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tion of the sacraments, except to infants and the dying, was prohibited; and the dead were silently buried in unconsecrated ground The interdict was even followed by excommunication and consequent deposition; but the laity seem to have been little affected by such solemn proceedings, and the only successful expeditions of John's reign, those against Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, were conducted during the period of his proscription by the Roman see. John might indeed have laughed at the impotent resentment of the holy father, had no monarch been found willing to undertake the execution of the sentence of deposition. But this was a piece of service which Philip of France readily undertook. A numerous army was summoned to assemble at Rouen, and an armament of 1700 vessels prepared to make a descent upon the English coast. John did not again remain an idle spectator of the storm which was gathering around him; but Pandulph, the pope's legate, so worked upon his fears, that he resolved rather to avert it by negotiation and compromise, than to brave its fury. He agreed to admit Langton to the archbishopric of Canterbury, and to repair all damage which the bishops and clergy had suffered at his hands: he also consummated his disgrace by taking the very same oath of fealty to the pope, which vassals took to their lords, and consenting to pay an annual tribute of 700 marks of silver for England, and 300 for Ireland. On the 15th of May, 1213, he put into the hands of the legate a charter subscribed by himself, one archbishop, one bishop, nine earls, and two barons, testifying that, as an atonement for his offences against God and the church, he had deter. mined to humble himself, and had, therefore, not through fear of force, but of free will, and with the unanimous consent of his barons, granted to the pope and his rightful successors the kingdom of England and the kingdom of Ireland, to be held of him and of the Roman church in fee, by the annual rent of 1000 marks, with the reservation to himself and his heirs of the administration of justice, and the peculiar rights of the crown.3 The nuncio, thereupon, intimated to Philip that he must no longer molest a penitent son, and faithful vassal of the holy see, nor invade a kingdom which was now a part of the patrimony of St Peter. The king of France received this intimation with high displeasure, and proceeded to indemnify himself for the expenses to which he had been put by the seizure of Flanders; but a fleet despatched by John, under the earl of Salisbury, defeated his design, and the independence of Flanders was preserved.

The third great event of this reign was still more memorable than either of the preceding. John had disgusted his barons by his pusillanimity, and enraged them by his insolent bearing towards their wives and daughters; his last act of submission to the pope excited their universal disgust and alienation, while his endless exactions and impositions discontented all ranks of men. His attempt on the honour of the beautiful wife of Eustace De Vescy, a distinguished baron, roused the barons to their first open act of resistance. On the 20th of November, 1213, an assembly of that body met at the abbey of St Edmundsbury, where they solemnly swore upon the high altar to withdraw themselves from the king's fealty, and to wage war against him,

3 Paris, 199.

4

till he should confirm by a charter the liberties which they demanded. They agreed that, after the festival of Christmas, they would prefer in a body their common petition, and in the meantime they mutually engaged to put themselves in a posture for obtaining by force of arms, if necessary, what they would first demand as a matter of right. Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, espoused the cause of the confederated barons, and undertook to communicate their demands to the king. On hearing them, the king, with a scornful sneer, exclaimed, "They might as well have demanded my crown!" and swore never to grant his nobles such privileges as would make himself a slave. The barons received the announcement of the king's determination with equal indignation, and instantly marched upon London, under Robert Fitzwalter, as their generalissimo. The pope in vain interfered to quell the rising storm, and issued a bull in favour of his vassal: John was left almost without a single follower, while the whole nobility and gentry of the kingdom, with the yeomanry and free peasantry, and the citizens of London, made common cause with each other. In this state of things, one only course remained for John to pursue. He informed the confederates that he was ready to grant their petition, and requested them to name a day and place for the conferences. On the 15th of June, both parties advanced to a place called Runnymede, on the banks of the Thames, where they opened a conference which lasted four days. An instrument containing the demands of the confederates, or the heads of their grievances, and the means of redress, was presented to the king, who, according to the custom of the times, directed that the several articles should be reduced into the form of a charter, and in this state promulgated as a regal grant.*

We have already attempted to show, in our historical introduction to this period, that this charter, so celebrated in history as the supposed basis on which are founded the liberties of Englishmen, although it contained some provisions in favour of the people, chiefly consulted the interests of the barons. We will here present the reader with the views which one of our most enlightened statesmen has taken of this important document :- "Many parts of the great charter," says Sir James Mackintosh, "were pointed against the abuses of the power of the king as lord paramount, and have lost their importance since the downfall of the system of feuds, which it was their purpose to mitigate. But it contains a few maxims of just government, applicable to all places and times, of which it is hardly possible to over-rate the importance of the first promulgation by the supreme authority of a powerful and renowned nation. Some clauses, though limited in words by feudal relations, yet covered general principles of equity, which were not slowly unfolded by the example of the charter, and by their obvious application to the safety and well-being of the whole community.

