I. Manuscripts of Magna Carta and Relative Documents.
The barons who had forced the Great Charter on King John were determined that its contents should be widely known and permanently preserved. It was not sufficient that the great seal should be formally impressed upon one parchment. Those who compelled John to submit were not content even with the execution of its terms in duplicate or in triplicate, but insisted that the great seal should be appended to many copies all of practically identical terms and of equal authority. These were to be distributed throughout the land, and to be preserved in important strongholds and among the archives of the chapters of cathedral churches.
I. The extant original versions. Of the many copies of the Charter authenticated under John’s great seal, four have escaped the destroying hand of time, and may still be examined by members of the public after nearly seven centuries have passed. These four records are:
(1) The British Museum Magna Carta, number one—formally cited as “Cotton, Charters XIII. 31A.” The recent history of this document is well known. It was found among the archives of Dover Castle in the seventeenth century; and not improbably it may have lain there for centuries before, possibly from a date not much later than that of its original execution; for the castle of Dover, like the Tower of London, was a natural place for the preservation of documents of national value. There it was discovered by Sir Edward Dering while warden of the castle, and by him it was presented to Sir Robert Cotton, accompanied by a letter dated 10th May, 1630.[[285]] It still forms an item in the collection preserved in the British Museum, which bears the name of the famous antiquary.
In the great fire of 23rd October, 1731, which attacked the Cottonian Library, this valuable Charter was seriously damaged and rendered in parts illegible, while the yellow wax of the seal was partially melted. It is possible that this accident has added somewhat to the prestige of this particular copy of Magna Carta, which, like the three others still extant, is written continuously, though with many contractions, in a neat, running, Norman hand. A special characteristic of this version is that some omissions seem to have been made in the body of the deed and to have been supplied at the foot of the parchment. These are five in number.[[286]] It is possible to regard them as corrections of clerical omissions due to carelessness or hurry in engrossing the deed; but the fact that one of the additions is distinctly in the King’s favour raises a strong presumption that they embodied additions made as afterthoughts to what had been originally dictated to the engrossing clerk, and that they were inserted at the King’s suggestion before he would adhibit the great seal.
The importance of this document was recognized at a comparatively early date, and a facsimile prepared by John Pine, a well-known engraver of the day, some eighteen months after the great fire. The engraving bears a certificate dated 9th May, 1733, narrating that the copy is founded on the original, which had been shrivelled up by the heat; but that where two holes had been burned, the obliterated words had been replaced from the other version (to be immediately described), also preserved in the Cottonian collection.
(2) The British Museum Magna Carta, number two—formally cited as “Cotton, Augustus, II. 106.” The early history of this document is unknown, but sometime in the seventeenth century it came into the possession of Mr. Humphrey Wyems, and by him it was presented to Sir Robert Cotton on 1st January, 1628–9. Unlike the other Cottonian copy, this one is happily in an excellent state of preservation; but there is no trace left of any seal.[[287]] Three of the five addenda inserted at the foot of the copy previously described are found in a similar position here; but the substance of the two others is included in the body of the deed. On the left-hand margin, titles intended to be descriptive of several chapters occur in a later hand.[[288]] Thus for the preservation of two original copies of the national charter of liberties the nation is indebted to Sir Robert Cotton, but for whose antiquarian zeal they might both have been lost. Apparently, however, a story told by several authors[[289]] as to the humiliating fate which threatened the original Magna Carta must be rejected. Sir Robert, it is said, discovered “the palladium of English liberties” in the hands of his tailor at the critical moment when the scissors were about to transform it into shapes for a suit of clothes. This is undoubtedly a fable, since both manuscripts of Magna Carta in the Cottonian collection are otherwise accounted for.
