Form of Peace, 1265

Partial transcript

The king to all of the county of York, greeting.

Because of the wars and disturbances which recently troubled our realm, by the unanimous agreement of ourselves, and of Edward our firstborn son, and also of the prelates, earls, barons, and of the community of our realm, it is by agreement provided for the peace of the realm, for the security of which Edward and our nephew Henry, the son of the king of Germany, had been given as hostages, that a certain ordinance made at London in June in the 48th year of our reign [1264] with the unanimous assent of ourselves, the prelates, earls, and barons concerning our state and that of our realm should be observed inviolably.

We now wish you all to know that we have sworn, on the holy gospels of God, that we will observe in good faith that ordinance and peace, and will maintain the tranquillity of our realm, and will no way work against them; with this addition specially and expressly made in the said oath, that we will not proceed against or seek to blame, by reason of whatever was done in the time of the said disturbances or of the war, any of those whom we denounced as enemies, or any of their supporters, that is to say, the earls of Leicester and of Gloucester and others supporting them and our barons and citizens of London, and of the Cinque Ports, nor to any of them will we do harm or order harm to be done, or permit harm to be done to them in any way by our bailiffs.

We have sworn also that we will inviolably observe all those things which were provided for the release of our son and nephew, and which were sealed with our seal, so far as they concern us, and that we will, to the best of our power, cause them to be observed by others.

And we wish and expressly agree that if we, or Edward our son, should in any way oppose our ordinance, provision, or oath, which Heaven forbid, or should disturb the peace and tranquillity of our realm, or, on pretext of things formerly done in the time of disturbances or of war, should proceed against any one of the aforesaid whom we denounced, or of their following, or should presume to inflict any harm upon any of them or cause them to be harmed, then it shall be lawful for all our realm to rise up against us, and to lend help and labour to our discomfiture, as much as they can. And we wish that by our present command each and every one shall be bound to this, notwithstanding the fealty and homage which they have done to us, so that they shall obey us in nothing, but do all that can work to our harm, as if they were in no way bound to us, until whatever in this matter has been wrongly done or committed has been restored to its due state, according to the terms of our ordinance, provision, and oath; and only when that is done should they obey as of old.

And if anyone else of our realm should presume to oppose these orders, or to disturb the peace and tranquillity of our realm, or to give help, counsel, consent, or any manner of aid to us, or to our son Edward, or to anyone else opposing the orders or any part of them, if this became known or if anyone be, or be not, convicted of this by the judgement of our council and the magnates of our land, he and his heirs shall be perpetually disinherited, and their lands and property shall be dealt with as are the lands of those convicted of felony, according to usual practice under the laws and customs of our realm.

Full transcript taken from RE Treharne and I.J Sanders (eds), Documents of the Baronial Movement of Reform and Rebellion, 1258-1267 (Oxford, 1973).