menu_book Chapter 51

Section 51 of Volume 1A of History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Richard Carpenter. History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 by David Hume. volume 1a section 51 chapter 11 part four when this vexatious affair was at last brought to a conclusion the king as if he had nothing further to attend but triumphs and victories went to poitou

which still acknowledged his authority and he carried war into philip's dominions he besieged a castle near angers but the approach of prince louis philip's son obliged him to raise the siege with such precipitation that he left his tents machines and baggage behind him and he returned to england with disgrace about the same time he heard of the great and decisive victory gained by the king of france at bovine over the emperor otho who had entered france at the head of one hundred and fifty thousand germans a victory which established for ever the glory of philip and gave full security to all his dominions john could therefore think henceforth of nothing further than of ruling peaceably his own kingdom and his close connection with the pope which he was determined at any price to maintain ensured him as he imagined the certain attainment of that object but the last and most grievous scene of this prince's misfortunes still awaited him and he was destined to pass through a series of more humiliating circumstances than had ever yet fallen to the lot of any other monarch the introduction of the feudal law into england by william the conqueror

had much infringed the liberties however imperfect enjoyed by the anglo-saxons in their ancient government and had reduced the whole people to a state of vassalage under the king or barons and even the greater part of them to a state of real slavery the necessity also of entrusting great power in the hands of a prince who was to maintain military dominion over a vanquished nation had engaged the norman barons to submit to a more severe and absolute prerogative than that to which men of their rank in other feudal governments were commonly subjected the power of the crown once raised to a high pitch was not easily reduced and the nation during the course of a hundred and fifty years was governed by an authority unknown in the same degree to all the kingdoms founded by the northern conquerors henry i that he might allure the people to give an exclusion to his elder brother robert had granted them a charter favorable in many particulars to their liberties stephen had renewed the grant henry the second had confirmed it but the concessions of all these princes had still remained without effect and the same unlimited at least in regular authority continued to be exercised both by them and their successors

the only happiness was that arms were never yet ravished from the hands of the barons and people the nation by a great confederacy might still vindicate its liberties and nothing was more likely than the character conduct and fortunes of the reigning prince to produce such a general combination against him equally odious and contemptible both in public and private life he affronted the barons by his insolence dishonoured their families by his gallantries enraged them by his tyranny and gave discontent to all ranks of men by his endless exactions and impositions The effect of these lawless practices had already appeared in the general demand made by the barons of a restoration of their privileges, and after he had reconciled himself to the Pope by abandoning the independence of the kingdom, he appeared to all his subjects in so mean a light that they universally thought they might with safety and honor insist upon their pretensions. But nothing forwarded this confederacy so much as the concurrence of Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, a man whose memory, though he was obtruded on the nation by a palpable encroachment of the Sea of Rome, ought always to be respected by the English. this prelate whether he was moved by the generosity of his nature and his affection to public good

or had entertained an animosity against john on account of the long opposition made by that prince to his election or thought that an acquisition of liberty to the people would serve to increase and secure the privileges of the church had formed the plan of reforming the government and had prepared the way for that great innovation by inserting those singular clauses above mentioned in the oath which he administered to the king before he would absolve him from the sentence of excommunication.

Soon after, in a private meeting of some principal barons in London, he showed them a copy of Henry I's charter, which he said he had happily found in a monastery, and he exhorted them to insist on the renewal and observance of it. The barons swore that they would sooner lose their lives than depart from so reasonable a demand. The Confederacy began now to spread wider and to comprehend almost all barons in England, and a new and more numerous meeting was summoned by Langton at St. Edmondsbury under color of

devotion. He again produced to the assembly the old charter of Henry, renewed his exhortations of unanimity and vigor in the prosecution of their purpose, and represented in the strongest colors the tyranny to which they had so long been subjected, and from which it now behoved them to free themselves and their posterity. The barons, inflamed by his eloquence, incited by the sense of their own wrongs, and encouraged by the appearance of their power and numbers,

solemnly took an oath before the high altar to adhere to each other, to insist on their demands, to make endless war on the king till he should submit to grant them. They agreed that after the festival of Christmas they would prefer in a body their common petition, and in the meantime they separated after mutually engaging that they would put themselves in a posture of defense, would enlist men and purchase arms, and would supply their castles with the necessary provisions.

