Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical IntroductionMcKechnie, William Sharp
History
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction
McKechnie, William Sharp
Constitutional history -- England -- Sources; Law -- England -- History; Law -- England -- Sources; Magna Carta
The issue of the new Charter was not immediately successful in bringing
the civil war to an end; but a stream of waverers flowed from Louis to
Henry, influenced partly by the success of the national faction in the
field and partly by the moderate policy of the government typified by
the re-issue of the Charter. On 19th May, 1217, the royalists gained a
decisive victory at the battle known as the “Fair of Lincoln”; and, on
24th August following, Hubert de Burgh, the Justiciar, destroyed the
fleet on which Louis depended. The French prince was compelled to sue
for peace. Although negotiations were somewhat protracted, the resulting
Treaty of Lambeth bears date the 11th September, 1217, the day on which
they opened.[245] Several interviews took place at Lambeth between 11th
and 13th September, and these were followed by a general conference at
Merton, commencing on the 23rd, at which Gualo, Louis, the Regent, and
many English nobles were present.[246] Some difference of opinion exists
as to the exact stages of these negotiations,[247] and it seems best to
treat as one whole the settlement ultimately arranged. “The treaty of
Lambeth is, in practical importance, scarcely inferior to the charter
itself.”[248] It marked the final acceptance by the advisers of the
Crown of the substance of Magna Carta as the permanent basis of
government for England in time of peace, not merely as a provisional
expedient in time of war. Its terms were equally honourable to both
parties: to the Regent and his supporters, because of the moderation
they displayed; and to Louis who, while renouncing all claim to the
English Crown, did so only on condition of a full pardon to his allies,
combined with the guarantee of their cause, so far at least as that was
embodied in the Charter. Ten thousand marks were paid to Louis,
nominally as indemnity for his expenses; but he had in return to restore
the Exchequer Rolls, the charters of the Jews (that is the rolls on
which copies of their starrs or mortgages had been registered),[249] the
Charters of Liberties granted by John at Runnymede, and all other
national archives in his possession. Sir William Blackstone thinks it
probable that, under this clause of the treaty, the original of the
Articles of the Barons was handed over, and deposited among the other
archives of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace where it
remained until the middle of the seventeenth century.[250] One condition
of this general pacification was of supreme importance—the promise given
by the Regent and the papal legate to grant a new and revised Charter.
This promise was fulfilled some six weeks later, a Charter of Liberties
and a separate Forest Charter being issued on the 6th November,
1217.[251]
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Footnote 245:
Compare what is said of the negotiations at Runnymede, and the date of
John’s Magna Carta, _supra_, p. 48.
Footnote 246:
Blackstone, _Great Charter_, xxxiv.
Footnote 247:
_Ibid._
Footnote 248:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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