Struggle continues for more years. not a final statement of concessions to the nation from the crown, but rather a definite programme of reform which the nation resolves to persevere in until it is finally accepted by the crown as an irrevocable basis of government. During a period of more than eighty years the crown resists the right than eighty of the nation to enter into the full enjoyment of the rights and liberties which the charter defines. The struggle ends at last with the final confirmation of the charters at the close of the reign of Edward I. The absolute good faith with which Edward finally accepted the programme of reform announced at Runnymede closed forever the strife which Duplicity finds a fresh beginning in the duplicity of John, whose one of John. thought in the execution of the treaty was to violate its terms, and at the same time to crush in detail the elements which had so successfully combined against him. To accomplish these ends John resorted again to the tactics which he had so brilliantly employed in 1213, when by a sudden appeal to the pope he delivered himself in a moment of despair from difficulties which seemed to be insurmountable.1 From the scene at Runnymede John dispatched envoys to Rome to plead for the condemnation of the Charter upon the ground that it had been extorted by rebellion, and in defiance of the suzerainty of the Holy See. While his messengers were gone the king was busily employed in fortifying his castles, in borrowing money, in placing the county administrations in the hands of his own creatures, and in hiring mercenaries to fight under the royal standard.3 In due time the desired The barons answer came. In August, 1215, letters were received from condemned the pope condemning the barons, and exhorting them to at Rome. respect the royal authority, and to lay their claims before a council to be held at Rome.4 The archbishop was commanded to excommunicate the disobedient, and upon his refusal to do so he was suspended from the exercise of his archiepiscopal functions. The sentence of excommunication which Langton refused to proclaim was published, however, by the bishops in the presence of the baronial army on August the 26th.5 On the day before was issued the bull in which 1 See above, p. 373. 2 Fadera, i. p. 202. 4 Fœdera, i. pp. 203, 204. 5 M. Paris, p. 270; W. Coventry, ii. 3 M. Paris, p. 264; W. Coventry, ii. pp. 223, 234. Cf. Stubbs, Const. Hist., p. 222. vol. ii. p. 7, and note 6. condems renews the "the pope, after deliberation at his will, by a definite sen- The pope tence condemned and annulled the oft-named Charter of and annuls Liberties of England." "1 In December a second sentence of the charter. excommunication was issued, in which the leaders of the national cause were mentioned by name, and the city of London laid under interdict.2 The open espousal of John's cause upon the part of the pope ended the hollow truce, and reopened the conflict between the nation and the king. In September the foreign auxiliaries had arrived from over sea, and with the royal standard thus strengthened, John began hostilities in October by laying siege to the castle of Roch- The king ester, which fell on the 30th of November.3 After the fall of struggle. Rochester John intrusted the conquest of the midland counties to the Earl of Salisbury, while he marched northward, ravaging the land as far as Berwick. After reducing the north to subjection, he returned to the south and joined the forces besieging Colchester, which fell in March, 1216.4 While John was harrying the shires of the north as they had never been harried since the days of the Conqueror, the barons in their desperation resolved, as a last resort, to renounce their allegiance to their faithless master and to offer the crown to Lewis, the son of Philip of France. In spite of a threat of excommunication from the legate Gualo, the tempting offer was accepted in April, and in May Lewis The French landed in Kent with a formidable army. John, who was waiting on the coast to intercept him, now discovered that the French mercenaries who composed his array could not be 1 M. Paris, p. 162; Fœdera, i. p. 136. Cardinal Manning, in a monograph entitled The Pope and Magna Carta, has made a great effort to show "that the Pope condemned not the charter, but the barons; not the laws and liberties set down in the charter, but the way and action by which the barons had wrung it from their sovereign.". p. 21. His Eminence clearly perceives, however, the difficulty arising out of the fact that Innocent denounced the charter, in his letter of cassation, as "compositio vilis et turpis, verum etiam illicita et iniqua et merito ab omnibus reprobanda." The purpose of the cardinal was to defend the Catholic Church against the charge of being "the friend of despotism and the enemy of liberty." Lingard does this much more success- 2 M. Paris, p. 277; Fœdera, i. p. 139. 4 For the movements of John, see Ann. Waverley, p. 283; M. Paris, p. 279. The date of election of Lewis is not given. 6 Ann. Waverley, p. 285; W. Coventry, ii. p. 228. invasion, May, 1216. relied upon to fight against their sovereign. Thus shorn of the power of resistance, the baffled tyrant was forced to fall rapidly back upon the Welsh Marches, while Lewis marched triumphantly into London, where he received the homage of the barons on the 2d June.1 After four months more of warJohn dies, fare and devastation John died, either from poison or debauch, at Newark," on the 19th of October, leaving Lewis in possession of the greater part of his kingdom. October 19, 1216. Outline of tutional struggle during the reign of Henry III. First re gency since the Conquest. 