r,
the third part of her husband's rents: she shall not be compelled to
marry, so long as she chooses to continue single; she shall only give
security never to marry without her lord's consent. The king shall
not claim the wardship of any minor who hold lands by military tenure
of a baron, on pretence that he also holds lands of the crown by
soccage or any other tenure. Scutages shall be estimated at the same
rate as in the time of Henry I.; and no scutage or aid, except in the
three general feudal cases, the king's captivity, the knighting of his
eldest son, and the marrying of his eldest daughter, shall be imposed
but by the great council of the kingdom: the prelates, earls, and
great barons, shall be called to this great council, each by a
particular writ; the lesser barons by a general summons of the
sheriff. The king shall not seize any baron's land for a debt to the
crown, if the baron possesses as many goods and chattels as are
sufficient to discharge the debt. No man shall be obliged to perform
more service for his fee than he is bound to by his tenure. No
governor or constable of a castle shall oblige any knight to give
money for castle-guard, if the knight be willing to perform the
service in person, or by another able-bodied man; and if the knight be
in the field himself, by the king's command, he shall be exempted from
all other service of this nature. No vassal shall be allowed to sell
so much of his land as to incapacitate himself from performing his
service to his lord.

These were the principal articles calculated for the interest of the
barons; and had the charter contained nothing farther, national
happiness and liberty had been very little promoted by it, as it would
only have tended to increase the power and independence of an order of
men who were already too powerful, and whose yoke might have become
more heavy on the people than even that of an absolute monarch. But
the barons, who alone drew and imposed on the prince this memorable
charter, were necessitated to insert in it other clauses of a more
extensive and more beneficent nature: they could not expect the
concurrence of the people without comprehending, together with their
own, the interests of inferior ranks of men; and all provisions which
the barons, for their own sake, were obliged to make, in order to
ensure the free and equitable administration of justice, tended
directly to the benefit of the whole community. The following we