Constitutional history -- England -- Sources; Magna Carta
24. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or others of our bailiffs, shall
hold pleas of our Crown.
25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trithings (except our
demesne manors) shall remain at old rents, and without any additional
payment.***here may be an error
26. If any one holding of us a lay fief shall die, and our sheriff or
bailiff shall exhibit our letters patent of summons for a debt which
the deceased owed to us, it shall be lawful for our sheriff or bailiff
to attach and catalogue chattels of the deceased, found upon the lay
fief, to the value of that debt, at the sight of law-worthy men,
provided always that nothing whatever be then be removed until the debt
which is evident shall be fully paid to us; and the residue shall be
left to the executors to fulfil the will of the deceased; and if there
be nothing due from him to us, all the chattels shall go to the
deceased, saving to his wife and children their reasonable shares.
27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be
distributed by the hands of his nearest kinsfolk and friends, under
supervision of the church, saving to every one the debts which the
deceased owed to him.
28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take corn or other
provisions from any one without immediately tendering money therefor,
unless he can have postponement thereof by permission of the seller.
29. No constable shall compel any knight to give money in lieu of
castle-guard, when he is willing to perform it in his own person, or
(if he cannot do it from any reasonable cause) then by another
responsible man. Further, if we have led or sent him upon military
service, he shall be relieved from guard in proportion to the time
during which he has been on service because of us.
30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other person, shall take the
horses or carts of any freeman for transport duty, against the will of
the said freeman.
31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for our castles or for any
other work of ours, wood which is not ours, against the will of the
owner of that wood.
32. We will not retain beyond one year and one day, the lands of those
who have been convicted of felony, and the lands shall thereafter be
handed over to the lords of the fiefs.
33. All kiddles for the future shall be removed altogether from Thames
and Medway, and throughout all England, except upon the seashore.
34. The writ which is called praecipe shall not for the future be
issued to any one, regarding any tenement whereby a freeman may lose
his court.
35. Let there be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm; and
one measure of ale; and one measure of corn, to wit, “the London
quarter;” and one width of cloth (whether dyed, or russet, or
“halberget”), to wit, two ells within the selvages; of weights also let
it be as of measures.
36. Nothing in future shall be given or taken for a writ of inquisition
of life or limbs, but freely it shall be granted, and never denied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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