10. And if a chief lord do maliciously keep such an heir out of the possession, whereby it behoveth him to proceed by an action of mort d'ancestor or cosinage, then he shall recover his damages, as in the action of novel disseisin. II. No man from thenceforth shall be permitted, for any manner of cause, to make distresses out of his fee, nor in the king's or common highway, except our lord the king and his officers. 12. It is also provided, that where land that is holden in socage is in the custody of an heir's kinsfolk, because the heirs were within age, those guardians cannot make waste or sale or any despoiling in that inheritance, but shall keep it safely for the use of the heir: so that when he shall come to age, they shall answer unto him by a lawful account for the issues of the said inheritance; saving unto those guardians their reasonable expenses. Neither can the said guardians give or sell the marriage of the said heir, but for the benefit of the heir himself. 13. No escheator, or commissioner, or justice, especially assigned to take any assizes, or to hear and determine any complaints, shall from henceforth have authority to amerce for default of the common summons, except the chief justice or justices in eyre in their circuits. 14. It shall not be lawful for men of religion to enter into any man's fee, without the license of the chief lord of whom the fee is immediately holden. 15. Concerning essoins it is provided, that in the county or hundred courts, or courts baron, or elsewhere, no man shall be obliged to swear for the warranting of his essoin. 16. None but the king from henceforth shall hold plea in his court of a false judgment given in the court of his tenants; because such pleas do especially belong to the king's crown and dignity. 17. It is provided also, that if any man's cattle be taken and unjustly detained, the sheriff after complaint thereof made unto him, may deliver them, without let or gainsaying of him who took the said cattle, if they were taken without liberties, and if such cattle should be taken within liberties, and the bailiffs of the liberties will not deliver them, then the sheriff, for the default of the said bailiffs, shall cause them to be delivered. 18. No man from henceforth shall distrain his free tenants to answer for their freehold, nor for any matters pertaining to their freehold, without the king's writ; nor shall cause his free tenants to swear against their will: for none can do this without a precept of the king. 19. It is provided also, that if bailiffs who are bounden to render account unto their lords shall withdraw themselves, and have no lands or tenements whereby they may be distrained, then they shall be attached by their bodies, so that the sheriffs in whose bailiwicks they shall be found, shall cause them to come to the rendering of their account. 20. Also farmers during their farms, shall not make waste, or sale, or exile, in woods, houses, men, or in any thing else belonging to the tenements which they have to farm; unless they have a special grant in the writing of their covenant, making mention that they may do so. And if they do, and be convicted thereof, they shall restore damages in full. 21. The justices in eyre from henceforth shall not amerce the township in their circuit, because all that are twelve years old do not appear before the sheriffs and coroners upon inquests for the death of man, or other things pertaining to the crown; so that from those townships there come enough for the making of such inquests fully. 22. The fine of murder from henceforth shall not be adjudged before the justices, where it hath been adjudged to be misfortune only but the fine of murder shall hold place upon those slain feloniously, and not otherwise. 23. It is moreover provided, that no man who is vouched to warranty before the justices in eyre, in a plea of land or tenement, shall from henceforth be amerced because he was not present, save on the first day of the coming of the justices: but if the vouchee be within the county, then the sheriff shall be enjoined to cause him to come within the third or fourth day, according to the distance of the places, as it was wont to be in the circuit of the justices and if he dwell without the county, then he shall have a reasonable summons of fifteen days at the least, according to the discretion of the justices and the common law. 24. If any clerk should be arrested for any crime or charge that toucheth the crown, and afterwards by the king's precept, be let to bail, or be replevied, so that those to whom he is let to bail should have him before the justices, from henceforth they to whom he hath been let to bail, or his other pledges shall not be amerced, if they have his body before the justices, although he will not or cannot make answer before them by reason of the privilege of clergy. 36. Confirmation of the Charters (March, 1265. Latin text, Stubbs, S. C. 416. