whole kingdom; we command you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which you are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin, in the approaching winter, you be present in person at Westminster, for considering, ordaining and doing along with us and with the prelates, and the rest of the principal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, as may be necessary for meeting dangers of this kind. Witness the king at Canterbury, the first of October. Similar summons were sent to seven earls and forty-one barons. (Translations and Reprints, ed. cit.) SUMMONS OF REPRESENTATIVES OF SHIRES AND TOWNS TO PARLIAMENT The king to the sheriff of Northamptonshire. Since we intend to have a consultation and meeting with the earls, barons and other principal men of our kingdom with regard to providing remedies against the dangers which are in these days threatening the same kingdom; and on that account have commanded them to be with us on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin in the approaching winter, at Westminster, to consider, ordain, and do as may be necessary for the avoidance of these dangers; we strictly require you to cause two knights from the aforesaid county, two citizens from each city in the same county, and two burgesses from each borough, of those who are especially discreet and capable of labouring, to be elected without delay, and to cause them to come to us at the aforesaid time and place. Moreover, the said knights are to have full and sufficient power for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid county, and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and the communities of the aforesaid cities and boroughs separately, then and there for doing what shall then be ordained according to the common counsel in the premises; so that the aforesaid business shall not remain unfinished in any way for defect of this power. And you shall have there the names of the knights, citizens and burgesses and this writ. Witness the king at Canterbury on the third day of October. Identical summons were sent to the sheriffs of each county. (Select Charters, Stubbs, ed. cit.) 82. Confirmation of the Charters (25 Edw. I, c. 1-7, 1297) Statutes of the Realm The Magna Charta was a rallying point for all those striving for relief from the despotic exercise of the kingly power. Again and again were the rights of the people violated, but need and fear of the people compelled the re-granting of the rights given in the Great Charter. These re-grants took the form of re-issues of the Charter, as in the Charter of Henry II., or of confirmations of its provisions, as the following Confirmation of the Charters. 1. Edward, by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine to all those that shall see or hear these present letters, greeting: Know ye, that we to the honour of God and of holy church, and to the profit of our realm, have granted for us and our heirs that the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest, which were made by common assent of all the realm, in the time of King Henry our father, shall be kept in every point without breach. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under our seal, as well to our justices of the forest as to others, and to all sheriffs of shires, and to all our other officers and to all our cities throughout the realm, together with our writs, in which it shall be contained that they cause the aforesaid charters to be published, and declare to the people that we have confirmed them in all points; and that our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other officials which under us have the laws of our land to guide, shall allow the said charters pleaded before them in judgment in all their points; that is to wit, the Great Charter as the common law and the Charter of the Forest according to the assize of the forest, for the weal of our people. 2. And we will that if any judgment be given from henceforth, contrary to the points of the charter aforesaid, by the justices or by any other of our officials that hold pleas before them, it shall be undone and holden for naught. 3. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under our seal to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and shall be read before the people twice yearly. 4. And that archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of the greater excommunication against all those that by act, by aid, or by counsel, do contrary to the aforesaid charters, or that in any point break or undo them. And that the said curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if the same prelates or any of them, be remiss in the denunciation of the said sentences, the archbishops of Canterbury and York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel and constrain them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid. 5. And for as much as divers people of our realm are in fear that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and good-will, howsoever they were made, might turn to a bondage to them and their heirs, because they might be at another time found in the rolls, and so likewise the prises taken throughout the realm by our ministers; we have granted for us and our heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises, into a custom, for anything that hath been done heretofore, be it by roll or any other precedent that may be found. 6. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs, as well to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy church, as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, that for no cause from henceforth will we take such manner of aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the common consent of the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and accustomed. 