(1275. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 20, Stubbs, S C. 450. 2 Stubbs, 113.)
THESE be the acts of king Edward, son to king Henry, made at Westminster at his first parliament general after his coronation, on the Monday of Easter Utas, the third Year of his reign, by his council and by the assent of archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, and the commonalty of the realm, being thither summoned because * * *; the king hath ordained and established these acts underwritten, which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole realm.
[Part omitted]
5. And because elections ought to be free, the king commandeth upon great forfeiture, that no man by force of arms, nor by malice, or menacing, shall disturb any to make free election.
[Part omitted]
36. Forasmuch as before this time, reasonable aid to make one’s son knight, or to marry his daughter, was never put in certain, nor how much should be taken, nor at what time, whereby some levied unreasonable aid, and more often than seemed necessary, whereby the people were sore grieved; it is provided, that from henceforth of a whole knight’s fee there be taken but twenty shillings, and of twenty-pound land holden in socage, twenty shillings; and of more, more; and of less, less; after the rate. And that none shall levy such aid to make his son knight, until his son be fifteen years of age, nor to marry his daughter, until she be of the age of seven years. And of that there shall be made mention in the king’s writ, formed on the same, when any will demand it. And if it happen that the father, after that he hath levied such aid of his tenants, die before he hath married his daughter, the executors of the father shall be bound to the daughter, for so much as the father received for the aid. And if the father’s goods be not sufficient, his heir shall be charged therewith unto the daughter.
[Part omitted]
[Back to Contents]
(May, 1275. Latin text, Stubbs, S. C.451. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs, 113, 550.)
WILLIAM of Valence, earl of Pembroke, to all the faithful in Christ to whom the present writ shall come, Greeting in the Lord.
Since the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the realm of England, and the earls, barons, and we and the communities of the said realm, at the instance and request of the merchants, have for many reasons, unanimously granted to the great prince and lord, our well-beloved lord Edward, by the grace of God, the illustrious king of England, for us and our heirs, a half mark from each sack of wool, and a half mark from each three hundred woolfells, which make a sack, and one mark from each last of leather, exported from the realm of England and the land of Wales, to be collected henceforth in each and every port of England and Wales, as well within liberties as without; we, at the request and instance of the aforesaid merchants, do grant, for ourselves and our heirs, that the same lord the king and his heirs in each and every one of our ports in Ireland, both within our liberties and without, shall have a half mark from each sack of wool, and a half mark from each three hundred woolfells, which make a sack, and one mark from each last of leather, exported from the land of Ireland, to be collected by the hand of the wardens and bailiffs of the said king, saving to us the forfeiture of those who, without licence and warrant of the said lord the king, by his letters patent signed by his seal for this provided, shall have presumed to carry Out of Ireland wool, woolfells, or leather of this sort, through our fiefs where we have liberties. From which the aforesaid lord the king and his heirs shall receive and have the half mark from the wool and woolfells and the mark from the lasts of leather in the form aforesaid; nevertheless so that in each of our ports where the writs of the aforesaid lord the king do not run, two of the more discreet and faithful men of those ports shall be chosen who, upon oath, until the merchants of the aforesaid wool, woolfells, and leather shall have his warrant for it under the seal of the lord the king for this provided, shall faithfully collect the customs from the wool, woolfells, and leather, seized in the said ports, and shall receive them for the use of the said lord the king and shall answer to him for them.
In testimony whereof, we have set our seal to the present writ.
Given in the general parliament of the aforesaid lord the king, at Westminster on Sunday the feast of Saint Dunstan the bishop, in the third year of the reign of the said king.
[Back to Contents]
(June, 1278. Latin text, Stubbs, S. C. 457. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs, 115, 221, 294.)
THE king to the sheriff of Gloucestershire, Greeting.
We order and straitly enjoin you, that, without delay you distrain all those in your bailiwick who have twenty pound lands, or a whole knight’s fee worth twenty pounds a year, and who hold from us in chief and ought to be knights and are not; that before the feast of the Lord’s nativity next coming or at the same feast, they receive the insignia of knighthood from us: also, without delay, distrain all those from your bailiwick who have twenty pound lands or a whole knight’s fee worth twenty pounds a year, from whomsoever they hold, and ought to be knights and are not, that they receive insignia of the same sort at the same feast or before; so that you receive from the same good and sufficient security for it, and cause the names of all of them to be written down in a roll upon the attestation of two lawful knights of the aforesaid county, and to he transmitted to us, without delay, under your seal and the seals of the two knights. And we will you to know that we will make prompt visitation upon your action in the execution of this order of ours, and thereupon we shall cause suitable remedy to be made for it.
Witness the king at Westminster, the twenty-sixth day of June.
[Back to Contents]
(November, 1279. Latin text, 1 S. R. 51, Stubbs, S. C. 458. Translation, 1 S. R. 51, G. and H. 81. 2 Stubbs, 117.)
THE king to his justices of the bench, Greeting.
