Of special or local rolls, preserved in the Chancery, the most important for our period are the GASCON ROLLS. The earlier documents called by this name are not exclusively concerned with the affairs of Gascony; they are miscellaneous documents enrolled for convenience in common parchments by reason of the presence of the king in his Aquitanian dominions. Of these are F. MICHEL'S Roles Gascons, vol. i., published in the French government series of Documents Inédits sur l'Histoire de France (1885), including a "fragmentum rotuli Vasconiæ," 1242-1243, and "patentes littere facte in Wasconia," 1253-1254, years in which Henry III. was actually in Gascony. This publication was resumed in 1896 by M. CHARLES BÉMONT'S Supplément to Michel's imperfect volume, containing innumerable corrections, an index, introduction, and some additional rolls of 1254 and 1259-1260. The later of these, the roll of Edward's delegated administration, is the first exclusively devoted to the concerns of Gascony. "Gascon Rolls" in this later sense begin with Edward I.'s accession, and M. Bémont has undertaken their publication for the whole of Edward's reign from photographs of the records supplied by the English to the French government. In 1900 vol. ii. of the Roles Gascons, containing the years 1273-1290, was issued. Other classes of Chancery Rolls accessible in print are Rotuli Scotiæ, 1291-1516 (2 vols., 1814-1819, Rec. Corn.), and Rotuli Walliæ, 5-9 Edward I., privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1865). Among isolated Chancery records the Rotuli Hundredorum (Rec. Corn., 2 vols. fol., 1812-1818), containing the very important inquests made by Edward I.'s commissioners into the franchises of the barons, may specially be noticed here.
Of not less importance than the Chancery records are those handed down from the Court of Exchequer. The most famous of these, the PIPE ROLLS, which, unlike the Chancery Enrolments, were "filed" or sewn skin by skin, are decreasingly important from the thirteenth century onwards as compared with their value for the twelfth. For this reason the Pipe Roll Society, founded in 1883, only undertook their publication up to 1200. Fragments of Pipe Rolls for our period can be seen in print in various local histories and transactions, as e.g., "Pipe Rolls of Northumberland" up to 1272 in HODGSON-HINDE'S History of Northumberland, pt. iii., vol. iii., and 1273-1284, ed. Dickson (Newcastle, 1854-60), and of Notts and Derby (translated extracts) in YEATMAN's History of Derby (1886). The only gap in our series is for Henry III. Of other Exchequer records we may mention: (i) the ORIGINALIA ROLLS, containing the estreats or documents from the Chancery informing the Exchequer of moneys due to it, beginning in 20 Henry III., a summary of which is published in Rotulorum Originalium in Curia Scaccarii Abbreviatio, 20 Henry III,-51 Edward III (2 vols. fol., Rec. Corn., 1805-1810); (2) the MEMORANDA ROLLS, containing records of charges upon the Exchequer, etc., are complete for this period. They were kept by the king's and the treasurer's remembrancer, and are illustrated in print by extracts from the Memoranda Rolls, 1297, in Transactions of the Royal Hist. Soc., new series, iii., 281-291(1886), and by the roll of 3 Henry III. in COOPER'S Proceedings of the Record Commissioners (1833); (3) MINISTERS ACCOUNTS, i.e., accounts of royal bailiffs, etc., for royal manors, etc., not included in the sheriffs' accounts, beginning with Edward I., of which a list is given in the P.R.O. Lists and Indexes, Nos. v. and viii.; (4) of the PELL RECORDS, recording issues and payments, samples given in DEVON'S Issues of the Exchequer (Rec. Corn., 8vo, 1837), DEVON'S Issue Roll of Thomas of Brantingham in 1370 (Rec. Corn., 8vo, 1835). The pells of receipt were entered on the (5) RECEIPT ROLLS, specimens of which, along with the corresponding issues, are to be found in SIR JAMES RAMSAY'S abstracts of issue and receipt rolls for certain years of Edward III. in the Antiquary(1880-1888); (6) SUBSIDY ROLLS of various types, illustrated by Nonarum Inquisitiones tempore Edwardi ZZZ. (Rec. Corn., 1807), the record of a subsidy of a ninth collected by Edward III. in 1340-1341; (7) WARDROBE and HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS containing for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries information on national as well as private royal finance; specimens in print include the important Liber Quotidianus Contra-rotulatoris Garderobæ, 28 Ed. I.(1299-1300), (1787, Soc. Antiq.).
