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Magna
Carta
A
translation of Magna Carta as confirmed by Edward I with his seal
in 1297
[Preamble]
EDWARD by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland,
and Duke of Guyan, to all Archbishops, Bishops, etc. We have seen
the Great Charter of the Lord HENRY, sometimes King of England,
our father, of the Liberties of England, in these words: Henry
by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of
Normandy and Guyan, and Earl of Anjou, to all Archbishops, Bishops,
Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, Sheriffs, Provosts, Officers, and
to all Bailiffs and other our faithful Subjects , which shall
see this present Charter, Greeting. Know ye that we, unto the
honour of Almighty God, and for the salvation of the souls of
our progenitors and successors, Kings of England, to the advancement
of holy Church, and amendment of our Realm, of our meer and free
will, have given and granted to all Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots,
Priors, Earls, Barons, and to all freemen of this our realm, these
liberties following, to be kept in our kingdom of England for
ever.
[1]
First, We have granted to God, and by this our present Charter
have confirmed, for us and our Heirs for ever, That the Church
of England shall be free, and shall have her whole rights and
liberties inviolable. We have granted also, and given to all the
freemen of our realm, for us and our Heirs for ever, these liberties
underwritten, to have and to hold to them and their Heirs, of
us and our Heirs for ever.
[2]
If any of our Earls or Barons, or any other, which holdeth of
Us in chief by Knights service, shall die and at the time of his
death his heir be of full age, and oweth us Relief, he shall have
his inheritance by the old Relief; that is to say, the heir or
heirs of an Earl, for a whole Earldom, by one hundred pound; the
heir or heirs of a Baron, for an whole Barony, by one hundred
marks; the heir or heirs of a Knight, for one whole Knights fee,
one hundred shillings at the most; and he that hath less, shall
give less, according to the custom of the fees.
[3]
But if the Heir of any such be within age, his Lord shall not
have the ward of him, nor of his land, before that he hath taken
him homage. And after that such an heir hath been in ward (when
he is come of full age) that is to say, to the age of one and
twenty years, he shall have his inheritance without Relief, and
without Fine; so that if such an heir, being within age, be made
Knight, yet nevertheless his land shall remain in the keeping
of his Lord unto the term aforesaid.
[4]
The keeper of the land of such an heir, being within age, shall
not take of the lands of the heir, but reasonable issues, reasonable
customs, and reasonable servics, and that without destruction
and waste of his men and goods. And if we commit the custody of
any such land to the Sheriff, or to any other, which is answerable
unto us for the issues of the same land, and he make destruction
or waste of those things that he hath in custody, we will take
of him amends and recompence therefore, and the land shall be
committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, which shall
answer unto us for the issues of the same land, or unto him whom
we will assign. And if we give or sell to any man the custody
of any such land, and he therein do make destruction or waste,
he shall lose the same custody; and it shall be assigned to two
lawful and discreet men of that fee, which also in like manner
shall be answerable to us, as afore is said.
[5]
The keeper, so long as he hath the custody of the land of such
an heir, shall keep up the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills,
and other things pertaining to the same land, with the issues
of the said land; and he shall deliver to the Heir, when he cometh
to his full age, all his land stored with ploughs, and all other
things, at the least as he received it. All these things shall
be observed in the custodies of the Archbishopricks, Bishopricks,
Abbeys, Priories, Churchs, and Dignities vacant, which appertain
to us; except this, that such custody shall not be sold.
[6] Heirs shall be married without Disparagement.
[7]
A Widow, after the death of her husband, incontinent, and without
any Difficulty, shall have her marriage and her inheritance, and
shall give nothing for her dower, her marriage, or her inheritance,
which her husband and she held the day of the death of her husband,
and she shall tarry in the chief house of her husband by forty
days after the death of her husband, within which days her dower
shall be assigned her (if it were not assigned her before) or
that the house be a castle; and if she depart from the castle,
then a competent house shall be forthwith provided for her, in
the which she may honestly dwell, until her dower be to her assigned,
as it is aforesaid; and she shall have in the meantime her reasonable
estovers of the common; and for her do wer shall be assigned unto
her the third part of all the lands of her husband, which were
his during coverture, except she were endowed of less at the Church-door.
