CHAPTER XXXII.

Lands shall not be Aliened to the Prejudice of the Lord's Service [i. e. Lord of the Fee].

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Patrons of Abbeys shall have the custody of them in time of Vacation.

[Same as 46th chapter of John's Charter.]

CHAPTER XXXIV.

In what cases only a Woman shall have an Appeal of Death. [Same as 51st chapter of John's Charter.]

CHAPTER XXXV.

At what time shall be kept a County Court, a Sheriff's Term, and a Leet.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

No Land shall be given in Mortmain.

"It shall not be lawful from henceforth to any to give his lands to any religious house, and to take the same land again to hold of the same house. Nor shall it be lawful to any house of religion to take the lands of any, and to lease the same to him of whom he received it if any from henceforth give his lands to any religious house, and thereupon be convict, the gift shall be utterly void, and the land shall accrue to the lord of the fee."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A Subsidy in respect of this Charter and the Charter of the Forest granted to the King.

"Escuage from henceforth shall be taken like as it was wont to be in the time of king Henry, our grandfather; reserving to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, templars, hospitalers, earls, barons, and all persons, as well spiritual as temporal, all their free liberties and free customs, which they have had in time past. And all these customs and liberties aforesaid, which we have granted to be holden within this our realm, as much as appertaineth to us and our heirs, we shall observe. And all men of this our realm, as

well spiritual as temporal (as much as in them is), shall observe the same against all persons in like wise. And for this our gift and grant of these liberties, and of others contained in our charter of liberties of our forest, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, freeholders, and other our subjects, have given unto us the fifteenth part of all their moveables. And we have granted unto them, for us and our heirs, that neither we nor our heirs shall procure or do anything whereby the liberties in this charter contained shall be infringed or broken. And if anything be procured by any person contrary to the premises, it shall be had of no force nor effect. These being witnesses: Lord B., archbishop of Canterbury, E., bishop of London, I., bishop of Bath, P., of Winchester, H., of Lincoln, R., of Salisbury, W., of Rochester, W., of Worcester, J., of Ely, H., of Hereford, R., of Chichester, W., of Exeter, bishops; the abbot of St. Edmonds, the abbot of St. Albans, the abbot of Bello, the abbot of St. Augustine's in Canterbury, the abbot of Evesham, the abbot of Westminster, the abbot of Bourgh St. Peter, the abbot of Reding, the abbot of Abindon, the abbot of Malmsbury, the abbot of Winchcomb, the abbot of Hyde, the abbot of Certesy, the abbot of Sherburn, the abbot of Cerne, the abbot of Abbotebir, the abbot of Middleton, the abbot of Seleby, the abbot of Cirencester; H. de Burgh, justice, H., earl of Chester and Lincoln, W., earl of Salisbury, W., earl of Warren, G. de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hereford, W. de Ferrars, earl of Derby, W. de Mandeville, earl of Essex, H. de Bygod, earl of Norfolk, W., earl of Albemarle, H., earl of Hereford, J., constable of Chester, R. de Ros, R. Fitzwalter, R. de Vyponte, W. de Bruer, R. de Muntefichet, P. Fitzherbert, W. de Aubenie, J. Gresly, F. de Breus, J. de Monemue, J. Fitzallen, H. de Mortimer, W. de Beauchamp, W. de St. John, P. de Mauly, Brian de Lisle, Thomas de Multon, R. de Argenteyn, G. de Nevil, W. Mauduit, J. de Balun, and others."

We, ratifying and approving these gifts and grants atoresaid, confirm and make strong all the same for us and our heirs perpetually; and by the tenor of these presents do renew the same, willing and granting for us and our heirs that this charter, and all and singular its articles, forever shall be stedfastly, firmly and inviolably observed. Although some articles in the same charter contained yet hitherto peradventure have not been kept, we will and, by authority royal, command from henceforth firmly they be

observed. In witness whereof, we have caused these our letters patent to be made. T. Edward, our son, at Westminster, the twelfth day of October, in the twenty-fifth year of our reign.

Magna Charta, in this form, has been solemnly confirmed by our kings and parliaments upwards of thirty times; but in the twentyfifth year of Edward I. much more than a simple confirmation of it was obtained for England. As has already been mentioned, the original charter of John forbade the levying of escuage, save by consent of the great council of the land; and although those important provisions were not repeated in Henry's charter, it is certain that they were respected. Henry's barons frequently refused him the subsidies which his prodigality was always demanding. Neither he nor any of his ministers seems ever to have claimed for the crown the prerogative of taxing the landholders at discretion; but the sovereign's right of levying money from his towns and cities, under the name of tallages or prises, was constantly exercised during Henry III.'s reign, and during the earlier portion of his son's. But, by the statute of Edward I. intituled Confirmatio Chartarum, all private property was secured from royal spoliation, and placed under the safeguard of the great council of all the realm. The material portions of that statute are as follows:

CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM.

ANNO VICESIMO QUINTO EDV. I.

CAP. V.

And for so 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 likewise for the prises taken throughout the realm, in our name, 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.

CAP. VI.

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 thenceforth we shall take such manner of aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the common assent of all the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and accustomed.

"Par commun assent de tut le roiaume." The version in our statute-book omits the important word "All."

APPENDIX V.

THE PETITION OF RIGHT.'

To the King's Most Excellent Majestie.

HUMBLY shew unto our Sovereign Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by a Statute, made in the tyme of the Raigne of King Edward the first, commonly called "Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo," that no Tallage or Aide should be laid or levied, by the King or his heires, in this Realme; without the good-will and assent of the Arch Bishopps, Bishopps, Earles, Barons, Knights, Burgesses and other the freemen of the cominalty of this realme; And by Authority of Parliament houlden in the five and twentieth yere of the Raigne of King Edward the third, it is declared and enacted, that from thenceforth noe person should be compelled to make any loanes to the King against his will, because such loanes were against reason, and the franchise of the land; and by other lawes of this realme it is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or imposition, called a Benevolence, nor by such like charge, by which the Statuts before. mentioned, and other the good lawes and statuts of this Realme, your Subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any Tax, Tallage, Aide, or other like charge, not sett by common consent in Parliament.

Yet nevertheless of late, divers commissions, directed to sundrie commissioners in severall Counties, with instructions, have been issued, by means whereof your People have bene in divers places assembled, and required to lend certaine sommes of money unto your Majestie, and many of them upon their refusall soe to doe, have had an oath administered unto them, not warrantable by the

This petition was drawn up by Sir Edward Coke. Coke, 207, edit. of 1697.