ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 73 



portions of the crown forests, but he very un- 

 seasonably revived certain powers of forest law 

 which had fallen into disuse. Both Elizabeth and 

 James I. had alienated large portions of the crown 

 forests by letting them on lease or in fee-farm, 

 and Charles I. endeavoured to claim such lands 

 again. The Earl of Holland, as Chief Justice 

 in Eyre, held Justice Seat each year, in place of 

 only once every three years, and suborned juries 

 were made to find the king's title by inquisition. 

 He even tried to re-afforest the greater part of 

 Essex, as King John had done, and his whole 

 action with regard to forests was about as insane 

 as that monarch's. Charles I., in short, utilised 

 the Forest Courts to extort money independently 

 of the grants from his Parliament. And such 

 was the extent of his oppressions that the great 

 Assembly, which assumed the powers of govern- 

 ment and condemned the king to death, passed 

 a statute giving effect to the former laws regard- 

 ing the boundaries of forests. The Act for the 

 Limitation of the Forests, passed in 1641, de- 

 termined for ever any increase of the royal 

 forests beyond what were their boundaries as 

 existing in the twentieth year of James I. 



