The Angevins and the Charter (1154-1216): The Beginning of English Law, the Invasion of Ireland and the Crusades
History
The Angevins and the Charter (1154-1216): The Beginning of English Law, the Invasion of Ireland and the Crusades
Great Britain -- History -- Angevin period, 1154-1216 -- Sources; Magna Carta
37. If any one hold from us in fee-farm or in socage, or in burkage, and
hold land of another by military service, we shall not, by reason of
that fee-farm, or socage, or burkage, have the wardship of his heir or
of his land which is held in fee from another. Nor shall we have the
wardship of that fee-farm, or socage, or burkage, unless that fee-farm
owe military service. We shall not by reason of some petit-serjeantry
which someone holds of us through the service of giving us knives or
arrows or the like, have the wardship of his heir or of the land which
he holds of another by military service.
38. No bailiff, on his own simple assertion, shall henceforth put any
one to his law, without producing faithful witnesses in evidence.
39. No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed,
or exiled, or in any way harmed--nor will we go upon or send upon
him--save by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.
40. To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice.
41. All merchants may safely and securely go out of England, and come
into England, and delay and pass through England, as well by land as by
water, for the purpose of buying and selling, free from all evil taxes,
subject to the ancient and right customs--save in time of war, and if
they are of the land at war against us. And if such be found in our land
at the beginning of the war, they shall be held, without harm to their
bodies and goods, until it shall be known to us or our chief justice how
the merchants of our land are to be treated who shall, at that time be
found in the land at war against us. And if ours shall be safe there,
the others shall be safe in our land.
42. Henceforth, any person, saving his fealty to us, may go out of our
realm and return to it, safely and securely, by land and by water,
except, perhaps, for a brief period in time of war, for the common good
of the realm. But prisoners and outlaws are excepted, according to the
law of the realm; also people of a land at war against us, and the
merchants, with regard to whom shall be done as we have said.
43. If anyone hold from any escheat--as from the honour of Wallingford,
Nottingham, Boloin, Lancaster, or the other escheats which are in our
hands and are baronies--and shall die, his heir shall not give another
relief, nor shall he perform for us other service than he would perform
for a baron if that barony were in the hand of a baron; and we shall
hold it in the same way in which the baron has held it.
44. Persons dwelling without the forest shall not henceforth come before
the forest justices, through common summonses, unless they are impleaded
or are the sponsors of some person or persons attached for matters
concerning the forest.
45. We will not make men justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs,
unless they are such as know the law of the realm, and are minded to
observe it rightly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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