60 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



making royal forests at their pleasure of the lands of their 

 subjects, within which game was protected under severe 

 penalties. Yet the first Forest Charter 19 extorted from 

 Henry I in 1217 disafforested all lands but demesne woods, 20 

 implying that the afforestation had been an abuse of the 

 prerogative. Later when Henry became of age he afforested 

 certain lands which were made the subject for complaint in 

 1260. In 1277, 1298 and again in 1300 there were exten- 

 sive disafforestations and the forests that were left remained 

 stationary in size during the next three centuries. 21 



By the beginning of the sixteenth century the prerogative 

 of afforestating the land of subjects had so far fallen into 

 disuse that when Henry VIII wished to afforest the land 

 around Hampton Court, he obtained statutory authority 

 and provided compensation for the tenants of the land. 22 

 Thus the king's right to afforest land came to be limited 

 under the common law, like his rights over mines, to the 

 demesne hold. 23 



Nor did the making of forests mean that the king ever 

 claimed anything more than qualified property in the game 

 found therein, which merely meant that he had the exclu- 

 sive right to take the wild game while it remained in the 

 forest. The forest law protected wild game only while it 

 remained within forest bounds, and similarly it gave addi- 

 tional protection to landowners holding grants from the 

 king authorizing them to establish free warrens on their 

 demesne lands. 24 



19 Harrington, Boyd, The Magna Charta and Other Charters, Phila- 

 delphia (1900). 



20 Exception in case 6f certain addition made to ancient Saxon forests 

 called " purlieus " which were open to hunting to persons who owned 

 land therein. Christian, op. cit., p. 31. 



31 Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. i, p. 102. 



22 Ibid., p. 102. Ibid., p. 152. 



24 Ibid., p. 101 ; Christian, op. cit., p. 58. 



