Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John / With an Historical Introduction

by William Sharp McKechnie

[273]. Chronica Majora, III. 76.

[274]. Dr. Stubbs thinks that in thus avoiding one danger, a greater danger was incurred. "It must be acknowledged that Hubert, in trying to bind the royal conscience, forsook the normal and primitive form of legislative enactment, and opened a claim on the king’s part to legislate by sovereign authority without counsel or consent." (Const. Hist., II. 37.) This seems to exaggerate the importance of an isolated precedent, the circumstances of which were unique. The confirmation was something far apart from an ordinary “legislative enactment.”

[275]. A few minor alterations, such as the omission of the clause against unlicensed castles (now unnecessary) and some verbal changes need not be mentioned. A list of these is given by Blackstone, Great Charter, l.

[276]. See Blackstone, Ibid., xlvii. to l.

[277]. Ibid.

[278]. One slight exception should be noted. In one point of detail a change had occurred since 1225; the rate of relief payable from a barony had been reduced from £100 to 100 marks. See infra under chapter 2.

[279]. A bull of Gregory IX., dated 13th April, 1227, confirmed Henry in this declaration that his minority was ended. See Blackstone, Great Charter, li., and Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. 39.

[280]. See Rot. Claus., II. 169, and Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. 40, where it is suggested that “the declaration seems merely to have been a contrivance for raising money.” This is not quite accurate. Mr. G. J. Turner, in his introduction to Select Pleas of the Forest, pp. xcix. to cii., gives a full and convincing account of Henry’s procedure and motives. “The king neither repudiated the Charter of the Forest nor annulled the perambulations which had been made in his infancy. He merely corrected them after due inquiry.”

[281]. Blackstone, Great Charter, 68–9; Stubbs, Sel. Charters, 365–6.

[282]. The more important among them are enumerated by Coke in his second Institute, p. 1. Further details are given by Blackstone, Great Charter, lii.; Thomson, Magna Charta, 437–446; and in Bémont, Chartes, pp. xxx. to liii.