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

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While reference has been made throughout to original sources where these were available, advantage has been freely taken of the labours of others. If a debt of gratitude requires to be here acknowledged to previous commentators, a far deeper debt is due to many scholars who have, within recent years, by their labours in various fields not directly connected with Magna Carta, incidentally thrown light on topics of which the Charter treats. Of Bishop Stubbs it is almost unnecessary to speak, since his works form the common starting-point of all historians and constitutional lawyers of the present generation. Readers versed in modern literature will readily trace the influence of Prof. Maitland, Mr. J. Horace Round, Sir Frederic Pollock, Mr. L. O. Pike, and Prof. Prothero; while the numerous other authorities laid under contribution are referred to in the foot-notes and the appended bibliography. Frequent reference has been made to two independent and scholarly histories of the reign of John which have recently appeared—Miss Norgate’s John Lackland, and Sir James H. Ramsay’s Angevin Empire. Of the older books dealing directly with the subject in hand, Sir William Blackstone’s Great Charter has been found the best; while among modern works the Chartes of M. Charles Bémont is the most valuable. The inexhaustible stores of Madox’s History of the Exchequer have also been freely drawn upon.