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 notwithstanding such religious men have since entered as well into their own fees, as into the fees of other men, appropriating and buying them, and sometimes 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 lose their escheats 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 subjects, being of our council, have provided, established, and ordained, that no person, religious or other, whatsoever he be, presume to buy or sell, or under the color of gift or lease, or by reason of any other title, whatsoever it be, to receive of any man, or by any other craft or device to appropriate to himself any lands or tenements under pain of forfeiture of the same whereby such lands or tenements may any wise come into mortmain. We have provided also, that if any person, religious or other, do presume in any manner either by craft or device to offend against this statute; it shall be lawful to us and other chief lords of the fee immediate to enter into the land so alienated, within a year from the time of the alienation, and to hold it in fee and inheritance. And if the chief lord immediate be negligent, and will not enter into such fee within the year, then it shall be lawful to the next chief lord immediate of the same fee to enter into the same fee within half a year next following, and to hold it as before is said; and so every lord immediate may enter into such fee if the next lord be negligent in entering into the same fee, as is aforesaid. And if all the chief lords of such fees, being of full age, within the four seas, and out of prison, be negligent or slack in this behalf, for the space of one year, we, immediately after the year accomplished, from the time that such purchases, gifts or appropriations hap to be made, shall take such lands or tenements into our hand, and shall infeoff other therein by certain services to be done for the same to us for the defence of our realm; saving to the chief lords of the same fees their wards and escheats, and other things to them belonging, and the services for the same, due and accustomed. And therefore we command you, that you cause the aforesaid statute to be read before you, and from henceforth to be kept firmly and observed.
Witness myself at Westminster the fifteenth day of November, the seventh year of our reign.
[Back to Contents]
(October, 12S3. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 53. 2 Stubbs, 121.)
FORASMUCH as merchants, which heretofore have lent goods to divers persons, be greatly impoverished, because there is no speedy law provided for them to have recovery of their debts at day of payment assigned; and by reason hereof many merchants do refrain to come into this realm with their merchandises, to the damage as well of the merchants, as of the whole realm; the king by himself and his council hath ordained and established, that the merchant which will be sure of his debt, shall cause his debtor to come before the mayor of London, or of York, or Bristol, and before the mayor and a clerk, which the king shall appoint for the same, for to acknowledge the debt and the day of payment; and the recognizance shall be entered into a roll with the hand of the said clerk, which shall be known. Moreover, the said clerk shall make with his own hand a bill obligatory, whereunto the seal of the debtor shall be put, with the king’s seal, that shall be provided for the same purpose, the which seal shall remain in the keeping of the mayor and clerk aforesaid: and if the debtor doth not pay at the day to him limited, the creditor may come before the said mayor and clerk with his bill obligatory, and if it be found by the roll, and by the bill, that the debt was acknowledged, and that the day of payment is expired, the mayor shall incontinent cause the movables of the debtor to be sold, as far as the debt doth amount, by the appraising of honest men, as also chattels, and burgages devisable, until the whole sum of the debt; and the money, without delay, shall be paid to the creditor. And if the mayor can find no buyer, he shall cause the movables to be delivered to the creditor at a reasonable price, as much as doth amount to the sum of the debt, in allowance of his debt: and the king’s seal shall be put unto the sale and deliverance of the burgages devisable for a perpetual witness. And if the debtor have no movables within the jurisdiction of the mayor, whereupon the debt may be levied, but hath some otherwhere within the realm, then shall the mayor send the recognizance, made before him and the clerk aforesaid, unto the chancellor, under the seal aforesaid; and the chancellor shall direct a writ unto the sheriff in whose bailiwick the movables of the debtor be, and the sheriff shall cause the creditor to be satisfied in such form as it is prescribed that the mayor should have done in case that the movables of the debtor had been within his power; and let them that shall appraise the movable goods, to be delivered unto the creditor, take good heed that they do set a just and reasonable price upon them; for if they do set an over high price for favor borne to the debtor, and to the damage of the creditor, then shall the thing so appraised be delivered unto themselves at such price as they have limited, and they shall be forthwith answerable unto the creditor for his debt. And if the debtor will say, that his movable goods were delivered or sold for less than they were worth, yet shall he have no remedy thereby; forasmuch as the mayor or the sheriff hath sold the movable goods lawfully to him that offered most; for he may blame himself, that before the day of the suit he had it in his power to have sold his movable goods, and to have levied the money with his own hand, and yet he would not. And if the debtor have no movables whereupon the debt may be levied, then shall his body be taken where it may be found, and kept in prison until that he have made agreement, or his friends for him; and if he have not of his own wherewith he may sustain himself in prison, the creditor shall find him bread and water, to the end that he die not in prison for default of sustenance, the which costs the debtor shall recompense him with his debt, before that he be let out of prison. And if the creditor be a merchant stranger, he shall remain at the costs of the debtor for so long time as he shall be suing for the levying of his debt, until the day that the movable goods of the debtor be sold or delivered unto him. And if the creditor do not content himself with the debtor alone for the surety of his payment, by reason whereof pledges or mainpernors be founden, then those pledges or mainpernors shall come before the mayor and clerk abovesaid, and shall bind themselves before by writings and recognizances, as afore is said of the debtor. And in like manner if the debt be not paid at the day limited, execution shall be awarded against the pledges or mainpernors, as before is said of the debtor; provided nevertheless, that so long as the debt may be fully taken and levied of the goods movable of the debtor, the mainpernors or pledges shall be without damage: notwithstanding, for default of movable goods of the debtor, the creditor shall have his recovery against the mainpernors or pledges, in such manner and form as before is limited against the principal debtor.
