Note 1227 — Chapter V · THE YOUNG KING 1223–1227 (continued 2)

Roger dates these proceedings “mense Februario,” which the letter close shews to be a month too late; he says that Henry thereupon “excussit se per consilium Huberti de Burgo, justiciarii regni, de consilio et gubernatione dicti episcopi [Wintoniensis] et suorum, qui regi fuerant prius quasi paedagogi, ita quod omnes illas a curia sua et cohabitatione removit” (p. 139), whereas Peter had been removed from his tutorship six years before; and he travesties the proclamation about charters as follows: “In eodem itaque concilio rex fecit cancellare et cassare omnes chartas de provinciis omnibus regni Angliae de libertatibus Forestae, postquam jam per biennium in toto regno fuerant usitatae, hanc occasionem praetendens quod chartae illae concessae fuerant, et libertates scriptae et signatae, dum ipse erat sub custodia, nec sui corporis aut sigilli aliquam habuerit potestatem, unde viribus carere debuit quod sine ratione fuerat usurpatum.... Tunc vero denuntiatum est viris religiosis et aliis qui suis volebant libertatibus gaudere, ut innovarent chartas suas de novo regis sigillo, scientes quod rex chartas antiquas nullius esse momenti reputabat” (pp. 139, 140). The King’s instructions to the sheriffs say not a word of the Forest Charter, and were obviously never meant to apply either to that document or to the Great Charter; and what they do say about other charters is completely misrepresented by the last clause of Roger’s concluding sentence.