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82. Confirmation of the Charters

(25 Edw. I, c. 6, 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 III., 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 hear or see 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 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 realm.

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 all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of greater excommunication against all those that by word, deed, or counsel, do contrary to the aforesaid charters, or that in any point break or undo them. And that the said courses 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 distrain 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 founden.

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 business 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 more part of the commonalty of the realm find themselves sore grieved with the maletote 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 clearly released it, and have granted for us and our heirs that we shall not take such thing or any other without their common assent 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 these our letters to be made 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.)

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.

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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 imposed 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 assent 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-tolt.

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 have 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 having seen and read this present charter in their cathedral churches, twice in a year, shall publicly excommunicate for ever, and upon the reading thereof in every of the parish churches of their dioceses, shall openly denounce excommunication against all those that in any way willingly do or procure to be done any thing contrary to the tenor, force, and effect of this present charter in any article.

In witness whereof to this present charter, our seal is put 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 to its observance will afford their faithful aid and counsel 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.

STATUTUM DE RELIGIOSIS

(7 EDW. I, 1279)

Where of late it was provided, that religious men should not enter into the fees of any without licence and will of the chief lords, of whom such fees be holden immediately; and afterwards religious men have notwithstanding entered as well into their own fees, as into the fees of other men, appropriating and buying them, and sometime receiving them of the gift of others, whereby the services that are due of such fees, and which at the beginning were provided for defence of the realm, are wrongfully withdrawn, and the chief lords do lease their eschats of the same: We therefore, to the profit of our realm, intending to provide convenient remedy, by the advice of our prelates, earls, [barons,] and other our lieges, being of our council, have provided, established, and ordained, that no person, religious or other, whatsoever he be, do presume to buy or sell any lands or tenements, or under the colour of gift or lease, or by reason of any other title, whatsoever it be, to receive from any man, or by any other craft or device do appropriate to himself, lands or tenements, under pain of forfeiture of the same, whereby such lands or tenements may anywise come into Mortmain.

We have provided also, that if any person, religious or other, do presume either by craft or device to offend against this statute, it shall be lawful to us, and other immediate chief lords of the fee so aliened, to enter therein within a year from the time of such alienation, and to hold it in fee and inheritance. And if the immediate chief lord be negligent, and will not enter into such fee within the year, then it shall be lawful to the next [immediate] chief lord of the same fee to enter into the same within half a year next following, and to hold it as before is said; and so every [immediate] chief lord may enter into such fee, if the next [immediate] lord be negligent in entering into the same fee, as is aforesaid. And if all such chief lords of such fees, being of full age, within the four seas, and out of prison, be negligent or slack in this behalf, we immediately after the [year] accomplished, from the time that such purchases, gifts, or other appropriations happen to be made, shall take such lands. and tenements into our hands, and shall infeoff other therein, by certain services to be therefore done for the same to us for the defence of our realm; saving to the chief lords of the same fees their words and eschats, and other services to them due and accustomed.

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