repay the debt; nor shall
the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the debtor himself is
capable of paying the debt.
12.
No scutage or aid is to be levied in our realm except by the common counsel of our
realm, unless it is for the ransom of our person, the knighting of our eldest
son or the first marriage of our eldest daughter; and for these only a
reasonable aid is to be levied. Aids from the city of London are to be treated
likewise. [realm: kingdom, ransom:
Lösegeld].
14.
And to obtain the common counsel of the realm for the assessment of an aid
(except in the three cases aforesaid) or a scutage, we will have archbishops,
bishops, abbots, earls and greater barons summoned individually by our letters;
and we shall also have summoned generally through our sheriffs and bailiffs all
those who hold of us in chief for a fixed date, with at least forty days'
notice, and at a fixed place; and in all letters of summons we will state the
reason for the summons. And when the summons has thus
been made, the business shall go forward on the day arranged according to the
counsel of those present, even if not all those summoned have come.
15. Henceforth we will not grant anyone
that he may take an aid from his free men, except to ransom his person, to make
his eldest son a knight and to marry his eldest daughter once; and for these
purposes only a reasonable aid is to be levied.
16. No man shall be compelled to
perform more service for a knight's fee or for any other free tenement than is
due therefrom.
17. Common pleas shall not follow our
court but shall be held in some fixed place.
18. Recognizances of novel disseisin,
mort d'ancestor, and darrein presentment shall not be held elsewhere than in
the court of the County in which they occur, and in this manner: we, or if we
are out of the realm our chief justiciar, shall send two justices through each
county four times a year who, with four knights of each county chosen by the
county, shall hold the said assizes in the county court on the day and in the
place of meeting of the county court.
19. And if the said assizes cannot all
be held on the day of the county court, so many knights and freeholders of
those present in the county court on that day shall remain behind as will
suffice to make judgements, according to the amount of business to be done.
20. A free man shall not be amerced for
a trivial offence, except in accordance with the degree of the offence; and for
a serious offence he shall be amerced according to its gravity, saving his
livelihood; and a merchant likewise, saving his merchandise; in the same way a
villein shall be amerced saving his wainage; if they fall into our mercy. And
none of the aforesaid amercements shall be imposed except by the testimony of
reputable men of the neighbourhood. [saving
his livelihood: without destroying his livelihood, if they fall into our mercy: if we fine them].
21. Earls and barons shall not be
amerced except by their peers and only in accordance with the nature of the
offence.
27. If any free man dies intestate, his
chattels are to be distributed by his nearest relations and friends, under the
supervision of the Church, saving to everyone the debts which the deceased owed
him. [to die intestate: to die
without having made a will, the deceased:
the dead person].
28. No constable or any other of our
bailiffs shall take any man's corn or other chattels unless he pays cash for
them at once or can delay payment with the agreement of the seller.
29. No constable is to compel any
knight to give money for castle guard, if he is willing to perform that guard
in his own person or by another reliable man, if for some good reason he is
unable to do it himself; and if we take or send him on military service, he
shall be excused the guard in proportion to the period of his service.
30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours or
anyone else is to take horses or carts of any free man for carting without his
agreement.
31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall
take other men's timber for castles or other work of ours, without the
agreement of the owner.
32. We will not hold the lands of
convicted felons for more than a year and a day, when the lands shall be
returned to the lords of the fiefs.
…
35. Let there be one measure of wine
throughout our kingdom and one measure of ale and one measure of corn, namely
the London quarter, and one width of cloth whether dyed, russet or halberjet,
namely two ells within the selvedges. Let it be the same with weights as with
measures.
…
38. Henceforth no bailiff shall put
anyone on trial by his own unsupported allegation, without bringing credible
witnesses to the charge.
39. No free man shall be taken or
imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we
go or send against him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the
law of the land.
40. To no one will we sell, to no one
will we deny or delay right or justice.
41. All merchants are to be safe and
secure in leaving and entering England, and in staying and travelling in
England, both by land and by water, to buy and sell free from all maletotes by
the ancient and rightful customs, except, in time of war, such as come from an
enemy country. [maletotes: taxes].
