At the end of king John's original Magna Carta, and not in any
other version, is a clause now numbered 61 that allowed the
election of 25 barons to ensure that the Magna Carta was
implemented. There is no record of any election and the
earliest record of any list of 25 barons is in
Matthew Paris' "Chronica Majora", vol II as published in 1874.
It is likely that an election followed fairly soon after the Seal was affixed to the original in June 1215, if only because at least one on Paris' list died later in 1215 and another in 1216. Paris' list is on pp. 604-5:
Note that this list has both Mowbrays, brothers. Elsewhere it is said that the second Mowbray, Roger, was a substitute for Roger de Montbegon who resigned, though I have yet to find documents to confirm this. If this resignation is correct, the list is not of the originally elected sureties; an alternative view is that 'Rogerus de Munbray' was a mis-write for Roger de Montbegon. What I have yet to find is any firm documentary evidence that Roger de Montbegon was even elected an Enforcer in the first place. What is a little more certain is that Matthew Paris wrote his list some time after 1215, at least as late as 1225 as he incorporated several phrases of the 1225 Magna Carta into this manuscript. It may even be that it was much later still: in the ODNB article on Paris it says that his editing of the Chronica Majorum did not start until 1235 and finished around 1253. So his list of the Enforcers was written at least 20 years after they were elected. I wonder then if his list does not contain other infelicities. From this distance in time it seems odd that the list of Enforcers should have contained two fathers and sons, the Clares and Bigods. Would it really have enhanced their role to have restricted their appeal by restricting the families represented? Personally I wonder if these Clares and Bigods did not succeed one another rather than acted together? Or was it, as with Cromwell's experience in getting people to seal the warrant for Charles I's execution, that volunteers vanished into the night? These barons, with the mayor of London, were given powers to enforce the original Magna Carta. But I have not found any record of any act by them as Enforcers; however Matthew Strickland in the ODNB theme article on Magna Carta refers to 'mandates' being issued on behalf of Magna Carta for as much as four months after the sealing in June. It is noteworthy that by 1217, the Magna Carta was reissued after king John's death but with clause 61, and a few other such, omitted altogether. This leads me to uspect that the sureties were a paper tiger with no powers and unable to implement anything. Nevertheless the idea took root that monarchs did not have absolute powers. I now continue with the heraldry and a bit of genealogy. |