CHAPTER II 
Woods, Forests, 
& Forestry in Ancient & 
Modern Times 
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THE Charta de Foresta, passed in the ninth year 
of Henry III.’s reign, in supersession of the 
statute issued eight years before by the Regent, 
William Marschall, Earl of Pembroke, which 
gave confirmation of the great charters of liberty 
wrung from King John, forms, like these, one 
of the most famous charters in English history. 
In addition to the leading provisions, which 
have already been sketched, it regulated the hold- 
ing of the Swainmote; it prescribed, with due 
limitations, the duties and powers of certain 
officers of the forest, and it defined how action 
should lie with regard to the offences of Pur- 
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