The archbishop had created a situation which he could not con trol. The barons were eager for war. The king was determined not to give way unless he were forced, and scornfully refused to consider the schedule that the barons at Stamford sent for his seal by the hands of the archbishop and the marshal. On May 5 the barons renounced their allegiance and chose Robert fitz Walter as leader. The title he took, "Marshal of the army of God and Holy Church," emphasized the righteousness of the cause. Four days later John issued a charter to London, granting the privilege of an annually elected mayor, but it came too late to win support for him. Robert fitz Walter, lord of Baynard's Castle, on the out skirts of the city, dominated city politics. The king's offer, next day, to submit his quarrel with the barons to arbitration was in vain. When the barons entered London, easily quelling any oppo sition, the king realized that he must come to terms, and on June 15 met them at Runnymead, between Staines and Windsor. The barons came prepared with a document, which survives, as the Articles of the Barons. It was sealed on the first day of the con ference and became the basis for discussion. The more elaborate charter contained amendments on both sides.
The charter is drawn up in the ordinary form of a contemporary grant of land or privileges. The convenience of modern com mentators has necessitated the adoption of a traditional division into clauses, a division often unfortunate in that it suggests a separation where the originators of the charter were clearly follow ing out a line of thought. In summarizing the contents it is impos sible to follow the order of the clauses and at the same time give a coherent impression of the contents of the document. The intention of the men who drew up the charter was to state the law as it should be. It is the first detailed statement of feudal law, the first clear agreement between the king and his barons as to the exact demands which the king can make on them and which they can make on their men. Its emphasis on the use of the feudal council inaugurates no new policy, but simply reiterates the rec ognized, though not always followed, feudal practice. The state ments about debt were a serious attempt to deal with one of the most pressing problems of administration and, indeed, of social intercourse, the chronic need of money, felt by all alike, and the consequent impossibility to get anyone to pay his debts. The judicial clauses were drafted with the obvious aim of restoring judicial eyres and improving the efficiency of the royal courts. The much quoted clause about the writ Precipe was a natural attempt to curb what was, to the barons, unfair competition with the feudal courts, competition which Glanville himself, though a royal justiciar, had hardly approved. It does not express a desire to go back upon the judicial changes of the last 5o years, but merely a feeling that the baron who had been bearing the burden of the day in the matter of judicial labour ought not to be deprived of the cases which would still be settled in his court unless he failed to do justice. A serious attempt was made in the charter to eliminate the abuses of local government, abuses which had existed in the earliest days of Norman rule, and which successive kings had fought against in vain. During his quarrel with the Church John made no effort to deal with them, and, indeed he had aggravated them by the appointments he had made to local offices. John had been interested in the development of his towns, and the charter confirmed to towns the privileges they had won. All classes of the community expected something from the char ter, and the drafters did their best to satisfy the general desire. The charter therefore ranges widely over the whole field of society and administration. But it also contains clauses which reflect the bitterness of the time, clauses that must have irritated the king almost beyond endurance. Since all mercenaries were to leave the land it was but to insult the king to name a few. The determina tion of the barons to be rid of old grievances, particularly those connected with the forests, to right old wrongs, even those of another generation, almost destroyed the charter itself. But with out the spur that the bitterness of personal hatred gave, the charter would never have been won. If the famous clause promising that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled . . . without the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land, was the outcome of the memory of John's attack on the northern barons in 1213, it was a guarantee of security against arbitrary rule to all men, whether barons or simple free men.
I. The clause reiterating the grant of free election to the church (1).
II. Clauses which chiefly concerned the barons. (a ) Inherit ance:—Military tenants are to have their inheritances on payment of the ancient relief, Lroo for an earl or baron, loos. for a knight. (b) Wardship:—Heirs who have been in wardship are to have their inheritances without relief. The heir in wardship is to be safeguarded from the rapacious guardian, who is to hand over the land well stocked (2-5). The king will not claim prerogative wardship, i.e., if a man holds of the king by other than military tenure and of some other lord by military tenure, the king will not claim the wardship of his heir by reason of the land that is held of him (37). Barons who have founded abbeys are to have the custody of them when they are vacant (46). (c) Marriage:— Heirs are to be married without disparagement, the kinsfolk of the heir being consulted. A widow is to have her marriage portion and her inheritance at once on her husband's death, and shall give nothing for it or for her dower. The latter shall be assigned to her within forty days during which she can stay in her hus band's house. No widow shall be forced to remarry provided that she gives security not to remarry without her lord's consent (6-8). (d) Debt:—Lands or rents are not to be seized for the payment of debt while the debtor has sufficient chattels to pay the debt. The debtor's sureties are not to be distrained so long as the debtor himself can pay. If the sureties are called on they are to hold the debtor's lands till their payment has been made up to them. No interest is to be paid on debts to the Jews while the heir of the debtor is under age. The king will only take the prin cipal if the debt comes into his hands. When anyone dies in debt to the Jews or to other people his wife and children are to ,be first provided for, and the debt is to be paid out of the residue of his estate (9–I I). Debts to the king are to be the first charge on the estate of crown tenants, the residue is to be left to the disposal of his executors in accordance with the will of the dead man. If no debt is owing to the crown the estate may be dis posed of according to his will reserving to his wife and children their reasonable shares. If a free man dies intestate, his kin and friends under the direction of the church shall divide his chattels, after the dead man's debts have been paid (26-27). (e) Service and rules for holding the feudal council:—No scutage or aid is to be taken without the common council of the kingdom, that is, without the matter being brought before the feudal council of tenants in chief, except for the ransoming of the king's body, the knighting of his eldest son and the first marriage of his eldest daughter. In these cases the aid is to be a reasonable one (12). The archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls and greater barons are to be summoned to the council individually by letter stating the cause of the summons ; all those who hold of the king in chief are to be summoned generally through the sheriffs or royal bailiffs. Forty days' notice is to be given and on the appointed day the business is to proceed even if all those summoned are not present III. Clauses which principally affect subtenants and freemen as well as barons:—All the customs granted to his dependents by the king all men in the kingdom shall observe towards theirs (6o). The king will not allow anyone to take an aid from his free men except on the three aforesaid occasions, and the aid then is to be a reasonable one (15). No one is to be forced to do more service for a knight's fee or other free tenement than he ought to do (i6). No constable shall compel a knight to give money in lieu of castle guard if the knight wishes to do it in person or through a competent deputy. Service on an expedition shall free a knight from a proportionate amount of castle guard (29). "No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land" (39). "To no one will we sell, deny, or delay right or justice" (4o). All persons are to be free to come and go in time of peace, except outlaws and prisoners (42).