The Guardians or Conservators

To secure the possession of the privileges granted by this Charter-the grand basis on which the present liberties of England were raised – the Barons obliged the King to agree that London should remain in their hands, and the Tower be consigned to the custody of the Primate till the fifteenth of August ensuing, or till the final execution of the different Articles. For the better endurance of the same end, John allowed them to choose five and twenty members from their own body as conservators (The Conservators) of the Charter, who were suffered to enjoy an authority unlimited, both in extent and duration. The names of those conservators were, The Earls of Clare, Albermarle,Gloucester, Winchester, Hereford, Norfolk, and Oxford; William Mareschal the younger; Robert Fitz-Walter; Gilbert de Clare; Eustace de Vescey; Gilbert Delaval; William de Mowbray; Geoffrey de Say; Roger de Mombezon; William de Huntingfield; Robert de Ros; the Constable of Chester; William de Aubenie; Richard de Percie; William Malet; John Fitz-Robert; William de Lanvalay; Hugh de Bigod; and Roger de Montfichet.

By this convention these noblemen were invested with the sovereignty of the kingdom; they were rendered co-ordinate with the King, or rather superior to him, in the exercise of the executive power; and, as there was no circumstance of government which might not, directly or indirectly, be made to relate to the Grand Charter, there could scarcely occur any incident in which the interposition of their authority could incur the censure of illegality.

King John despatched a messenger to Rome to lay a copy of the Great Charter before the Pope who expressed opposition and great resentment that any monarch bearing the sign of the cross could be treated in such an ignominious manner with impugnity. He issued a Papal Bull on the twenty-fourth of August that annulled and abrogated the whole Charter as unjust in itself, as extorted by force and as derogatory to the dignity of the Apostolic See. He prohibited the Barons from exacting the observance of it and even forbade the King to pay the smallest regard to it. He absolved him and his subjects from all oaths which they had been constrained to take to that purpose; and he pronounced a general sentence of excommunication against everyone who should persist in maintaining pretentions so pregnant with treason and iniquity!

These Bulls were addressed to the Primate who promptly refused to publish them.