Constitutional history -- England -- Sources; Magna Carta
37. If any one holds of us by fee-farm, by socage, or by burgage, and
holds also land of another lord by knight’s service, we will not (by
reason of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage) have the wardship of the
heir, or of such land of his as is of the fief of that other; nor shall
we have wardship of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage, unless such
fee-farm owes knight’s service. We will not by reason of any small
serjeanty which any one may hold of us by the service of rendering to
us knives, arrows, or the like, have wardship of his heir of the land
which he holds of another lord by knight’s service.
38. No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsupported
complaint, put any one to his “law,” without credible witnesses brought
for this purpose.
39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or
in anyway destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except
by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or
justice.
41. All merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England, and
entry to England, with the right to tarry there and to move about as
well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient and
right customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in time of war) such
merchants as are of the land at war with us. And if such are found in
our land at the beginning of the war, they shall be detained, without
injury to their bodies or goods, until information be received by us,
or by our chief justiciar, how the merchants of our land found in the
land at war with us are treated; and if our men are safe there, the
others shall be safe in our land.
42. It shall be lawful in future for any one (excepting always those
imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the kingdom, and
natives of any country at war with us, and merchants, who shall be
treated as is above provided) to leave our kingdom and to return, safe
and secure by land and water, except for a short period in time of war,
on grounds of public policy—reserving always the allegiance due to us.
43. If any one holding of some escheat (such as the honor of
Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats
which are in our hands and are baronies) shall die, his heir shall give
no other relief, and perform no other service to us than he would have
done to the baron, if that barony had been in the baron’s hand; and we
shall hold it in the same manner in which the baron held it.
44. Men who dwell without the forest need not henceforth come before
our justiciars of the forest upon a general summons, except those who
are impleaded, or who have become sureties for any person or persons
attached for forest offenses.
45. We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only
such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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