12.15. The barons appeared in London on the day appointed, and demanded of the king that in consequence of his oath before the primate, as well as in defense of their just rights, he should grant them a renewal of Henry's charter, and a confirmation of the laws of St. Edward. The king, alarmed with their zeal and unanimity, as well as with their power, required a delay, promised that at the Festival of Easter he would give them a positive answer to their petition,

and offered them the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely, and the Earl of Pembroke, the Maréchal, as sureties for his fulfilling this engagement. The barons accepted of the terms and peaceably returned to their castles. During this interval John, in order to break or subdue the League of his Barons, endeavored to avail himself of the ecclesiastical power of whose influence he had, from his own recent misfortunes, had such fatal experience. He granted to the clergy a

charter, relinquishing forever that important prerogative for which his father and his ancestors had zealously contended, yielding to them the free election on all vacancies, reserving only the power to issue a consadelier and to subjoin a confirmation of the election, and declaring that, if either of these were withheld, the choice should nevertheless be deemed just and valid. He made a vow to lead an army into Palestine against the infidels, and he took on him the

cross, in hopes that he should receive from the Church that protection which she tendered to everyone that had entered into this sacred and meritorious engagement. He sent to Rome his agent, William de Maclaire in order to appeal to the Pope against the violence of his barons and procure him a favorable sentence from that powerful tribunal. The barons, also, were not negligent on their part in endeavoring to engage the Pope in their interests. They dispatched

Eustace de Vizae to Rome, laid their case before innocent as their feudal lord, and petitioned him to interpose his authority with the king, and oblige him to restore and confirm all their just and undoubted privileges. Innocent beheld, with regret, the disturbances which had arisen in England, and was much inclined to favor John in his pretensions. He had no hope of retaining and extending his newly acquired superiority over that kingdom, but by supporting so base

and degenerate a prince, who was willing to sacrifice every consideration to his present safety, and he foresaw that if the administration should fall into the hands of those gallant and high-spirited barons, they would vindicate the honor, liberty, and independence of the nation with the same ardor which they now exerted in defense of their own. He wrote letters, therefore, to the prelates, to the nobility, and to the king himself. He exhorted the first to employ their good

offices in conciliating peace between the contending parties, and putting an end to civil discord. To the second he expressed his disapprobation of their conduct in employing force to extort concessions from their reluctant sovereign. The last lie advised to treat his nobles with grace and indulgence, and to grant them their demands as should appear just and reasonable. The barons easily saw from the tenor of these letters that they must reckon on having

the Pope as well as the King for their adversary. But they had already advanced too far to recede from their pretensions, and their passions were so deeply engaged that it exceeded even the power of superstition itself any longer to control them. They also foresaw that the thunders of Rome, when not seconded by the efforts of the English ecclesiastics, would be of small avail against them, and they perceived that the most considerable of the prelates, as well as all the inferior

clergy, professed the highest approbation of their cause. Besides that these men were seized with the national passion for laws and liberty, blessings of which they themselves expected to partake, there concurred very powerful causes to loosen their devoted attachment to the apostolic See. It appeared from the late usurpations of the Roman Pontiff that he pretended to reap alone all the advantages accruing from that victory, which under his banners, though at their own peril,

they had everywhere obtained over the civil magistrate. The Pope assumed a despotic power over all the churches. Their particular customs, privileges, and immunities were treated with disdain. Even the canons of general councils were set aside by his dispensing power. The whole administration of the church was centered in the court of Rome. All preferments ran, of course, in the same channel, and the provincial clergy saw, at least felt, that there was a necessity

