Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/83

Rh though he himſelf had ſince ſworn to Magna Charta, that made no matter; for ſuch falſe changes and converſions always turn cat again, as ſoon as they find game, and ſpy a mouſe.

next year the King being declared by the pope’s bull of full age, and being now King of France, and keeping poſſeſſion of all the King’s dominions beyond the ſeas, at a parliament held at Weſtminſter, he deſired a fifteenth for the recovery of them. And though many of the earls and barons had thereby loft their inheritances as well as the King, yet, the whole aſſembly agreed in this anſwer: “That they would freely grant the King what he deſired, but upon condition, if he would grant them their long deſired liberties.” The King, out of covetouſneſs of this aid, has charters preſently written and ſealed, and ſent to all the counties, and an oath in writing, for all men to ſwear to them, while, the King’s brother, becauſe they had hitherto been ill kept, cried out they were cozening charters.

ſays, he therefore forbears to recite the tenour of theſe charters, becauſe he had done it before in K. ’s reign, for the charters