No widow shall be distrained to marry herself: nevertheless she
shall find surety, that she shall not marry without our licence
and assent (if she hold of us) nor without the assent of the Lord,
if she hold of another.
[8]
We or our Bailiffs shall not seize any land or rent for any debt,
as long as the present Goods and Chattels of the debtor do suffice
to pay the debt, and the debtor himself be ready to satisfy therefore.
Neither shall the pledges of the debtor be dist rained, as long
as the principal debtor is sufficient for the payment of the debt.
And if the principal debtor fail in the payment of the debt, having
nothing wherewith to pay, or will not pay where he is able, the
pledges shall answer for the debt. And if they will, they shall
have the lands and rents of the debtor, until they be satished
of that which they before paid for him, except that the debtor
can show himself to be acquitted against the said sureties.
[9]
The city of London shall have all the old liberties and customs,
which it hath been used to have. Moreover we will and grant, that
all other Cities, Boroughs, Towns, and the Barons of the Five
Ports, and all other Ports, shall have all their liberties and
free customs.
[10]
No man shall be distrained to do more service for a Knights fee,
nor any freehold, than therefore is due.
[11]
Common Pleas shall not follow our Court, but shall be holden in
some place certain.
[12]
Assises of novel disseisin, and of Mortdancestor, shall not be
taken but in the shires, and after this manner: If we be out of
this Realm, our chief Justicer shall send our Justicers through
every County once in the Year, which, with the Knights of the
shires, shall take the said Assises in those counties; and those
things that at the coming of our foresaid Justicers, being sent
to take those Assises in the counties, cannot be determined, shall
be ended by them in some other place in their circuit; and those
things, which for difficulty of some articles cannot be determined
by them, shall be referred to our Justicers of the Bench, and
there shall be ended.
[13]
Assises of Darrein Presentment shall be alway taken before our
Justices of the Bench, and there shall be determined.
[14]
A Freeman shall not be amerced for a small fault, but after the
manner of the fault; and for a great fault after the greatness
thereof, saving to him his contenement; and a Merchant likewise,
saving to him his Merchandise; and any other's villain than ours
shall be likewise amerced, saving his wainage, if he falls into
our mercy. And none of the said amerciaments shall be assessed,
but by the oath of honest and lawful men of the vicinage. Earls
and Barons shall not be amerced but by their Peers, and after
the manner of their offence. No man of the Church shall be amerced
after the quantity of his spiritual Benefice, but after his Lay-tenement,
and after the quantity of his offence.
[15] No Town or Freeman shall be distrained to make Bridges nor
Banks, but such as of old time and of right have been accustomed
to make them in the time of King Henry our Grandfather.
[16]
No Banks shall be defended from henceforth, but such as were in
defence in the time of King Henry our Grandfather, by the same
places, and the same bounds, as they were wont to be in his time.
[17]
No Sheriff, Constable, Escheator, Coroner, nor any other our Bailiffs,
shall hold Pleas of our Crown.
[18]
If any that holdeth of us Lay-fee do die, and our Sheriff or Bailiff
do show our Letters Patents of our summon for Debt, which the
dead man did owe to us; it shall be lawful to our Sheriff or Bailiff
to attach or inroll all the goods and chattels of the dead, being
found in the said fee, to the Value of the same Debt, by the sight
and testimony of lawful men, so that nothing thereof shall be
taken away, until we be clearly paid off the debt; and the residue
shall remain to the Executors to perform the testament of the
dead; and if nothing be owing unto us, all the chattels shall
go to the use of the dead (saving to his wife and children their
reasonable parts).
[19]
No Constable, nor his Bailiff, shall take corn or other chattels
of any man, if the man be not of the Town where the Castle is,
but he shall forthwith pay for the same, unless that the will
of the seller was to respite the payment; and if he be of the
same Town, the price shall be paid unto him within forty days.
[20]
No Constable shall distrain any Knight to give money for keeping
of his Castle, if he himself will do it in his proper person,
or cause it to be done by another sufficient man, if he may not
do it himself for a reasonable cause. And if we lead or send him
to an army, he shall be free from Castle-ward for the time that
he shall be with us in fee in our host, for the which he hath
done service in our wars.
