chapter xxxvi.: A Subsidy in respect of this Charter and the Charter of the Forest granted to the King.

“First, we have granted to God, and by this our present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs forever, that the church of England shall be free, and shall have all her whole rights and liberties inviolable. We have granted, also, and given to all the freemen of our realm, for us and our heirs forever, these liberties underwritten, to have and to hold to them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever.”

“No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man, either justice or right.”

“It shall not be lawful from henceforth to any to give his lands to any religious house, and to take the same land again to hold of the same house. Nor shall it be lawful to any house of religion to take the lands of any, and to lease the same to him of whom he received it: if any from henceforth give his lands to any religious house, and thereupon be convict, the gift shall be utterly void, and the land shall accrue to the lord of the fee.”

“Escuage from henceforth shall be taken like as it was wont to be in the time of king Henry, our grandfather; reserving to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, templars, hospitalers, earls, barons, and all persons, as well spiritual as temporal, all their free liberties and free customs, which they have had in time past. And all these customs and liberties aforesaid, which we have granted to be holden within this our realm, as much as appertaineth to us and our heirs, we shall observe. ‘And all men of this our realm, as well spiritual as temporal (as much as in them is), shall observe the same against all persons in like wise. And for this our gift and grant of these liberties, and of others contained in our charter of liberties of our forest, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, freeholders, and other our subjects, have given unto us the fifteenth part of all their moveables. And we have granted unto them, for us and our heirs, that neither we nor our heirs shall procure or do anything whereby the liberties in this charter contained shall be infringed or broken. And if anything be procured by any person contrary to the premises, it shall be had of no force nor effect. These being witnesses: Lord B., archbishop of Canterbury, E., bishop of London, I., bishop of Bath, P., of Winchester, H., of Lincoln, R., of Salisbury, W., of Rochester, W., of Worcester, J., of Ely, H., of Hereford, R., of Chichester, W., of Exeter, bishops; the abbot of St. Edmonds, the abbot of St. Albans, the abbot of Bello, the abbot of St. Augustine's in Canterbury, the abbot of Evesham, the abbot of Westminster, the abbot of Bourgh St. Peter, the abbot of Reding, the abbot of Abindon, the abbot of Malmsbury, the abbot of Winchcomb, the abbot of Hyde, the abbot of Certesy, the abbot of Sherburn, the abbot of Cerne, the abbot of Abbotebir, the abbot of Middleton, the abbot of Seleby, the abbot of Cirencester; H. de Burgh, justice, H., earl of Chester and Lincoln, W., earl of Salisbury, W., earl of Warren, G. de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hereford, W. de Ferrars, earl of Derby, W. de Mandeville, earl of Essex, H. de Bygod, earl of Norfolk, W., earl of Albemarle, H., earl of Hereford, J., constable of Chester, R. de Ros, R. Fitzwalter, R. de Vyponte, W. de Bruer, R. de Muntefichet, P. Fitzherbert, W. de Aubenie, J. Gresly, F. de Breus, J. de Monemue, J. Fitzallen, H. de Mortimer, W. de Beauchamp, W. de St. John, P. de Mauly, Brian de Lisle, Thomas de Multon, R. de Argenteyn, G. de Nevil, W. Mauduit, J. de Balun, and others.”

We, ratifying and approving these gifts and grants atoresaid, confirm and make strong all the same for us and our heirs perpetually; and by the tenor of these presents do renew the same, willing and granting for us and our heirs that this charter, and all and singular its articles, forever shall be stedfastly, firmly and inviolably observed. Although some articles in the same charter contained yet hitherto peradventure have not been kept, we will and, by authority royal, command from henceforth firmly they be observed. In witness whereof, we have caused these our letters patent to be made. T. Edward, our son, at Westminster, the twelfth day of October, in the twenty-fifth year of our reign.

Magna Charta, in this form, has been solemnly confirmed by our kings and parliaments upwards of thirty times; but in the twenty-fifth year of Edward I. much more than a simple confirmation of it was obtained for England. As has already been mentioned, the original charter of John forbade the levying of escuage, save by consent of the great council of the land; and although those important provisions were not repeated in Henry's charter, it is certain that they were respected. Henry's barons frequently refused him the subsidies which his prodigality was always demanding. Neither he nor any of his ministers seems ever to have claimed for the crown the prerogative of taxing the landholders at discretion; but the sovereign's right of levying money from his towns and cities, under the name of tallages or prises, was constantly exercised during Henry III.'s reign, and during the earlier portion of his son's. But, by the statute of Edward I. intituled Confirmatio Chartarum, all private property was secured from royal spoliation, and placed under the safeguard of the great council of all the realm. The material portions of that statute are as follows: