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NO Tallage or Aid shall be taken or Levied by Us or our Heirs in our Realm, without the good Will and Assent of Arch-Bishops, Bi∣shops, Earls, Barons, Knights, Burgesses, and other Freemen of the Land.
NO Officer of ours, or of our Heirs, shall take Corn, Leather, Cattel, or any other Goods of any manner of Person, without the good Will and Assent of the Party to whom the Goods be∣longed.
NOthing from henceforth shall be taken of Sacks of Wooll by colour or occasion of Maletot.
WE Will and Grant for Us and our Heirs, That all Clerks and Lay-men of our Land, shall have their Laws, Liberties, and free Customs as largely and wholly, as they have used to have the same at any time when they had them best. (2.) And if any Statutes have been made by Us and our Ancestors, or any Customs brought in contrary to them, or any manner of Ar∣ticle contained in this present Charter: We Will and grant that such manner of Statutes and Customs shall be void and frustrate for evermore.
MOreover we have pardoned Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Essex, Constable of England, Roger Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, Mar∣shal of England, and other Earls, Barons, Knights, Esquires, and namely, John de Ferrariis, with all other being of their Fellowship, Consederacy, and Bond, and also of other that hold 20 l. Land in our Realm, whether they hold of us in Chief or of others, that were appointed at a day certain to pass over with us into Flanders, the Rancour and Evil will born
against us, and all other Offences if any they have com∣mitted against us, unto the making of this present Charter.
ANd for the more assurance of this thing, we will and grant that all Archbishops and Bi∣shops for ever, shall read this present Charter in Ca∣thedral Churches twice in the Year, and upon the Reading thereof in every of their Parish-Churches shall openly Denounce accursed all those that wil∣lingly do procure to be done any thing contrary to the tenour, force and effect of this present Charter in any point and article. In witness of which thing we have set our Seal to this present Charter, together with the Seals of the Archbishops, Bishops, which volun∣tarily have sworn, that as much as in them is, they shall observe the tenour of this present Charter in all Causes and Articles, and shall extend their faith∣ful Aid to the keeping thereof, &c.
THe word Tallage is derived from the French word Tailler, to share or cut out a part, and is Me∣taphorically used for any Charge, when the King or any other does cut out or take away any part or share out of a Mans Estate, and being a general word, it includes all Subsidies, Taxes, Tenths, Aids, Impo∣sitions or other Charges whatsoever.
The word Maletot signifies an Evil (that is, an unjust) Toll, Custom, Imposition or Sum of Money.
The occasion of making this Statute was this: King Edward being injured by the French King, re∣solves to make War against him, and in order thereun∣to requires of Humphrey le Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Constable of England, and of Roger
Bigot Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Marshal of England, and of all the Earls, Barons, Knights, Esquires and Freeholders of 20 l. Land, whether they held of him in Capite, to contribute towards such his expedition, that is, to go in Person or find sufficient Men in their places in his Army; which the Constable and Marshal, and many of the Knights and Esquires, and especially this John Ferrers taking part with them and all the Freemen, stoutly denyed, unless it were so ordained and determined by common consent in Parliament according to Law. And it seems the contest grew so hot, that Baker's Chronicle, Folio 99. relates a strange Dialogue that pass'd between them, viz. That when the Earl Mar∣shal told the King, That if his Majesty pleased to go in Person, he would then go with him, and march before him in the Van-Guard, as by right of Inheritance he ought to do; but otherwise he would not stir; the King told him plainly, he should go with any other, though he went not in Person. I am not so bound (saith the Earl) neither will I take that Journey without you: The King swore, By God, Sir Earl, you shall either go or Hang: And I swear by the same Oath (said the Earl) I will neither go nor Hang. And so the King was forc'd to dispatch his expedition without them. And yet (saith my Lord Coke) altho the King had conceived a deep displeasure against the Constable, Marshal, and others of the Nobility, Gentry, and Commons of the Realm, for denying that which he so much desired, yet, for that they stood in defence of their Laws, Liberties, and free Customes, the said King Edward the First, who (as Sir William Herle Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas, who lived in his time and served him, said in the time of King Edward the 3d.) was the wisest King that ever was; did after his return from beyond the Seas, not only consent to this Statute, whereby all such Tallages and Impositions are for∣bidden
for the future, but also passes a Pardon to the said Nobles, &c. of all Rancour, Ill-will and Transgressions, If any they have committed; which last words were added, lest by acceptance of a Par∣don of Transgression, they should implicitely con∣fess that they had Transgressed; so careful were the Lords and Commons in former times to preserve the Ancient Laws, Liberties, and free Customs of their Country.
But note, these words, Si quas fecerint, If any they have committed, are left out in all the Printed Books of Statutes; but they are in this Statute reci∣ted by Coke, in his second Book of Institutes, Fo. 535. and specially noted, which he would never have done, if it had not been so in the Rolls. And since 'tis proba∣ble them may be many more like Omissions, Mistakes or Falsifications, crept into the Prints, and for that the R••••••••d not the printed Satute-Book (varying from the Records) is the Law, It were to be wished that all the Rolls of Acts of Parliament were carefully by some Persons of Learning and Integrity, view'd and Compared with the Prints, and notice taken of all such Var••••tions, and of Errors committed in the Translations, and of any Statutes of a publick Import, if in force, that were never printed, and the same to be made publick.