Charter of Liberties

For the document written by William Penn, see Frame of Government of Pennsylvania.

The Charter of Liberties (Latin: Carta Libertatum), also called the Coronation Charter, or Statutes of the Realm, was a written proclamation by Henry I of England, issued upon his accession to the throne in 1100. It sought to bind the King to certain laws regarding the treatment of nobles, church officials, and individuals. The nineteenth-century historians Frederick Maitland and Frederick Pollock considered it a landmark document in English legal history and a forerunner of Magna Carta. It was issued in Latin, Anglo-Norman and Old English versions, a sign of the increasing status of the English language at the time.

The document addressed abuses of royal power by his predecessor William II (Henry's brother, r. 1087–1100), as perceived by the nobility, specifically the over-taxation of the barons, the abuse of vacant sees, and the practices of simony and pluralism.

The Charter of Liberties was generally ignored by subsequent English kings, until in 1213 Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, reminded the nobles that their liberties had been guaranteed over a century prior in Henry I's Charter of Liberties.

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