Appendix B

Enforcers of Magna Carta – The Twenty-Five

Acommittee of twenty-five barons, all in the forefront of the opposition to King John, were appointed to oversee the enforcement of the terms of Magna Carta, as directed by clause 61 of the charter, the security clause, which authorised the barons to:

choose any twenty-five barons of the realm they wish … so that if we transgress any of the articles … then those twenty-five with the commune of all the land shall distress and distrain us in every way they can, namely by seizing our lands, castles and possessions.¹

In no particular order, the Twenty-Five were:

Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford

Gilbert de Clare Geoffrey de Say

Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and Gloucester

Robert Fitzwalter

Roger (II) Bigod, Earl of Norfolk

Hugh Bigod

Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford

Richard de Montfichet

William of Huntingfield

William de Lanvallei, Lord of Walken in Hertfordshire

Henry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford

William Mallet, Lord of Shepton Mallet

William Marshal the younger

Saher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester

William d’Aubigné, Lord of Belvoir

John de Lacy, Lord of Pontefract, later Earl of Lincoln

John fitz Robert, Lord of Warkworth

Robert de Ros, Lord of Wark-on-Tweed

William de Forz, Count of Aumale

Eustace de Vescy

William de Mowbray

Richard de Percy

Roger de Montbegon, Lord of Hornby

Serlo the Mercer, Mayor of London²