Note 894 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 5)

The need for this special reference to relief is not, at first sight, obvious, since c. 2 of Magna Carta, by forbidding John to exact from Crown tenants of either class the arbitrary sums taken by his father, would seem to have already secured them from abuse. Probably, however, c. 43 sought to prevent John from treating each of the former tenants of the escheated barony as holder of a new barony of his own, and therefore liable to a baron’s relief of £100 instead of the £25 he ought to pay for his five fees, or £50 for his ten fees, or as the case might be. The case of William Pantol (see Pipe Roll, 9 Henry III., cited Madox, I. 318) seems to illustrate this. He was debited with £100 of relief for his father’s land, but protested that he held nothing of the Crown save five knights’ fees of the land which was of Robert of Belesme. This plea was upheld, and £75 of the amount debited was written off.