Let no widow be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to live without a husband; provided always that she gives security not to marry without our consent, if she holds of us, or without the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. Wealthy ladies, who were wise, were glad to escape with their children from John’s clutches by agreeing to buy up all the Crown’s oppressive rights for a lump sum. In the very year of Magna Carta, Margaret, the widow of Robert fitz Roger, paid £1000;[431] and a few years earlier Petronilla, Countess of Leicester, expended as much as 4000 marks.[432] Though the circumstances of each of these cases seem to have been peculiar, the Pipe Rolls contain numerous smaller sums; in 1206 Juliana, widow of John of Kilpec, accounts for 50 marks and a palfrey.[433] Horses, dogs, and falcons were frequently given in addition to money fines, and testify eloquently to the greed of the king, the anxiety of the victims, and the extortionate nature of the whole system. In return, formal charters were usually obtained, a good example of which is one granted to Alice, countess of Warwick, dated 13th January, 1205,[434] containing many concessions; among others that she should not be forced to marry; that she should be sole guardian of her sons; that she should have one-third part of her late husband’s lands as her reasonable dower; and that she should be quit from attendance at the courts of the shire and of the hundred, and from payment of sheriff’s aids during her widowhood. Another charter of 20th April, 1206, shows what a widow had to expect if she failed to make her bargain with the Crown. John granted to Richard Fleming, an alien as his name implies, and presumably one of his not too reputable mercenaries, the wardship of the lands of the deceased Richard Grenvill with the rights of marriage of the widow and children.[435] ----- Footnote 431: See _Pipe Roll_ of 16 John, cited Madox I. 491. Footnote 432: See _Pipe Roll_ of 6 John, cited Madox I. 488. Footnote 433: See _Pipe Roll_ of 6 John, cited Madox I. 488. Footnote 434: _New Rymer_, I. 91. Footnote 435: See _New Rymer_, I. 92. -----