extinguished and smoking, and said, 'so may all who incur this sentence, be put out and become corrupt in Hell:' to which the King immediately added, 'So help me God, as I keep all these things inviolate as I am a Man, as I am a Christian, as I am a Knight, and as I am a King crowned.a With the exception of some ecclesiastical disputes upon the Charters, and a few general confirmatory writs and proclamations respecting them, but little mention is made concerning them till the year 1264. The King, and his son Prince Edward, owing to the Civil Wars in which they had been engaged, were at that period in the custody of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester; and Henry, in order to procure the Prince's liberty, sealed the Charta Confirmationis of the 14th of March, 1264. This unhappy Sovereign had but little farther connection with these instruments, for dying on November the 16th, 1272, he was succeeded by Edward the First, who was at that time on his voyage to Sicily.

Until 1297, the Charters were doubtless in a neglected state; but in that year, when King Edward had in some measure arranged his Scottish affairs, he was anxious to proceed to Flanders, to avenge himself on Philip the Fair, King of France, for his fraudulently preventing the union of the daughter of the Earl of Flanders, with Prince Edward of England. To strengthen and support

a Hist. Mag. sub Henr. III. An. 1253, page 580.

the British Forces, which alone were not sufficient to oppose King Philip, Edward formed a League with the Emperor Adolphus, Albert Duke of Austria, and several other German Princes, the Duke of Brabant, and the Earls of Flanders, Holland, Juliers, and Luxemburg, by whom men were to be supplied, in return for large subsidies sent from England. To meet these engagements, the King summoned a Parliament at St. Edmund's Bury, on the 11th of November; which gave to him the eighth penny from all Merchants and Citizens of Cities and Towns, and a twelfth from all the remainder of the Laity. The Ecclesiastics, however, refused him any kind of aid, notwithstanding he represented to them that they enjoyed the same estates and protection as the rest of his subjects, and pleaded for their exemption, a Bull issued in 1296, by Pope Boniface VIII., which forbade the Clergy paying any Tax to Secular Princes, without the consent of the Romish See. In consequence of their refusal, the King determined upon the bold expedient of seizing their lay-possessions, and displacing them from the benefit of the Laws. Even their powerful influence was vain, when exerted to contend with a Prince like Edward; and at length the greater number of them compounded with him for a fifth part of their goods, and Robert Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was the principal adviser of these proceedings, yielded up a fourth part for

himself. On the 25th of February, 1297-98, King Edward called together the Nobility at Salisbury, to ascertain what forces he might expect from each Baron; as he wished not only to attack Philip in Flanders, but also to make a powerful diversion in Guienne. The Nobles who were willing to furnish troops, and to march where the King himself commanded, would nevertheless not accede to serving in Guienne; in consequence of which Edward replied, that he should transfer their lands to such as would be more mindful of his orders. This alarmed them, and Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, Lord High-Constable, and Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, Marshal of England, answered the King, that where he commanded in person, they would follow, but not otherwise. Bigod, added to this, that as his office obliged him, so he was willing to lead the vanguard under the Sovereign, but that he would not serve under any other, and none could of right force him to do so. This altercation increased so much, that at length Edward in very great anger exclaimed, with a depraved and unbecoming jest upon the name of the Marshal, "By God, O Earl, you shall either go or be hanged," to which Bigod answered, "By the same oath, O King, I will neither go nor be hanged," and immediately quitted the Court. In a short time, these Earls again refused to execute the commands of the King, in matters relating to their offices, lest they should have

fallen into his hands, upon which he expelled them both; and, as his affairs in Flanders could no longer be delayed, he prepared at once to embark for that country. As Edward was about to depart, he received a long remonstrance from the Bishops, the Earls, the Barons, and the Commonalty of the realm, on grievances then existing in the Nation, together with a statement of several violations of Magna Charta. To all the higher orders the King promised redress on his return; and to the people, who had been violently inflamed by the secret proceedings of the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford, he published a Proclamation, which stated, that for the future the Great Charter should be faithfully observed. On the 22nd of August he sailed from Winchelsea for the Continent, and left his son Edward, then thirteen years old, as Regent in his absence; who, at a Parliament which assembled in October, passed, on the behalf of his father, a Confirmation Charter, and a Pardon to several persons who had refused to attend the King into Flanders, especially to the High-Constable and the Earl-Marshal. After the conclusion of this Parliament, copies of those deeds were sent over to Edward, who, after some consideration, sealed them at Ghent, on the 5th day of November; which confimation of his son's act the still incredulous Barons required should be renewed in England. This was demanded at Carlisle about Whitsuntide in 1298, when the friends of King

Edward promised, that on his return from the Scottish expedition, in which he was then engaged, he should ratify his confirmation, and also that the decrees of the Forest Charter should be enforced, as soon as his affairs in the Romish Court which related to his dispute with Philip of France, should be brought to a conclusion. At a Parliament holden at London on the 8th of March, the first Sunday in the next Lent, King Edward again confirmed the Charters; and on the 26th of March and 2nd of April following, he issued Writs to the several Sheriffs of England, containing a recitation of nearly the whole of the Forest Charter, commanding it's particular observance, together with all the Articles of the Great Charter. To answer the doubts of the people, which still existed, Edward despatched other Writs addressed to all the Sheriffs of England, written both in the Norman French or common language, and also in the Latin, which he commanded should be published in every place of public resort, whether City, Borough, or Market-town. The purport of these Writs, which were dated on the 25th of June, was, that the King considered himself as too hardly pressed by the continual complaints of his subjects, at the same time stating that the reasons of his delay were the many and difficult affairs in which he was involved. These, he continued, would in July be brought to a close; but as it would be improper for the Perambulators to com