To the Church, as to the barons, Henry Plantagenet confirms only what his grandfather had already conceded. Even when compared with the standard set by the charter of Henry I., that of the younger Henry is shorter and less explicit, and therefore weaker and more liable to be set aside—features which justified Stephen Langton in his preference for the older document. If Henry II. granted a short and grudging charter, neither of his sons, at their respective coronations, granted any charter at all. Reasons for the omission readily suggest themselves; the Crown had grown strong enough to dispense with this unwelcome formality, partly because of the absence of rival competitors for the throne, and partly because of the perfection to which the machinery of government had been brought. The utmost which the Church could extract from Richard and John as the price of their consecration was the renewal of the three vague promises contained in the words of the oath, now taken as a pure formality. The omission to grant charters was merely one symptom of the diseases of the body politic consequent on the overweening power of the Crown, and proves how urgent was the need of some such re-assertion of the nation’s liberties as came in 1215.
John, at least, was not to be allowed to shake himself free from the obligations of his oath, or from the promise to confirm the ancient laws and customs of the land therein contained. Stephen Langton, before absolving him from the effects of his quarrel with Rome, compelled him to renew the terms of the coronation oath.[[179]]
Nor was this all; from a meeting held at St. Albans on 4th August, 1213, writs were issued in the King’s name to the various sheriffs, bidding them observe the laws of Henry I. and abstain from unjust exactions.[[180]] Three weeks later (on 25th August), the production of a stray copy of Henry’s charter is said, by Roger of Wendover, to have made a startling impression on all present,[[181]] and the same charter was a second time produced at Bury St. Edmunds, on 4th November, 1214, and was accepted by the malcontents as a model which, modified and enlarged, might serve as a basis for the redress of the grievances of the reign.[[182]]
It is thus both excusable and necessary to place much stress on this sequence of coronation oaths and charters, as contributing both to the form and to the substance of the Magna Carta of John. Yet the tendency to take too narrow a view of the antecedents of the Great Charter must be carefully guarded against. Many ingredients went to the making of it. Numerous reforms of Henry II., whether embodied or not in one or more of the ordinances or assizes that have come down to us, must be reckoned among their number, equally with those constitutional documents which happen to be couched in the form peculiar to charters granted under the king’s great seal. It is also necessary to remember the special grants made by successive kings of England to the Church, to London and other cities, and to individual prelates and barons. In a sense, the whole previous history of England went to the making of Magna Carta. The sequence of coronation oaths and charters is only one line of descent; the Great Charter of John can trace its origin through many other lines of distinguished ancestors.
[163]. The words have come down to us in two versions: one Anglo-Saxon and the other Latin. The former is preserved in Memorials of St. Dunstan (Rolls Series), p. 355, where it is translated by Dr. Stubbs:—
"In the name of the Holy Trinity I promise three things to the Christian people and my subjects: first, that God’s church and all Christian people of my dominions hold true peace; the second is that I forbid robbery and all unrighteous things to all orders; and third, that I promise and enjoin in all dooms, justice and mercy, that the gracious and merciful God of his everlasting mercy may forgive us all, who liveth and reigneth." The name of the King is not mentioned, and may have been either Edward or Ethelred, but is usually identified with the latter. See Kemble, Saxons in England, II. 35.
[164]. Two independent authorities, both writing from the English point of view, Florence of Worcester, and the author of the Worcester version of the Chronicle, agree that the Conqueror took the oath; the Norman authorities neither contradict nor confirm this. “William of Poitiers and Guy are silent about the oath.” Freeman, Norman Conquest, III. 561, note.
[165]. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. 328-9, and authorities there cited.
[166]. See Appendix.