And to defray the charge of the aforesaid clerk, the king shall take out of every pound one penny. This ordinance and act the king willeth to be holden from henceforth throughout all his realm of England, among all persons whosoever they may be, who shall freely choose to make such recognizance; except Jews, to whom this statute extendeth not.
And by this statute a writ of debt shall not be abated. And the chancellor, barons of the exchequer, justices of the one bench and of the other, and justices errants, shall not be estopped to take recognizances of debts of those who shall choose so to do before them; but the execution of recognizances before them shall not be made according to the form aforesaid, but according to law, usage, and manner heretofore used.
Given at Acton Burnell, the twelfth day of October in the eleventh year of our reign.
[Back to Contents]
(June, 1285. Latin text and translation, 1 S R. 7l. 2 Stubbs, 122. Clause 1., here given, is known as De donis conditiontalibus.)
* * * OUR lord the king in his parliament, after the feast of Easter, holden the thirteenth year of his reign at Westminster, * * * did provide certain acts, as shall appear here following.
First, Concerning lands that many times are given upon condition, that is to wit, where any giveth his land to any man and his wife, and to the heirs begotten of the bodies of the same man and his wife, with such condition expressed that if the same man and his wife die without heir of their bodies between them begotten, the land so given shall revert to the giver or his heir: In case also where one giveth lands in free marriage, which gift hath a condition annexed, though it be not expressed in the deed of gift, which is this, that if the husband and wife die without heir of their bodies begotten, the land so given shall revert to the giver or his heir: in case also where one giveth land to another, and the heirs of his body issuing; it seemed very hard, and yet seemeth to the givers and their heirs, that their will being expressed in the gift, was not heretofore, nor yet is observed: for in all the cases aforesaid, after issue begotten and born between them, to whom the lands were given under such condition, heretofore such feoffees had power to aliene the land so given, and to disherit their issue of the land, contrary to the minds of the givers, and contrary to the form expressed in the gift: and further, when the issue of such feoffee is failing, the land so given ought to return to the giver or his heir, by form of the gift expressed in the deed though the issue, if any were, had died: yet by the deed and feoffment of them, to whom land was so given upon condition, the donors have heretofore been barred of their reversion, which was directly repugnant to the form of the gift: wherefore our lord the king, perceiving how necessary and expedient it should be to provide remedy in the aforesaid cases, hath ordained, that the will of the giver, according to the form in the deed of gift manifestly expressed, shall be from henceforth observed; so that they to whom the land was given under such condition, shall have no power to aliene the land so given, but that it shall remain unto the issue of them to whom it was given after their death, or unto the giver or his heirs, if issue fail either by reason that there is no issue at all, or if any issue be, it fail by death, the heir of such issue failing. Neither shall the second husband of any such woman, from henceforth, have any thing in the land so given upon condition, after the death of his wife, by the law of England, nor the issue of the second husband and wife shall succeed in the inheritance, but immediately after the death of the husband and wife, to whom the land was so given, it shall return to their issue, or to the giver, or his heir, as before is said. * * * And it is to wit that this statute shall hold place touching alienation of land contrary to the form of the gift hereafter to be made, and shall not extend to gifts made before. And if a fine be levied hereafter upon such lands, it shall be void in the law; neither shall the heirs, or such as the reversion belongeth unto, though if they be of full age, within England, and out of prison, need to make their claim. * * *
XXIV. [Part omitted]
And whensoever from henceforth it shall fortune in the chancery, that in one case a writ is found, and in like case falling under like law, and requiring like remedy, is found none, the clerks of the chancery shall agree in making the writ, or shall adjourn the plaintiffs until the next parliament and write the cases in which they cannot agree, and refer them to the next parliament, and by consent of men learned in the law, a writ shall be made, lest it might happen hereafter that the court should long time fail to minister justice unto complainants.
[Part omitted]
[Back to Contents]
(October, 1285. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 96, Stubbs, S. C. 470-472. 2 Stubbs, 122, 219.)