"Aids, or assistance in money, were due from any vassal for the ransom of the lord, for the knighting of his eldest son, and for the marriage of his eldest daughter; but they were often extorted when no such reasons could be urged. Escuage, or scutage, was a pecuniary compensation for military service; but as the approach of war was an easy pretext, it was liable to become almost arbitrary. Taillage, an

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impost assessed on cities and towns, and on freemen who owed no military service, according to an estimate of their income, was in its nature very arbitrary. In this case, however, the barons showed no indifference to the lot of the inferior classes; for in their articles they require a parliamentary consent to the taillages of London and all other towns, as much as to the aids and scutages which fell upon themselves.6 By the charter itself, however, taillage was omitted; the liberties of London and other towns were generally asserted. But it contained the memorable provision,- No scutage, or aid, shall be raised in our kingdom, except in the above three cases, but by the general council of the kingdom;'—- a concession which, though from motives unknown to us, was not so extensive as the demand, yet applied to bodies so numerous and considerable as sufficiently to declare a principle, which could not long continue barren, that the consent of the community is essential to just taxation; which, in the first instance, guarded against arbitrary exaction, and in due time showed the means of peaceably subjecting the regal power to parliamentary and national opinion. By the charter, as confirmed in the first year of the next reign, even scutages and aids were reserved for further consideration as grave and doubtful matters. But the formidable principle had gone forth. Every species of impost, without the consent of parliament, was not expressly renounced till the statute called Confirmatio Chartarum, in the twentyfifth year of Edward I., fourscore years after the grant of the Great Charter.

"To constitute this common council for the levy of aids, says the charter, 6 we shall cause the prelates and greater barons to be separately summoned by our letters; and we shall direct our sheriffs and bailiffs to summon generally all who hold of us in chief; and we shall take care to publish the cause of the summons in the same way, and give forty days' notice of the meeting.'

"To the upper house of our modern parliament this clause is still perfectly applicable. From the lower house the common council of John's charter essentially differs, in excluding representation, and in confining the right of concurrence in imposing taxes to the direct tenants of the crown. It presents, however, the first outline of a parliamentary con.. stitution. The chapters on this subject, with others less important were postponed till after further consideration in the charter of Henry III., on the alleged ground that they contained grave and doubtful matters. Whether this reason were honest or evasive we cannot positively ascertain; but, in that reign, as we shall soon see, a house of commons, such as the present, certainly was assembled.

"The thirty-ninth article of this charter is that important clause which forbids arbitrary imprisonment and punishment without lawful trial :'Let no freeman be imprisoned or outlawed, or in any manner injured, nor proceeded against by us, otherwise than by the legal judgment of peers, or by the law of the land.' In this clause are clearly contained the writ of habeas corpus, and the trial by jury, the most effectual securities against oppression, which the wisdom of man has hitherto been able to devise. It is surely more praiseworthy in these

his

Simili modo fiat de taillagiis de civitate London et de aliis civitatibus." Art. Cartæ Regis Johannis, § 32.

7

Mag. Chart. § 12.

* 1 Hen. III. Stats. of the Realm, i. 16.

haughty nobles to have covered all freemen with the same buckler as themselves, than not to have included serfs in the same protection :— 'We shall sell, delay, or deny justice to none.' No man can carry farther the principle that justice is the grand debt of every government to the people, which cannot be paid without rendering law cheap, prompt. and equal. Nor is the twentieth section unworthy of the like com mendation: A freeman shall be amerced in proportion to his offence, saving his contenement, and a merchant saving his merchandise.' And surely the barons must be acquitted of an exclusive spirit who subjoin, ' and the villain saving his waggonage.' It seems to be apparent from Glanville, that villainage was a generic term for servitude in the reign of Henry II., so that the villain of the great charter must have been at least a species of serf. The provision which directs that the supreme civil court shall be stationary, instead of following the king's person, is a proof of that regard to the regularity, accessibility, independence, and dignity of public justice, of which the general-predominance peculiarly characterises that venerable monument of English liberty. The liberty of coming to England and going from it, secured to foreign merchants of countries with whom this kingdom is at peace, (unless there be a previous prohibition, which Lord Coke interprets to mean by act of parliament,) even if we should ascribe it to the solicitude of the barons for the constant supply of their castles with foreign luxuries, becomes on that very account entitled to regard, inasmuch as the language must be held to be deliberately chosen to promote and insure the purpose of the law.

