Notes on the early constitutional 

 history of the channel islands. 



BY COLONEL T. AV. M. DE GUERIN. 



I. 



THE CHARTER OF 1179 AND THE VICOMTE OF GUERNSEY. 



A few months AGO, when reading Dr. Haskin's recently- 

 published book on " Norman Institutions," I came across 

 the trace of a charter of the year 1179, referring to Guernsey, 

 which was quite unknown to any of our historians. In 

 writing on the local administration of Normandy, in the reign 

 of Henry II., Dr. Haskin states : " In Guernsey, in 1179, 

 the Court of the Vicomte is still curia regis, and he has an 

 official seal." In a note giving the authority for the state- 

 ment he gave an extract from a charter printed in Volume IV. 

 of " Various Collections," published by the Historical Manu- 

 script Commissioners, I obtained the book and found the 

 charter printed in full. At the time of the publication of the 

 volume, in 1907, the charter was in the possession of the Dean 

 and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral, but I regret to say that 

 when the Bailiff, Mr. E. C. Ozanne, who was much interested 

 in the discovery of this very early reference to ourvRoyal 

 Court, wrote to the Dean and to the Librarian of Exeter 

 Cathedral, to endeavour to obtain a photograph of the 

 document, he was informed that it was missing and cannot be 

 traced anywhere. There is a possibility that it was not 

 returned by the Historical MSS. Commission, to whom it may 

 have been lent to be transcribed. 



The charter was the original charter of Peter Yivier, 

 confirming the gift of Godfrey Vivier, to the Abbey of Mont 

 Saint Michel, of certain lands in Guernsey, and it was given 

 in the Royal Court of Guernsey, in the presence of Gilbert 

 de la Hougue, the Vicomte, who seals it with his official seal 

 in the year 1179, and the Vicomte's seal is still attached to it. 

 How it came into the possession of the Dean and Chapter of 

 Exeter is unknown. It was at Mont Saint Michel in the year 

 1309, for it figures on an inventory of Channel Island Charters, 

 now in the Library of Avranches, which was drawn up in 



