time of King Edward, I now forbid altogether henceforth to be taken. If any one shall have been seized, whether a moneyer or any other, with false money, strict justice shall be done for it. 6. All fines and all debts which were owed to my brother, I remit, except my rightful rents, and except those payments which had been agreed upon for the inheritances of others or for those things which more justly affected others. And if any one for his own inheritance has stipulated anything, this I remit, and all reliefs which had been agreed upon for rightful inheritances. 7. And if any one of my barons or men shall become feeble, however he himself shall give or arrange to give his money, I grant that it shall be so given. Moreover, if he himself, prevented by arms, or by weakness, shall not have bestowed his money, or arranged to bestow it, his wife or his children or his parents, and his legitimate men shall divide it for his soul, as to them shall seem best. 8. If any of my barons or men shall have commited an offence he shall not give security to the extent of forfeiture of his money, as he did in the time of my father, or of my brother, but according to the measure of the offence so shall he pay, as he would have paid from the time of my father backward, in the time of my other predecessors; so that if he shall have been convicted of treachery or of crime, he shall pay as is just. 9. All murders moreover before that day in which I was crowned king, I pardon; and those which shall be done henceforth shall be punished justly according to the law of King Edward. 10. The forests, by the common agreement of my barons, I have retained in my own hand, as my father held them. II. To those knights who hold their land by the cuirass, I yield of my own gift the lands of their demesne ploughs free from all payments and from all labor, so that as they have thus been favoured by such a great alleviation, so they may readily provide themselves with horses and arms for my service and for the defence of my kingdom. 12. A firm peace in my whole kingdom I establish and require to be kept from henceforth. 13. The law of King Edward I give to you again with those changes with which my father changed it by the counsel of his barons. 14. If any one has taken anything from my possessions since the death of King William, my brother, or from the possessions of any one, let the whole be immediately returned without alteration, and if any one shall have retained anything thence, he upon whom it is found will pay it heavily to me. Witnesses Maurice, bishop of London, and Gundulf, bishop, and William, bishop-elect, and Henry, earl, and Simon, earl, and Walter Giffard, and Robert de Montfort, and Roger Bigod, and Henry de Port, at London, when I was crowned. (Translations and Reprints. Published by the Department of History, University of Pennsylvania. Reprinted by permission.) 56. Charter of the City of London (From HENRY I.) Historical Charters The City of London was the recipient of many charters, the first being that granted by William I. (No. 53). That granted by Henry I. is, however, the first in which is given an account of the municipal government. A comparative study of these charters is of great value to those interested in municipal develop ment. Henry, by the grace of God, king of England, to the archbishop of Canterbury, and to the bishops and abbots, earls and barons, justices and sheriffs, and to all his faithful subjects of England, French and English, greeting. Know ye that I have granted to my citizens of London, to hold Middlesex to farm for three hundred pounds, upon accompt to them and their heirs; so that the said citizens shall place as sheriff whom they will of themselves; and shall place whomsoever, or such a one as they will of themselves, for keeping of the pleas of the crown, and of the pleadings of the same, and none other shall be justice over the same men of London; and the citizens of London shall not plead without the walls of London for any plea. And be they free from scot and lot and danegeld, and of all murder; and none of them shall wage battle. And if any one of the citizens shall be impleaded concerning the pleas of the crown, the man of London shall discharge himself by his oath, which shall be adjudged within the city; and none shall lodge within the walls, neither of my household, nor any other, nor lodging delivered by force. And all the men of London shall be quit and free, and all their goods, throughout England, and the ports of the sea, of and from all toll and passage and lestage, and all other customs; and the churches and barons and citizens shall and may peaceably and quietly have and hold their sokes with all their customs; so that the strangers that shall be lodged in the sokes shall give custom to none but to him to whom the soke appertains, or to his officer, whom he shall there put: And a man of London shall not be adjudged in amerciaments of money but of one hundred shillings (I speak of the pleas which appertain to money); and further there shall be no more miskenning in the hustings, nor in the folkmote, nor in other pleas within the city; and the hustings may sit once in a week, that is to say, on