274 The Period of Constitution Making

The charter Idea was striking deep into the soil. The
elaborate provisions for preserving originals and multi-
plying copies of John's Charter plus these minority re-
visions would go far to keep royal charters of liberties
from ever again being forgotten. And though the text
of John's Charter passed out of mind, yet nobody forgot
that a charter had been wrung from him. The striking
events of his reign with this impressive and dramatic
denouement had fixed the attention not only of England
but of many parts of the continent.

But the time was still critical and much depended upon
the character of Henry III. Had he been a strong and
intelligent ruler, the contract idea might have died with
the rest of feudalism. But his weakness, meanness, ex-
travagance, and love of foreigners did the work that was
necessary. England has been indeed fortunate in the
distribution of her good and bad kings* There was no
chance to forget the Charters in Henry III.'s reign; to
make the king confirm them gave his exasperated sub-
jects something to do that seemed rational; for many
years there was a dawn of hope each time he solemnly
swore to observe them. But finally men began to realise
with how mean and petty an individual they were dealing.
Since the Norman Conquest, with one exception, Henry
was the first king who had not been feared, and it is
interesting to note the increasing freedom with which
his shortcomings were denounced to his face.x It would
have been dangerous to stable government to have had
such a condition last long; but something of this sort was
needed to break the tremendous prestige of the Angevin
monarchy. As the reign progressed, so did emphasis
on the Charters. When Henry was declared of age in

1 The chronicler Matthew Paris reports (1244) that "the magnates of
England convening on Nov. 2, when the king most insistently, not to say
most impudently, asked them again for a money aid, so many times injured
and deluded they with one voice refused him to his face." (Stubbs, Select

Charters,

Constitutional History t p. 294.

'tors, p. 327-) See also the very lively dialogue between the king
and the Prior of the Hospitallers cited in Taswell-Langmead, English
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