for limiting these pretensions. The legate Nicholas, in filling those numerous vacancies which had fallen in England during an interdict of six years, had proceeded in the most arbitrary manner, and had paid no regard in conferring dignities to personal merit, to rank, and to the inclination of the electors, or to the customs of the country. The English Church was universally disgusted, and Langton himself, though he owed his elevation to an encroachment of the Romish

sea, was no sooner established in his high office than he became jealous of the privileges annexed to it, and formed attachments with the country subjected to his jurisdiction. These causes, though they opened slowly the eyes of men, failed not to produce their effect. They set bounds to the usurpations of the papacy, the tide first stopped and then turned against the sovereign Ponoff, and it is otherwise inconceivable how that age, so prone to superstition and so sunk

in ignorance, or rather so devoted to a spurious erudition, could have escaped falling into an absolute and total slavery under the court of Rome. About the time that the Pope's letters arrived in England, the malevolent barons, on the approach of the Festival of Easter, when they were to expect the King's answer to their petitions, met by agreement at Stamford. and they assembled a force consisting of above two thousand knights besides their retainers and inferior persons without number elated with their power they advanced in a body to brackley within fifteen miles of oxford the place where the court then resided

and they there received a message from the king by the archbishop of canterbury and the earl of pembroke desiring to know what those liberties were which they so zealously challenged from their sovereign they delivered to these messengers a schedule containing the chief articles of their demands which was no sooner shown to the king than he burst into a furious passion and asked why the barons did not also demand from him his kingdom swearing that he would never grant them such liberties as must reduce himself to slavery no sooner were the confederated nobles informed of john's reply than they chose robert fitzwalder their general whom they called the marshal of the army of god and of holy church and they proceeded without further ceremony to levy war upon the king they besieged the castle of northampton during fifteen days though without success the gates of bedvary castle were willingly opened to them by william bow camp its owner they advanced to ware on their way to london where they held a correspondence with the principal citizens

They were received without opposition into that capital, and finding now the great superiority of their force, they issued proclamations requiring the other barons to join them, and menacing them in case of refusal or delay with committing devastations on their houses and estates. In order to show what might be expected from their prosperous arms, they made incursions from London and laid waste the king's parks and palaces,

and all the barons who had hitherto carried the semblance of supporting the royal party were glad of this pretense for openly joining a cause which they always had secretly favored. The king was left at Odeum in Hampshire with a poor retinue of only seven knights and after trying several expedients to elude the blow after offering to refer all differences to the pope alone or to eight barons for to be chosen by himself and for by the confederates he found himself

at last obliged to submit at discretion. A conference between the king and the barons was appointed at Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, a place which has ever since been extremely celebrated on account of this great event. The two parties encamped apart like open enemies, and after a debate of a few days the king, with a facility somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed the charter which was required of him. This famous deed, commonly called the

great charter, either granted or secured very important liberties and privileges to every order of men in the kingdom, to the clergy, to the barons, and to the people. The freedom of elections was secured to the clergy. The former charter of the king was confirmed by which the necessity of a royal consadelier and confirmation was superseded. All checks upon appeals to Rome was removed by the allowance granted every man to depart the kingdom at pleasure, and the fines

to be imposed on the clergy for any offense were ordained to be proportional to their lay estates, not to their ecclesiastical benefices. The privileges granted to the barons were either abatements in the rigor of the feudal law or determinations in points which had been left by that law or had become by practice arbitrary and ambiguous. The reliefs of heirs succeeding to a military fee were ascertained, and earls and barons at a hundred marks, a knight at a hundred

shillings. It was ordained by the charter that, if the heir be a minor, he shall, immediately upon his majority, enter upon his estate without paying any relief. The king shall not sell his worship. He shall levy only reasonable profits upon the estate without committing waste or hurting the property. He shall uphold the castles, houses, mills, parks, and ponds, and if he commit the guardianship of the estate to the sheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to find

