Overview

A survey of the complexity and sophistication of English royal government in the thirteenth century, a period of radical change. The years between 1258 and 1276 comprise one of the most influential periods in the Middle Ages in Britain. This turbulent decade witnessed a bitter power struggle between Henry III and his barons over who should control the government of the realm. Before England eventually descended into civil war, a significant proportion of the baronage had attempted to transform its governance by imposing on the crown a programme of legislative and administrative reform far more radical and wide-ranging than Magna Carta in 1215. Constituting a critical stage in the development of parliament, the reformist movement would remain unsurpassed in its radicalism until the upheavals of the seventeenth century. Simon de Montfort, the baronial champion, became the first leader of a political movement to seize power and govern in the king's name. The essays here draw on material available for the first time via the completion of the project to calendar all the Fine Rolls of Henry III; these rolls comprise the last series of records of the English Chancery from that period to become readily available in a convenient form, thereby transforming accessto several important fields of research, including financial, legal, political and social issues. The volume covers topics including the evidential value of the fine rolls themselves and their wider significance for the English polity, developments in legal and financial administration, the roles of women and the church, and the fascinating details of the development of the office of escheator. Related or parallel developments in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are also dealt with, giving a broader British dimension.

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9781783274628

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Reviews

This volume serves a dual purpose, in presenting new research while providing a survey of royal administration in England and the other lands of the British Isles under Henry III. As such, it will obviously be of interest to aficionados; but it should also be the first port of call for postgraduates and researchers exploring the records of Henry III's reign for the first time. SPECULUM This book will serve, deservedly, as an authoritative, and reasonably accessible, introductory guide to the major offices and records of England's thirteenth-century government. ROYAL STUDIES JOURNAL Will prove a valuable resource for both students and established scholars of the reign of Henry III. SEHEPUNKTE This excellent collection challenges a number of preconceptions about 13th-century royal government and throws into much clearer relief the environment from which parliament came to evolve. The volume provides an essential addition to the bookshelves of anyone interested in the origins of parliament and the remarkably rapid journey from Magna Carta to the parliamentary world. PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY

Author Information

DAVID CROOK, now retired, spent his working life in The National Archives, where he became immersed in the extensive surviving early records of the English royal administration and common law. From those sources have emerged important findings which may identify a real criminal as the original of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln. ADRIAN JOBSON is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia. CHARLES INSLEY is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Manchester. DAVID CROOK, now retired, spent his working life in The National Archives, where he became immersed in the extensive surviving early records of the English royal administration and common law. From those sources have emerged important findings which may identify a real criminal as the original of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln. NICHOLAS VINCENT is Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia and a Fellow of the British Academy PAUL DRYBURGH is Principal Records Specialist (Medieval) at The National Archives, UK. Professor PHILIPPA HOSKIN is Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Fellow Librarian, Corpus Christi College, and Keeper of the Parker Library, University of Cambridge. She is also General Editor of the Lincoln Record Society.

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