Mr. Round explains this word in a learned appendix (_Geoffrey de Mandeville_, p. 414) to mean “blackmail,” _i.e._ “money extorted under pretence of protection or defence.” Footnote 42: See _Rot. Claus._, p. 225 (17 John membrane 31). The evidence of this writ does not stand alone. In another writ on the same membrane of the _Close Rolls_, dated 19th June, John informs his half-brother, the Earl of Salisbury, that he has concluded peace, and instructs him to restore certain lands and castles immediately, as this had been made a condition of peace. See also the writ to Stephen Harengod _infra_, p. 49. ----- It has been taken for granted by many historians that the peace was finally concluded, and the Great Charter actually sealed and issued on the 15th, not on the 19th.[43] The fact that all four copies of Magna Carta still extant bear this date seems to have been regarded as absolutely conclusive on this point. Experts in diplomatics, however, have long been aware that elaborate charters and other documents, which occupied a considerable time in preparation, usually bore the date, not of their actual execution, but of the day on which were concluded the transactions of which they form the record. Legal instruments were thus commonly ante-dated (as it would be reckoned according to modern legal practice). Thus it is far from safe to infer from Magna Carta’s mention of its own date that the great seal was actually adhibited on the 15th June. ----- Footnote 43: Blackstone, however (_Great Charter_, xv.), speaks of a “conference which lasted for several days, and did not come to a conclusion till Friday, the 19th June.” ----- Such presumption as exists points the other way. The Great Charter is a lengthy and elaborate document, and it is barely possible that any one of the four originals known to us could have been engrossed (to say nothing of the adjustment of the substance and form) within one day. Not only is it much longer than the Articles on which it is founded; but even the most casual comparison will convince any unbiassed mind of the slower rate of engrossment of the Charter. All four copies show marks of great deliberation, while those at Lincoln and Salisbury in particular are exquisite models of leisurely and elaborate penmanship. The highly finished initial letters of the first line and other ornamental features may be instructively compared with the plain, business-like, rapid hand of the Articles. How many additional copies now lost were once in existence bearing the same date, it is impossible to say; but each of those still extant may well have occupied four days in the writing.[44] ----- Footnote 44: