Magna Charta
67
2 8 . c o m p e n s at i o n f o r t h e t a k i n g o f p r i vat e p r o p e r t y
No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn or other chattels of any man
unless he presently give him money for it, or hath respite of payment by
the good-will of the seller.
29. No constable shall distrain any knight to give money for castle-guard,
if he himself will do it in his person, or by another able man, in case he
cannot do it through any reasonable cause. And if we have carried or sent
him into the army, he shall be free from such guard for the time he shall
be in the army by our command.
30. no taking of horses or carts without consent
No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take horses or carts of any
freeman for carriage, without the assent of the said freeman.
31. no taking of trees for timber without consent
Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take any man’s timber for our castles or
other uses, unless by the consent of the owner of the timber.
32. We will retain the lands of those convicted of felony only one year and
a day, and then they shall be delivered to the lord of the fee.
33. All kydells (wears) for the time to come shall be put down in the rivers
of Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except upon the seacoast.
34. The writ which is called prœcipe, for the future, shall not be made out
to any one, of any tenement, whereby a freeman may lose his court.
35. uniform weights and measures
There shall be one measure of wine and one of ale through our whole
realm; and one measure of corn, that is to say, the London quarter; and
one breadth of dyed cloth, and russets, and haberjects, that is to say, two
ells within the lists; and it shall be of weights as it is of measures.