er clergy, the nobility, and the commons of the land the
assurance is given, that under no circumstances, however pressing,
should any tax or contribution or requisition--not even the export
duty on wool--be levied except by their common consent and for the
interests of all.[45] In the Latin text all sounds more open and less
reserved: but even the words of the authentic document include a very
essential limitation of the prerogative of the crown, which hitherto
had alone exercised the right of estimating what the state needed and
of fixing the payments by this standard. The King was averse at heart
to the limitation even in this form. When he came back from Flanders
after concluding a truce with France, and army and people were met
together at York, to carry out a great campaign against Scotland, he
was pressed to confirm on English soil the concessions which he had
granted on foreign ground.[46] He held it advisable that the campaign
should be first carried through; four of his confidential friends
swore in his stead (since an oath in person was thought unbecoming to
the King), that, the campaign ended, the confirmation should not be
wanting. The enterprise was most successful, it led to a great victory
over the Scots, and it was the leaders of the English aristocracy who
did the best service there; nevertheless, when they met together next
Lent (1299) in London, the King strove to avoid an absolute promise:
he wished to expressly reserve the undefined 'rights of the crown.'
But this delay aroused a general storm: and as he was quite convinced
that he could not, under this condition, reckon on further support in
the war which still continued, he at last submitted to what was
unavoidable, and allowed his clause to drop.[47]

I do not know whether I am mistaken in ascribing to these concessions
a different character from that of the earlier ones. It was not a
sovereign defeated and reduced to the deepest humiliation who made
them, nor did the barons obtain articles which aimed at securing their
own direct supremacy: the concessions were the result of the war,
which could not be carried on with the existing means. When Edward I
laid stress on the necessity of greater common efforts, the
counter-demand which was made on him, and to which he yielded, merely
implied that a common resolution should be previously come to. His
concessions included a return for service already done, and a
condition for future service. It did no