(3) The Lincoln Magna Carta. This copy is under the custody of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral, where it has undoubtedly lain for many centuries. It has been suggested that Bishop Hugh of Lincoln, canonized by the Roman Church, whose name appears in the list of magnates consenting to John’s grant, may have brought it with him from Runnymede on his return to Lincoln. The word “Lincolnia” is endorsed in a later hand in two places at the back of the document on folds of the parchment. It has no corrections or additions inserted at the foot, but embodies in their proper places all those which occurred in the versions already discussed. Further, it is executed with more flourishes and in a more finished manner than these, and the inference is that it took longer to engross. The Record Commissioners in preparing the Statutes of the Realm considered this version as of superior authority to any of the others and have accordingly chosen it as the copy for their engraving of Magna Carta published in 1810 in that valuable work, and also in the first volume of their edition of Rymer’s Foedera in 1816.[[290]]
(4) The Salisbury Magna Carta—preserved in the archives of the Cathedral there. The early history of this manuscript has not been traced, but its existence was known at the close of the seventeenth century.[[291]] Sir William Blackstone, in April, 1759,[[292]] instituted a search for it, but without success—his inquiries being met with the statement that it had been lost some thirty years before, during the execution of repairs in the Cathedral library. As its disappearance had really taken place during the tenure of the see by Gilbert Burnet, whose antiquarian interests were well known, his political adversaries accused him of appropriating it—an undoubted calumny, yet one to which some colour was lent by facts to be hereafter explained. The document had not been re-discovered in 1800 when the royal commission published its report of the result of its inquiries for national records.[[293]] Two sub-commissioners visited Salisbury in 1806 in search of it, but obtained no satisfaction. It seems, however, to have been re-discovered within the next few years, since it is mentioned in a book published in 1814,[[294]] and it is now exhibited to the public by order of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral. It resembles the Lincoln copy both in its beautiful leisurely writing and also in the absence of additions at the bottom of the parchment.[[295]]
II. Comparison of the Originals. Prior to the publication of Sir William Blackstone’s great work, extraordinary confusion seems to have prevailed concerning the various Charters of Liberties. Not only was John’s Magna Carta confused with the various re-issues by Henry; but these latter were known only from an official copy of the Charter of 1225 contained in the confirming statute of the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Edward I., known as an “Inspeximus,” because of the opening word of the King’s declaration that he had seen the document of which he gave a copy. Neither Madox[[296]] nor Brady[[297]] was aware of the existence of any one of the four originals; and no mention is made of them in the first edition of Rymer’s Foedera, which appeared in 1704. Mr. Tyrrell indeed seems to have known of the second original copy in the British Museum and also of the Salisbury version.[[298]] Mr. Care[[299]] showed no clear knowledge of the various manuscripts, though he mentioned the existence of several. Even Sir William Blackstone in 1759 collated only the two Cottonian copies, since he failed to find that of Salisbury, and was unaware of the existence of the Lincoln manuscript.[[300]]
As these four versions are practically identical in their substance—the variations being merely in the use of contractions or in other verbal changes of a trivial character—no important question seems to be involved in the discussion as to whether any one of them has greater value than the others. The Record Commissioners considered that the Lincoln copy was the first to be completed (and therefore that it possessed special authority), because, unlike the two Cottonian copies, it contained no insertions at the foot of the instrument. Yet it seems more plausible to argue that this very immunity from clerical errors, or from additions made after engrossment, proves that it was of later and less hurried execution than the others, and therefore of less authority, if any distinction is permissible. Mr. Thomson has much ground for his contention in speaking of the fire-marked version in the British Museum that “the same circumstances may probably be a proof of its superior antiquity, as having been the first which was actually drawn into form and sealed on Runnymede, the original whence all the most perfect copies were taken.”[[301]]
In all printed texts of Magna Carta, the contents are divided into a preamble and sixty-three chapters, and each chapter is numbered and treated in a separate paragraph by itself. There is no warrant for this in any one of the four originals, all of which run straight on from beginning to end, like other feudal charters, and contain no numbers or other indication where one provision ends and another begins. Strictly speaking, Magna Carta has thus no chapters: these are a modern invention, made for convenience of reference.
