And be it remembered that this same Charter, in the same terms, word for word, was sealed in Flanders under the King's Great Seal, that is to say, at Ghent, the 5th day of November, in the 52th year of the reign of our aforesaid Lord the King, and sent into England. * * * * * The words of this important document, from Professor Stubbs's translation, are given as the best explanation of the constitutional position and importance of the Charters of John and Henry III. See historical notice in Stubbs's _Documents Illustrative of English History_, p. 477. This is far the most important of the numerous ratifications of the Great Charter. Hallam calls it "that famous statute, inadequately denominated the Confirmation of the Charters, because it added another pillar to our constitution, not less important than the Great Charter itself." It solemnly confirmed the two Charters, the Charter of the Forest (issued by Henry II. in 1217--see text in Stubbs, p. 338) being then considered as of equal importance with Magna Charta itself, establishing them in all points as the law of the land; but it did more. "Hitherto the king's prerogative of levying money by name of _tallage_ or _prise_, from his towns and tenants in demesne, had passed unquestioned. Some impositions, that especially on the export of wool, affected all the king's subjects. It was now the moment to enfranchise the people and give that security to private property which Magna Charta had given to personal liberty." Edward's statute binds the king never to take any of these "aids, tasks, and prises" in future, save by the common assent of the realm. Hence, as Bowen remarks, the Confirmation of the Charters, or an abstract of it under the form of a supposed statute _de tallagio non concedendo_ (see Stubbs, p. 487), was more frequently cited than any other enactment by the parliamentary leaders who resisted the encroachments of Charles I. The original of the _Confirmatio Chartarum_, which is in Norman French, is still in existence, though considerably shriveled by the fire which damaged so many of the Cottonian manuscripts in 1731. THE GRANT OF THE GREAT CHARTER.