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs, 94.) THE - HE king to all the people of the county of York, Greeting. *** We will and expressly agree that, if we or the said Edward our son shall have presumed to go in any way contrary may it be far from us to the said ordinance, or our provision, or oath, or to disturb the peace and tranquillity of our realm, or to molest, by reason of their former acts in the time of the late disturbance and war, any one of the aforesaid, or of the party of the aforesaid whom we have defied, or do or procure the doing of injury to any of them, it shall be lawful for every one in our realm to rise against us and to use all the ways and means they can to hinder us; to which we will that each and every one shall henceforth be bound by our command, notwithstanding the fealty and homage which he has sworn to us; so that they shall in no way give attention to us, but that they shall do everything which aims at our injury and shall in no way be bound to us, until that in which we have transgressed and offenced shall have been by a fitting satisfaction brought again into due state, according to the form of the ordinance of the aforesaid, and of our provision or oath; this having been done let them be obedient to us as they were before. * Witness myself at Westminster, the fourteenth day of March, in the forty-ninth year of our reign. 37. The Statutes of Westminster; the First (1275. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 26, Stubbs, S C. 450. HESE be the acts of king Edward, son to king Henry, made THESE at Westminster at his first parliament general after his coronation, on the Monday of Easter Utas, the third year of his reign, by his council and by the assent of archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, and the commonalty of the realm, being thither summoned because ***; the king hath ordained and established these acts underwritten, which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole realm. 5. And because elections ought to be free, the king commandeth upon great forfeiture, that no man by force of arms, nor by malice, or menacing, shall disturb any to make free election. 36. Forasmuch as before this time, reasonable aid to make one's son knight, or to marry his daughter, was never put in certain, nor how much should be taken, nor at what time, whereby some levied unreasonable aid, and more often than seemed necessary, whereby the people were sore grieved; it is provided, that from henceforth of a whole knight's fee there be taken but twenty shil-out y lings, and of twenty-pound land holden in socage, twenty shillings; and of more, more; and of less, less; after the rate. And that none shall levy such aid to make his son knight, until his son be state fifteen years of age, nor to marry his daughter, until she be of themt age of seven years. And of that there shall be made mention in the king's writ, formed on the same, when any will demand it. And if it happen that the father, after that he hath levied such aid o of his tenants, die before he hath married his daughter, the execu- ។ tors of the father shall be bound to the daughter, for so much as has been the father received for the aid. And if the father's goods be not sufficient, his heir shall be charged therewith unto the daughter. ملنسل ་ Export great 38. Grant of Customs on Wool, Woolfells, and ang gust (May, 1275. Latin text, Stubbs, S. C. 451. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs, 113, 550.) WILLIAM of Valence, earl of Pembroke, to all the faithful in Christ to whom the present writ shall come, Greeting in the Lord. Since the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the realm of England, and the earls, barons, and we and the communities of the said realm, at the instance and request of the merchants, have for many reasons, unanimously granted to the great prince and lord, our well-beloved lord Edward, by the grace of God, the illustrious king of England, for us and our heirs, a half mark from each sack of wool, and a half mark from each three hundred woolfells, which make a sack, and one mark from each last of leather, exported from the realm of England and the land of Wales, to be Orlan all to be impound Just income that moul experting is not feudal 70 English Constitutio at frist foreve Documents, interen collected henceforth in each and every port of England and Wales, In testimony whereof, we have set our seal to the present writ. 39. Writ for Distraint of Knighthood (June, 1278. Latin text, Stubbs, S. C. 457. Translation by Editors. fundal lords didit 2 Stubbs, 115, 221, 294.) THE HE king to the sheriff of Gloucestershire, Greeting. We order and straitly enjoin you, that, without delay, you aut distrain all those in your bailiwick who have twenty pound lands or a whole knight's fee worth twenty pounds a year, and who hold from us in chief and ought to be knights and are not; that before the feast of the Lord's nativity next coming or at the same feast, they receive the insignia of knighthood from us: also, without |