Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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Were the barons bound to follow John in a forlorn attempt, of which they disapproved, to recover his lost fiefs from the French Crown? Or were they bound to support him only in his legitimate schemes as King of England? Or were they, by way of compromise, liable for services in the identical possessions held by William the Conqueror at the date when their ancestors first got their fiefs—that is, for wars in England and Normandy alone? Tenderness for legal subtleties or strict logic could hardly be expected from the malcontents of the northern counties, smarting under a dumb sense of wrong. Despising all nice definition, they declared roundly in 1213 that they owed no service whatsoever out of England.^[119] This extreme claim put them clearly in the wrong, since John had many precedents to the contrary ready to lay before them. When the King, on his return from his unfortunate expedition in 1214, demanded a scutage from all who had not followed him to Poitou, the malcontents declared that they had no obligation either to follow him out of the kingdom, or to pay a scutage in lieu thereof.^[120] Pope Innocent was probably correct in condemning this contention as founded neither on English law nor on feudal custom.^[121] There is some ground for believing that a compromise was mooted on the basis that the barons should agree to serve in Normandy and Brittany, as well as in England, on being exempted from fighting elsewhere abroad.^[122]