The importance of this reign to the City of London lies mainly in the Charter which we are about to discuss: we must not, however, forget the order which Henry I. established and maintained in every part of his kingdom. This order was especially valued in a place like London, which could only carry on its trade in security when order was maintained. And though London contained so many citizens of Norman birth and descent, the great mass of the people were English, and could not fail to be pleased when Henry showed that he threw himself upon the support of his English subjects, when he married an English wife, and restored through her the line of Alfred to the throne. A great king, a strong king, a just king. What more could the times desire?
[CHAPTER V]
THE CHARTER of HENRY I
We know that in the memorable and brief document which is called William’s Charter, the laws and customs of Edward the Confessor were simply confirmed. Probably the City asked no more and wanted no more. Sixty years later the City, having prospered and grown and being wiser, wished for a definition of their laws and liberties, which was given them by Henry the First. I say sixty, and not thirty years, because, as has been already advanced, it seems probable that Henry’s Charter was granted in the year 1130, and not, as has been generally assumed, at the beginning of his reign. I now propose to take this Charter clause by clause.
CORONATION OF HENRY I
Claud MS., A. iii. (contemporary).
“Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, to the archbishop of Canterbury, and to the bishops and abbots, earls and barons, justices and sheriffs, and to all his faithful subjects of England, French and English, greeting.
Know ye that I have granted to my citizens of London, to hold Middlesex to farm for three hundred pounds, upon accompt to them and their heirs: so that the said citizens shall place as sheriff whom they will of themselves: and shall place whomsoever, or such a one as they will of themselves, for keeping of the pleas of the crown, and of the pleadings of the same, and none other shall be justice over the same men of London: and the citizens of London shall not plead without the walls of London for any plea. And be they free from scot and lot and danegeld, and of all murder: and none of them shall wage battle. And if any one of the citizens shall be impleaded concerning the pleas of the crown, the man of London shall discharge himself by his oath, which shall be adjudged within the City: and none shall lodge within the walls, neither of my household, nor any other, nor lodging delivered by force.
And all the men of London shall be quit and free, and all their goods, throughout England, and the ports of the sea, of and from all toll and passage and lestage, and all other customs: and the churches and barons and citizens shall and may peaceably and quietly have and hold their sokes with all their customs; so that the strangers that shall be lodged in the sokes shall give custom to none but to him to whom the soke appertains, or to his officer, whom he shall put there: And a man of London shall not be adjudged in amerciaments of money but of one hundred shillings (I speak of the pleas which appertain to money); and further there shall be no more miskenning in the hustings, nor in the folkmote, nor in any other pleas within the City: and in the hustings may sit once a week, that is to say, on Monday: And I will cause my citizens to have their lands, premises, bonds and debts, within the City and without: and I will do them right by the law of the City, of the lands of which they shall complain to me:
And if they shall take toll or custom of any citizen of London, the citizens of London in the City shall take of the borough or town, where toll or custom was so taken, so much as the man of London gave for toll, and as he received damage thereby; and all debtors, which do owe debts to the citizens of London, shall pay them in London, or else discharge themselves in London, that they owe none: but, if they will not pay the same, neither some to clear themselves that they owe none, the citizens of London, to whom the debts shall be due, may take their goods in the City of London, of the borough or town, or of the country wherein he remains who shall owe the debt: And the citizens of London may have their chaces to hunt, as well and fully as their ancestors have had, that is to say, in Chiltre, and in Middlesex and Surrey.
Witness the bishop of Winchester, and Robert son of Richier, and Hugh Bygot, and Alured of Toteneys, and William of Alba-spina and Hubert the King’s chamberlain, and William de Montfichet, and Hangulf de Teney, and John Bellet, and Robert son of Siward. At Westminster.”
The Charter of Henry the First must be considered both on account of the liberties and privileges it grants, and the light it throws upon the government of the City.
First—The Charter is addressed, not to the City of London with which it was concerned, but to “The Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops and the Abbots, Earls and Barons, Justices and Sheriffs, and all his faithful subjects, French and English, of all England.”
Why was it not addressed to the City? Because as yet there was no City in the modern sense of the word. It might have been addressed to the Bishop and the Portreeve, as William’s Charter: it was addressed to the whole country, because the concessions made to London were understood to concern the whole country.