Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/323

 England and France in the Middle Ages 235 of the barons banded together to force the king to sign a docu- ment stating plainly those things which according to old English custom a king might not legally do. The insurgent nobles met the king at Runny mede, not far from London. Here on the isth of June, 1215, they forced him to swear to observe what they be- lieved to be the rights of his subjects, which they had carefully written out. 378. Provisions of the Charter. The Great Charter is perhaps the most famous document in the history of government. The king promises to observe the rights of his vassals, and the vassals in turn agree to observe the rights of their vassals. The towns are not to be oppressed. The merchant is not to be deprived of his goods for small offenses, nor the farmer of his wagon and im- plements. The king is to impose no tax, besides the three feudal aids, 1 except with the consent of the Great Council of the nation. This was to include the prelates and greater barons and all the king's vassals. There is no more notable clause in the Charter than that which provides that no freeman is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, unless he be immediately sent before a court of his peers for trial. To realize the importance of this we must recollect that in France, down to 1789, nearly six hundred years later, the king exercised such unlimited powers that he could order the arrest of anyone he pleased and could imprison him for any length of time without bringing him to trial or even informing him of the nature of his offense. 379. Permanent Importance of the Great Charter. It must be remembered, however, that the barons, who forced the Charter on the king, had their own interests especially in mind. The nobles, churchmen, merchants, and other freemen made up only about a sixth of the population, and the Charter had little or noth- ing to say of serfs or villains ( 405), who formed the great mass of the English people at that time. They could still be victimized l These three regular feudal dues were payments made when the lord knighted his eldest son, gave his eldest daughter in marriage, or had been captured and was waiting to be ransomed.