These abuses were continued until about the year 1216, the most extensive afforestations baying been made under Richard I. and John. In the 47th and 48th clauses of the great charter certain provisions are found relating to the forest, but although the belief that John Issued a charter distinct from these clauses is very ancient, it is erroneous ; the docu ment given in Matthieu Paris under the name,. being the forest charter of Henry III. with an altered salutation. Stubbs' Charters 338. In the great charter the heavy burden of attending the forest courts Is remitted and this provision was conferred in the charta de foresta, and thus the exact analogy established by Henry IL between the courts of the shire and those of the forest was abolished. The charta de foresta disafforested the lands appropri ated by Richard and John and all those seized by Henry II. which had operated to the Injury of the land-owners and outside of the royal demesne ; it greatly mitigated the punishment for destroying game, and provided that for that offence no man should lose life or limb, and that his punishment shall be limited to a fine or imprisonment for a year and a day ; the following curious provision occurs in cap. II.: "Whatsoever archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron coming to us at our commandment, pass ing by our forest, it shall be lawful for him to take and kill one or two of our deer by view of our forester, If he be present; or else he shall cause him to blow a born for him, that he seem not to steal our deer ; and likewise they shall do returning from us," and this clause is still unrepealed. By reason of "the cruel and insupportable hardships which those forest laws created for the subject," says Blackstone, "we find the immunities of charta de foresta as warmly contended for, and extorted from the king with as much difficulty, as those of Magna Charts itself"; 2 Com. 416.
After this charter was issued, the forest laws not being enforced fell gradually into desuetude, until Charles I. attempted to revive them in order to re plenish his exchequer, and the forest court of justice seat fined certain persons heavily for alleged en croachments on the ancient boundaries of the for est, although the right to such 'land was fortified by several centuries of possession. This was one of the first grievances on which the long parliament acted, and since the passing-of the act "certainty of forests" ; 16 Car. I. c. 16, where it was declared that all land should be held disafforested where no jus tice eeat, swanimote, or court of attachment had been holden for sixty years next before the first year of tbe'reign of Cbarlee I.. the laws of the for est have practically ceased, and by acts 14 and 16 Vict. c. 43, 16 and 17 Vict. c. 42, and 19 and 20 Vict. c. 32, many of the royal forests have been disaf forested on the plea of public necessity. See Hall am, Hist. Eng. Const. ; Stubbs' Charters ; Inder wick, King's Peace ; Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest ; 1 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 340 ; Encyci. Laws of England ; Manwood, Forest Laws ; Stubbs, Const. Hist. Charter of Forest ; CHARTA DE FOR ESTA ; FOREST COURTS.
in 1811, the greater part of the control of the forests was given to the commissioner of woods, for ests and land revenues.