7. The death of the king wrought a marked revulsion of the consti- feeling in favor of the royal cause, whose hopes now centred in John's infant son, Henry of Winchester, who had just completed his tenth year. The very helplessness and innocence of the boy-king forbade that the righteous wrath which the crimes of the father had aroused in the heart of the nation should be visited upon the head of the son. For the first time since the days of the second Ethelred, the crown of England had fallen to a child; 3 for the first time since the Conquest had it become necessary for the representatives of the nation to appoint a guardian for the king. The barons upon whom this duty devolved wisely chose William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, as governor of king and kingdom.1 With him were associated as councillors Gualo, the legate of Honorius III., to whom the young king had sworn fealty as his feudal superior,5 and Peter des Roches, bishop of WestReissue of minster. The first act of the regent was to reissue, in the with certain name of the son and with the legate's approval, the Great Charter against which the father had died fighting, with the omission, however, of all the merely temporary provisions, together with the constitutional clauses touching taxation and the national council, as well as all others that restrained the royal authority in the raising of revenue. Having thus announced the basis upon which that part of the baronial party which stood about the king would conduct the administra William Marshall appointed regent. the charter serious omissions. 1 M. Paris, p. 282; W. Coventry, ii. p. 230. 2 M. Paris, p. 242; Fœdera, i. p. 144. 8 Ethelred was elected at the age of ten years. Fadera, i. p. 215; M. Paris, p. 289. 5 Fœdera, i. p. 145; M. Paris, p. 289. and to secure the support of the pope; the latter perhaps, however inadequately, to fill the place that belonged to the archbishop of Canterbury.” Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. ii. p. 20. 7 Cardinal Manning makes special reference to this fact in the monograph heretofore referred to. See p. 20. 8 Statutes of the Realm: Charters of Liberties, pp. 14-16. Lambeth, tion, the earl Marshall addressed himself to the patriotic task of ridding the realm of the French invaders. For a time Lewis held firmly in his grasp the capital and the eastern shires, but the constant desertions of the English barons so weakened his forces that the regent made bold to attack him in the spring of 1217. The decisive battle was fought in Battle of May at Lincoln, where the regent was completely victorious.1 Lincoln. Lewis retreated on London and called for aid from France, but his last hope of success disappeared with the destruction of the fleet upon which he was depending for reinforcements.2 This disaster was followed by a treaty concluded at Lam- Treaty of beth in September, in which Lewis, after stipulating for the September, safety of his adherents, promised to withdraw from England 1217. and to renounce all claims upon the crown upon the payment of a sum which he claimed as expenses. The pacification which followed the treaty was marked by a second reissue of Second rethe charter in a form which differed from the two preced- charter. ing editions in several material particulars. This second reissue was followed in November by a Forest Charter, in Charter of which the remedial provisions of John's charter touching forest abuses were enlarged and rendered more efficacious.5 The text of the charter of 1217, though often republished and confirmed, was never afterwards materially altered. After expelling the French, and restoring peace and good government upon the general basis of reform proclaimed at Runnymede, the earl Marshall died, lamented by all, in the spring of 1219.6 issue of the the Forest. tration of The work of administration now passed into the hands of Adminis the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, who was sustained in his ef- Hubert de forts to preserve law and order by Archbishop Langton, who Burgh, had just returned forgiven from Rome. The government of 1 M. Paris, pp. 247-249; Ann. Dunst., pp. 80-82; Ann. Waverley, p. 183. This was the achievement of Hubert de Burgh, who commanded a fleet collected in the Cinque Ports. 3 M. Paris, p. 299; Fœdera, i. p. 148. Statutes of the Realm: Charters of Liberties, pp. 17-19. For the details see Select Charters, p. 344, 2d ed. 5 The old idea that John issued a separate Forest Charter is erroneous. The articles of the Great Charter that 6 Ann. Waverley, p. 291. 7 As to Langton's treatment at Rome, see M. Paris, vol. ii. pp. 168, 174, R. S. He returned in May, 1218. Ann. Mailros, p. 196. 1219-1232 Hubert was confronted by three difficulties which were bravely met and completely overcome. The papal legate, who represented the pope as overlord, claimed a voice in the administration; the foreign party that John had built up about him still had a footing in the kingdom; while the remnant of the feudal party, which still longed for independence, threatened to renew the feudal anarchy which had existed in Stephen's time. Through the joint efforts of primate and justiciar, a promise was obtained from Rome that the legate should be withdrawn, and no successor appointed while Langton lived; the last of John's mercenaries were expelled; and by a vigorous policy of coercion the attempt at feudal rebellion was finally crushed out. The complete establishment of peace in 1225 was followed by a reissue of the charter by the king "spontanea et bona voluntate nostra," and in consideration of the concession a grant was made of a fifteenth of all movables,5-a foreshadowing of the principle that the redress of grievances should precede the making of a money grant. Henry, though only eighteen, had already been declared by the pope competent to govern; but not Henry com- until two years later, in a council held at Oxford in January, 1227, did he complete his emancipation by announcing his tion, 1227. intention to give personal direction to the administration of the kingdom. From a constitutional point of view, the minority which was thus brought to a close is memorable as A resident the time from which it is possible to trace the existence of a permanent royal council, composed of the king's personal council can advisers, the officers of state and of the household, the Third re issue of the charter, 1225. pletes his emancipa and continual royal be traced from Henry's minority. judges, besides a number of bishops, barons, and others,- Statutes of the Realm: Charters, 5 The consideration is clearly stated: "Omnes de regno nostro, dederunt nobis quintam decimam partem omnium mobilium suorum." 6 Honorius so declared in letters is sued in 1223. 7 M. Paris, p. 336; Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. ii. p. 39. |