Note 369 — Chapter II · THE REGENCY OF WILLIAM THE MARSHAL 1216–1219

There is not a particle of evidence that these men had ever given just cause for resentment to any English party or person. “They cannot be described as royal favourites, for not one of them received a grant of land in perpetuity by royal charter. Nor can they be included among the King’s political advisers; for if they had been such they would certainly have witnessed his charters occasionally. Yet not one of them witnessed a royal charter except Engelard de Cigogné; and he witnessed but one before the issue of the Great Charter at Runnymede, and but two afterwards. They were neither courtiers nor politicians, but soldiers of experience, whom the barons feared with good cause.” Turner, pt. I. pp. 253, 254.