CHAP. 1. 1215 The char ter of 1225. Magna Carta in its a statement recalling the charter of Henry I; but as the price of this concession, and for the gift of these liberties, the people of the realm grant the king a fifteenth of their goods.' These two points are closely connected; they contain from one point of view a great advance in theory, but from another the reverse. If the liberties granted do not belong of right to the people, as is implied by the conception of the grant as a royal gift, it is obvious they can be withheld by the king at will, and only granted in consideration of a certain payment. To acknowledge this was to give up a great point of vantage, the argument from the abstract and inherent justice of the peoples claims. On the other hand, the recognition that property belongs to its possessors and not to the king, and that therefore the tax to be levied was a concession on the part of the people, was a great step gained, and as the king was sure to want money, it showed his subjects. a way of enforcing their claims, of which they were not slow to take advantage. The Great Charter then, as it stands in its final final form shape, is, with the exception of its appendix the Forest Charter, little more than a definition, extension, and confirmation of the charter of Henry I, with the judicial and administrative changes and the grants of privilege made since. This, it is true, forms the surest basis of political reform, but the attempt to formulate and legalise such reform was, as we have seen, no sooner made than it was allowed to fall through. The improvement on the earlier charters is indeed so great that the later one quite supersedes them; hencefor 1 Pro hac concessione et donatione libertatum istarum, &c.' M.C. 1225 ad fin. СНАР. 1215 ple of self ward it is the Great Charter, and no other, to which all appeal is made; it is the Great Charter which is so repeatedly confirmed. But it too, like other early codes, was mainly negative; feudalism and class-interest were still strong in it, though it contained the germs of a broader and nobler spirit. The constitutional prin. ciples advanced in it were legally thrust aside, legally, but not really, for they were too closely connected with existing custom, too much engrained in mens minds, for their memory to perish; the very advance made in Magna Carta was likely to urge the sons of those who made it to outdo their fathers. The prin- The princiciple of self-taxation underlies the whole struggle of taxation: the succeeding reign; other demands, such as that of the appointment by Parliament of the great officers of the Crown, were strictly connected with it; the right to dispose of the tax when paid is a corollary to it; and exactions, favouritism, and administrative confusion only made the necessity of its recognition more patent. Yet it was not till the resistance became corporate instead of individual, universal instead of partial, constant instead of spasmodic, that the practical difficulties in the way of collecting a tax without support of Parliament became so great as to render the assent of that, body indispensable. The attempt as yet to introduce the principle was as yet premature. There and parwas also a glaring inconsistency visible in the partial tially applied. expression given to it in 1215. It was not only the tenants-in-chief, but the subtenants, the freeholders, the townsfolk, who paid the taxes. For these however there was as yet no adequate means of representation, except in so far as the subtenants were represented by their lords. If the principle was to be pret mature, CHAP. I. 1215-1232 KINK's wond Will • Govern ment under recognised, these classes must be admitted to a share in the government; but the magnates were unwilling to admit them, nor was it perceived that the necessary machinery already existed. This was understood later, and the principle received due recognition; but the issue of the struggle through which this point was attained shows at once the prematurity and the essential justice of the ideas which prompted the charter of 215. § 3. THE EARLY YEARS OF HENRY III. The first sixteen years of the reign of Henry III a regency. did not introduce any new principles, though the kings minority naturally strengthened the idea of parliamentary rule, and the cloud of popular discontent rapidly formed after he had taken the government upon himself. It was about the year 1232 that parliamentary opposition began to take a more solid form, and thenceforward it continually increased, together with a corresponding development of constitutional ideas, in spite of interruptions and temporary relapses, till it culminated in the events of 1265. There was at first, as we have seen, a considerable reaction. The want of a more elaborate constitution was not immediately felt. Copious legislation is not a feature of an infant state, and the condition of the country was such that a strong government was far the most pressing need. Henry was on the whole fortunate in those who represented him during his minority. The great Earl of Pembroke and Archbishop Langton steered the country through the most. critical period, and with the help of Cardinal Gualo The regents. CHAP. I. 1215-1232 got rid of the French, and conciliated, at least outwardly, most of their partisans. The influence of the legate, backed by the strength of the spiritual arm, was at this crisis most beneficial. It was unfortunate that gratitude to the papacy for the saving of his crown led Henry, in his devout subservience to Rome, to forget the interests of his country. The year 1219 saw a change for the worse. The Earl of Pembroke died, Cardinal Gualo was recalled, and the legate Pandulf took his place. Soon afterwards the struggle between Hubert de Burgh. Hubert de Burgh, the justiciar, and Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, Henry's tutor, began. For a time Hubert, supported by the archbishop, was practically supreme. He ruled well and strongly, but his severity produced much ill-feeling. In 1222 he suppressed with no little cruelty disturbances that had arisen between the citizens of London and the Abbot of Westminster; the rebellion of Falkes de Breauté in 1224, which was countenanced by the Earl of Chester, the head of the opposition, was directed against, and to some extent excused by, his determined policy. The rebellion was put down, and with Tranit the troubles originated by John seemed to be over. restored. quillity As a kind of seal to this happy consummation the Great Charter was again confirmed, in the final form spoken of above. Aided by the lull at home, by the fifteenth granted to the king, and by the confusion consequent on the death of Louis VIII, the English. succeeded in regaining Gascony and Poitou, though the issue of the war, so much less favourable than it might have been, added but little to the reputation of the Government. At this conjuncture the king, though not yet СНАР. I. declares himself of age. measures. twenty years old, declared himself of age, and took the government into his own hands (January 1227). 1215-1232 He dismissed the hated Peter des Roches and his The king following, but another of his first steps did not promise well. He began his reign without the issue of a charter of liberties. The custom had been dropped, it is true, since the accession of Henry II, but it must have been expected as a prudent measure of reconUnpopular ciliation after the recent troubles. A further declaration, that all charters issued during the kings minority would require renewal, was thought at first to endanger the Great Charter and the Charter of Forests; but even if Henry, as is probable enough, thought of breaking loose from all restrictions, his action seems to have resolved itself into a mere threat. We are told indeed that he actually cancelled the Forest Charter, as 'made and signed when he was not his own master, wherefore he was not bound to keep what he had been forced to promise.' The proceeding, whatever it was, was calculated to alarm all lovers of liberty, and was a blunder in which it is hard to acquit de Burgh, with his innate tendency towards a strong government, of all share. It was naturally attributed to him, and did not raise him in popular estimation. The temper of the country was already disturbed, and many of the nobles alienated from the Government. The papal exactions from England as a fief of the Church continued to be paid; the number National discontent. 1 Matt. Par. 336, 337. Gneist, Verw. i. 300, quotes Matt. Par., as given by Parry, to the effect that the king cancelled both charters; but Matt. Par. mentions only the Forest Charter, stating that the magnates under Richard demanded its restoration, though he does not say whether this took place. For a solution of the difficulty see Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 39. |