[21]
No Sheriff nor Bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take the Horses
or Carts of any man to make carriage, except he pay the old price
limited, that is to say, for carriage with two horse, x.d. a day;
for three horse, xiv.d. a day. No demesne Cart of any Spiritual
person or Knight, or any Lord, shall be taken by our Bailiffs;
nor we, nor our Bailiffs, nor any other, shall take any man's
wood for our Castles, or other our necessaries to be done, but
by the licence of him whose wood it shall be.
[22]
We will not hold the Lands of them that be convict of Felony but
one year and one day, and then those Lands shall be delivered
to the Lords of the fee.
[23]
All Wears from henceforth shall be utterly put down by Thames
and Medway, and through all England, but only by the Sea-coasts.
[24]
The Writ that is called Praecipe in capite shall be from henceforth
granted to no person of any freehold, whereby any freeman may
lose his Court.
[25]
One measure of Wine shall be through our Realm, and one measure
of Ale, and one measure of Corn, that is to say, the Quarter of
London; and one breadth of dyed Cloth, Russets, and Haberjects,
that is to say, two Yards within the lists. And it shall be of
Weights as it is of Measures.
[26]
Nothing from henceforth shall be given for a Writ of Inquisition,
nor taken of him that prayeth Inquisition of Life, or of Member,
but it shall be granted freely, and not denied.
[27] If any do hold of us by Fee-ferm, or by Socage, or Burgage,
and he holdeth Lands of another by Knights Service, we will not
have the Custody of his Heir, nor of his Land, which is holden
of the Fee of another, by reason of that Fee-ferm, Socage, or
Burgage. Neither will we have the custody of such Fee-ferm, or
Socage, or Burgage, except Knights Service be due unto us out
of the same Fee-ferm. We will not have the custody of the Heir,
or of any Land, by occasion of any Petit Serjeanty, that any man
holdeth of us by Service to pay a Knife, an Arrow, or the like.
[28]
No Bailiff from henceforth shall put any man to his open Law,
nor to an Oath, upon his own bare saying, without faithful Witnesses
brought in for the same.
[29]
No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised of his
Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled,
or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn
him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the
Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any
man either Justice or Right.
[30]
All Merchants (if they were not openly prohibited before) shall
have their safe and sure Conduct to depart out of England, to
come into England, to tarry in, and go through England, as well
by Land as by Water, to buy and sell without any manner of evil
Tolts, by the old and rightful Customs, except in Time of War.
And if they be of a land making War against us, and such be found
in our Realm at the beginning of the Wars, they shall be attached
without harm of body or goods, until it be known unto us , or
our Chief Justice, how our Merchants be intreated there in the
land making War against us; and if our Merchants be well intreated
there, theirs shall be likewise with us.
[31]
If any man hold of any Eschete, as of the honour of Wallingford,
Nottingham, Boloin, or of any other Eschetes which be in our hands,
and are Baronies, and die, his Heir shall give none other Relief,
nor do none other Service to us, than he should to the Baron,
if it were in the Baron's hand. And we in the same wise shall
hold it as the Baron held it; neither shall we have, by occasion
of any such Barony or Eschete, any Eschete or keeping of any of
our men, unless he that held the Barony or Eschete hold of us
in chief.
[32]
No Freeman from henceforth shall give or sell any more of his
Land, but so that of the residue of the Lands the Lord of the
Fee may have the Service due to him, which belongeth to the Fee.
[33]
All Patrons of Abbies, which have the King's Charters of England
of Advowson, or have old Tenure or Possession in the same, shall
have the Custody of them when they fall void, as it hath been
accustomed, and as it is afore declared.
[34]
No Man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the Appeal of a Woman
for the Death of any other, than of her husband.
[35]
No County Court from henceforth shall be holden, but from Month
to Month; and where greater time hath been used, there shall be
greater: Nor any Sheriff, or his Bailiff, shall keep his Turn
in the Hundred but twice in the Year; and nowhere but in due place,
and accustomed; that is to say, once after Easter, and again after
the Feast of St. Michael. And the View of Frankpledge shall be
likewise at the Feast of St. Michael without occasion; so that
every man may have his Liberties which he had, or used to have,
in the time of King HENRY our Grandfather, or which he hath purchased
since: but the View of Frankpledge shall be so done, that our
Peace may be kept; and that the Tything be wholly kept as it hath
been accustomed; and that the Sheriff seek no Occasions, and that
he be content with so much as the Sheriff was wont to have for
his Viewmaking in the time of King HENRY our Grandfather.
