In the year 1259 from the Incarnation of the Lord, the forty-third of the
reign of King Henry, son of King John, at a meeting of the lord king and his
magnates at Westminster on Michaelmas fortnight, the provisions hereinunder
written, by the common counsel and consent of the said king and his
magnates, were enacted and published by the same king and his magnates in
this form: —
1. With regard to the performance of suit to the courts of the magnates and
of other lords who have such courts, it is provided and established by
general agreement that no one who is enfeoffed by charter shall henceforth
be distrained to perform suit to his lord's court, unless he is specifically
obliged by the tenor of his charter to perform the suit; with the sole
exception of those whose ancestors were accustomed to perform suit of this
kind, or who themselves [were accustomed so to do], before the first
crossing of the said lord king into Brittany — after the time of which
crossing twenty-nine and a half years had elapsed down to the time that this
constitution was made. And likewise no one enfeoffed without charter since
the time of the Conquest, or by other ancient enfeoffment, shall be
distrained to perform suit of this kind, unless he or his ancestors were
accustomed to perform it before the first crossing of the lord king into
Brittany....
4. With regard to the sheriff's tourn, it is provided that, unless their
presence is specially demanded, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls,
and barons, or other men of religion, or women, shall not of necessity come
thither.... And the tourns shall be held according to the form of the king's
Great Charter, and as they were customarily held in the time of the kings
John and Richard.
5. It is also provided that neither on the eyres of the justices nor in the
[courts of the] counties nor in the courts of barons shall fines henceforth
be taken from anybody for miskenning, or for avoidance of trouble on that
score....
8. Moreover, with regard to charters of exemption and liberty, [to the
effect] that those securing them are not to be put on assizes, juries, or
recognitions, it is provided that, if their oath is so essential that
without it justice cannot be administered ... , they shall be forced to
swear, saving to them their aforesaid liberty and exemption in other
respects....
11. Henceforth no one except the lord king and his ministers shall be
permitted, for any cause whatsoever, to levy distraints outside his fief, or
on a royal or a common highway....
16. Hereafter no one but the king shall hold in his court a plea concerning
false judgment rendered in a court of his tenant; for pleas of this sort
especially pertain to the crown and dignity of the king....
18. Without the king's writ, no one may henceforth distrain his free tenants
to respond concerning their free tenements or anything that pertains to
their free tenements. Nor may he cause his free tenants against their will
to take oaths; so that no one may do this without the king's precept....
21. Hereafter itinerant justices shall not amerce vills on their eyres
because particular twelve-year-old persons do not come before sheriffs and
coroners for inquests concerning a man's death or other matters pertaining
to the crown; so long as, nevertheless, enough men come from those vills for
satisfactorily carrying out such inquests.
22. No judgment of murder shall henceforth be rendered before the
justices in a case that is adjudged merely one of accident; but [a judgment
of] murder shall be proper in the case of a man feloniously slain, and not
otherwise....
