IV. _The so-called “unknown Charter of Liberties.”_ Among the French archives there is preserved the copy of what purports to be a charter granted by King John, but irregular in its form. This document is preserved among the _Archives du Royaume_ in the _Section Historique_ and numbered J. 655.[304] A copy of this copy was discovered at the Record Office in London by Mr. J. Horace Round in 1893, previous to which date it seems to have been practically unknown to English historians, although it had been printed by a French writer thirty years earlier.[305] Mr. Round communicated his discovery of this “unknown charter of liberties” to the _English Historical Review_, in the pages of which there ensued a discussion as to its nature and validity, inaugurated by him. Three theories were suggested: (_a_) Mr. Round maintained that the document was a copy, in a mangled form perhaps, of a charter actually granted in the year 1213 by King John to the northern barons, containing concessions which they had agreed to accept in satisfaction of their claims.[306] (_b_) Mr. Prothero preferred to view it, not as an actually executed charter, given and accepted in settlement of the various claims in dispute, but rather as an abortive proposal made by the King early in 1215 and rejected by the barons.[307] (_c_) Mr. Hubert Hall dismissed the document as a forgery, and described it as "a coronation charter attributed to John by a French scribe in the second decade of the thirteenth century"—probably between November, 1216, and March, 1217, when King Philip desired to prove that John had committed perjury by breaking his promises, and had thereby forfeited his right to the Crown of England.[308] ----- Footnote 304: See the account given by Mr. Hubert Hall, _English Historical Review_, IX. 326. Footnote 305: Alexandre Teulet, _Layettes du Trésor_, I. p. 423 (1863). Footnote 306: _Engl. Hist. Rev._, VIII. 288-294. Footnote 307: _Ibid._, IX. 117-121. Footnote 308: _Ibid._, IX. 326-335. -----