DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0081
CHEPSTOW CASTLE.
69
pelled the king to grant them a new and better charter than
that of John. The king, Henry III., was but a boy of ten
years old, but this brave Earl of Pembroke was his guar-
dian and regent of the kingdom, and by his advice Henry
granted a new charter, containing a new claufe, ordering the
demolition of every caftle built or rebuilt during the wars of
the barons. This charter was not now figned in the prefence
of the king and the barons only, but in that of the king and
the united parliament; for the reprefentatives of the burghs
are expreflly mentioned as fitting in the parliament of 1265.
Befides the Great Charter, the people now demanded and
obtained the Charter of the Foreft—a mighty boon, by which
all the forefts enclofed fince the days of Henry II. were
thrown open, and the deadly foreft laws were deprived of
their bloody and capital power. This is the true ftory of the
Great Charter of England, as related by Matthew Paris,
Rhymer, Carte, and other hiftorians, not won by rebellious and
traitorous barons, who would have fold us for ever to France,
but by the people of England themfelves, who ftiould not allow
themfelves to be lightly defrauded of their glory. This is what
Dugdale means by faying that the brave Pembroke “ broke
the confederacy of the barons, who had fworn allegiance to
Louis, dauphin of France, and drove away the foreign
ufurper.”. The great men of Dugdale’s time knew what was
our true hiftory, and would not allow it to be falflfied : and
Blackftone in his “ Commentaries,” and in his “ Eflay on
Magna Charta ” fully fubftantiates thefe great fads, and fays
that the charter of John never was our charter, but the far
better charter of Henry HI. ;—that we had other and better
charters than John’s, both before and after his time, and that his
charter, which never became the charter of the realm, would
never have been heard of but for his war againft the barons.
69
pelled the king to grant them a new and better charter than
that of John. The king, Henry III., was but a boy of ten
years old, but this brave Earl of Pembroke was his guar-
dian and regent of the kingdom, and by his advice Henry
granted a new charter, containing a new claufe, ordering the
demolition of every caftle built or rebuilt during the wars of
the barons. This charter was not now figned in the prefence
of the king and the barons only, but in that of the king and
the united parliament; for the reprefentatives of the burghs
are expreflly mentioned as fitting in the parliament of 1265.
Befides the Great Charter, the people now demanded and
obtained the Charter of the Foreft—a mighty boon, by which
all the forefts enclofed fince the days of Henry II. were
thrown open, and the deadly foreft laws were deprived of
their bloody and capital power. This is the true ftory of the
Great Charter of England, as related by Matthew Paris,
Rhymer, Carte, and other hiftorians, not won by rebellious and
traitorous barons, who would have fold us for ever to France,
but by the people of England themfelves, who ftiould not allow
themfelves to be lightly defrauded of their glory. This is what
Dugdale means by faying that the brave Pembroke “ broke
the confederacy of the barons, who had fworn allegiance to
Louis, dauphin of France, and drove away the foreign
ufurper.”. The great men of Dugdale’s time knew what was
our true hiftory, and would not allow it to be falflfied : and
Blackftone in his “ Commentaries,” and in his “ Eflay on
Magna Charta ” fully fubftantiates thefe great fads, and fays
that the charter of John never was our charter, but the far
better charter of Henry HI. ;—that we had other and better
charters than John’s, both before and after his time, and that his
charter, which never became the charter of the realm, would
never have been heard of but for his war againft the barons.