The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface to Second Edition.
• From Preface to First Edition.
• Historical Introduction
• Part I.: Events Leading to Magna Carta.
• Part II.: Feudal Grievances and Magna Carta.
• Part III.: Magna Carta: Its Form and Contents.
• Part IV.: Historical Sequel to Magna Carta.
• Part V.: Magna Carta: Original Versions, Printed Editions and Commentaries.
• Text, Translation, and Commentary
• Preamble.1
• Chapter One.
• Chapter Two.
• Chapter Three.
• Chapter Four.
• Chapter Five.
• Chapter Six.
• Chapter Seven.
• Chapter Eight.
• Chapter Nine.
• Chapter Ten.
• Chapter Eleven.
• Chapter Twelve.
• Chapter Thirteen.
• Chapter Fourteen.
• Chapter Fifteen.
• Chapter Sixteen.
• Chapter Seventeen.
• Chapter Eighteen.
• Chapter Nineteen.
• Chapter Twenty.
• Chapter Twenty–one.
• Chapter Twenty–two.
• Chapter Twenty–three.
• Chapter Twenty–four.
• Chapter Twenty–five.
• Chapter Twenty–six.
• Chapter Twenty–seven.
• Chapter Twenty–eight.
• Chapter Twenty–nine.
• Chapter Thirty.
• Chapter Thirty–one.
• Chapter Thirty–two.
• Chapter Thirty–three.
• Chapter Thirty–four.
• Chapter Thirty–five.
• Chapter Thirty–six.
• Chapter Thirty–seven.
• Chapter Thirty–eight.
• Chapter Thirty–nine.
• Chapter Forty.
• Chapter Forty–one.
• Chapter Forty–two.
• Chapter Forty–three.
• Chapter Forty–four.
• Chapter Forty–five.
• Chapter Forty–six.
• Chapter Forty–seven.
• Chapter Forty–eight.
• Chapter Forty–nine.
• Chapter Fifty.
• Chapter Fifty–one.
• Chapter Fifty–two.
• Chapter Fifty–three.
• Chapter Fifty–four.
• Chapter Fifty–five.
• Chapter Fifty–six.
• Chapter Fifty–seven.
• Chapter Fifty–eight.
• Chapter Fifty–nine.
• Chapter Sixty.
• Chapter Sixty–one.
• Chapter Sixty–two.
• Chapter Sixty–three.
• Appendix. Documents Relative To, Or Illustrative Of, Magna Carta.
• I.: The Charter of Liberties of Henry I.1 (1100.)
• II.: The Second Or Oxford Charter of Stephen.1 (1136.)
• III.: Charter of Henry II.1 (circa 1154.)
• IV.: The So–called “unknown Charter of Liberties” of John.2 (circa 1214–1215.)
• V.: The Articles of the Barons.1 (1215.)
• VI.: Writs Supplementary of John’s Great Charter.
• VII.: The Great Charter of Henry III.2 (third Reissue, 11th February, 1225.)
• VIII.: Carta De Foresta.1 (6 November, 1217.)

CHAPTER FIFTY.

Nos amovebimus penitus de balliis parentes Gerardi de Athyes, quod de cetero nullam habeant balliam in Anglia; Engelardum de Cygony, Petrum et Gionem et Andream, de Cancellis, Gionem de Cygony, Galfridum de Martinny et fratres ejus, Philippum Marci et fratres ejus, et Galfridum nepotem ejus, et totam sequelam eorundem.

We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks, the relations of Gerard of Athée (so that in future they shall have no bailiwick in England); namely, Engelard of Cigogné, Peter, Guy, and Andrew of Chanceaux, Guy of Cigogné, Geoffrey of Martigny with his brothers, Philip Mark with his brothers and his nephew Geoffrey, and the whole brood of the same.

Chapter 45 sought to secure the appointment of suitable men to posts of trust under the Crown; the present chapter definitely excludes from bailiwicks (a comprehensive term embracing all grades of local magistracies) one particular group of royal favourites. This clause was omitted from future reissues, along with chapter 45.

The Charter does not explain the reasons that had rendered these men obnoxious; but the testimony of contemporary Plea Rolls and Pipe Rolls amply supplies the omission. Each one of them can be shown to have held places of profit under the Crown as sheriffs of counties, forest wardens, and commanders of royal garrisons. They formed a group of kinsmen who, after John had lost his French dominions, preferred to follow their royal master to England. The three villages of Athée, Cigogné, and Chanceaux lie close together in Touraine, in the modern department of Indre–et–Loire, not far from the cities of Tours and Loches. The group of men here named all came from this district. “They were neither courtiers nor politicians, but soldiers of experience, whom the barons feared with good cause.”1

