Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen ElizabethReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The King no longer lives on his own from income from his own
lands, but takes money from the treasury. Elected men from the
baronage met with the King and his council in several
conferences called Parliaments to discuss the levying of taxes
and the solution of difficult legal cases, and to receive
petitions. Statutes were enacted. Landholders were given the
duty of electing four of their members in every shire to ensure
that the sheriff observed the law and to report his
misdemeanors to the justiciar. They were also given the duty of
electing four men from the shire from whom the exchequer was to
choose the sheriff of the year. Earl Montfort and certain barons
forced King Henry III to summon a Parliament in 1265 in which
the common people were represented officially by four knights
from every shire [county] and two burgesses from every borough.
This seems to be the time that the legend of Robin Hood robbing
the rich to give to the poor arose.
The Law
The barons forced successive Kings to sign the Magna Carta until
it became the law of the land. It became the first statute of
the official statute book. It's provisions express the principle
that a King is bound by the law and is not above it. However,
there is no redress if the King breaches the law.
The Magna Carta was issued by John in 1215. A revised version was
issued by Henry III in 1225 with the forest clauses separated
out into a forest charter. The two versions are replicated
together, with the formatting of each indicated in the titles
below.
{Magna Carta - 1215}
Magna Carta - 1215 & 1225
MAGNA CARTA - 1225
{John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland,
Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou: To the
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries,
Foresters, Sheriffs, Reeves, Ministers, and all Bailiffs and
others, his faithful subjects, Greeting. Know ye that in the
presence of God, and for the health of our soul, and the souls
of our ancestors and heirs, to the honor of God, and the
exaltation of Holy Church, and amendment of our realm, by the
advice of our reverend Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Cardinal of the Holy
Roman Church; Henry, Archbishop of Dublin; William of London,
Peter of Winchester, Jocelin of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of
Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, and Benedict
of Rochester, Bishops; Master Pandulph, the Pope's subdeacon and
familiar; Brother Aymeric, Master of the Knights of the Temple in
England; and the noble persons, William Marshall, Earl of
Pembroke; William, Earl of Salisbury; William, Earl of Warren;
William, Earl of Arundel; Alan de Galloway, Constable of
Scotland; Warin Fitz-Gerald, Peter Fitz-Herbert, Hubert de
Burgh, Seneshal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew
Fitz-Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert
de Roppelay, John Marshall, John Fitz-Hugh, and others, our
liegemen:}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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