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

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Is the “freeman” of chapter 1 something different? The question must be considered an open one; but much might be said in favour of the opinion that “freeman” as used in the Charter is synonymous with “freeholder”; and that therefore only a limited class could, as grantees or the heirs of such, make good a legal claim to share in the liberties secured by Magna Carta.^[208]

To the question, who had authority to enforce its provisions, the Great Charter has likewise a clear answer, namely, a select band or quasi-committee of twenty-five barons. Although the Mayor of London was chosen among their number, it is clear that no strong support for any democratic interpretation of Magna Carta can be founded on the choice of executors; since these formed a distinctly aristocratic body. Yet this tendency to vest power exclusively in an oligarchy composed of the heads of great families may have been counteracted, so it is possible to contend, by the invitation extended by the same chapter to the communa totius terrae to assist the twenty-five Executors against the King in the event of his breaking faith. Unfortunately, the extreme vagueness of the phrase makes it rash in a high degree to build conclusions on such foundations. It is possible to interpret the words communa totius terrae as applying merely to “the community of freeholders of the land,” or even to “the community of barons of the land,” as well as to “the community of all the estates (including churchmen, merchants, and commons) of the land,” as is usually done on no authority save conjecture. Every body of men was known in the thirteenth century as a communa; a word of exceedingly loose connotation.