Note 1089 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 7)

See supra, 51–2. The text is given in Appendix. Thirteen of the twenty-five executors are mentioned by name as agreeing to this new treaty on behalf of themselves and other earls, barons and freeholders unnamed. Cf. R. Wendover, III. 319 (“et turrem Londonarum”). A third sanction, or form of security, appears in the garbled versions of the Charter given by R. Wendover (III. 317) and M. Paris (II. 603): the constables of the four royal castles of Northampton, Kenilworth, Nottingham and Scarborough, were to swear to hold these strongholds under orders of the twenty-five executors. See M. Paris (Ibid.). This clause has not been found in any known copy of any issue of Magna Carta. Cf. Mr. H. R. Luard’s preface to the second volume of Matthew Paris, pp. xxxiii. to xxxvi., where he discusses the peculiarities of the versions given by Wendover and Paris.