1. FORASMUCH as from day to day, robberies, murders, and arsons be more often used than they have been heretofore, and felons cannot be attainted by the oath of jurors which had rather suffer felonies done to strangers to pass without pain, than to indite the offenders of whom great part be people of the same country, or at least if the offenders be of another country the receivers be of places near; and they do the same because an oath is not put unto jurors; nor upon the country where such felonies were done as to the restitution of damages, hitherto no pain hath been limited for their concealment and laches; our lord the king, for to abate the power of felons, hath established a pain in this case, so that from henceforth, for fear of the pain more than for fear of any oath, they shall not spare any nor conceal any felonies; and doth command that cries be solemnly made in all counties, hundreds, markets, fairs, and all other places where great resort of people is, so that none shall excuse himself by ignorance, that from henceforth every country be so well kept that immediately upon such robberies and felonies committed fresh suits shall be made from town to town and from country to country.
2. Likewise when need requires, inquests shall be made in towns by him that is lord of the town, and after in the hundred and in the franchise and in the county, and sometimes in two, three, or four counties, in case when felonies shall be committed in the marches of shires, so that the offenders may be attainted. And if the country will not answer for such manner of offenders, the pain shall be such, that every country, that is to wit, the people dwelling in the country, shall be answerable for the robberies done and also the damages: so that the whole hundred where the robbery shall be done, with the franchises being within the precinct of the same hundred, shall be answerable for the robberies done. And if the robbery be done in the division of two hundreds, both the hundreds and the franchises within them shall be answerable; and after that the felony or robbery is done, the country shall have no longer space than forty days, within which forty days it shall behoove them to agree for the robbery or offence, or else that they will answer for the bodies of the offenders.
3. And forasmuch as the king will not that his people should be suddenly impoverished by reason of this penalty, that seemeth very hard to many, the king granteth that it shall not be incurred immediately, but it shall be respited until Easter next following, within which time the king may see how the country will order themselves, and whether such felonies and robberies do cease.
After which term let them all be assured that the aforesaid penalty shall run generally; that is to say, every country, that is to wit, the people in the country, shall be answerable for felonies and robberies done among them.
4. And for the more surety of the country, the king hath commanded that in great towns being walled, the gates shall be closed from the sun-setting until the sun-rising; and that no man do lodge in suburbs, nor in the edges of the town, except in the day-time, nor yet in the day-time, unless his host will answer for him; and the bailiffs of towns every week, or at the least every fifteenth day, shall make inquiry of all persons being lodged in the suburbs or the edges of the towns; and if they do find any that have received or lodged in any other way people of whom there may be suspicion that they are against the peace, the bailiffs shall do right therein. And the king commandeth, that from henceforth all watches be made as it hath been used in times past, that is to wit, from the day of the Ascension unto the day of Saint Michael, in every city by six men at every gate; in every borough, by twelve men; in every town, by six or four, according to the number of the inhabitants of the town, and they shalt keep the watch continually all night from the sun-setting unto the sun-rising. And if any stranger do pass by them he shall be arrested until morning; and if no suspicion be found he shall go quit; and if they find cause of suspicion, they shall forthwith deliver him to the sheriff, and the sheriff shall receive him without delay, and shall keep him safely until he be delivered in due manner. And if they will not obey the arrest, they shall levy hue and cry upon them, and such as keep the watch shall follow them with all the town and the towns near, with hue and cry from town to town, until that they be taken and delivered to the sheriff as before is said; and for the arrestments of such strangers none shall be punished.
5. And further, it is commanded that highway’s leading from one market town to another shall be enlarged, whereas woods, hedges, or dykes be, so that there be neither dyke, underwood, nor bush whereby a man may lurk to do hurt, near to the way, within two hundred foot of the one side and two hundred foot on the other side; so that this statute shall not extend unto oaks, nor unto great trees, so as it shall be clear underneath. And if by default of the lord that will not abate the dyke, underwood, or bushes, in the manner aforesaid, any robberies be done therein, the lord shall be answerable for the felony; and if murder be done the lord shall make a fine at the king’s pleasure. And if the lord be not able to fell the underwoods, the country shall aid him therein. And the king willeth that in his demesne lands and woods, within his forest and without, the ways shall be enlarged as before is said. And if perchance a park be near to the highway, it is requisite that the lord shall minish his park so that there he a border of two hundred foot near the highway as before is said, or that he make such a wall, dyke, or hedge that offenders may not pass, nor return to do evil.
