"Forest" to the
Normans meant an enclosed area where the monarch, or sometimes another aristocrat, had exclusive rights to animals of the chase and the greenery ("vert") on which they fed. It consisted not only of trees but also large areas of
commons such as heathland, grassland, and wetlands, productive of food, grazing, and other resources. Lands became more restricted as
King Richard and
King John designated increasing areas as royal forest, off-limits to commoners. At its widest extent, royal forest covered about one-third of the land of southern England. as a complementary charter to
Magna Carta from which it had evolved. It was reissued in 1225 with several minor changes to wording, but cancelled in 1227 when Henry III declared his adulthood. It was joined with Magna Carta in the
Confirmation of Charters in 1297. At a time when royal forests were the most important potential source of
fuel for cooking, heating, and industries such as
charcoal burning, and of such hotly defended rights as
pannage (pasture for pigs),
estover (collecting firewood),
agistment (grazing), or
turbary (cutting of turf for fuel), this charter was almost unique in providing a degree of economic protection for free men who used the forest to forage for food and to graze their animals. In contrast to
Magna Carta, which dealt with the rights of barons, it restored to the commoner some fundamental rights, privileges, and protections against the abuses of an encroaching aristocracy. For many years it was regarded as a development of great significance in England's constitutional history, with the seventeenth-century jurist Sir
Edward Coke referring to it along with Magna Carta as the Charters of England's Liberties, and Sir
William Blackstone remarking in the eighteenth century that: ==Contents==