The populace, in the tumult, made use of the cry of war commonly employed by the French troops: "Mountjoy, Mountjoy, God help us and our lord Lewis." The justiciary made inquiry into the disorder; and finding one Constantine Fitz-Arnulf to have been the ring-*leader, an insolent man, who justified his crime in Hubert's presence, he proceeded against him by martial law, and ordered him immediately to be hanged, without trial or form of process.

He also cut off the feet of some of Constantine's accomplices.[*] This act of power was complained of as an infringement of the Great Charter: yet the justiciary, in a parliament summoned at Oxford, (for the great councils about this time began to receive that appellation,) made no scruple to grant in the king's name a renewal and confirmation of that charter.

When the assembly made application to the crown for this favor,--as a law in those times seemed to lose its validity if not frequently renewed,--William de Briewere, one of the council of regency, was so bold as to say openly, that those liberties were extorted by force, and ought not to be observed: but he was reprimanded by the archbishop of Canterbury, and was not countenanced by the king or his chief ministers.[**] A new confirmation was demanded and granted two years after; and an aid, amounting to a fifteenth of all movables, was given by the parliament, in return for this indulgence.

The king issued writs anew to the sheriffs, enjoining the observance of the charter; but he inserted a remarkable clause in the writs, that those who paid not the fifteenth should not for the future be entitled to the benefit of those liberties.[***] * M.Paris, p.

217, 218, 259.Ann.Waverl.p.187.