6. And further it is commanded that every man have in his house harness for to keep the peace after the ancient assize; that is to say, every man between fifteen years of age and sixty years, shall be assessed and sworn to armor according to the quantity of their lands and goods; that is to wit, for fifteen pounds lands, and goods of forty marks, an hauberke, an helm of iron, a lance, a knife, and a horse; and for ten pounds of lands, and twenty marks goods, an hauberke, an helme of iron, a lance, and a knife; and for five pound lands, a doublet, an helme of iron, a lance, and a knife; and from forty shillings of land and more up to one hundred shillings, a lance, a bow and arrows, and a knife; and he that hath less than forty shillings yearly shall be sworn to falces, gisarmes, knives, and other small arms; and he that hath less than twenty marks in goods, shall have swords, knives, and other small arms; and all other that may shall have bows and arrows out of the forest, and in the forest bows and pilets. And that view of armor be made every year two times. And in every hundred and franchise two constables shall be chosen to make the view of armor; and the constables aforesaid shall present before justices assigned, when they shall come into the country, such defaults as they shall have found about armor, and of suits, and of watches, and of highways; and also shall present all such as do lodge strangers in uplandish towns, for whom they will not answer. And the justices assigned shall present at every parliament unto the king such defaults as they shall find, and the king shall provide remedy therein. And from henceforth let the sheriffs take good heed, and bailiffs within franchises and without, greater or lesser, that have any bailiwick or forestry in fee or otherwise, that they shall follow the cry with the country, as they are able, having horses and armor so to do; and if there be any that do not, the defaults shall be presented by the constables to the justices assigned, and after by them to the king; and the king will provide remedy as before is said. And the king commandeth and forbiddeth that from henceforth neither fairs nor markets be kept in churchyards, for the honor of the church.
Given at Winchester, the eighth of October, in the thirteenth year of the reign of the king.
[Back to Contents]
(c. 1285. Latin text and translation, 1 S. R. 101. Translation G. and H. 83, is followed here. 2 Stubbs, 123. This so-called statute seems to be the combination of the writ
Circumspecte Agatis, which forms the first paragraph, and another document of uncertain date. The statute occurs in various forms and with various readings in the different manuscripts and printed copies; which have been collated to form the texts cited above.)THE king to such and such judges, Greeting.
See that ye act circumspectly in the matter touching the bishop of Norwich and his clergy, in not punishing them if they shall hold pleas in the court Christian concerning those things which are merely spiritual, to wit: concerning corrections which prelates inflict for deadly sin, to wit, for fornication, adultery, and such like, for which, sometimes corporal punishment is inflicted, and sometimes pecuniary, especially if a freeman be convicted of such things.
Item if a prelate impose a penalty for not enclosing a churchyard, leaving the church uncovered or without proper ornament, in which cases no other than a pecuniary fine can be inflicted.
Item if a rector demand the greater or the lesser tithe, provided the fourth part of any church be not demanded.
Item if a rector demand a mortuary in places where a mortuary has been usually given.
Item if a prelate of any church demand a pension from the rector as due to him: — all such demands are to be made in the ecclesiastical court.
Concerning laying violent hands on a clerk, and in case of defamation, it has been granted formerly that pleas thereof may be held in the court Christian, provided money be not demanded; but proceedings may he taken for the correction of the sin; and likewise for breach of faith. In all these cases the ecclesiastical judge has to take cognizance, the king’s prohibition notwithstanding, although it be put forward.
Wherefore laymen generally obtain a prohibition for tithes, oblations, mortuaries, redemptions of penances, laying violent hands on a clerk or a lay-brother, and in case of defamation, in which cases proceedings are taken to exact canonical punishment.
The lord the king made answer to these articles, that in tithes, obventions, oblations, and mortuaries, when proceedings are taken, as is aforesaid, there is no place for prohibition. And if a clerk or religious person shall sell for money to any one his tithes stored in the barn, or being elsewhere, and be impleaded in the court Christian, the royal prohibition has place, for by reason of sales, spiritual things are temporal, and then tithes pass into chattels.
Item if dispute arise concerning the right of tithes, having its origin in the right of patronage, and the quantity of these tithes exceeds the fourth part of the church, the king’s prohibition has place.
Item if a prelate impose pecuniary penalty on any one for sin, and demand the money, the king’s prohibition has place, if the money is exacted before prelates.
Item if any one shall lay violent hands on a clerk, amends must be made for a breach of the peace of the lord the king, before the king, and for excommunication before the bishop; and if corporal penalty be imposed which, if the defendant will, he may redeem by giving money to the prelate or person injured, neither in such cases is there place for prohibition.
In defamations of freemen let the prelates correct, the king’s prohibition notwithstanding, although it be tendered.
[Back to Contents]
(July, 1290. Latin text, 1 S. R. 106, Stubbs. S. C. 478. Translation, 1 S. R. 106. 2 Stubbs, 126, 259.)
1. FORASMUCH as purchasers of lands and tenements of the fees of great men and others, have many times heretofore entered into their fees, to the prejudice of the lords, to which purchasers the freeholders of such great men and others have sold their lands and tenements to be holden in fee to them and their heirs of their feoffers, and not of the chief lords of the fees, whereby the same chief lords have many times lost their escheats, marriages, and wardships of lands and tenements belonging to their fees; which thing seemed very hard and extreme unto those great men and other lords, and moreover in this case manifest disheritance: our lord the king, in his parliament at Westminster after Easter, the eighteenth year of his reign, that is to wit, in the quinzime of Saint John the Baptist, at the instance of the great men of the realm. granted, provided, and ordained, that from henceforth it shall be lawful to every freeman to sell at his own pleasure his lands and tenements, or part of them; so that the feoffee shall hold the same lands or tenements of the same chief lord, and by the same services and customs as his feoffor held before.
