[243]. Dr. Stubbs propounds the theory that this re-issue of 1216 represents a compromise whereby the central government, in return for increased taxing powers, allowed to the feudal magnates increased rights of jurisdiction. He gives, however, no reasons for this belief, either in Select Charters, p. 339, or in his Constitutional History, II. 27. It is abundantly clear that the Crown reserved a free hand for itself in taxation, but there seems no evidence to support the other part of the theory, namely, that feudal justice gained new ground against royal justice in 1216 which had not been already gained in 1215.
[244]. It is unnecessary to invent any special catastrophe to account for the disappearance of John’s seal. Blackstone (Great Charter, xxix.) says, "King John’s great seal having been lost in passing the washes of Lincolnshire."
[245]. Compare what is said of the negotiations at Runnymede, and the date of John’s Magna Carta, supra, p. [48].
[246]. Blackstone, Great Charter, xxxiv.
[247]. Ibid.
[248]. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. 25.
[249]. See infra under chapter 9.
[250]. Great Charter, xxxix., and cf. infra, p. 201.
[251]. The Forest Charter, preserved in the archives of Durham Cathedral, bears this date, and that, in itself, affords some presumption that the Charter of Liberties (undated) to which it forms a supplement was executed at the same time. M. Bémont accepts this date; see his Chartes, xxviii., and authorities there cited. Blackstone, Great Charter, xxxix., gives the probable date as 23rd September. Dr. Stubbs, always catholic in his sympathies, gives both dates, 23rd September in Sel. Charters, 344, and 6th November in Const. Hist., II. 26. This Charter of Liberties of 1217, originally found among the archives of Gloucester Abbey and now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, still bears the impression of two seals—that of Gualo in yellow wax, and that of the Regent in green. See Blackstone, Great Charter, p. xxxv. The existence of the separate Forest Charter was only surmised by Blackstone, Ibid., p. xlii.; but shortly after he wrote, an original of it was found among the archives of Durham Cathedral. For an account of this and of its discovery, see Thomson, Magna Charta, pp. 443-5.