III. The Articles of the Barons. Of hardly inferior historical interest to these four original copies of the Great Charter is the parchment which contains the heads of the agreement made between John and the rebels on 15th June, 1215, from which the Charter was afterwards expanded. The parchment containing these heads, known as the Articles of the Barons, is now in the British Museum, cited officially as “Donation MSS. 4838.” The seven centuries which have passed over it have left surprisingly few traces; it is quite legible throughout, and still bears the impression of John’s great seal in brown wax. It is probable that this document may have passed with other English records into the hands of Prince Louis during the civil war which followed close on the transaction at Runnymede; that it was handed over to the Regent William Marshal in terms of the Treaty of Lambeth concluded in September, 1217; and that thereafter it was deposited in Lambeth Palace, where it remained until the middle of the seventeenth century. Archbishop Laud seems to have been aware of its historical interest, as he placed it among the more precious documents in his keeping. When threatened with impeachment by the Long Parliament, he thought it prudent to set his papers in order; and on 18th December, 1640, he dispatched for that purpose to his episcopal palace, his friend Dr. John Warner, Bishop of Rochester.
There was indeed no time to lose; a few hours later, Laud was committed to the custody of Black-Rod, and an official messenger was sent by the House of Lords to seal up his papers. Bishop Warner had, however, escaped with the Articles of the Barons before this messenger arrived; he kept it till he died, and at his death it passed to one of his executors named Lee, and from him to his son Colonel Lee, who presented it to Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury and author of the famous History of His Own Time. When the Salisbury Magna Carta disappeared, Burnet was suspected of appropriating it to his own uses. The grounds which gave some apparent weight to the misrepresentations of his political opponents were that special facilities had been granted to him to search public records in the prosecution of his historical labours, and that as matter of fact he actually had in his possession—quite lawfully, as we now know—the Articles of the Barons, which was confused by the carelessness of early historians with Magna Carta itself. The calumny was so widely spread that Burnet thought it necessary formally to refute it, explaining that he had received the Articles as a gift from Colonel Lee. “So it is now in my hands, and it came very fairly to me.”
Bishop Burnet left it as a legacy to his son Sir Thomas Burnet; and on his death it passed to his executor David Mitchell, whose permission to print it Blackstone obtained in 1759. Shortly thereafter it was purchased from Mr. Mitchell’s daughter by another great historian, Philip, second Earl of Stanhope, and by him it was presented to the British Museum in 1769. It is now exhibited to the public along with the two Cottonian copies of Magna Carta. The Record Commissioners have reproduced it in facsimile in Statutes of the Realm in 1810, and also in the New Rymer in 1816.[[302]]
The document begins with this headline: “Ista sunt Capitula quae Barones petunt et dominus Rex concedit.” Then the articles follow in 49 paragraphs of varying length, separate, but unnumbered, each new chapter (unlike the chapters of Magna Carta, which run straight on as befits its character as a charter) beginning a new line. The numbers which invariably appear in all printed editions have no warrant in the original.
