To the Church, as to the barons, Henry Plantagenet confirms only what his grandfather had already conceded. Even when compared with the standard set by the charter of Henry I., that of the younger Henry is shorter and less explicit, and therefore weaker and more liable to be set aside—features which justified Stephen Langton in his preference for the older document. If Henry II. granted a short and grudging charter, neither of his sons, at their respective coronations, granted any charter at all. Reasons for the omission readily suggest themselves; the Crown had grown strong enough to dispense with this unwelcome formality, partly because of the absence of rival competitors for the throne, and partly because of the perfection to which the machinery of government had been brought. The utmost which the Church could extract from Richard and John as the price of their consecration was the renewal of the three vague promises contained in the words of the oath, now taken as a pure formality. The omission to grant charters was merely one symptom of the diseases of the body politic consequent on the overweening power of the Crown, and proves how urgent was the need of some such re-assertion of the nation’s liberties as came in 1215. John, at least, was not to be allowed to shake himself free from the obligations of his oath, or from the promise to confirm the ancient laws and customs of the land therein contained. Stephen Langton, before absolving him from the effects of his quarrel with Rome, compelled him to renew the terms of the coronation oath.[179] ----- Footnote 179: See _supra_, p. 32, and Round, _Eng. Hist. Rev._, VIII. 292. Nor was this all; from a meeting held at St. Albans on 4th August, 1213, writs were issued in the King’s name to the various sheriffs, bidding them observe the laws of Henry I. and abstain from unjust exactions.[180] Three weeks later (on 25th August), the production of a stray copy of Henry’s charter is said, by Roger of Wendover, to have made a startling impression on all present,[181] and the same charter was a second time produced at Bury St. Edmunds, on 4th November, 1214, and was accepted by the malcontents as a model which, modified and enlarged, might serve as a basis for the redress of the grievances of the reign.[182] ----- Footnote 180: _Supra_, p. 34. Footnote 181: _Supra_, p. 35. Footnote 182: _Supra_, p. 38. -----