22 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



touched by the Common Law, were made subject 

 to Forest Law, and the foresters were ordered 

 not to hesitate in laying hands on them if found 

 trespassing. Except for fuel no man could cut 

 anything in his own woods forming part of 

 a forest, and even trees for fuel had to be cut 

 in view of the forester. When King John, ten 

 years later, came to the throne, however, evil 

 days again darkened the lahd and embittered the 

 lives of the nobles and the people. His reckless 

 procedure amounted almost to insanity. He 

 afforested the whole of Essex except one * Hun- 

 dred,' while all Cornwall, one of the least wooded 

 counties, was also put under the Forest Laws. In- 

 deed this was one, and not the least, of the acts of 

 misgovernment which banded the nobles together 

 for the protection of their own interests and the 

 championship of the rights of the people, and 

 resulted in the granting of Magna Charta in 

 1215, the great charter of the rights and liberties 

 of English subjects. In this, for the first time, 

 the most oppressive and cruel of the Forest Laws 

 were practically repealed. 



At the accession of Henry III., in 1216, forest 

 legislation seems to have occupied a prominent 