42. Henceforth anyone, saving his
allegiance due to us, may leave our realm and return safe and secure by land
and water, save for a short period in time of war on account of the general
interest of the realm and excepting those imprisoned and outlawed according to
the law of the land, and natives of an enemy country, and merchants, who shall
be treated as aforesaid.
…
45. We will not make justices,
constables, sheriffs or bailiffs who do not know the law of the land and mean
to observe it well.
…
47. All forests which have been afforested in our time shall be disafforested at once; and river banks which we have enclosed in our time shall be treated similarly.
…
49. We will restore at once all
hostages and charters delivered to us by Englishmen as securities for peace or
faithful service.
…
51. Immediately after concluding peace.
we will remove from the kingdom all alien knights, crossbowmen, sergeants and mercenary
soldiers who have come with horses and arms to the hurt of the realm.
52. If anyone has been disseised or
deprived by us without lawful judgement of his peers of lands, castles,
liberties or his rights we will restore them to him at once; and if any
disagreement arises on this, then let it be settled by the judgement of the
Twenty-Five barons referred to below in the security clause. But for all those
things of which anyone was disseised or deprived without lawful judgement of
his peers by King Henry our father, or by King Richard our brother, which we
hold in our hand or which are held by others under our warranty, we shall have
respite for the usual crusader's term; excepting those cases in which a plea
was begun or inquest made on our order before we took the cross; when, however,
we return from our pilgrimage, or if perhaps we do not undertake it, we will at
once do full justice in these matters.
…
54. No one shall be taken or imprisoned
upon the appeal of a woman for the death of anyone except her husband.
…
56. If we have disseised or deprived
Welshmen of lands, liberties or other things without lawful judgement of their
peers, in England or in Wales, they are to be returned to them at once; and if
a dispute arises over this it shall be settled in the March by judgement 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 in the March
according to the law of the March. The Welsh are to do the same to us and ours.
…
58. We will restore at once the son of
Llywelyn and all the hostages from Wales and the charters delivered to us as
security for peace.
59. We will treat Alexander, King of
the Scots, concerning the return of his sisters and hostages and his liberties
and rights in the same manner in which we will act towards our other barons of
England, unless it ought to be otherwise because of the charters which we have
from William his father, formerly King of the Scots; and this shall be
determined by the judgement of his peers in our court.
60. All these aforesaid customs and liberties which we have granted to be held in our realm as far as it pertains to us towards our men, shall be observed by all men of our realm, both clerk and lay, as far as it pertains to them, towards their own men.
61. Since, moreover, we have granted
all the aforesaid things for God, for the reform of our realm and the better
settling of the quarrel which has arisen between us and our barons, and since
we wish these things to be enjoyed fully and undisturbed, we give and grant
them the following security: namely, that the barons shall choose any
twenty-five barons of the realm they wish, who with all their might are to
observe, maintain and cause to be observed the peace and liberties which we
have granted and confirmed to them by this our present charter; so that if we
or our justiciar or our bailiffs or any of our servants offend against anyone
in any way, or transgress any of the articles of peace or security and the
offence is indicated to four of the aforesaid twenty-five barons, those four
barons shall come to us or our justiciar, if we are out of the kingdom, and
shall bring it to our notice and ask that we will have it redressed without
delay. And if we, or our justiciar, should we be out of the kingdom, do not
redress the offence within forty days from the time when it was brought to the
notice of us or our justiciar, should we be out of the kingdom, the aforesaid
four barons shall refer the case to the rest of the twenty-five barons and
those twenty-five barons with the commune of all the land shall distrain and
distress us in every way they can, namely by selling castles lands and
possessions, and in such other ways as they can, saving our person and those of
our queen and of our children until, in their judgement, amends have been made;
and when it has been redressed they are to obey us as they did before. And
anyone in the land who wishes may take an oath to obey the orders of the said
twenty-five barons in the execution of all the aforesaid matters, and to join
with them in distressing us to the best of his ability, and we publicly and
freely permit anyone who wishes to take the oath, and we will never forbid
anyone to take it. Moreover we shall compel and order all those in the land who
of themselves and of their own free will are unwilling to take an oath to the
twenty-five barons to distrain and distress us with them, to take the oath as
aforesaid. And if any of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country or
is otherwise prevented from discharging these aforesaid duties, the rest of the
aforesaid barons shall on their own decision choose another in his place, who
shall take the oath in the same way as the others. In all matters the execution
of which is committed to those twenty-five barons, if it should happen that the
twenty-five are present and disagree among themselves on anything, or if any of
them who has been summoned will not or cannot come, whatever the majority of
those present shall provide or order is to be taken as fixed and settled as if
the whole twenty-five had agreed to it; and the aforesaid twenty-five are to
swear that they will faithfully observe all the aforesaid and will do all they
can to secure its observance. And we will procure nothing from anyone, either
personally or through another, by which any of these concessions and liberties
shall be revoked or diminished; and if any such thing is procured, it shall be
null and void, and we will never use it either ourselves or through another.
