APPENDIX No. 4.

“Edward, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries, Sheriffs, Provosts, Officers, and all Bailiffs and his lieges health, Know ye that we, for the faithful service which our Barons of the Cinque Ports have rendered heretofore to our predecessors Kings of England and to us lately in our army of Wales, and for the service to us and our heirs Kings of England faithfully to be continued for the future, have granted and by this our Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs to the same our Barons and their heirs all their liberties and quittances, so that they may be quit of all duty [thelonium] and from all custom, viz.: from all lastage, tallage, passage, cayage, rivage, sponsage, and from all wrekke, and from all their selling, buying, and redeeming [rechato] through all our land and dominion with soc and sac and thol and theam; and that they may have infangenethef; and that they may be Wrekfri and Wytefri and lastagefri and lovetopfri; and that they may have Den and stronde at Gernemuthe, according as it is contained in an ordinance by us made to that end, and to be observed perpetually; and moreover that they may be quit from shires and hundreds, so that if any shall wish to plead against them, they may not answer nor plead otherwise than they were wont to plead in the time of the Lord Henry the King, our great-grandsire; and that they may have their findings in sea and on land; and that they may be quit of all their property and of all their markets like as our free men; and that they may have their honours in our court and their liberties through all our land whithersoever they shall have come; and that for all their lands which they possessed in the time of the Lord Henry the King, our father, namely, in the year of his reign the forty-fourth, they may be quit for ever of common summonses before our Justiciaries for whatever pleas itinerant in whatever counties of this land they may be; so that the same may not be bound to come before the Justiciaries aforesaid unless any of the same Barons should implead any one or be impleaded by any one; and that they may not plead elsewhere except where they ought and where they were wont, namely, at Shypwey; and that they may have the liberties and quittances aforesaid for the future as they themselves and their predecessors have ever held them better more fully and more honourably in the times of the Kings of England—Edward, William the First, and Second, King Henry, our great-grandsire, and in the times of King Richard and King John, our grandsire, and of the Lord Henry the King, our father, by Charters of the same, like as those Charters, which the same our Barons have to that effect, and which we have inspected, reasonably testify. And we prohibit that any should unjustly disturb them or their market on pain of forfeiture of ten pounds; so however that when the same Barons shall have failed in doing and receiving justice, our Warden, and the Warden of our heirs of the Cinque ports for the time being, may enter their ports and liberties in their default for the purpose of doing full justice therein; so also that the said Barons and their heirs do to us and our heirs, Kings of England, by the year their full service of fifty and seven ships at their own cost for fifteen days at the summons of us and our heirs. We have granted moreover to the same of our special grace that they may have outfangenethef in their lands within the ports aforesaid in the same manner as the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and Barons have in their manors in the county of Kent; and that they be not put in assizes of juries or in any recognitions by reason of their forinsec tenure against their will; and that concerning their own wines, in which they traffic, they may be quit of our right prise [recta prisa], viz., one cask of wine before the mast and another behind the mast. We have granted moreover to the same our Barons for ourselves and our heirs that they may have for ever this liberty, namely, that neither we nor our heirs shall have wardship or marriages of their heirs by reason of their lands which they hold within the liberties and ports aforesaid, for which they do their service aforesaid, and of which neither we nor our predecessors have had wardship or marriages in times past. The aforesaid our confirmation however of liberties and quittances aforesaid, and other our grants following, we have caused to be made to them anew of our special grace, saving always in all things our Royal dignity, and saving to us and our heirs the pleas of our crown of life and limbs. Wherefore we will and firmly command for ourselves and our heirs that the aforesaid Barons and their heirs have for ever all the liberties and quittances aforesaid, as the Charters aforesaid reasonably testify; and that of our special grace they have utfangenethef in their lands within the ports aforesaid in the same manner as the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and Barons have in their manors in the county of Kent; and that they be not put in assizes of juries or in any recognitions by reason of their forinsec tenure against their will; and that concerning their own wines, in which they traffic, they may be quit of our right prise, viz., one cask of wine before the mast and another behind the mast; and that in like manner they have for ever the liberty aforesaid, viz., that neither we nor our heirs have wardship or marriage of their heirs by reason of their lands which they hold within the liberties and ports aforesaid, for which they do their service aforesaid, and of which neither we nor our predecessors have had wardship or marriages in times past. The aforesaid our confirmation however of the liberties and quittances aforesaid and other our grants following we have caused to be made to them anew of our special grace saving always in all things our Royal dignity, and saving to us and our heirs the pleas of the crown of life and limbs, as is aforesaid. These being Witnesses, the Venerable Father Robert [Kilwarby], Bishop of Porto, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, William de Valentia [Valence], our uncle, brother William de Southampton, Prior provincial of Friars Preachers in England, Roger de Mortuomari [Mortimer], Roger de Clifford, Master Walter Scamel, Dean of Sarum, Master Robert de Scardeburg, Archdeacon of the East Riding, Bartholomew de Suthleye, Thomas de Weylond, Walter de Hopton, Thomas de Normanville, Stephen de Penecestre, Francis de Bouene, John de Louetot, John de Metyngham, and others. Given by our hand at Westminster the seventeenth day of June in the sixth year of our reign [1278].”[770]