A blank space sufficient for two lines of writing occurs between paragraphs 48 and 49, indicating perhaps that the last chapter, which contains the revolutionary provision for the appointment of the twenty-five Executors, had been added as an after-thought. Chapters 45 and 46 are connected by a rude bracket, and a clause is added in the same hand as the rest, but more rapidly, modifying the provisions of both in the King’s favour. This, at least, is clearly an after-thought.[[303]]
IV. The so-called “unknown Charter of Liberties.” Among the French archives there is preserved the copy of what purports to be a charter granted by King John, but irregular in its form. This document is preserved among the Archives du Royaume in the Section Historique and numbered J. 655.[[304]] A copy of this copy was discovered at the Record Office in London by Mr. J. Horace Round in 1893, previous to which date it seems to have been practically unknown to English historians, although it had been printed by a French writer thirty years earlier.[[305]] Mr. Round communicated his discovery of this “unknown charter of liberties” to the English Historical Review, in the pages of which there ensued a discussion as to its nature and validity, inaugurated by him. Three theories were suggested: (a) Mr. Round maintained that the document was a copy, in a mangled form perhaps, of a charter actually granted in the year 1213 by King John to the northern barons, containing concessions which they had agreed to accept in satisfaction of their claims.[[306]] (b) Mr. Prothero preferred to view it, not as an actually executed charter, given and accepted in settlement of the various claims in dispute, but rather as an abortive proposal made by the King early in 1215 and rejected by the barons.[[307]] (c) Mr. Hubert Hall dismissed the document as a forgery, and described it as "a coronation charter attributed to John by a French scribe in the second decade of the thirteenth century"—probably between November, 1216, and March, 1217, when King Philip desired to prove that John had committed perjury by breaking his promises, and had thereby forfeited his right to the Crown of England.[[308]]
Mr. Hall describes the method of procedure adopted by the compiler of this supposed forgery. Placing in front of him copies of Henry I.’s Charter of Liberties and of Henry III.’s charters issued in 1216-17, he proceeded to select from these sources whatever suited his purpose, and thereafter “either by design or carelessness, or ignorance of English forms, he altered the wording of both his originals so as to produce the effect of a paraphrase interspersed with archaisms.” This extremely ingenious theory is not entirely convincing. Not to insist on the number of unproved inferences on which it is based, it seems to have one grave defect—it ignores the absurdity of attempting to obtain credence for such a clumsy composition, especially when it was well known that John had never granted a coronation charter at all. Even if a skilful forger could have utilized the document as the basis for a completed charter, this would still have required the impress of John’s great seal to give it validity. Such an imposture could not be seriously intended to impose on any one.
A fourth theory may be suggested very tentatively, namely, that the document in question is a copy of the actual schedule drawn up by the barons previous to 27th April, 1215. That such a schedule existed we know from the express declaration of Roger of Wendover,[[309]] who informs us that it was sent to the King with the demand that his seal should be forthwith placed to it, under threat of civil war. From this, it is safe to infer that the schedule, as it left the barons’ hands, was ready for execution; but lack of experience in drawing up Crown charters would prevent them from producing an entirely regular instrument. They would assuredly take as their model the charter of Henry I., which had helped to give definiteness of aim to all their efforts. It would be necessary, however, to bring this up to date, by additions which we might a priori expect to resemble the provisions afterwards adopted with more elaboration in the agreement made at Runnymede. This schedule, then, rapidly thrown together, would be likely to contain many of the characteristics actually discovered by Mr. Hall in the document under discussion. Such an identification of the “unknown Charter of Liberties” with the schedule of 27th April, 1215, would explain all the features emphasized by Mr. Hall—the archaisms, the erroneous style, and the employment, first of the third person singular, and then of the first person singular, instead of using throughout the first person plural invariably used by John. It would also explain why the first half of the parchment on which the “unknown charter” is written, contains a copy of Henry I.’s charter, and why the two possess so many features in common.
It would clearly be inadvisable to found any conclusions upon the terms of a document, the nature and authenticity of which form the subject of so many rival theories; but even if further investigation proves it to be a forgery, a forgery of contemporary date may throw light on otherwise obscure passages in genuine charters. One or two instances of this will be found in the sequel.
[285]. This letter is also preserved in the British Museum, and cited as “Cotton, Julius, C. III. Fol. 191.”
[286]. These are carefully noted among the variations described by the editors of the Charters of Liberties forming Part I. of the first volume of the Statutes of the Realm. These addenda are (1) at the end of c. 48, “per eosdem, ita quod nos hoc sciamus prius, vel justiciarius noster, si in Anglia non fuerimus,” providing that the King should receive intimation of all forest practices branded as “evil” before they are abrogated; (2) two small additions, near the beginning of c. 53, (a), “et eodem modo de justicia exhibenda,” and (b) “vel remansuris forestis”; (3) in c. 56, these four words, “in Anglia vel in Wallia”; and (4) in c. 61 the words “in perpetuum” after “gaudere.” In the 2nd British Museum MS. three of these addenda appear at the foot, viz. (1), (2a) and (2b); but the words of (3) and (4) are incorporated in the body of that MS.
