As an illustrative parallel to this clause, I am tempted to quote a remarkable charter, unnoticed, it would seem, not only by our historians, but even by Mr. Eyton himself. The Assize of Clarendon, a quarter of a century (1166) after the date of our charter to Geoffrey, contained clauses specially aimed against such exemption as he sought. Referring to these clauses, Dr. Stubbs writes:— "No franchise is to exclude the justices.... In the article which directs the admission of the justices into every franchise may be detected one sign of the anti-feudal policy which the king had all his life to maintain."[347] But the clauses in question, though their sweeping character fully justifies this description,[348] contrast strangely with the humble, almost apologetic, charter in which Henry II., immediately afterwards, announces that he is only sending his "justicia" into the patrimony of St. Cuthbert "by permission" of the bishop, and as a quite exceptional measure, not to be taken again. It throws, perhaps, some new light on the character and methods of the king, when we find him thus stooping, in form, to gain his point in fact. "Henricus Rex Angl' et Dux Normann' et Aquitan' et Comes Andegav', justiciariis Vicecomitibus et omnibus ministris suis de Eborac'sir et de Nordhummerlanda salutem. Sciatis quod consilio Baronum meorum,[349] et Episcopi Dunelmensis licencia, mitto hac vice in terram sancti Cuthberti justiciam meam, quæ[350] videat ut fiat justicia secundum assisam meam de latronibus et murdratoribus et roboratoribus;[351] non quia velim ut trahatur in consuetudinem tempore meo vel heredum meorum, sed ad tempus hoc facio, pro prædicta necessitate; quia volo quod terra beati Cuthberti suas habeat libertates et antiquas consuetudines, sicut unquam melius habuit. T. Gavfrido Archiepiscopo [_sic_] Cant. Ric. Arch. Pictav. Comite Gaufrido, Ricardo de Luci. Apud Wodestoc."[352] The first charter of the Empress has now been sufficiently discussed. It was, of course, his possession of the Tower that enabled Geoffrey to extort such terms, the command of that fortress being essential to the Empress, to overawe the disaffected citizens. [248] "Itaque multæ fuit molis Londoniensium animos permulcere posse, ut, cum hæc statim post Pascha (ut dixi) fuerint actitata, vix paucis ante Nativitatem beati Johannis diebus imperatricem reciperent" (p. 748). [249] "Galfridus de Mandevilla firmavit Turrim Londoniensem. Idibus Maii Albericus de Ver Londoniis occiditur" (M. Paris, _Chron. Major._, ii. 174). [250] _Ibid._ [251] _The Early History of Oxford_, cap. x. [252] "Ad Radingum infra Rogationes veniens, suscipitur cum honoribus, hinc inde principibus cum populis ad ejus imperium convolantibus" (_Cont. Flor. Wig._, 130). [253] _Add. Chart._ (Brit. Mus.), 19,576; _Arch. Journ._, xx. 289; _Journ. B. A. A._, xxxi. 389.