2. And if he shall sell any part of such lands or tenements to any, the feoffee shall immediately hold it of the chief lord, and shall be forthwith charged with the services, for so much as pertaineth, or ought to pertain to the said chief lord for the same parcel, according to the quantity of the land or tenement sold. And so in this case the same part of the service shall cease to be taken by the chief lord by the hands of the feoffor, from the time that the feoffee ought to be attendant and answerable to the same chief lord, according to the quantity of the land or tenement sold, for the parcel of the service so due.
3. And it is to be understood, that by the said sales or purchases of lands or tenements, or any parcels of them, such lands or tenements shall in no wise come into mortmain, either in part or in whole, neither by policy nor craft, contrary to the form of the statute made thereupon of late. And it is to wit, that this statute extendeth but only to lands sold to be holden in fee simple; and that it extendeth to the time coming; and it shall begin to take effect at the feast of Saint Andrew the apostle next coming.
[Back to Contents]
(30 September- 3 October, 1295. Latin text, Stubbs, S. C. 484. Translation, Cheyney, 33. 2 Stubbs, 133, 209, 211, 235.)
THE King to the venerable father in Christ Robert, by the same grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, greeting. As a most just law, established by the careful providence of sacred princes, exhorts and decrees that what affects all, by all should he approved, so also, very evidently should common danger be met by means provided in common. You know sufficiently well, and it is now, as we believe, divulged through all regions of the world, how the king of France fraudulently and craftily deprives us of our land of Gascony, by withholding it unjustly from us. Now, however, not satisfied with the before-mentioned fraud and injustice, having gathered together for the conquest of our kingdom a very great fleet, and an abounding multitude of warriors, with which he has made a hostile attack on our kingdom and the inhabitants of the same kingdom, he now proposes to destroy the English language altogether from the earth, if his power should correspond to the detestable proposition of the contemplated injustice, which God forbid. Because, therefore, darts seen beforehand do less injury, and your interest especially, as that of the rest of the citizens of the same realm, is concerned in this affair, 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;
citing beforehand [praemunientes] the dean and chapter of your church, the archdeacons and all the clergy of your diocese, causing the same dean and archdeacons in their own persons, and the said chapter by one suitable proctor, and the said clergy by two, to be present along with you, having full and sufficient power from the same chapter and clergy, to consider, ordain and provide, along with us and with the rest of the prelates and principal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, how the dangers and threatened evils of this kind are to be met.
Witness the king at Wangham, the thirtieth day of September.
Identical summons were sent out to the two archbishops and eighteen bishops, and, with the omission of the last paragraph, to seventy abbots.
The king to his beloved and faithful relative, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, greeting. Because we wish to have a consultation and meeting with you and with the rest of the principal men of our kingdom, as to provision for remedies against the dangers which in these days are threatening our 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.
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 laboring, 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 the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and the 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.
[Back to Contents]
(February, 1296. Latin text, Rymer’s Fœdera, i. 836. Translation, G. and H. 87. 2 Stubbs, 135.)
BONIFACE bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the perpetual memory of the matter. That laymen have been very hostile to clerks antiquity relates, which too the experiences of the present times manifestly declare, whilst not content with their own bounds they strive for the forbidden and loose the reins for things unlawful. Nor do they prudently consider how power over clerks or ecclesiastical persons or goods is forbidden them: they impose heavy burdens on the prelates of the churches and ecclesiastical persons regular and secular, and tax them, and impose collections: they exact and demand from the same the half tithe, or twentieth, or any other portion or proportion of their revenues or goods; and in many ways they essay to bring them under slavery, and subject them to their authority. And, as we sadly relate, some prelates of the churches and ecclesiastical persons, alarmed where there should be no alarm, seeking transient peace, fearing more to offend the temporal majesty than the eternal, acquiesce in such abuses, not so much rashly as improvidently, authority or licence of the Apostolic See not having been obtained. We therefore desirous of preventing such wicked actions, do, with apostolic authority decree, with the advice of our brethren, that whatsoever prelates and ecclesiastical persons, religious or secular, of whatsoever orders, condition or standing, shall pay or promise or agree to pay to lay persons collections or taxes for the tithe, twentieth, or hundredth of their own rents, or goods, or those of the churches, or any other portion, proportion, or quantity of the same rents, or goods, at their own estimate or value, under the name of aid, loan, relief, subsidy, or gift, or by any other title, manner, or pretext demanded, without the authority of the same see.
And also whatsoever emperors, kings, or princes, dukes, earls, or barons, powers, captains, or officials, or rectors, by whatsoever names they are reputed, of cities, castles, or any places whatsoever, wheresoever situate, and all others of whatsoever rank, pre-eminence or state, who shall impose, exact, or receive the things aforesaid, or arrest, seise, or presume to occupy things anywhere deposited in holy buildings, or to command them to be arrested, seised, or occupied, or receive them when occupied, seised, or arrested, and also all who knowingly give aid, counsel, or favor, openly or secretly, in the things aforesaid, by this same should incur sentence of excommunication. Universities, too, which may have been to blame in these matters, we subject to ecclesiastical interdict.