Monday: And I will cause my citizens to have their lands, promises, bonds, and debts, within the city and without; and I will do them right by the law of the city, of the lands of which they shall complain to me: And if any shall take toll or custom of any citizen of London, the citizens of London in the city shall take of the borough or town, where toll or custom was so taken, as much as the man of London gave for toll, and as he received damage thereby: And all debtors, which do owe debts to the citizens of London, shall pay them in London, or else discharge themselves in London, that they owe none; but if they will not pay the same, neither come to clear themselves that they owe none, the citizens of London, to whom the debts shall be due, may take their goods in the city of London, of the borough or town, or of the county wherein he remains who shall owe the debt: And all citizens of London may have their chaces to hunt, as well and fully as their ancestors have had, that is to say, in Chiltre, and in Middlesex and Surrey. Witness the bishop of Winchester, and Robert son of Richier, and Hugh Bygot, and Alured of Toteneys, and William of Alba-spina and Hubert the king's Chamberlain, and William de Montfichet, and Hangulf de Taney, and John Bellet, and Robert son of Siward. At Westminster. (The Historical Charters and Constitutional Documents of the City of London, p. 3. Lond. 1834.) 57. The Investiture Controversy Eadmer The policy of the Church forbade its ecclesiastics to receive investiture from a layman, even though he were a king. It also forbade churchmen to render homage to laymen. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, contested these points with Henry I.; the result was the compromise set forth in the selection which fcllows. On the first of August an assemble of bishops, abbots, and nobles of the realm was held at London in the king's palace. And for three successive days, in Anselm's absence, the matter was thoroughly discussed between king and bishops concerning church investitures, some arguing for this that the king should perform them after the manner of his father and brother, or according to the injunction and obedience of the pope. For the pope in the sentence which had been then published, standing firm, had conceded homage, which Pope Urban had forbidden, as well as investiture, and in this way had won over the king about investiture, as may be gathered from the letter which we have quoted above. Afterwards, in the presence of Anselm and a large concourse, the king agreed and ordained that henceforward no one should be invested with bishopric or abbacy in England by the giving of a pastoral staff or the ring, by the king or any lay hand: Anselm also agreeing that no one elected to a prelacy should be deprived of consecration to the office undertaken on the ground of homage, which he should make to the king. After this decision, by the advise of Anselm and the nobles of the realm, fathers were instituted by the king, without any investiture of pastoral staff or ring, to nearly all the churches of England which had been so long widowed of their shepherds. (Eadmeri Monachi Cantuariensis Historia Novorum, ed. cited.) CHAPTER VIII THE EARLY ANGEVINS 58. Henry II and Thomas à Becket at the Council of Woodstock The reign of the strong king, Henry II., was marred by his quarrel with Thomas à Becket. The assassination of the archbishop has tended to obscure in the mind of the younger student of history the principles which were at stake in the quarrel. As chancellor, Thomas was the king's servant, but when created archbishop he became the servant of the Church, and as such he resisted the encroachments of the Crown upon what he believed to be the ecclesiastical prerogative. The first issue with the king came in 1163 at the Council of Woodstock, upon a matter of taxation; the second at the Council of Westminster in the same year, upon the question of the rights of civil courts to try ecclesiastical persons. The dissension was partly healed, and at the Council of Clarendon the compromise effected between Church and State was embodied in the Constitutions of Clarendon. But the dispute again broke out, and Becket fled from England. For years the struggle between ruler and prelate continued. In 1170 a reconciliation was effected, but only to be succeeded by more bitter strife. Some rash words of the king led to the murder of the archbishop. The sincerity of Henry's remorse may well be doubted. In consequence of the murder Henry was forced to submit himself to the pope. When the king was tarrying on his manor at Woodstock, with the archbishop and the great men of the land, among other matters a question was raised concerning a certain custom which obtained in England. Two shillings from each hide were given to the king's servants, who, in the post of sheriffs, guarded the shires. This sum the king wished to have enrolled in the treasury and added to his own revenue. Whom the archbishop resisted to the face, saying that it ought not to be exacted as revenue "Nor will we," said he, "my lord king, give it as revenue, saving your pleasure; but if the sheriffs, and servants, and ministers of the shires shall |