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

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Even after the settlement arrived at on Friday, some minor points of dispute remained. The barons refused to be satisfied without substantial security that the reforms and restorations agreed on would be carried out by the King; they demanded that both the city of London and the Tower of London should be left completely under their control as pledges of John’s good faith, until 15th August, or longer, if the reforms had not then been completed. John obtained a slight modification of these demands; he surrendered the city of London to his opponents, as they asked; but placed the Tower in the neutral custody of the Archbishop of Canterbury. These conditions were embodied in a supplementary treaty, which describes itself as Conventio facta inter Regem Angliae et barones ejusdem regni.^[50] If the barons distrusted John, he was equally distrustful of them, demanding the security they had promised for fulfilment of their part of the original compact. He now asked a formal charter in his favour that they would observe the peace and their oaths of homage, which they point-blank refused to grant. The King appealed to the prelates without effect. The archbishops, with several suffragans, however, put a formal protest on record of the barons’ promise and subsequent refusal to keep it.^[51]