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The King confirms to the Barons of the Cinque Ports, in recognition of their past faithful services, and their recent service in the army in Wales, all their freedoms, including immunity from toll and custom and from jurisdiction of shire and hundred, and the right to trove by land and sea. In return, they are to provide fifty-seven ships for fifteen days each year, upon the summons of the King.
Edward, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, provosts, ministers, and to all bailiffs and his faithful subjects, greeting. Know ye that for the faithful service which our barons of the Cinque Ports have hitherto rendered to our predecessors the kings of England and recently to us in our army in Wales and for their future continuous service to us and our heirs the kings of England, we have granted and by this our present charter confirmed for us and our heirs to our same barons and their heirs all their freedoms and immunities, so that they may be free of all toll and custom, that is to say, from all lastage, tallage, passage, quayage, rivage, sponsage, and all wreck, and from all sale, purchase and repurchase throughout all our land and dominion with soc and sac, toll and theam, and they shall have infangthef, and they shall be wreecfry, wyccefry, lestagefry and lovecopfry, and they shall have den and strand at Yarmouth according to what is contained in our ordinance and made by us to be perpetually observed. And they shall also be immune from shire and hundred so that if anyone shall wish to plead against them they shall not answer or plead otherwise than they were used to plead in the time of our lord King Henry our great-grandfather. They shall have trove by sea and land and shall be immune as our free men in respect of all their goods and markets, and they shall have their honours in our court and their liberties throughout our land wheresoever they shall come. And they shall be immune for ever, in respect of all their lands which they held in the time of our lord King Henry, that is to say in the forty-fourth year of his reign, (1260) from common summons before our justices in eyre for all manner of pleas itinerant in whatsoever counties their lands may be, so that they shall not be bound to come before the aforesaid justices unless any of the said Barons shall implead them or they be impleaded by any of them, and they shall no implead elsewhere than where they ought and were accustomed to plead, that is at Shepway. And they shall henceforth have their aforesaid freedoms and immunities just as their ancestors best, most fully and most honourably enjoyed and held them in the times of kings Edward, William I, William II, Henry [II] our great-grandfather, and in the times of kings Richard, John our grandfather, and Henry [III] our father, as their charters, which our same barons hold and we have formally inspected, testify. And we forbid that anyone shall unjustly disturb or hinder them or their market upon pain of forfeiture of ten pounds, but nevertheless if the same barons shall be wanting in the execution or acceptance of justice, our Warden of the Cinque Ports at that time shall enter their ports and liberties to carry out full justice in that place. And also that the said barons and their heirs shall render to us and our heirs the kings of England at their own cost annual full service of fifty-seven ships for fifteen days at the summons of us or our heirs. We have also granted to them of our special grace that they shall have utfangthef in their lands within the said ports in the same way as the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls and barons have in their manors in the county of Kent, and that they shall not be put against their will in any assizes, juries or recognitions by reason of their foreign tenure, and they shall be immune from royal prisage in respect of their own wines which they trade, that is to say, of one tun before the mast and one tun behind the mast. We have granted further to the same our barons for us and our heirs that they may for ever have this liberty, namely, that we and our heirs shall not have wardships and marriages of their heirs by reason of their lands which they hold within the aforesaid liberties and ports of which they render their service aforesaid, and of which we and our ancestors have not had the wardships and marriages in times past. And our aforesaid confirmation of the said freedoms and immunities and our other grants following to them of our special grace we have again made, saving always in all things our royal dignity and saving to us and our heirs pleas of the crown of life and limb. Wherefore we will and firmly command for us and our heirs that the aforesaid barons and their heirs may for ever have all the said freedoms and immunities as the aforesaid charters do reasonably testify. […] These being witnesses: the Venerable Father Robert [Kilwardby], Bishop of Portoof the most holy church of Rome, cardinal; William de Valence, our uncle; Brother William de Southampton, prior provincial of the order of preachers in England; Roger de Mortuo Mari; Roger de Clifford; Master Walter Scamel, dean of Salisbury; Master Robert de Schardeburg; Archdeacon of the East Riding; Master Roger de Seyton; Bartholomew de Suthleye; Thomas de Weylaund; Walter de Hopton; Thomas de Normanvill; Stephen de Penecestr’; Francis de Bonon; John de Lovetot; John de Metingham, and others. Given by our hand at Westminster the seventeenth of June in the sixth year of our reign. This charter, at the order of the king, and before the sealing of the same, was recited in the presence of the said witnesses and others of the council of the lord king then there present, and was heard, examined and agreed in the abovesaid form.
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