62. And we have completely remitted and
pardoned to all any ill will, grudge and rancour that have arisen between us
and our subjects, clerk and lay, from the time of the quarrel. Moreover we have
fully forgiven and completely condoned to all, clerk and lay, as far as
pertains to us, all offences occasioned by the said quarrel from Easter in the
sixteenth year of our reign to the conclusion of peace. And moreover we have
caused letters patent of the Lord Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury , the Lord
Henry, Archbishop of Dublin, the aforesaid bishops and Master Pandulf to be
made for them on this security and the aforesaid concessions.
63. Wherefore we wish and firmly command that the English Church shall be free, and the men in our realm shall have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights and concessions well and peacefully, freely and quietly, fully and completely for them and their heirs of us and our heirs in all things and places for ever, as is aforesaid. Moreover an oath has been sworn both on our part and on the part of the barons, that all these things aforesaid shall be observed in good faith and without evil intent. Witness the above-mentioned and many others. Given under our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede between Windsor and Staines on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign.
Abbot:
head of an abbey or monastic community. Aid: any money payment made to an
overlord, but more precisely a payment made to him on certain specific
occasions.
Amercement: a fine imposed by a court of law.
Archbishop: the chief bishop in an ecclesiastical division or province.
Attach:
to take into official custody.
Bailiff:
a minor local official responsible to the sheriff of the county, but the word
is often used in a more general sense.
Baron:
the highest rank of tenant in the feudal system, holding land directly from the
king in return for knight service.
Barony:
a large estate held directly from the king by knight service.
Bishop:
the highest order of ministers in the Church, governing a diocese with a
cathedral as his official seat.
Borough:
.a town possessing a certain degree of selfgovernment and special privileges
granted by royal charter .
Burgage:
tenure of a tenement or property within a town; it involved a fixed rent in
lieu of all services and the right to leave lands and tenements by will and to
sell and mortgage without hindrance.
Cardinal:
the highest rank in the Church after the Pope.
Castleguard: the obligation to provide service for the manning of a castle.
Chancery:
the centre of all royal secretarial work, under the direction of the
Chancellor; as custodian of the royal seal, all official documents had to be
approved by h i m .
Charter:
a document granted by a ruler conferring privileges on his subjects.
Chattels:
personal estate, movable goods; distinguished from real estate, i.e., lands and
revenues, the permanent means of livelihood.
Chief:
see In chief.
Church:
at this period there was one Church throughout Europe, governed by the Pope in
Rome.
Common pleas: suits between subject and subject regarding real property, i.e.,
at this time principally land, build ings and titles.
Constable: a military official, especially one in charge of a castle.
Coroner:
a high ranking royal official; four were appointed to each county to protect
the king's interests, one of their duties being to make all preliminary
investigations before a trial.
Count:
the French equivalent of the English title 'Earl.' Cross: to take the Cross: to
make a vow to go on a crusade against the Moslems in the Holy Land.
Darrein Presentment: an inquest to establish who pre-##
sented
the incumbent to an ecclesiastical benefice or living, whose patronage was in
dispute on the last occasion that it was vacant.
Demesne: land administered
directly by the lord and his officials as distinct from that which was let out
to others.
Disparagement: forced marriage to one
who was not an equal.
Disseisin: see Novel Disseisin.
Distrain: compel by legal
seizure.
Dower: the portion of a husband's lands
set aside at the time of her marriage to support his wife in her widowhood.
Duke: a title denoting independent
sovereignty over a small state; not at this period a title to lands in England.
