MAGNA CARTA

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciars, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and faithful subjects, greeting.

Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of God and the advancement of the holy Church, and for the reform of our realm, by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of master Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the Knights of the Temple in England), and of the illustrious men William Marshall earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William earl of Warenne, William earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerald, Peter Fits Herbert, Hubert de Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip d’Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshall, John Fitz Hugh, and of other faithful subjects.

In the first place we have conceded to God, and by this our present charter confirmed for us and our heirs for ever that the English church shall be free, and shall have her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate; and we wish that it be thus observed. This is apparent from the fact that we, of our pure and unconstrained will, did grant the freedom of elections, which is reckoned most important and very essential to the English church, and did by our charter confirm and did obtain the ratification of the same from our lord, Pope Innocent III., before the quarrel arose between us and our barons. This freedom we will observe, and our will is that it be observed in good faith by our heirs for ever.

We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs for ever:

If any of our earls or barons, or others holding of us in chief by military service shall have died, and at the time of his death his heir shall be of full age and owe relief he shall have his inheritance on payment of the ancient relief, namely the heir or heirs of an earl, 100 pounds for a whole earl’s barony; the heir or heirs of a baron, 100 pounds for a whole barony; the heir or heirs of a knight, 100 shillings at most for a whole knight’s fee; and whoever owes less let him give less, according to the ancient custom of fiefs.

If, however, the heir of any of the aforesaid has been under age and in wardship, let him have his inheritance without relief and without fine when he comes of age.

The guardian of the land of an heir who is thus under age, shall take from the land of the heir nothing but reasonable produce, reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without destruction or waste of men or goods; and if we have committed the wardship of the lands of any such minor to the sheriff, or to any other who is responsible to us for its issues, and he has made destruction or waste of what he holds in wardship, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fief, who shall be responsible for the issues to us or to him to whom we shall assign them; and if we have given or sold the wardship of any such land to anyone and he has therein made destruction or waste, he shall lose that wardship, and it shall be transferred to two lawful and discreet men of that fief, who shall be responsible to us in like manner as aforesaid.

The guardian moreover, so long as he has the wardship of the land, shall maintain the houses, parks, fish ponds, stanks, mills, and other things pertaining to the land, out of the revenues of that land; and he shall restore to the heir, when he has come to full age, all his land, stocked with ploughs and waynage, according as the season of husbandry requires, and the revenues from the land can reasonably support.

Heirs shall be married without disparagement. However, before a marriage takes place, it shall be made known to the heir’s next-of-kin.

A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance. She shall not give anything for her dower, or for her marriage portion, or for the inheritance which her husband and she held on the day of the death of that husband. She may remain in the house of her husband for forty days after his death, within which time her dower shall be assigned to her.

No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to remain without a husband, always provided that she gives assurance not to marry without our consent, if she holds her lands from us, or else without the consent of whatever other lord she from whom she holds her lands.

Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize for any debt any land or rent, so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to repay the debt. Nor shall those that pledged sureties for the debtor be distrained so long as the principal debtor himself is able to satisfy the debt. If the principal debtor fails to pay the debt, having nothing wherewith to pay it, then the sureties shall answer for the debt.They shall have the lands and rents of the debtor, if they desire them, until they are reimbursed for the debt which they have paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show proof that he has discharged his obligations to them.

If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, great or small, dies before that loan can be repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective from whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into our hands, we will take nothing except the principal

Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for our castles or for any other of ourworks, wood which is not ours, except with agreement from the owner of thattimber.

We will not hold the lands of those who have been convicted of felonybeyond one year and one day. Then, the lands shall be returned to the lordsof those fiefs.

Henceforth, all kiddles shall be removed from the Thames, the Medway and throughout allEngland, except along the sea coast.

The writ called praecipe, in the future, shall not be issued to any one regarding any tenementwhereby a freeman might lose the right of trial in his own lord’s court.

There shall be one measure of wine, of ale and of corn (namely, “theLondon quarter”) throughout our whole realm. There shall also be one width ofcloth (whether dyed, russet, or halberget): that is, two ells within the selvages. Let weightsalso be standardised similarly.

Nothing shall be paid or taken in future for a writ of inquisition oflife or limbs.[2] Instead, it shall be given free of charge, and not denied.

If a man holds Crown land by fee-farm, by socage, or by burgage, and also holds land ofanother lord for knight’s service, we will not have (by reason of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage) thewardship of his heir or of such land he holds of the other lord’s fief . Norshall we have wardship of that fee-farm, socage, or burgage, unless thefee-farm owes knight’s service. We will not have the wardship of a man’sheir, nor of land that the man holds through knight’s service to someoneelse, because of any small serjeanty that he may hold from the Crown for the service of providing to usknives, arrows, or the like.

