1 8 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



than had yet been the case since they were 

 said to have been passed in Parliament in 

 A.D. 1016. He therefore, as a matter of wise 

 policy, passed nothing frankly in the shape of 

 a new enactment during his reign ; and this 

 policy was followed by his immediate successor, 

 William Rufus. No new Forest Laws were 

 enacted until the Charta de Foresta, granted in 

 1217, and the later and more important charter 

 in 1225, both of which were passed in the early 

 part of the reign of Henry III. (1216-1272), 

 while he was still a minor. 



Under these laws then applied, the penalty 

 for killing a stag or ' royal beast ' within the 

 bounds of a royal forest were almost as great 

 as those exacted for destroying the life of a 

 human being. It cost a freeman his freedom, 

 an unfree man his liberty, and a bondman his 

 life. Even to chase a stag so as to cause it 

 to pant and be out of breath meant loss of 

 liberty to a freeman for one year, and to an 

 unfree man for two years, while a bondman 

 was outlawed, and became what was then called 

 * a friendless man.' The only sort of royal 

 clemency, afterwards practically ignored, was that 



