. i. p. 141, 146. M. West, p. 283.

{1222.} Justice was executed with greater severity against disorders
less premeditated, which broke out in London. A frivolous emulation in
a match of wrestling, between the Londoners on the one hand, and the
inhabitants of Westminster and those of the neighboring villages on the
other, occasioned this commotion. The former rose in a body, and pulled
down some houses belonging to the abbot of Westminster: but this riot,
which, considering the tumultuous disposition familiar to that capital,
would have been little regarded, seemed to become more serious by the
symptoms which then appeared of the former attachment of the citizens to
the French interest. 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. Chron.
Dunst. vol. i. p. 129.

** M