Magna Charta
71
from our expedition, or if perchance we tarry at home and do not make
our expedition, we will immediately cause full justice to be administered
therein.
53. The same respite we shall have, and in the same manner, about administering justice, disafforesting or letting continue the forests, which
Henry our father, and our brother Richard, have afforested; and the same
concerning the wardship of the lands which are in another’s fee, but the
wardship of which we have hitherto had, by reason of a fee held of us by
knight’s service; and for the abbeys founded in other fee than our own,
in which the lord of the fee says he has a right; and when we return from
our expedition, or if we tarry at home, and do not make our expedition,
we will immediately do full justice to all the complainants in this behalf.
54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the appeal of a woman,
for the death of any other than her husband.
55. All unjust and illegal fines made by us, and all amerciaments imposed
unjustly and contrary to the law of the land, shall be entirely given up, or
else be left to the decision of the five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned for the preservation of the peace, or of the major part of them, together with the foresaid Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be
present, and others whom he shall think fit to invite; and if he cannot be
present, the business shall notwithstanding go on without him; but so
that if one or more of the aforesaid five-and-twenty barons be plaintiffs
in the same cause, they shall be set aside as to what concerns this particular affair, and others be chosen in their room, out of the said five-andtwenty, and sworn by the rest to decide the matter.
56. If we have disseised or dispossessed the Welsh of any lands, liberties,
or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers, either in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them; and if
any dispute arise upon this head, the matter shall be determined in the
Marches by the judgment of their peers; for tenements in England according to the law of England, for tenements in Wales according to the