CHARTER OF HARALD.— A.D. 1245^* .

To all the faithful in Christ by whom this present writing may be seen or heard. H [arald] by the grace of God, King of Mann and the Islands, eternal salvation in the Lord. It is just and consentient with every law that kingly authority should yield an easy assent to the pious vows and honest petitions of suppliants, and more especially to assure our holy religion that it will not depart from the paths of justice. On this account it is that yielding to the pious prayers of the lord Abbot of Furnes and the convent of the same place, we signify to you, that we have taken the vessels of the said Abbot and monks, and all persons, whether secular or religious, together with their goods, contained in the said vessels, under our care and protection, as our own property. Requesting you to protect them from all let and injury whensoever they approach you, remembering that whatever shall be done to them, either for good or evil, we will consider as done to ourself, and that if any injury shall be inflicted upon them, which God forbid, we will duly punish it as our own. Farewell.**

COTTONIAN MSS.

[note the given latin script kept the abbreviated hand and used characters not representable within the HTML latin alphabet - as the resulting scan is not usuable I have decided to omit it ]

* There is no year to this charter, but the above is probably near the true date.

** Two seals in red wax are attached to this charter ; one pendant, having a ship with sails, and the other a lion passant.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor
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