In future, no bailiff shall place a man on trial upon his ownunsupported words, without credible witnesses being produced to support hisword.

Nofreeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in anyother way harmed. Nor will we [the king] proceed against him, or send othersto do so, except according to the lawful sentence of his peers and accordingto the Common Law.[3]

To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.

All merchants may leave or enter England in safety and security. Theymay stay and travel throughout England by road or by water, free from allillegal tolls, in order to buy and sell according to the ancient and rightfulcustoms. This is except, in time of war, those merchants who are from theland at war with us. And if such merchants are found in our land at thebeginning of the war, they shall be detained, without injury to their bodiesor goods, until information is received by us (or by our chief justiciar)about in what way are treated our merchants, thence found in the land at warwith us . If our men are safe there, the others shall be safe in our land.

Itshall be lawful in future for any one, keeping loyalty to the Crown, to leaveour kingdom and to return safely and securely, by land and by water. This isexcept in time of war, when men may go, only in the public interest, for someshort period. (This excludes, always, those imprisoned or outlawed inaccordance with the law of the realm, natives of any country at war with us,and merchants, who shall be treated as previously stated).

If any one holding of some escheat (such as the honour of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster,or of other escheats which are in our hands and are baronies) dies, his heirshall give only the relief and service to us that he would have done to thebaron, if that barony had been in the baron’s hands. We shall hold theescheat in the same manner in which the baron held it.

Men who dwell outside the forest henceforth need not come before ourjusticiars of the forest following a general summons, unless they are namedin a plea or are sureties for any person or persons arrested for forestoffences.

We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only those whoknow the law of the realm and who wish to observe it well.

All barons who have founded abbeys, for which they hold charters fromthe kings of England, or for which they have long-standing possession, shallhave the custody of them when vacant, as they should have.

All forests that have been created in our reign shall forthwith bedisafforested, and similar course shall be followed for river-banks that wehave made preserves during our reign.

All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffsand their officers, river-banks and their wardens, shall immediately beinvestigated in each county by twelve sworn knights of the same county,chosen by the honest men of the county. The evil customs shall, within fortydays of the said inquest, be completely and irrevocably abolished. This isprovided always that we first informed, or our justiciar, if we should not be in England [4].

We will immediately restore all hostages and charters, which were delivered tous by Englishmen as security for peace or for faithful service.

We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks the kinsmen of Gerard deAthée, so that in future they shall have no office in England. The peopleconcerned are Engelard de Cigogné, Peter, Guy, and Andrew de Chanceaux, Guyde Cigogné, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Mark, his brothers and his nephew Geoffrey, and all their brood.

As soon as peace is restored, we will banish from the kingdom all foreign-bornknights, cross-bowmen, their attendants, and mercenaries who have come withhorses and arms, to the kingdom’s detriment.

If, without the lawful judgement of his peers, a man has been dispossessed of hislands, castles, franchises or his rights, or had them removed by us, we willat once restore these to him. If a dispute arises over this, the disputeshall be decided by the judgement of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace. Moreover, in all cases wherepossessions have been disseised or removed from anyone without the lawful judgement of his peers, by our father King Henry or our brother KingRichard, and which are retained by us (or which are held by others under ourwarranty), we will have the usual respite period allowed to crusaders, unlessa lawsuit has been started or we had ordered an enquiry before we took thecross [as a Crusader]. However, as soon as we return from our expedition, orif by chance we abandon it, we shall immediately grant full justice.

We shall have the same respite (and the same manner in rendering justice[4]) concerning the disafforestation or retention ofthose forests [4])which Henry our father and Richard our brother afforested, and concerningguardianship of lands under the fief of another (that is, the guardianshipswe had up to now because of a knight’s fee someone else held from us), andwith abbeys founded in fiefs other than our own, in which the lord of thefief claims to have a right. When we return from our expedition, or if weabandon it, we will at once grant full justice to complaints about thesethings.

No one shall be arrested or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman, forthe death of anyone except her husband.

All fines rendered to us unjustly and against the law of the land, and allamercements made unjustly and against the law of the land, shall be entirelyremitted or else the matter settled by the decision of an majority of thefive-and-twenty barons (or all of them) mentioned below in the clause for securing the peace. This decision shall be made togetherwith Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and such othersas he may wish to bring with him. If the archbishop cannot be present,business shall nevertheless proceed without him. This is provided alwaysthat, if any one or more of the twenty-five barons are involved in a similaraction, they are removed for this particular judgement and are replaced byothers. The replacements will be sworn in as a substitute only for thisbusiness, after being selected by the rest of the twenty-five.

If we have disseised or removed Welshmen from lands or liberties, orother things, without the lawful judgement of their peers (in England or inWales), these shall be immediately restored to them. If a dispute arises overthis, it shall be determined in the Marches by the judgement of their peers.English law shall apply to land holdings in England, Welsh law to those inWales, and the law of the Marches to those in the Marches. Welshmen shall thesame to us and ours.