The prelates and ecclesiastical persons above mentioned we strictly command, in virtue of their obedience, and under pain of deposition, that they in no wise acquiesce in such things without express licence of the said see, and that they pay nothing under pretext of any obligation, promise, and acknowledgement whatsoever, made so far, or in progress heretofore, and before such constitution, prohibition, or order come to their notice, and that the seculars aforesaid do not in any wise receive it, and if they do pav, or the aforesaid, let them fall under sentence of excommunication by the very deed.
Moreover let no one be absolved from the aforesaid sentences of excommunication and interdict, save at the moment of death, without authority and special licence of the Apostolic See, inasmuch as it is part of our intention that such a terrible abuse of secular powers should not in any wise pass under dissimulation, any privileges whatsoever notwithstanding, in whatsoever tenors, forms or modes, or arrangement or words, conceded to emperors, kings and the others aforesaid; against which premises aforesaid we will that aid be given by no one, and by no persons in any respect.
Let it then be lawful to none at all to infringe this page of our constitution, prohibition, or order, or to gainsay it by any rash attempt; and if any one presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
Given at Rome in Saint Peter’s on the twenty-fourth of February in the second year or our pontificate.
[Back to Contents]
(October, 1297. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 123, Stubbs, S. C.
494-496. 2 Stubbs, 146.)
EDWARD, by the grace or God, king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Guyenne, to all those that these present letters shall hear or see, Greeting.
1. Know ye that we to the honor or God, and of holy Church, and to the profit or our realm, have granted for us and our heirs, that the great 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 the which it shall be contained, that they cause the foresaid charters to be published, and to declare to the people that we have confirmed them in all points; and to our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other ministers, which under us and by us have the laws of our land to guide, that they shall allow the same charters in all their points, in pleas before them, and in judgments; 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 wealth of our realm.
2. And we will, that if any judgment be given from henceforth contrary to the points of the charters aforesaid by the justices, or by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against the points or the charters, it shall be undone and holden for nought.
3. And we will, that the same charters be sent, under our seal, to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and shall be read before the people two times by the year.
4. And that all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of great excommunication against all those that by deed, aid, or counsel do contrary to the foresaid 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, bishops, or any of them be remiss in the denunciation or 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 so much as divers people or 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 in our name; we have granted fur us and our heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises into a custom, for any thing that hath been done heretofore, or that may be found by roll or in any other manner.
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 we shall take of our realm 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.
And for so 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 that we will not take such thing nor 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 patents.
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.
[Back to Contents]
(1297. Latin text, 1 S. R. 125, Stubbs, S. C. 497. Translation, 1 S. R. 125. 2 Stubbs, 148, 545.)
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, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen of our realm.
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 in the name or by occasion of maletote.
4. We will and grant for us and our heirs, that all clerks and laymen of our land shall have all their laws, liberties, and free customs, as largely 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 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. Moreover, we have pardoned Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, constable of England, Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, marshal of England, and other earls, barons, knights, esquires, and namely John of Ferrers, with all other being of their fellowship, confederacy, and bond, and also to all other that hold twenty pound land in our realm, whether they hold of us in chief or of other, that were appointed at a day certain to pass over with us into Flanders, the rancor and ill-will which for the aforesaid causes we conceived against them, and all other offences, if any, that they have done against us or ours unto the making of this present charter.
6. And for the more assurance of this thing, we will and grant, for ourselves and our heirs, that all archbishops and bishops for ever in their cathedral churches, this present charter being first read, shall excommunicate, and publicly in the several parish churches of their dioceses, 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 and article.
In witness of which thing we have set our seal to this present charter, together with the seals of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and others which voluntarily have sworn that, as much as in them is, they shall observe the tenor of this present charter in all causes and articles, and shall extend their faithful aid to the keeping thereof forever.
[Back to Contents]
(March, 1307. Latin text and translation, 1 S. R. 150. G. and H. 92. 2 Stubbs, 163.)
