Note (2) — Chapter II
Reading edition
On the renewal of the Laws of Eadward by William, see Norman Conquest, iv. 324. Stubbs, Documents, 25. It should be marked that the Laws of Eadward were again confirmed by Henry the First (see Stubbs, 90-99), and, as the Great Charter grew out of the Charter of Henry the First produced by Archbishop Stephen Langton in 1213, the descent of the Charter from the Laws of Eadward is very simple. See Roger of Wendover, iii. 263 (ed. Coxe). The Primate there distinctly says that he had made John swear to renew the Laws of Eadward. “Audistis quomodo, tempore quo apud Wintoniam Regem absolvi, ipsum jurare compulerim, quod leges iniquas destrueret et leges bonas, videlicet leges Eadwardi, revocaret et in regno faceret ab omnibus observari.” It must be remembered that the phrase of the Laws of Eadward or of any other King does not really mean a code of laws of that King’s drawing up, but simply the way of administering the Law, and the general political condition, which existed in that King’s reign. This is all that would be meant by the renewal of the Laws of Eadward in William’s time. It simply meant that William was to rule as his English predecessors had ruled before him. But, by the time of John, men had no doubt begun to look on the now canonized Eadward as a lawgiver, and to fancy that there was an actual code of laws of his to be put in force.
On the various confirmations of the Great Charter, see Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 111.