Earl: the highest rank or title of
English nobles, holding lands in the region whose name was attached to the
title but without direct authority there.
Ell: a standard measure of length said
to have been based on the length of the right arm of Henry I.
Escheat: the reversion of an estate to its
overlord, generally because there was no legal heir or because its holder had
forfeited it by having committed a felony.
Fee-farm: absolute tenure of a
property in perpetuity by an annual payment.
Felony: the more serious criminal
offences, which at this time generally rendered a culprit liable to death and
forfeiture of his property.
Fief or fee: an estate held by
heritable tenure, i.e., given absolutely to a man for knight service.
Fishweirs: used in a general
sense to cover all large, static contrivances for catching fish, the cause of
serious inconvenience to boats navigating in inland waters.
Forest: i.e. royal forest: lands reserved
by the king for hunting and therefore put under a very severe code of forest
laws, which provided a useful subsidiary source of royal income.
Freemen: those of free status in the eyes
of the law, i.e., not villeins.
Halberjet: probably a superior
type of cloth.
Honour: the name given to a very few
large baronial estates; an honour was held of the king by knight service and
normally was never subdivided.
Hundred: the major subdivision of a shire
or county in most of England.
Implead: to sue in a court of justice.
In chief: holding directly from
the king, not from a baron.
Inquest: formal inquiry made by the
sheriff whereby a local jury was summoned to testify as to the facts in a
particular matter.
Justiciar: chief justiciar: an
official who acted as regent during the king's absence from England.
Local justiciar: a local legal official
found in certain towns.
Knight: originally a mounted soldier, but
here usually a well-to-do landowner, below baronial rank.
Knight service: tenure by the duty of
providing a knight or knights to fight for an overlord in time of war or man
his castles in time of peace.
Knight's fee: an area of land
charged with the maintenance of one knight for knight service.
Knights of the Temple: a military order
living under a monastic rule.
Lay holding: property held by
performing secular and not ecclesiastical duties.
Letters patent: letters with the seal
pendant from them, as distinct from letters close which were sealed with a blob
of wax that had to be removed before the letter was open; as the seal was at
this time the mark of legal validity it meant that any important letters had to
be sealed patent.
Marriage portion: the property bestowed
on a bride at the time of her marriage by a close relative or friend as
endowment for her and her children.
Mort d' Ancestor: an inquest as to
whether an heir had been prevented from taking possession of some property he
should have inherited.
Novel Disseisin: an inquest into an alleged
recent eviction of a tenant from his free tenement.
Peers: equals before the law.
Petty Sergeanty: tenure by the delivery
of some trivial object, like an arrowhead, instead of by a rent or military
service.
Pleas of the Crown: grave criminal offences
such as ambush, forcible entry, neglect of summons to local military service.
Praecipe: a royal writ ordering
disputed land to be restored to a plaintiff on pain of having the case
transferred to a royal court.
Primate: the chief bishop in a single
state; in England, the archbishop of Canterbury.
Relief: a payment by an heir of full
military age when taking over his estate held by military tenure; if the heir
was under age at the time of his accession he became a ward.
Royal chancery: see Chancery.
Russet: a coarse homespun cloth much used
by the peasantry.
Scutage: the money payment made instead of
providing a knight or knights for knight service.
Selvedges: the borders which were
usually of a different weave from the body of the cloth.
Seneschal: French title for a
steward.
Sergeanty: see Petty Sergeanty.
Sheriff: direct agent of the king in each
county or shire.
Socage: a free, heritable tenure
generally by a money rent.
Subdeacon: a person ordained to
office in the Church, ranking after the three major orders of bishops, priests
and deacons.
Trithing: the Ridings or third
parts' into which Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were divided.
Villein: country peasant bound to work on
a manor or estate; not free to leave the manor or marry , etc. , without the
consent of his lord; the lowest order of society in the feudal system.
Wainage: the chattels on which the villein
depended for his livelihood, such as farm implements.
Wapentake: the institution
corresponding to the hundred in certain northern and midland shires.
Ward: heir of a deceased tenant who was
too young to give military service in return for his lands, and who was
therefore entrusted to the care of his lord, who took charge of his possessions
until he should come of age.
Warren: an enclosure wherein the owner
had exclusive rights to hunt lesser game.