"It is observable that the language of the great charter is simple, brief, general without being abstract, and expressed in terms of authority, not of argument, yet commonly so reasonable as to carry with it the intrinsic evidence of its own fitness. It was understood by the simplest of the unlettered age for whom it was intended. It was remembered by them; and though they did not perceive the extensive consequences which might be derived from it, their feelings were, however, unconsciously exalted by its generality and grandeur.

“It was a peculiar advantage that the consequences of its principles were, if we may so speak, only discovered gradually and slowly. It gave out, on each occasion, only as much of the spirit of liberty and reformation as the circumstances of succeeding generations required, and as their character would safely bear. For almost five centuries it was appealed to as the decisive authority on behalf of the people, though commonly so far only as the necessities of each case demanded. Its effect in these contests was not altogether unlike the grand process by which nature employs snows and frosts to cover her delicate germs, and to hinder them from rising above the earth till the atmosphere has acquired the mild and equal temperature which insures them against blights. On the English nation, undoubtedly, the charter has contributed to bestow the union of establishment with improvement. To all mankind it set the first example of the progress of a great people for centuries, in blending their tumultuary democracy and haughty nobility with a fluctuating and vaguely limited monarchy, so as at length to form from these discordant materials the only form of free government

Glanv. de Legibus et Consuet. Angl. lib. v. Lond. 1673.

which experience had shown to be reconcilable with widely extended dominions. Whoever in any future age or unborn nation may admire the felicity of the expedient which converted the power of taxation into the shield of liberty, by which discretionary and secret imprisonment was rendered impracticable, and portions of the people were trained to exercise a larger share of judicial power than was ever allotted to them in any other civilized state, in such a manner as to secure instead of endangering public tranquillity;-whoever exults at the spectacle of enlightened and independent assemblies, who, under the eye of a wellinformed nation, discuss and determine the laws and policy likely to make communities great and happy ;-whoever is capable of comprehending all the effects of such institutions, with all their possible improvements upon the mind and genius of a people, is sacredly bound to speak with reverential gratitude of the authors of the great charter. To have produced it, to have preserved it, to have matured it, constitute the immortal claim of England on the esteem of mankind. Her Bacons and Shakspeares, her Miltons and Newtons, with all the truth which they have revealed, and all the generous virtue which they have inspired, are of inferior value when compared with the subjection of men and their rulers to the principles of justice; if, indeed, it be not more true that these mighty spirits could not have been formed except under equal laws, nor roused to full activity without the influence of that spirit, which the great charter breathed over their forefathers." 10

No sooner was the assembly at Runnymede dissolved, than John threw off the mask of complaisance which he had worn in the presence of his barons, and procured absolution from the pope from the oaths he had just taken. Innocent shortly after ordered Langton to excommunicate the rebellious barons,—an order which that enlightened primate refused to obey. With the assistance of mercenary troops, John was enabled for some time to make head against his rebellious barons, who, reduced to extremity, and menaced with the total loss of their liberties, had recourse to the very desperate remedy of offering the crown of England to Louis the eldest son of the king of France. The proposal was accepted, but before the strength of the two parties was fairly tried in the field, the death of John, which occurred at Newark, on the 18th of October, 1216, freed the nation from the danger to which it was equally exposed by his success or by his misfortunes. John died in the 49th year of his age. His portrait has been thus powerfully sketched by Lingard: "He stands before us polluted with meanness, cruelty, perjury, and murder; uniting with an ambition, which rushed through every crime to the attainment of its object, a pusillanimity which often, at the sole appearance of opposition, sank into despondency. Arrogant in prosperity, abject in adversity, he neither conciliated affection in the one, nor esteem in the other. His dissimulation was so well known, that it seldom deceived; his suspicion served only to multiply his enemies, and the knowledge of his vindictive temper contributed to keep open the breach betwixt him and those who had incurred his displeasure. Seldom, perhaps, was there a prince with a heart more callous to the suggestions of pity. Of his captives many never returned ́ from their dungeons. If they survived their tortures, they were left to

10 Hist. of Engl. vol. i. pp. 217–222.

2 E

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