surety to the same purpose. During the minority of a baron, while his lands are in wardship, and not in his own possession, no debt which he owes to the Jews shall bear any interest. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and before the marriage be contracted, the nearest relations of the person shall be informed of it. A widow, without paying any relief, shall enter upon her dower the third part of her husband's rents. She shall not be compelled to

marry so long as she chooses to continue single. She shall only give security never to marry without her lord's consent. The king shall not claim wardship of any minor who holds lands by military tenure of a baron on pretense that he also holds lands of the crown by sockage or by any other tenure. Scutages shall be estimated at the same rate as in the time of Henry I. No scutage or aid except in the three general feudal cases, the king's captivity, the knighting

of his eldest son, and the marrying of his eldest daughter, shall be imposed but by the great council of the kingdom. The prelates, earls, and great barons shall be called to this great council, each by a particular writ, the lesser barons by a general summons of the sheriff. The king shall not seize any baron's land for a debt to the crown, if the baron possesses as many goods and chattels as are sufficient to discharge the debt. No man shall be obliged to perform more

service for his fee than he is bound to by his tenure. No governor or constable of a castle shall oblige any knight to give money for castle guard, if the knight be willing to perform the service in person or by another able-bodied man, and if the knight be in the field himself by the king's command, he shall be exempted from all other services of this nature. No vassal shall be allowed to sell so much of his land as to incapacitate himself from performing his service

to his lord. These were the principal articles, calculated for the interest of the barons, and had the charter contained nothing further, national happiness and liberty had been very little promoted by it, as it would only have tended to increase the power and independence of an order of men who were already too powerful, and whose yoke might have become more heavy on the people than even that of an absolute monarch. But the barons, who alone drew and imposed on the

prince this memorable charter, were necessitated to insert in it other clauses of a more extensive and more beneficent nature. They could not expect the concurrence of the people without comprehending, together with their own, the interest of inferior ranks of men and all provisions which the barons, for their own sake, were obliged to make in order to ensure the free and equitable administration of justice tended directly to the benefit of the whole community.

The following were the principal clauses of this nature. It was ordained that all privileges and immunities above mentioned granted to the barons against the king should be extended by the barons to their inferior vassals. The king bound himself not to grant any writ, empowering a baron to levy aids from his vassals, except in the three feudal cases. One weight and one measure shall be established throughout the kingdom. Merchants shall be allowed to transact all business without

being exposed to any arbitrary tolls and impositions. They and all free men shall be allowed to go out of the kingdom and to return to it at pleasure. London and all cities and bergs shall preserve their ancient liberties, immunities, and free customs. Aid shall not be required of them, but by the consent of the great council. No towns or individuals shall be obliged to make or support bridges, but by the ancient custom. The goods of every free man shall be disposed of according to

his will. If he dies intestate, his heirs shall succeed to them. No officer of the crown shall take any horses, carts, or wood without the consent of the owner. The king's courts of justice shall be stationary and shall no longer follow his person. They shall be open to everyone, and justice shall no longer be sold, refused, or delayed by them. Circuits shall be regularly held every year. The inferior tribunals of justice, the county court, the sheriff's turn, and the

court leet shall meet at their appointed time and place. The sheriffs shall be incapacitated to hold pleas of the crown, and shall not put any person upon his trial, from rumor or suspicion alone, but upon the evidence of lawful witnesses. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed of his free tenement and liberties, or outlawed or banished, or any wise hurt or injured, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. And all who

suffered otherwise, in this or the too former range, shall be restored to their rights and possessions. Every freeman shall be fined in proportion to his fault, and no fine shall be levied on him to his utter ruin. Even a villain or rustic shall not by any fine be bereaved of his carts ploughs and implements of husbandry this was the only article calculated for the interests of this body of men probably at that time the most numerous in the kingdom end of section fifty one