The Text of Henry I.'s Coronation Charter

Abstract

The historical importance of Henry I.'s charter of liberties has been fully recognised by the leading writers of our time. Shortly quoted and confirmed by Stephen and Henry II. in their charters of liberties, it was called Magna Carta in the beginning of the thirteenth century, if not earlier; its influence on the constitutional struggle under King John has been often pointed out from the St. Albans chroniclers. Messrs. Round and Hall but lately showed its remarkable use in a French document of the same age. No apology, therefore, is needed, if herewith a first attempt is ventured to ascertain its authentic words from 28 texts. It has to be reconstructed, as none of the more than thirty originals once existing is preserved to us. Many former editors have, indeed, picked up in their notes one or other of the numberless variations between the manuscripts, but they have not tried to distinguish scribes' errors, intentional alterations, forging tendencies, and the differences resulting from the fact that several exemplars of equal authenticity went out from Westminster on or shortly after that fifth of August 1100, when Henry was crowned.

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