her security, lead him soon to infringe their new
liberties, and revoke his own concessions. This alone gave birth to
those other articles, seemingly exorbitant, which were added as a
rampart for the safeguard of the great charter.

The barons obliged the king to agree that London should remain in
their hands, and the Tower be consigned to the custody of the primate,
till the fifteenth of August ensuing, or till the execution of the
several articles of the great charter [l]. The better to ensure the
same end, he allowed them to choose five-and-twenty members from their
own body, as conservators of the public liberties; and no bounds were
set to the authority of these men either in extent or duration. If
any complaint were made of a violation of the charter, whether
attempted by the king, justiciaries, sheriffs, or foresters, any four
of these barons might admonish the king to redress the grievance: if
satisfaction were not obtained, they could assemble the whole council
of twenty-five, who, in conjunction with the great council, were
empowered to compel him to observe the charter, and, in case of
resistance, might levy war against him, attack his castles, and employ
every kind of violence, except against his royal person, and that of
his queen and children. All men throughout the kingdom were bound,
under the penalty of confiscation, to swear obedience to the twenty-
five barons; and the freeholders of each county were to choose twelve
knights, who were to make report of such evil customs as required
redress, conformably to the tenour of the great charter [m]. The
names of those conservators were, the Earls of Clare, Albemarle,
Gloucester, Winchester, Hereford, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, Robert
de Vere, Earl of Oxford, William Mareschal the younger, Robert
Fitz-Walter, Gilbert de Clare, Eustace de Vescey, Gilbert Delaval,
William de Mowbray, Geoffrey de Say, Roger de Mombezon, William de
Huntingfield, Robert de Ros, the constable of Chester, William de
Aubenie, Richard de Perci, William Malet, John Fitz-Robert, William de
Lanvalay, Hugh de Bigod, and Roger de Montfichet [n]. These men were,
by this convention, really invested with the sovereignty of the
kingdom: they were rendered co-ordinate with the king, or rather
superior to him, in the exercise of the executive power: and as there
was no circumstance of government which, either directly or
indirectly, might not bear a relation to the security or observanc