The career of Engelard de Cigogné may be taken as typical of the rest. He was a nephew of Gerard of Athée, whom he succeeded, in 1209, as sheriff of Gloucester and Hereford, an office he held until about the time of Magna Carta. The Plea Roll of the Gloucestershire Eyre of 1221 covers the period of his shrievalty, and contains a striking and detailed picture of his misdeeds and extortions.2 He accounted for the firma burgi of Bristol,3 which seems to imply interference with its chartered liberties. He also held pleas of the Crown for Gloucestershire,4 in violation of the ordinance of 1194 forbidding any sheriff to act as justiciar in his own county.5 Several entries tell of barrels of wine which he took as “prise” from ships entering the port of Bristol, and thereafter sold to the King. For example, the exchequer officials allowed him to deduct from the firma, the sum of 60s., in respect of four tuns of red wine, as certified by the King’s writ.6 Engelard guarded a rich treasure for the King at Bristol, probably as constable of the castle there, sums being paid to him ad ponendum in thesauro regis.7 On one occasion he was entrusted with more than 10,000 marks of the King’s money.8 Hostages, as well as bullion, were placed under his care; a writ dated 18th December, 1214, directed him to liberate three noble Welshmen whom it mentioned by name.9

In the civil war to which the treaty of peace sealed at Runnymede was a prelude, Engelard, then constable of Windsor Castle and warden of the adjacent forest of Odiham, proved active in John’s service. He successfully defended Windsor from the French faction, making vigorous sorties until relieved by the King.1 He requisitioned supplies to meet the royal needs; and a plea was brought against him so long afterwards as 1232, in connection with twelve hogsheads of wine thus taken.2 He acted as sheriff of Surrey under William Marshal, but was suspended from this office in 1218, in consequence of a dispute with Earl Warenne.3 He remained warden of the castle and forests for twenty years after the accession of Henry III.,4 and his long services were rewarded with grants of land: in the county of Oxford he held the manor of Benzinton, with four hundreds and a half, during the King’s good pleasure;5 while his son Oliver received the lucrative post of guardian over the lands and heirs of Henry de Berkley.6

In 1221, however, acting in consort with Falkes de Bréauté, Philip Mark, and other castellans, Engelard supported earl William of Aumâle in his resistance to the demands of Henry’s ministers, that all royal castles should be restored to the King. Notwithstanding the secrecy with which he sent men to the earl at Biham castle,7 he fell under suspicion of treason, and found hostages that he would hold the castle of Windsor for the King.8 In 1236, he was relieved of some of his offices, but not of all, for in 1254 he was two years in arrears with the firma of the manor of Odiham.9 In that year, apparently, he died; for the patent roll contains a writ granting him permission to make his will, and an entry in 1255 relates how “for good service done to the King by Engelard of Cigogné in his lifetime, the King granted to his executors that they should be quit of all accounts to be rendered by them at the exchequer, and of all averages of accounts, and of all debts and imposts.”10 Engelard thus died, as he had lived, the trusted servant and favourite of kings. His career illustrates how the very same men who had incurred odium as partisans of John became, when the civil war was over, instruments of his son’s misgovernment.1

[1 ]G. J. Turner, Trans. R.H.S., XVIII. p. 254.

[2 ]See Gloucester Pleas, edited by Maitland, passim.

[3 ]Pipe Roll, 12 John, cited Madox, I. 333.

[4 ]Pipe Roll, 12 John, cited Madox, II. 146.

[5 ]Gloucester Pleas, xiii. ff.

[6 ]Pipe Roll, 12 John, cited Madox, I. 766.

[7 ]Ibid., I. 606.

[8 ]Ibid., I. 384.

[9 ]Rot. Pat., 16 John, m. 9 (I. 125), and New Rymer, I. 126.

[1 ]See M. Paris, II. 665, who calls him “Ingelardus de Athie” and describes him as vir in opere martis probatissimus. Cf. Rot. Pat., 9 Henry III. m. 9.

[2 ]See Bracton’s Note–book, No. 684.

[3 ]See Rot. Pat., 2 Henry III. m. 7.

[4 ]Ibid., 19 Henry III.

[5 ]See Testa de Neville, p. 18, and ibid., p. 120.

[6 ]Rot. Pat., 9 Henry III. m. 6.

[7 ]R. Wendover, IV. 66.

[8 ]Annals of Dunstable, III. 68.

[9 ]Mem. Roll, 28 Henry III., cited Madox, II. 201.

[10 ]Mich. Communia, 29 Henry III., cited Madox, II. 229.

[1 ]Some particulars respecting the other individuals named will be found in Thomson, Magna Charta, 244–5. Philip Mark was Constable of Nottingham (R. Wendover, III. 237), and Sheriff both before and after 1215 (see, e.g., Rot. Claus., I. 412), while Guy de Chanceaux in 1214 accounted for scutage of the honour of Gloucester (Madox, I. 639), and for the rent of the barony of William of Beauchamp (ibid., I. 717). See also Petit–Dutaillis, Louis VIII., p. 116; Gloucester Pleas, passim; Turner, op. cit. passim.