elf at last obliged to
submit at discretion.
[FN [h] Ibid. p. 177. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 71. [i] M. Paris, p.
177. [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 200.]

[MN 15th June. Magna Charta.]
A conference between the king and the barons was appointed at
Runnemede, between Windsor and Staines; a place which has ever since
been extremely celebrated on account of this great event. The two
parties encamped apart, like open enemies; and after a debate of a few
days, the king, with a facility somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed
the charter which was required of him. [MN 19th June.] This famous
deed, commonly called the GREAT CHARTER, either granted or secured
very important liberties and privileges to every order of men in the
kingdom; to the clergy, to the barons, and to the people.

The freedom of elections was secured to the clergy; the former charter
of the king was confirmed, by which the necessity of a royal conge'
d'elire and confirmation was superseded: all check upon appeals to
Rome was removed, by the allowance granted every man to depart the
kingdom at pleasure: and the fines to be imposed on the clergy for any
offence were ordained to be proportional to their lay estates, not to
their ecclesiastical benefices.

The privileges granted to the barons were either abatements in the
rigour of the feudal law, or determinations in points which had been
left by that law, or had become, by practice, arbitrary and ambiguous.
The reliefs of heirs succeeding to a military fee were ascertained; an
earl's and baron's at a hundred marks, a knight's at a hundred
shillings. It was ordained by the charter, that, if the heir be a
minor, he shall immediately, upon his majority, enter upon his estate,
without paying any relief: the king shall not sell his wardship: he
shall levy only reasonable profits upon the estate, without committing
waste, or hurting the property: he shall uphold the castles, houses,
mills, parks, and ponds: and if he commit the guardianship of the
estate to the sheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to
find surety to the same purpose. During the minority of a baron,
while his lands are in wardship, and are not in his own possession, no
debt which he owes to the Jews shall bear any interest. Heirs shall
be married without disparagement; and before the marriage be
contracted, the nearest relations of the person shall be informed of
it. A widow, without paying any relief, shall enter upon her dowe