As these four versions are practically identical in their substance—the variations being merely in the use of contractions or in other verbal changes of a trivial character—no important question seems to be involved in the discussion as to whether any one of them has greater value than the others. The Record Commissioners considered that the Lincoln copy was the first to be completed (and therefore that it possessed special authority), because, unlike the two Cottonian copies, it contained no insertions at the foot of the instrument. Yet it seems more plausible to argue that this very immunity from clerical errors, or from additions made after engrossment, proves that it was of later and less hurried execution than the others, and therefore of less authority, if any distinction is permissible. Mr. Thomson has much ground for his contention in speaking of the fire-marked version in the British Museum that “the same circumstances may probably be a proof of its superior antiquity, as having been the first which was actually drawn into form and sealed on Runnymede, the original whence all the most perfect copies were taken.”[[301]]
In all printed texts of Magna Carta, the contents are divided into a preamble and sixty-three chapters, and each chapter is numbered and treated in a separate paragraph by itself. There is no warrant for this in any one of the four originals, all of which run straight on from beginning to end, like other feudal charters, and contain no numbers or other indication where one provision ends and another begins. Strictly speaking, Magna Carta has thus no chapters: these are a modern invention, made for convenience of reference.
III. The Articles of the Barons. Of hardly inferior historical interest to these four original copies of the Great Charter is the parchment which contains the heads of the agreement made between John and the rebels on 15th June, 1215, from which the Charter was afterwards expanded. The parchment containing these heads, known as the Articles of the Barons, is now in the British Museum, cited officially as “Donation MSS. 4838.” The seven centuries which have passed over it have left surprisingly few traces; it is quite legible throughout, and still bears the impression of John’s great seal in brown wax. It is probable that this document may have passed with other English records into the hands of Prince Louis during the civil war which followed close on the transaction at Runnymede; that it was handed over to the Regent William Marshal in terms of the Treaty of Lambeth concluded in September, 1217; and that thereafter it was deposited in Lambeth Palace, where it remained until the middle of the seventeenth century. Archbishop Laud seems to have been aware of its historical interest, as he placed it among the more precious documents in his keeping. When threatened with impeachment by the Long Parliament, he thought it prudent to set his papers in order; and on 18th December, 1640, he dispatched for that purpose to his episcopal palace, his friend Dr. John Warner, Bishop of Rochester.
There was indeed no time to lose; a few hours later, Laud was committed to the custody of Black-Rod, and an official messenger was sent by the House of Lords to seal up his papers. Bishop Warner had, however, escaped with the Articles of the Barons before this messenger arrived; he kept it till he died, and at his death it passed to one of his executors named Lee, and from him to his son Colonel Lee, who presented it to Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury and author of the famous History of His Own Time. When the Salisbury Magna Carta disappeared, Burnet was suspected of appropriating it to his own uses. The grounds which gave some apparent weight to the misrepresentations of his political opponents were that special facilities had been granted to him to search public records in the prosecution of his historical labours, and that as matter of fact he actually had in his possession—quite lawfully, as we now know—the Articles of the Barons, which was confused by the carelessness of early historians with Magna Carta itself. The calumny was so widely spread that Burnet thought it necessary formally to refute it, explaining that he had received the Articles as a gift from Colonel Lee. “So it is now in my hands, and it came very fairly to me.”
Bishop Burnet left it as a legacy to his son Sir Thomas Burnet; and on his death it passed to his executor David Mitchell, whose permission to print it Blackstone obtained in 1759. Shortly thereafter it was purchased from Mr. Mitchell’s daughter by another great historian, Philip, second Earl of Stanhope, and by him it was presented to the British Museum in 1769. It is now exhibited to the public along with the two Cottonian copies of Magna Carta. The Record Commissioners have reproduced it in facsimile in Statutes of the Realm in 1810, and also in the New Rymer in 1816.[[302]]
The document begins with this headline: “Ista sunt Capitula quae Barones petunt et dominus Rex concedit.” Then the articles follow in 49 paragraphs of varying length, separate, but unnumbered, each new chapter (unlike the chapters of Magna Carta, which run straight on as befits its character as a charter) beginning a new line. The numbers which invariably appear in all printed editions have no warrant in the original.