[287]. “The fold and label are now cut off, though it is said once to have had slits in it for two seals, for which it is almost impossible to account; but Dr. Thomas Smith, in his Preface to the Cottonian Catalogue, Oxford, 1695, folio, states that they were those of the barons” (Thomson, Magna Charta, 425).
[288]. Reproductions of this copy are sold at the British Museum at 2s. 6d. each.
[289]. See Isaac D’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, I. 18, and Thomson, Magna Charta, 424.
[290]. The engraving was executed to their order by James Basire.
[291]. See James Tyrrell, History of England, Vol. II. 821 (1697-1704).
[292]. Blackstone, Great Charter, p. xvii.
[293]. See Report (1800), p. 341, containing the Return by the Chapter Clerk of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, dated 15th May, 1800.
[294]. Dodsworth, Historical Account of the Cathedral, 202.
[295]. It is unnecessary to treat in detail of the copies of the charter not authenticated by John’s Great Seal, though some of these are of great value as secondary authorities. The four most important are (a) a copy appearing in the Register of Gloucester Abbey, (b) the Harleian MSS., British Museum No. 746 (which also contains the names of the twenty-five Executors in a hand probably of the reign of Edward I.), (c) in the Red Book of the Exchequer. There is also (d) an early French version, printed in D’Achery, Spicilegium, Vol. XII. p. 573, together with the writ of 27th September addressed to the Sheriff of Hampshire. See Blackstone, Great Charter, p. xviii., and Thomson, Magna Charta, pp. 428-430.
[296]. Thomas Madox, Firma Burgi (1726). On p. 45, Madox refers only to the Inspeximus of Edward I.
[297]. Robert Brady, Complete History of England, p. 126 of Appendix to Vol. I. (1685), takes his text of the Charter from Matthew Paris, “compared with the manuscript found in Bennet College Library.”
[298]. James Tyrrell, History of England (1697-1704). In p. 9 of Appendix to Vol. II. p. 821, Tyrrell prints a text of John’s Charter founded on that of M. Paris, collated with those two originals.
[299]. Henry Care, English Liberties in the Freeborn subjects’ inheritance; containing Magna Charta, etc. (1719), p. 5. The first edition, with a somewhat different title, is dated 1691.
[300]. Strangely enough, Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, so recently as 1837, in publishing his Rotuli Chartarum (Introduction, p. ii. note 5) declared that no original of John’s Charter existed. Many copies, he knew, had been "made and deposited, for the sake of perpetuation, in all the principal religious houses in the kingdom. However, notwithstanding all the care taken by multiplication of copies, it is singular that no contemporary copy of King John’s Magna Carta has yet been found." The Lincoln MS. he dismissed as “certainly not of so early a date,” while he confuses the only one of the British Museum MSS. known to him with the Articles of the Barons. He further reasserts the fallacy, so clearly exposed by Blackstone eighty years earlier, that John had issued a separate Carta de Foresta.
[301]. Thomson, Magna Charta, 422.
[302]. Reproductions of it, as well as of the second Cottonian version of the Charter, are sold by the authorities of the British Museum at the price of 2s. 6d.
[303]. Cf. supra, p. 47, and Blackstone, Great Charter, xvii.
[304]. See the account given by Mr. Hubert Hall, English Historical Review, IX. 326.
[305]. Alexandre Teulet, Layettes du Trésor, I. p. 423 (1863).
[306]. Engl. Hist. Rev., VIII. 288-294.
[307]. Ibid., IX. 117-121.
[308]. Ibid., IX. 326-335.
[309]. R. Wendover, III. 298, and cf. supra, p. 40.