Further,where a Welshman was deprived or dispossessed of anything, without the lawfuljudgement of his peers (in England or in Wales [5]), by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard,and which is retained by us (or which is held by others under our warranty),we will have the usual respite period allowed to crusaders, unless a lawsuithas been started or we had ordered an enquiry before we took the cross [as aCrusader]. However, as soon as we return from our expedition, or if by chancewe abandon it, we shall immediately grant full justice according to the lawsof Wales and the said regions.

We will immediately return the son of Llywelyn and all the hostages of Wales,and the charters handed over to us as security for peace.

We will return of the sisters and hostages of Alexander, king ofScotland, his liberties and his rights, in the same manner as we shall dotowards our other barons of England, unless it ought to be otherwiseaccording to the charters that we hold from his father William, formerly kingof Scotland. This matter shall be determined by the judgement of his peers inour court.

Moreover, all these previously described customs and liberties which wehave granted shall be maintained in our kingdom as far as it concerns our ownrelations toward our men. Let these customs and liberties be observedsimilarly by all of our kingdom, by clergy as well as by laymen, in their relations towardstheir men.

Since for God, for the improvement of our kingdom, and to better allay the discordarisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these concessions, andwishing that the concessions be enjoyed in their entirety with firm endurance(forever [5]),we give and grant to the barons the following security:Namely, that the barons choose any twenty-five barons of the kingdom theywish, who must with all their might observe and hold, and cause to beobserved, the peace and liberties we have granted and confirmed to them bythis our present Charter. Then, if we, our chief justiciar, our bailiffs orany of our officials, offend in any respect against any man, or break any ofthe articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is notified tofour of the said twenty-five barons, the four shall come to us—or toour chief justicicar if we are absent from the kingdom—to declare thetransgression and petition that we make amends without delay. And if we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, have not corrected thetransgression within forty days, reckoned from the day on which the offencewas declared to us (or to the chief justice if we are out of the realm), thefour barons mentioned before shall refer the matter to the rest of thetwenty-five barons. Together with the community of the whole land, they shallthen distrain and distress us in every way possible, namely by seizingcastles, lands, possessions and in any other they can (saving only our ownperson and those of the queen and our children), until redress has beenobtain in their opinion. And when amends have been made, they shall obey usas before.Whoever in the country wants to, may take an oath to obey the orders of thetwenty-five barons for the execution of all the previously mentioned mattersand, with the barons, to distress us to the utmost of his power. We publiclyand freely give permission to every one who wishes to take this oath, and we shallnever forbid any one from taking it. Indeed, all those in the land who areunwilling to this oath, we shall by our command compel them to swear to it.If any one of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country, or is in anyother manner incapacitated so the previously mentioned provisions cannot beundertaken, the remaining barons of the twenty-five shall choose another inhis place as they think fit, who shall be duly sworn in like the rest. If there is any disagreement amongst the twenty-five barons on any matterpresented to them, or if some of them are unwilling or unable to be present,what the majority of those present ordain or command shall be held as fixedand established, exactly as if all twenty-five had consented in this. The said twenty-five barons shall swear to faithfully observe all theaforesaid articles and will do all they can to ensure that the articles areobserved by others. And we shall procure nothing from any one, either personally or indirectly,whereby any part of these concessions and liberties might be revoked ordiminished; and if any such thing has been procured, let it be void and null,and we shall never make use of it ourselves or through someone else.

And all the ill-will, hatreds, and bitterness that have arisen between us and ourpeople, clergy and laity, from the date of the quarrel, we have completelyforgiven and pardoned to everyone. Moreover, we have fully forgiven and, asfar as it concerns us, pardoned all transgressions occasioned by the said quarrel,between Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign [1215] and the restorationof peace, to all, both clergy and laymen, and completely forgiven, as far asthis applies to us. Additionally, we have had letters patent drawn up for the barons, over the sealsof lord Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, of the lord Henry, archbishop ofDublin, of the bishops mentioned before, and of Master Pandulf. The letterspatent concern this security and the concessions previously stated.

Thus,we wish and we firmly ordain that the English church shall be free, and thatmen in our kingdom shall have and keep all these previously determinedliberties, rights, and concessions, well and in peace, freely and quietly, intheir fullness and integrity, for themselves and their heirs, from us and ourheirs, in all things and all places for ever, as is previously describedhere.

An oath has been sworn, on the onehand by us and on the other by the barons, that all the aforesaid provisionsshall be observed in good faith and without evil intent.

Given under our hand—the above-named and many others being witnesses—inthe meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on thefifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign.

[That is 1215—the new regnal year began on 28 May.]