[36] It shall not be lawful from henceforth to any to give his
Lands to any Religious House, and to take the same Land again
to hold of the same House. Nor shall it be lawful to any House
of Religion to take the Lands of any, and to lease the same to
him of whom he received it. If any from henceforth give his Lands
to any Religious House, and thereupon be convict, the Gift shall
be utterly void, and the Land shall accrue to the Lord of the
Fee.
[37]
Escuage from henceforth shall be taken like as it was wont to
be in the time of King HENRY our Grandfather; reserving to all
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Templers, Hospitallers,
Earls, Barons, and all persons, as well Spiritual as Temporal,
all their free liberties and free Customs, which they have had
in time passed. And all these Customs and Liberties aforesaid,
which we have granted to be holden within this our Realm, as much
as appertaineth to us and our Heirs, we shall observe; and all
Men of this our Realm, as well Spiritual as Temporal (as much
as in them is) shall observe the same against all persons in like
wise. And for this our Gift and Grant of these Liberties, and
of other contained in our Charter of Liberties of our Forest,
the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, Knights,
Freeholders, and other our Subjects, have given unto us the Fifteenth
Part of all their Moveables. And we have granted unto them for
us and our Heirs, that neither we, nor our Heirs shall proc ure
or do anything whereby the Liberties in this Charter contained
shall be infringed or broken; and if anything be procured by any
person contrary to the premisses, it shall be had of no force
nor effect. These being Witnesses; Lord B. Archbishop of Cant
erbury, E. Bishop of London, J. Bishop of Bathe, P. of Winchester,
H. of Lincoln, R. of Salisbury, W. of Rochester, W. of Worester,
J. of Ely, H. of Hereford, R. of Chichester, W. of Exeter, Bishops;
the Abbot of St. Edmunds, the Abbot of St. Albans, the Abbot of
Bello, the Abbot of St. Augustines in Canterbury, the Abbot of
Evesham, the Abbot of Westminster, the Abbot of Bourgh St. Peter,
the Abbot of Reading, the Abbot of Abindon, the Abbot of Malmsbury,
the Abbot of Winchcomb, the Abbot of Hyde, the Abbot of Certefey,
the Abbot of Sherburn, the Abbot of Cerne, the Abbot of Abbotebir,
the Abbot of Middleton, the Abbot of Seleby, the Abbot of Cirencester;
H. de Burgh Justice, H. Earl of Chester and Lincoln, W. Earl of
Salisbury, W. Earl of Warren, G. de Clare Earl of Gloucester and
Hereford, W. de Ferrars Earl of Derby, W. de Mandeville Earl of
Essex, H. de Bygod Earl of Norfolk, W. Earl of Albermarle, H.
Earl of Hereford, J. Constable of Chester, R. de Ros, R. Fitzwalter,
R. de Vyponte, W. de Bruer, R. de Muntefichet, P. Fitzherbert,
W. de Aubenie, F. Grefly, F. de Breus, J. de Monemue, J. Fitzallen,
H. de Mortimer, W. de Beauchamp, W. de St. John, P. de Mauly,
Brian de Lisle, Thomas de Multon, R. de Argenteyn, G. de Nevil,
W. de Mauduit, J. de Balun, and others.
We,
ratifying and approving these Gifts and Grants aforesaid, confirm
and make strong all the same for us and our Heirs perpetually,
and, by the Tenour of these Presents, do renew the same; willing
and granting for us and our Heirs, that this Charter, and all
and singular his Articles, for ever shall be stedfastly, firmly,
and inviolably observed; although some Articles in the same Charter
contained, yet hitherto peradventure have not been kept, we will,
and by Authority Royal command, from henceforth firmly they be
observed. In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters
Patents to be made. T. EDWARD our Son at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth
Day of March, in the Twenty-eighth Year of our Reign.
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