Page:TheHistoricThames.djvu/93

 The Thames

it was, at this season of the year, a large, dry field, in which a considerable force could encamp. The Barons marched along the old Roman military road, which is still the high- road to Staines from London, crossed the river, and encamped on Runnymede. Here the Charta was presented, and prob- ably, though not certainly, signed and sealed. The local tradition ascribes the site of the actual signature to " Magna Charta" island — an eyot just up stream from the field, now called Runnymede, but neither in tradition nor in recorded history can this detail be fixed with any exactitude. The Charta is given as from Runnymede upon the 15th June, and for the purpose of these pages what we have to note is that these two months of marching and fighting had ended upon the strategic point of Staines, and had clearly shown its relation to Windsor and to London.

In the short campaign that followed, during which John so very nearly recovered his power, the capital importance of Windsor reappears. Louis of France, to whom the Barons were willing to hand over what was left of order in England, had occupied all the south and west, including even Worces- ter, and, of course, London. In this occupation the excep- tion of Dover, which the French were actively besieging, must be regarded as an isolated point, but Windsor, which John's men held against the allies, threw an angle of defence right down into the midst of the territory lost to the Crown.