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The Charter of the Forest of 1217 ( la, Carta Foresta) is a
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...
that re-established for
free men "Free Men" is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, which originally appeared in his collection '' The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein'' (1966) and was later collected in ''Expanded Universe''. It is copyrighted by ...
rights of access to the
royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...
that had been eroded by King
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
and his heirs. Many of its provisions were in force for centuries afterwards. It was originally sealed in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
by the young King Henry III, acting under the regency of
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 or 1147 – 14 May 1219), also called William the Marshal (Norman French: ', French: '), was an Anglo-Norman soldier and statesman. He served five English kings— Henry II, his sons the "Young King" ...
. It was in many ways a companion document to
Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by t ...
. The Charter redressed some applications of the Anglo-Norman Forest Law that had been extended and abused by King William Rufus.


History

"Forest" to the
Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
meant an enclosed area where the monarch (or sometimes another aristocrat) had exclusive rights to animals of the chase and the greenery ("
vert Vert or Verts may refer to: * Vert (heraldry), the colour green in heraldry * Vert (music producer) (born 1972), pseudonym of Adam Butler, an English music producer * Vert (river), in southern France * Vert (sport), a competition in extreme versi ...
") on which they fed.Geraldine van Buren, "Take Back Control: A new Commons Charter for the twenty-first century is overdue, 800 years after the first": in ''Times Literary Supplement'', 10 March 2017, pp. 23–25. It did not consist only of trees, but included large areas of commons such as heathland, grassland and wetlands, productive of food, grazing and other resources. Lands became more and more restricted as King Richard and King John designated greater and greater areas as royal forest. At its widest extent, royal forest covered about one-third of the land of southern England. Thus it became an increasing hardship on the common people to try to farm, forage, and otherwise use the land they lived on. The Charter of the Forest was first issued on 6 November 1217 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, as a complementary charter to
Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by t ...
from which it had evolved. It was reissued in 1225 with a number of minor changes to wording, and then was joined with Magna Carta in the
Confirmation of Charters (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by th ...
in 1297. At a time when royal forests were the most important potential source of
fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy b ...
for cooking, heating and industries such as
charcoal burning A charcoal burner is someone whose occupation is to manufacture charcoal. Traditionally this is achieved by carbonising wood in a charcoal pile or kiln. Charcoal burning is one of the oldest human crafts. The knowledge gained from this industr ...
, and of such hotly defended rights as
pannage Pannage (also referred to as ''Eichelmast'' or ''Eckerich'' in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) is the practice of releasing livestock- pigs in a forest, so that they can feed on fallen acorns, be ...
(pasture for their pigs), estover (collecting firewood),
agistment Agistment originally referred specifically to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests. To agist is, in English law, to take cattle to graze, in exchange for payment (derived from the Old English ''giste'', ''gite'', a "lying place"). H ...
(grazing), or
turbary Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog. The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary. Turbary rights, whic ...
(cutting of turf for fuel), this charter was almost unique in providing a degree of economic protection for free men who used the forest to forage for food and to graze their animals. In contrast to Magna Carta, which dealt with the rights of barons, it restored to the common man some real rights, privileges and protections against the abuses of an encroaching aristocracy. For many years it was regarded as a development of great significance in England's constitutional history, with the great seventeenth-century jurist Sir
Edward Coke Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sax ...
referring to it along with Magna Carta as the Charters of England's Liberties, and Sir
William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family ...
remarking in the eighteenth century that:


Contents

The first chapter of the Charter protected common pasture in the forest for all those "accustomed to it", and chapter nine provided for "every man to agist his wood in the forest as he wishes". It added "Henceforth every freeman, in his wood or on his land that he has in the forest, may with impunity make a mill, fish-preserve, pond, marl-pit, ditch, or arable in cultivated land outside coverts, provided that no injury is thereby given to any neighbour." The Charter restored the area classified as "forest" to that of Henry II's time. Clause 10 repealed the death penalty (and mutilation as a lesser punishment) for capturing deer (
venison Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edibl ...
), though transgressors were still subject to fines or imprisonment. Special verderers' courts were set up within the forests to enforce the laws of the charter.


Development

By Tudor times, most of the laws served mainly to protect the timber in royal forests. However, some clauses in the Laws of Forests remained in force until the 1970s, and the special courts still exist in the
New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...
and the
Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...
. In this respect, the Charter was the statute that remained longest in force in England (from 1217 to 1971), being finally superseded by the
Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act 1971 The Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act 1971 (c 47) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act implemented recommendations contained in the second report on statute law revision,The Law Commission. ''Statute Law Revision: Second R ...
. The Charter was a vehicle for asserting the values of the commons and the right of commoners against the state and the forces of commodification. The Act that replaced it was about the protection of nature and administering the commodification of natural resources. To mark 800 years of the Charter of the Forest, in 2017 the
Woodland Trust The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972. The Woodland Tr ...
and more than 50 other cross-sector organisations joined forces to create and launch a
Charter for Trees, Woods and People Since 2017, the Woodland Trust has led 70 United Kingdom organizations in the call for a Charter for Trees, Woods and People. History The Charter of the Forest was first signed on 6 November 1217 as a sister charter to the Magna Carta from whi ...
, reflecting the modern relationship with trees and woods in the landscape for people in the UK.


Significance

According to Guy Standing, the Charter "was not about the rights of the poor, but about the rights of the free. For its time and place, it was a radical assertion of the universality of freedom, its commonality."


Surviving copies

It is claimed that only two copies of the 1217 Charter of the Forest survive, belonging to
Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...
and
Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Construc ...
. The Lincoln copy is normally on display in the David P J Ross Magna Carta Vault in
Lincoln Castle Lincoln Castle is a major medieval castle constructed in Lincoln, England, during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes. It is one of only ...
, together with the Lincoln copy of Magna Carta. A manuscript of the 1225 reissue narrowly escaped destruction in 1865 and is now available in the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
(Add. Ch. 24712). However, there is another recently discovered copy of the Charter of the Forest in Sandwich Guildhall Museum in Kent.


In popular culture

The Charter has inspired the name of the Read-Opera ''The Charter of the Forest,'' which deals with themes such as free people's relation to power, which were codified in one form by the original Charter of the Forest.


See also

*
English land law English land law is the law of real property in England and Wales. Because of its heavy historical and social significance, land is usually seen as the most important part of English property law. Ownership of land has its roots in the feudal ...
*
Forestry in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom,The United Kingdom (sometimes abbreviated to UK) is a political unit (specifically a country), the British Isles is a geographical unit (the archipelago lying off the northwest coast of Europe), and Great Britain is the name of ...
*''R v Hampden'' (1637) 3 Howell State Trials 825, known also as the ''Case of Shipmony'', leading to the
Ship Money Act 1640 The Ship Money Act 1640 (16 Car 1 c 14) was an Act of the Parliament of England. It outlawed the medieval tax called ship money, a tax the sovereign could levy (on coastal towns) without parliamentary approval. Ship money was intended for use in ...


Notes


References

* GC Homans, ''English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century'' (1941) *H Rothwell, ''English Historical Documents 1189–1327'' (1995) * P. Linebaugh, ''The Magna Charta Manifesto'' (2008)


External links


BBC Radio 4 "The Things We Forgot to Remember," Series 2 Episode 4, from 6:15 onwards
* * * * *
Lincoln Castle Magna Carta (and Charter of the Forest) display page
{{Authority control 1210s in law 1217 in England 1225 in England 1297 in England Medieval charters and cartularies of England Medieval manuscripts Magna Carta Government documents Political charters English forest law Henry III of England Public commons