[2] It was originally sealed in England by the young King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

[4] The charter redressed some applications of the Anglo-Norman Forest Law that had been extended and abused by King William Rufus.

"Forest"[5] to the Normans meant an enclosed area where the monarch, or sometimes another aristocrat, had exclusive rights to animals of the chase and the greenery ("vert") on which they fed.

[6] It did not consist only of trees but included large areas of commons such as heathland, grassland, and wetlands, productive of food, grazing, and other resources.

[10] At a time when royal forests were the most important potential source of fuel for cooking, heating, and industries such as charcoal burning, and of such hotly defended rights as pannage (pasture for their pigs), estover (collecting firewood), agistment (grazing), or turbary (cutting of turf for fuel),[11][page needed] this charter was almost unique in providing a degree of economic protection for free men who used the forest to forage for food and to graze their animals.

[citation needed] Clause 10 repealed the death penalty (and mutilation as a lesser punishment) for capturing deer (venison), though transgressors were still subject to fines or imprisonment.

In this respect, the charter was the statute that remained longest in force in England from 1217 until superseded by the Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act 1971.