7. And for as much as the greater part of the commonalty of the realm find themselves sore grieved with the male-tolt of wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and have made petition to us to release the same; we, at their requests, have fully released it, and have granted for us and our heirs that we shall not take such thing or any other without their common consent and good-will, saving to us and our heirs the custom of wools, skins, and leather granted before by the commonalty aforesaid. In witness of which things we have caused to be issued these our letters patent. Witness Edward, our son, at London, the tenth day of October, the five and twentieth year of our reign. And be it remembered that this same charter in the same terms, word for word, was sealed in Flanders under the king's great seal, that is to say at Ghent, the fifth day of November in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of our aforesaid lord the king, and sent into England. (Edited from Statutes of the Realm, I, 123, 124.) In regard to the manner of editing this and all other selections from Statutes of Realm, see the Preface to the second edition of the Source-Book of English History. 83. Ecclesiastical Sanction of the Confirmation of the Charters (1297) Book of Rights The intimate connection between Church and State in the thirteenth century is well shown by the following selection which furnishes the text of the endorsement by the ecclesiastical authority of the act of the king. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. Whereas our sovereign lord the King, to the honour of God and of holy church, and for the common profit of the realm, hath granted for him and his heirs for ever these articles abovewritten. We, Robert archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, admonish all those of the realm of England once, twice, and thrice because that shortness of time will not suffer more delay, that all and every of them of what estate soever they be, as much as in them is, do uphold and maintain these things granted by our sovereign lord the King in all points; and that they or none of them do resist or break, or in any manner hereafter procure, counsel, or any ways assent to resist or break them, or go about it, by word or deed, openly or privily, by any manner of pretence of colour; and we the foresaid archbishop, by our authority in this writing expressed, do excommunicate all such, and them from the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and from all the company of heaven, and from all the sacraments of holy church, do dissever. Fiat! Fiat! Amen! (Trans. Edgar Taylor in Book of Rights, Lond. 1831. p. 51.) 84. De Tallagio Non Concedendo (25 EDW. I, 1297) Statutes of the Realm The Statutum de Tallagio non Concedendo was originally an unauthorized interpretation of the Confirmatio Chartarum. It was not a statute, though afterward cast in that form. Its principles were of such importance in the struggles against illegal taxation that it early acquired by sufferance a place in the collections of laws. In 1628 it was quoted as a statute in the Petition of Right (which embodied its principles), and in 1637 it was judicially declared a statute. "A STATUTE CONCERNING CERTAIN LIBERTIES GRANTED BY THE KING TO HIS COMMONS" 1. No tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by us or our heirs in our realm, without the good-will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen of the land. 2. No officer of ours, or of our heirs, shall take corn, wool, leather, or any other goods, of any manner of person, without the good-will and consent of the party to whom the goods belonged. 3. Nothing from henceforth shall be taken of sacks of wool in the name or by occasion of male-tent. 4. Also we will and grant for us and our heirs, that all clerks and laymen of our realm shall have all their laws, liberties, and free customs, as freely and wholly as they were used to have the same at any time when they had them best and most fully: And if any statutes have been made by us or our ancestors, or any customs brought in contrary to them, or to any manner of article contained in this present charter, we will and grant, that such manner of statutes and customs shall be void and frustrate for evermore. 5. [Pardon granted to certain offenders.] 6. And for the more assurance of this thing, we will and grant for ourselves and our heirs, that all archbishops and bishops of England for ever, in their cathedral churches this present charter being first read, shall excommunicate, and publically in the several parish churches of their diocese, shall cause to be excommunicated, or to be declared excommunicated twice in the year all those that willingly do or procure to be done any thing contrary to the tenor, force, and effect of this present charter in any point or article. In witness whereof our seal is put to this present charter, together with the seals of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and others; who voluntarily have sworn that, as much as in them is, they will observe the tenor of this present charter in all and singular its articles, and will afford their faithful aid and counsel to its observance for evermore. (Ed. from Statutes of the Realm, I, 125.) 85. The Law of Mortmain Statutes of the Realm The Statute of Mortmain was the first step taken by Edward I. in the assertion of the right of the State to control the Church when civil interests were affected by ecclesiastical action. It "stands to ecclesiastical tenures in the same position that the statute Quia Emptores stands to lay tenures." The statute given is the first, and is typical of a series, all aimed at the practice by which lands were transferred to the Church and removed from the control of lords who claimed the feudal rights, and from the possession of those to whom the lands would naturally have descended. |