Weather trackers say that May was the rainiest month on record for the Lower 48, and I believe it. That must make California feel all the worst for it. Around here at least, June’s also working out to be pretty wet. Not a lot of intense thunderstorms, but instead episodes of heavy rain several times a week, such as first thing this morning and then again around noon. The place is lush.

I don’t have a copy of 1066 and All That handy, but today seems like a good time to look up its comment on Magna Carta: “Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and thus a Good Thing for everyone (except the Common People).”

It’s good to note the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, even if on that day neither warring side, King John nor the barons, had any intention of honoring it. Clearly the thing acquired a life of its own afterward, and for the betterment of the English-speaking peoples. Oddly enough Google, which honors things like the 131th anniversary of the invention of modern tweezers or the 89th birthday of some star Cyhydedd Hir poet, is silent on the matter of the Great Charter today.

Less well known, but just as interesting, is the companion Charter of the Forest, signed by King Henry III in 1217 (at the behest of his regent, certainly). I’m no expert on that charter, but it might have been a bigger deal to more ordinary free men of the time than Magna Carta.

“The Charter of the Forest restored the traditional rights of the people, where the land had once been held in common, and restrained landowners from inflicting harsh punishments on them,” explains the British Library. “It granted free men access to the forest (though at this time only about 10 per cent of the population was free; the rest were locked into some sort of service to a local landowner, some of them little more than slaves).

“Free men could enjoy such rights as pannage (pasture for their pigs), estover (collecting firewood), agistment (grazing), or turbary (cutting of turf for fuel). The death penalty was removed for anyone stealing venison, though they were still subject to fines or imprisonment.”

Estover, that’s a word that needs to be brought back. I do that in my back yard. Not much use around here for pannage or turbary, though those are excellent words too. And while it’s worth pointing out that only about 10 percent of the population were free men (I like that British styling, per cent, but I won’t use it), I suspect the charter benefited a lot of other people indirectly, since the free men were pasturing their pigs and collecting their firewood for the good of their extended families.

This site offers a translation of the Charter of the Forest. Some sample clauses:

[12] Every free man may henceforth without being prosecuted make in his wood or in land he has in the forest a mill, a preserve, a pond, a marl-pit, a ditch, or arable outside the covert in arable land, on condition that it does not harm any neighbour.
[13] Every free man shall have the eyries of hawks, sparrowhawks, falcons, eagles and herons in his woods, and likewise honey found in his woods.

Yes, the Charter of the Forest sounds like a boon indeed for the free men of 13th-century England. Free to dig marl pits. What? I had to look that up. In Wiki, anyway, because I’m lazy that way.

“Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay and calcium carbonate, formed under freshwater conditions; specifically an earthy substance containing 35–65% clay and 65–35% carbonate.” Digging for clay and other valuable substances, in other words.

One more thing: the Charter of the Forest is obviously an antecedent of the International Pizza Doctrine.