Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/566

 558 October Notes and Documents Charters to some Western Boroughs in 12 j6 The year 1256 was marked by the grant of charters of liberty to several royal boroughs near the Welsh border, viz, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Gloucester, Bridgnorth, and Worcester. It may be observed that this was the period of Henry Ill's personal rule, and that the boroughs were close to the lands of those marcher lords from whom his son Edward obtained help against Simon de Montfort. As the charter roll for the year 40 Henry III is missing, the charters, though dealt with separately in the local histories of the respective boroughs, do not seem to have been compared with one another. Such a comparison reveals the fact that the first four boroughs, and possibly Worcester also, received their charters in the same month — August — when the king was in the west of England ; and that the purport, sequence, and general phrasing of the clauses are identical. Eleven new privileges were conceded, though not every borough received the full number. Each privilege formed a separate clause ; the complete series read as follows : 1. Quod ipsi et heredes sui imperpetuum habeant returnum brevium nostrorum de summonitionibus scaccarii nostri et omnium aliorum brevium nostrorum predictam civitatem contingentium. 2. Et quod respondeant per manum suam propriam ad scaccarium nostrum de omnibus debitis suis et summonitionibus eiusdem scaccarii predictam villam contingentibus. 3. Ita quod nullus vicecomes aut alius ballivus vel minister noster decetero ingrcdiatur civitatem predictam ad aliquas sumonitiones dis- trictiones vel aliqua alia nisi per defectum civium predictorum vel heredum suorum. 4. Quod ipsi vel eorum bona quocunque locorum in terra vel potestate nostra inventa non arestentur pro aliquo debito de quo fideiussores aut principales debitores non extiterint, nisi forte ipsi debitores de eorum sint communa et potestate habentes unde de debitis suis in toto vel in parte satisfacere possint, et dicti cives creditoribus eorundem debitorum in iustitia defuerint et de hoc rationabiliter constare possint. 5. Et quod dicti cives pro transgressione seu forisfactura servientum suorum catalla et bona sua in manibus ipsorum inventa aut alicubi locorum