Both the California Civil Code and the Corporations Code allow a mark, but only when the person cannot write: Signature or subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his name being written near it, by a person who writes his own name as a witness; provided, that when a signature is by mark it must in order that the same may be acknowledged or may serve as the signature to any sworn statement be witnessed by two persons who must subscribe their own names as witnesses thereto. Cal. Civ. Code § 14. A very similar but not identical provision is found in Section 17 of the Corporations Code. However, King John was certainly no rex illiteratus.