No reference is given for the date “1183,” but it must be derived from the “demonstration” on p. 29 (footnote), where a charter is mentioned which speaks of the “Communio Rothomagi” in the time of archbishop Hugh, “1129–1183.” But now comes the startling fact. It was not Hugh who died in 1183, but his successor, Rotrou! Hugh himself had died so early as 1164. Therefore, if this charter can be trusted, it proves that the “communio” was in existence, and (as M. Giry holds), the “Établissements” with it, at least as early as 1164. But the fact is that, as M. Giry had himself observed, when speaking, just before, of duke Henry’s charter, “la communio Rothomagi (art. 7) ne désigne que la communauté des citoyens” (p. 26); it does not prove the existence of a commune, and, of course, still less of the “Établissements.”
But I would urge that not even the mention of a true commune (“communia”) in a charter proves the adoption of the “Établissements” at the time. For Henry’s grant of a “communia” to La Rochelle was made, according to M. Giry, between 1169 and 1178;[514] and yet, as we have seen, he does not deem the adoption of the “Établissements” at La Rochelle proved before 1199. In that year Queen Eleanor granted to Saintes “ut communiam suam teneant secundum formam et modum communie de Rochella.” Even this, I venture to think, is not actual proof that the “Établissements de Rouen” had already been adopted at La Rochelle, though it certainly affords some presumption in favour of that view.
It is only when we turn from this external evidence to the text of the “Établissements” themselves, that we discover, in two passages, a direct clue. In these an exception is made in the words: “nisi dominus rex vel filius ejus adsint Rothomagi vel assisia” (ii. 24, 28). On these M. Giry writes:
Les articles qui prévoient la présence à Rouen du roi ou de son fils ne peuvent guère s’appliquer qu’à Henri II. et à Richard Cœur-de-Lion. C’est donc des dernières années du règne de Henri II., après l’année 1169, qu’il faut dater la rédaction des Établissements (i. 11).
Here, then, we have yet another limit—the last (twenty) years of Henry II. No reference, however, is given for the date “1169” (unless it applies to La Rochelle—and even then it is wrong).[515] But my point is that between the years “1169” (or “1177”) and “1183” the king’s son here mentioned was, obviously, not Richard, but Henry, styled king of the English and duke of the Normans, from his coronation in 1170 to his death in 1183. And, even after Henry’s death, Richard was never duke of the Normans in his father’s lifetime. My own conclusion, therefore, is that these parts, at least of the “Établissements,” and probably the whole of them, were composed before the death of the young king in 1183, and probably after his coronation, and admission to a share of his father’s power, in 1170. Thus they may well have been connected with Henry’s charter to Rouen granted in 1174–1175.
These considerations may have led us somewhat far afield; but if I am right in deriving from the Norman capital of our kings the 12th century “Commune of London,” the origins of the Rouen “Commune” deserve our careful study. The same MS. which yielded the leading document in this paper contains two others, of which something must be said. But before doing so we will glance at one of different origin, which, in more ways than one, we may associate with the ‘Commune.’
The charter which follows is chiefly introduced for the interesting phrase found in it: “the greater barons of the city.” So far as I know, this phrase is unique; and apart from its importance for London itself, it has a direct bearing on that famous constitutional problem: who were the “barones majores”? In the present case, the phrase, surely, has no specialized meaning. It is probably a coincidence, and nothing more, that “majores” and “minores,” at St. Quentin, had a defined meaning. In M. Giry’s treatise on its commune we read as follows:
Notons ici que les citoyens ayant exercé les fonctions de jurés et d’échevins formaient dans la ville une véritable aristocratie: on les appelait les grands bourgeois, majores burgenses, par opposition aux petits bourgeois, minores burgenses, qui comprenaient tous les autres membres de la commune (p. cxi.).
And again:
À Saint-Quentin, comme dans toutes les communes, le pouvoir était aux mains des habitants riches qu’on appelait, ainsi qu’il a été dit plus haut, les grands bourgeois (majores burgenses), parce qu’ils avaient exercé les charges municipales, et pour les distinguer des petits bourgeois (minores burgenses), dénomination appliquée à tous ceux qui n’avaient point rempli les fonctions de juré ou d’échevin. En 1318, pendent la suspension de la commune, ces petits bourgeois se plaignirent de la mauvaise répartition des tailles et traduisirent devant le Parlement les grands bourgeois, auteurs des rôles d’imposition incriminés (p. cxv.).