The charter of Henry I. was what the barons went by, and ſo muſt we; where, towards the latter end, we find theſe words[1]: “I reſtore you the law of King Edward, with thoſe amendments my father made to it by the advice of his parliament.” Here was no new grant, he barely made reſtitution, and gave them back their own. And ſo we find it in his fathers time[2]. “He grants them the ſelf-ſame laws and cuſtoms which his couſin Edward held before him.” Or, as Ordericus Vitalis, a Norman has it[3], “He granted to the Engliſh that they might perſevere in the laws of their fathers.” So that in effect he granted Engliſhmen to be Engliſhmen, to enjoy the laws they were born to, and in which they were bred; their fathers’ laws, and their mother tongue. A countryman would call this a pig of their own ſow. And yet this
- ↑ Lagam regis Edwardi vobis reddo, cum illis emendationibus, quibus pater meus eam emendavit conſilio baronum ſuorum.
- ↑ Ces ſount les leis & les cuſtumes que le reis Wil. grentat a tut le puple de Engleterre apres le conqueſt de la terre. Ice les meſmes que le reis Edward ſun coſin tint devant lui. Ingulphus, p. 88.
- ↑ P. 507. Anglis conceſſit ſub legibus perſeverare patriis.
