National Portrait Gallery. London 
Edward IV 
burned, meting out penalties for any 
infraction and further prohibiting the 
cutting down of any tree “big enough 
to shelter thirty swine.” 
At the beginning of the seventh cen- 
tury, England’s forests were dominant 
features of the landscape, with great 
woodlots such as those of Beverley, 
Dean, Morfe, Kinver, Wyre, Rocking- 
ham, Selwood, and Sherwood. Marsh- 
lands were also a common integrant, 
particularly those of Romney and Pev- 
ensy, as well as the entire Thames 
estuary itself. At that time, central 
England comprised an almost continu- 
ous tract of bogs and fens, traversed 
by many streams and studded with 
wooded islands. In the following two 
centuries, however, the population in- 
creased, and with that, resources be- 
gan to be developed to the point where 
many marshes were drained and wood- 
land areas were reduced in size. Rivers 
were diverted, dams constructed, and 
livestock permitted to pasture virtu- 
ally anywhere. As more acreage came 
under the plow, the ranges of many 
species of wild flora and fauna were 
greatly reduced. Such was the situ- 
ation that faced the Norman conquer- 
ors in 1066. 
In this period, the word forest had 
a special legal meaning. It applied 
to certain wide districts scattered 
throughout the realm, within which 
the king established an exclusive right 
to hunt and to manage the habitat 
accordingly. A court judged violations 
of strict forest laws, handing down 
extremely cruel penalties. These laws 
were enforced by the chief forester, 
aided by a number of foresters and 
wardens, each of whom had authority 
in a specified bailiwick. 
The conservation contributions of 
the first two Norman kings were vastly 
overshadowed by those of Henry II’s 
“assize of the forest” (1184), which 
placed strict controls over the activi- 
ties of commoners, mostly within the 
royal forest holdings; established pro- 
tection for game animals; and regu- 
lated trapping. He also prohibited night 
hunting, an activity first condemned by 
the Greeks at the time of Xenophon. 
Prior to the reign of Henry III, con- 
servation had been almost exclusively 
a royal concern. In November 1217, 
however, that monarch produced the 
“charter of the forest,” which for the 
first time forced owners of private for- 
ests to reforest large tracts of land 
that had been denuded for livestock 
pasturage: “Woods may not be sold 
nor wasted by them that hold them.” 
Whereas the Norman and Angevin 
kings of England legislated by means 
of charters and assizes, from the time 
of Edward I (1272-1307), English 
laws were created in the form of sta- 
tutes — acts of Parliament. The last of 
the English charters was the Magna 
Charta (1215) signed by the belea- 
guered John I, which devoted two of 
its sixty-three sections to environment- 
related topics. Section 44 abolished 
the forest courts while section 47 pro- 
vided for a reforestation program in 
all royal forests and along all river 
banks. 
The first act on the subject of con- 
servation, formulated during the time 
of Edward I, protected salmon “from 
the Nativity of Our Lady unto Saint 
Martin’s Day.” The same act also 
abolished the penalty of death or dis- 
memberment for the killing of a deer. 
Edward III established the first 
trapping season in 1 337 by prohibiting 
the purchase of furs after the Feast 
of Saint Michael. 
Under Richard II, the hunting of 
wild animals became restricted to cer- 
tain classes of people, excluding all 
“manner of Artificer, Labourer, and 
other layman [of a specified land hold- 
ing] . . . Priest, or other Clerk.” 
Henry VI generated two conserva- 
tion statutes. In 1423, to protect the 
“Brood and Fry of Fish,” he prohibited 
the setting of nets in the rivers of 
England. Four years later, concerned 
about the rapid deterioration of 
coastal marshes and sea banks, he en- 
acted legislation to remedy the “Hurt 
that within short Time will happen.” 
Edward IV prohibited the private 
possession of swans by anyone whose 
lands were valued at less than five 
marks yearly, thus officially making 
that bird a symbol of aristocracy. 
Beginning in 1495, Henry VII 
churned out a series of statutes pro- 
hibiting the capture or killing of “fea- 
sants and partridge” except under the 
authority of a license issued by the 
landowner; the taking of hawk or swan 
eggs from the wild; the possession of 
certain species of hawks; and the use 
of nets or other contrivances for cap- 
turing deer. 
The inexhaustible Henry VIII was 
a prolific author of statutes relating 
to environmental protection and hunt- 
ing. He was an avid hunter and nat- 
uralist, a fact that is reflected in the 
wording employed in several of his 
statutes. His first enactment prohib- 
ited the hunting of hares on snow- 
covered ground, since “Hare . . . which 
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