314 A. D. 1 10 1. 



clergv and people, knowing that his father and brother had paid no at- 

 tention to their verbal promifes, defired him to expreis his good inten- 

 tions in writing. He accordingly executed a charter, wherein, in order 

 to pleafo his Englifh lubjeils, he engaged to reftore the Saxon laws of 

 Edward the Confeflbr, as they had been amended by his father ; and 

 to his Norman luhjeiis he proraiied an alleviation of fome ot the moft 

 galling of the feudal prerogatives of the crown. But, if this charter 

 had been obferved, as it was not, the only article of it, which could 

 have meliorated the condition of the great body of the people, is a 

 charge, or recommendation, to the barons to make a proportional alle- 

 viation in the feudal burthens of their vaffals. No fuch words as com- 

 merce or merchant are to be found in the charter *. 



The city of London appears to have now rifen to fuch confequence, 

 that the new king thought it proper to give a particular charter ' to 

 ' his citizens f of London,' wherein he grants them the firm of the 

 county of Middlefex to be held for an annual payment of ^^300, with 

 power to appoint a fhirref and a jufliciary out of their own body. The 

 citizens are exempted from anfwering any fuits beyond the walls of the 

 city, and releafed from the payment of fchot, danegeld, and murder X, 

 and from the trial by duel §. They are delivered from the oppreffion 

 of the king's retinue and others taking lodgings in their houfes by force. 

 They and their property of every kind are exempted from paying toll, 

 paflage, laftage, and other cuftoms, throughout all England and in all 

 the fea-ports. The churches, the barons ||, and citizens, are fecured in 



* This charter was the foundation and model London'were freed by the cliarter. See Brady on. 



•f the more famous one extorted from King John burghs, append, p. 25. 



by the barons. [Mat. Parts, p. 253. — Spdmanni § ' NuUus eorum faciat belhim.' In the Latin 

 Glo/f. vo. Magna cbarta,'] And it proves, that the of the middle ages biUum, befuies war, its claflical 

 priTileges, which John was compelled to grant, meaning, fignifies more ficquently a haltle, and 

 were not nciu encroachments upon the royal prero- even a combat between two indhnrlimb, or a duel. 

 ^ative, as fome have pretended, but reftorations of Tliat the later is the meaning here, appears from 

 the rights of the barons (not of the people) vvhijh the word ' duellum' being fublliliited in the re- 

 had been ufurped by the crown. neivcd charter granted by Henry II, for ' bellum' 



■j- The term nilizcn begins now to be ufcd in in this one. 



England. In the charter of William I to London || Spelman \GlrilJ. "ao. Baro~\ underftands ' ba^ 



thc'^inhabitants are called ' burhwaru', Imrghcrs, ' rones' in this charter as meaning the principal 



or burgcfles. There is, I believe, no fucli word as men of the community, uho were empowered to 



citizen in Domcfday book, the inhabitants of the hold courts, as diilinguiflicd from the reft of the 



places called cities being ililed ' burgenfes,' bur- citizens (' cives') : and he adduces, as a fimilar ac^ 



gefles, as well as of thole called^urj/i/. ceptation ot" the word, a brief of Henry I, direft- 



t It may fcen furprifuig that a king fliould cd to Fulcher (apparently tliC chief magillratc), 



grant a general pardon for fo atrocious a crime as linftace the fhirref, and all the barons of London, 



murder. But the vvord ' murdrum' ilgnifics not defiring that the abbat of Ramfay may hold his 



only murder, but alfo the fine payable for murder ; lands of the city of London. He obfcrves, that 



for in thofe days every man's price, or the fine to the title of baron was alfo given to citizens of 



be paid for murdering him, was ftttled by law ac- York and Cliclkr, and burgciles of Warwick and 



tording to his rank. The community, in whofe Faverfliam, and in Fiance to the citizens of Bour- 



diftricl the murder happened, were liable for the ges.— But Mathcw Paris \_pp. 749, 863, 974] ap- 



jjcnalty, if the criminal could not be found : and pears to give the title to a much greater number, 



it mull be from thii liability that the citizens of or lathcr to the whole, of the citizens ; and parti- 

 cularly 