A blank space sufficient for two lines of writing occurs between paragraphs 48 and 49, indicating perhaps that the last chapter, which contains the revolutionary provision for the appointment of the twenty-five Executors, had been added as an after-thought. Chapters 45 and 46 are connected by a rude bracket, and a clause is added in the same hand as the rest, but more rapidly, modifying the provisions of both in the King’s favour. This, at least, is clearly an after-thought.[[303]]
IV. The so-called “unknown Charter of Liberties.” Among the French archives there is preserved the copy of what purports to be a charter granted by King John, but irregular in its form. This document is preserved among the Archives du Royaume in the Section Historique and numbered J. 655.[[304]] A copy of this copy was discovered at the Record Office in London by Mr. J. Horace Round in 1893, previous to which date it seems to have been practically unknown to English historians, although it had been printed by a French writer thirty years earlier.[[305]] Mr. Round communicated his discovery of this “unknown charter of liberties” to the English Historical Review, in the pages of which there ensued a discussion as to its nature and validity, inaugurated by him. Three theories were suggested: (a) Mr. Round maintained that the document was a copy, in a mangled form perhaps, of a charter actually granted in the year 1213 by King John to the northern barons, containing concessions which they had agreed to accept in satisfaction of their claims.[[306]] (b) Mr. Prothero preferred to view it, not as an actually executed charter, given and accepted in settlement of the various claims in dispute, but rather as an abortive proposal made by the King early in 1215 and rejected by the barons.[[307]] (c) Mr. Hubert Hall dismissed the document as a forgery, and described it as "a coronation charter attributed to John by a French scribe in the second decade of the thirteenth century"—probably between November, 1216, and March, 1217, when King Philip desired to prove that John had committed perjury by breaking his promises, and had thereby forfeited his right to the Crown of England.[[308]]
Mr. Hall describes the method of procedure adopted by the compiler of this supposed forgery. Placing in front of him copies of Henry I.’s Charter of Liberties and of Henry III.’s charters issued in 1216-17, he proceeded to select from these sources whatever suited his purpose, and thereafter “either by design or carelessness, or ignorance of English forms, he altered the wording of both his originals so as to produce the effect of a paraphrase interspersed with archaisms.” This extremely ingenious theory is not entirely convincing. Not to insist on the number of unproved inferences on which it is based, it seems to have one grave defect—it ignores the absurdity of attempting to obtain credence for such a clumsy composition, especially when it was well known that John had never granted a coronation charter at all. Even if a skilful forger could have utilized the document as the basis for a completed charter, this would still have required the impress of John’s great seal to give it validity. Such an imposture could not be seriously intended to impose on any one.
A fourth theory may be suggested very tentatively, namely, that the document in question is a copy of the actual schedule drawn up by the barons previous to 27th April, 1215. That such a schedule existed we know from the express declaration of Roger of Wendover,[[309]] who informs us that it was sent to the King with the demand that his seal should be forthwith placed to it, under threat of civil war. From this, it is safe to infer that the schedule, as it left the barons’ hands, was ready for execution; but lack of experience in drawing up Crown charters would prevent them from producing an entirely regular instrument. They would assuredly take as their model the charter of Henry I., which had helped to give definiteness of aim to all their efforts. It would be necessary, however, to bring this up to date, by additions which we might a priori expect to resemble the provisions afterwards adopted with more elaboration in the agreement made at Runnymede. This schedule, then, rapidly thrown together, would be likely to contain many of the characteristics actually discovered by Mr. Hall in the document under discussion. Such an identification of the “unknown Charter of Liberties” with the schedule of 27th April, 1215, would explain all the features emphasized by Mr. Hall—the archaisms, the erroneous style, and the employment, first of the third person singular, and then of the first person singular, instead of using throughout the first person plural invariably used by John. It would also explain why the first half of the parchment on which the “unknown charter” is written, contains a copy of Henry I.’s charter, and why the two possess so many features in common.