OF late it came to the knowledge of our lord the king, by the grievous complaint of the honorable persons, lords, and other noblemen of his realm, that whereas monasteries, priories, and other religious houses were founded to the honor and glory of God, and the advancement of the holy Church, by the king and his progenitors, and by the said noblemen and their ancestors, and a very great portion of lands and tenements have been given by them to the said monasteries, priories, and houses, and the religious men serving God in them, to the intent that clerks and laymen might be admitted ill such monasteries, priories, and religious houses, according to their sufficient ability, and that sick and feeble men might be maintained, hospitality, almsgiving, and other charitable deeds might be exercised and done in them for the souls of the said founders and their heirs; the abbots, priors, and governors of the said houses, and certain aliens their superiors, as the abbots a1nd priors of the Cluniacs, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians, and of the orders of Saint Augustine, and Saint Benedict, and many more of other religion and order, have newly appointed to be made, and at their own pleasure ordained divers unwonted, heavy, and intolerable tallages, payments, and impositions upon every of the said monasteries and houses in subjection unto them in England, Ireland, Scotland. and Wales, without the privity of our lord the king and his nobility, contrary to the laws and customs of the said realm; and thereby the number of religious persons, and other servants in the said houses and religious places being oppressed by such tallages, payments, and impositions, the service of God is diminished; alms are withheld from the poor, the sick, and feeble, the healths of the living and the souls of the dead be miserably defrauded, hospitality, almsgiving, and other godly deeds do cease; and so that which in times past was charitably given to godly uses, and to the increase of the service of God, is now converted to an evil tax; by permission whereof besides those things which are before mentioned, there groweth great scandal to the people, and infinite losses are well known to have ensued, and are still like to ensue, to the disheritance of the founders of the said houses and their heirs, unless speedy and sufficient remedy be provided to redress so many and grievous detriments: wherefore our foresaid lord the king, considering that it would be very prejudicial to him and his people if he should any longer suffer so great losses and injuries to be winked at, and therefore being willing to maintain and defend the monasteries, priories, and other religious houses and places erected in his kingdom, and in all lands subject to his dominion, according to the will and pious wishes of their founders, and from henceforth to provide sufficient remedy to reform such oppressions, as he is bound, by the counsel of his earls, barons, great men, and other nobles and of the commons of his kingdom in his parliament holden at Westminster, on the Sunday next after the feast of Saint Matthias the apostle, in the three and thirtieth year of his reign, did ordain and enact:
2. “That no abbot, prior, master, warden, or other religious person, of whatsoever condition, state or religion he be, being under the king’s power or jurisdiction, shall by himself, or by merchants or others, secretly or openly, by any art or device, carry or send, or by any means cause to be sent, any tax imposed by the abbots, priors, masters, or wardens of religious houses or places, their superiors, or in any way assessed among themselves, out of his kingdom and his dominion, under the name of a rent, tallage, tribute, or any kind of imposition, or otherwise in the name of exchange, sale, loan or other contract howsoever it may be termed; neither shall depart into any other country for visitation, or upon any other color, by that means to carry the goods of their monasteries and houses out of the kingdom and dominion aforesaid. And if any will presume to offend this present statute, he shall be grievously punished according to the quality of his offence, and according to his contempt of the king’s prohibition.
3. “Moreover our foresaid lord the king doth inhibit all and singular abbots, priors, masters, and governors of religious houses and places, being aliens, to whose authority, subjection, and obedience the houses of the same orders in his kingdom and dominion be subject, that they do not at any time hereafter impose, or by any means assess any tallages, payments, impositions, tributes, or other burdens whatsoever, upon the monasteries, priories, or other religious houses in subjection unto them as is aforesaid; and that upon forfeiture of all that they have in their power, and can forfeit in future.”
4. And further, our lord the king hath ordained and established that the abbots of the orders of Cistercians and Premonstratensians, and other religious orders, whose seal hath heretofore been used to remain only in the custody of the abbot, and not of the convent, shall hereafter have a common seal, and shall deposit the same in the custody of the prior of the monastery or house, and four of the most worthy and discreet men of the convent of the same house, to be laid up in safe keeping under the private seal of the abbot of the same house; so that the abbot, or superior of the house which he doth govern, shall by no means be able of himself to establish any contract or obligation, as heretofore he hath used to. And if it fortune hereafter, that writings obligatory of donations, purchases, sales, alienations, or of any other contracts, be found sealed with any other seal than such a common seal kept as is aforesaid, they shall be adjudged void and of no force in law. But it is not the meaning of our lord the king to exclude the abbots, priors, and other religious, aliens, by the ordinances and statutes aforesaid, from executing their office of visitation in his kingdom and dominion; but they may visit at their pleasures, by themselves or others, the monasteries and other places in his kingdom and dominion in subjection unto them, according to the duty of their office, in those things only that belong to regular observation and the discipline of their order. Provided, that they which shall execute this office of visitation, shall carry or cause to be carried out of his kingdom and dominion, none of the goods or things of such monasteries, priories, and houses, saving only their reasonable and competent charges.
And though the publication and open notice of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid was stayed in suspense, for certain causes, since the last parliament, until this present parliament holden at Carlisle in the octaves of Saint Hilary, in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of the same king Edward, and to the intent that they might proceed with greater deliberation and advice; our lord the king, after full conference and debate had with his earls, barons, nobles, and other great men and the commons of his kingdom, touching the premises, by their whole consent and agreement bath ordained and enacted, that the ordinances and statutes aforesaid, under the manner, form, and conditions aforesaid, from the first day of May next ensuing, shall henceforward be inviolably observed and available for ever, and the offenders of them shall thenceforth be subjected to the pains prescribed.
[Back to Contents]