ea which
he might derive from his residing in a foreign country when he formerly
affixed his seal to them.[*] It appeared that they judged aright of
Edward's character and intentions: he delayed this confirmation as long
as possible; and, when the fear of worse consequences obliged him
again to comply, he expressly added a salvo for his royal dignity
or prerogative, which in effect enervated the whole force of the
charters.[**] The two earls and their adherents left the parliament in
disgust; and the king was constrained on a future occasion to grant to
the people, without any subterfuge, a pure and absolute confirmation
of those laws[***] which were so much the object of their passionate
affection. Even further securities were then provided for the
establishment of national privileges. Three knights were appointed to be
chosen in each county, and were invested with the power of punishing,
by fine and imprisonment, every transgression or violation of the
charters;[****] a precaution which, though it was soon disused, as
encroaching too much on royal prerogative, proves the attachment
which the English in that age bore to liberty, and their well-grounded
jealousy of the arbitrary disposition of Edward.

The work, however, was not yet entirely finished and complete. In order
to execute the lesser charter, it was requisite, by new perambulations,
to set bounds to the royal forests, and to disafforest all land which
former encroachments had comprehended within their limits. Edward
discovered the same reluctance to comply with this equitable demand; and
it was not till after many delays on his part, and many solicitations
and requests, and even menaces of war and violence,[*****] on the part
of the barons, that the perambulations were made, and exact boundaries
fixed by a jury in each county to the extent of his forests.[******] Had
not his ambitious and active temper raised him so many foreign enemies,
and obliged him to have recourse so often to the assistance of his
subjects, it is not likely that those concessions could ever have been
extorted from him.

* Heming. vol. i. p. 159.

** Heming. vol. i. p. 167, 168.

*** Heming. vol. i. p. 168.

**** Heming. vol. i. p. 170.

***** Walsing. p. 80. We are told by Tyrrel, (vol. ii. p. 145,)
from the Chronicle of St. Albans, that the barons, not
content with the execution of the charter of forests,
demanded of Edward as high terms