From the Exchequer records come also the following: (1) Testa de Neville sive Liber Feodorum temp. Hen. ZZZ. et Edw. I. (Rec. Corn., fol., 1807), a miscellaneous and ill-digested but valuable collection of thirteenth century inquisitions; (2) Nomina Villarum, g Ed. II., published in PALGRAVE'S Parl. Writs, ii., iii., 301-416; (3) Kirkby's Quest, a survey made by Bishop Kirkby, the treasurer, in 1284-85, of which the Yorkshire portion has been printed by the Surtees Soc., ea. Skaife (1867), and other portions elsewhere; (4) Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliæ et Walliæ, 1291 (Rec. Corn., 1802), the taxation of benefices by Nicholas IV. by which assessments of papal and ecclesiastical taxes were long made. A very useful compilation, recently undertaken under the direction of the deputy-keeper, is Inquisitions and Assessments relating to Feudal Aids, 1284-1431, of which three volumes, dealing in alphabetical order with the shires from Bedford to Norfolk, are published Cheshire and Durham are entirely omitted and Lancashire very scantily dealt with as exceptional jurisdictions. The work is based upon the various lay records enumerated above and other analogous inquests. Ancient compilations of miscellaneous documents by officials of the Exchequer are exemplified in Liber Niger Scaccarii (ed. Hearne, 2 vols., 1774), and in the Red Book of the Exchequer (ed. H. Hall, 3 vols., Rolls ser., 1896).
The records of the common law courts, the King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas, are of less direct historical value than those of the Chancery and the Exchequer. Extraordinarily bulky, they require a good deal of sifting to sort the wheat from the chaff. As yet a very small proportion of them has been printed, and few have even been calendared. A brief index of them has been compiled in the useful List of Plea Rolls (1894, P.R.O. Lists and Indexes, No. iv.). Of the various types of these records the FEET OF FINES have been largely used by the topographer and genealogist, and the feet of fines for many counties during this period have been calendared, summarised, excerpted, and printed, wholly or in part, by local archaeological societies, as for example, W. FARRER'S Lancashire Final Concords till 1307 (Rec. Soc. for Lancashire and Cheshire, 1899), and many others. The PLEA ROLLS are of wider importance. For the days of Henry III. Placita Coram Rege (i.e., of the King's Bench) and the Placita de Banco (i.e., of the Common Pleas in later phrase) are classified as Rotuli Curiæ Regis, while the rolls of the local eyres for the same period are called Assize Rolls. Separate series for each court begin with Edward I. Specimens of most of these types have been printed. Placitorum Abbreviatio Ric. I.—Edw. II. (Rec. Com., fol., 1811) is a careless seventeenth century abstract. Placita de Quo Warranto, Edward I. to Edward III. (Rec. Com., fol., 1818), is a record of local eyres of particular importance for the reign of Edward I. as the corollary of the Hundred Rolls and the attack on the local franchises. HUNTER'S Rotuli Selecti (Rec. Com., 1834) contains pleas of the reign of Henry III. A typical year's pleadings of the King's Bench for 1297 is given in full in PHILLIMORE's Placita coram rege, 25 Edward I. (1898, British Rec. Soc.). Selections from the proceedings of the commission appointed by Edward I. in 1289 to hear complaints against judges and officials will shortly be published by Miss Hilda Johnstone and myself for the Royal Historical Society. Of special importance are the plea rolls issued by the Selden Society, which include for our period F.W. MAITLAND'S Select Pleas of the Crown, 1200-1225; BAILDON'S Select Chancery Pleas, 1364-1471; J.M. RIGG'S Select Pleas of the Jewish Exchequer; and G.J. TURNER'S Select Pleas of the Forest; all have translations and introductions, of which those of Professor Maitland are of exceptional value.
To these types must be added the records of the local courts, now largely also in the Public Record Office, though vast numbers of court rolls and manorial documents are still in private hands, and among the archives of ecclesiastical and secular corporations. The Selden Society has done excellent work in publishing such muniments; as in particular, MAITLAND'S Select Pleas in Manorial Courts, vol. i., Henry III. and Edward I., illustrating the social and legal life of a medieval village; MAITLAND and BAILDON'S Court Baron; HUNTER' s Leet Jurisdiction of Norwich; C. GROSS's Select Cases from the Coroners' Rolls, 1265-1413. The records of the Bishopric of Durham, the County Palatine of Chester, the Principality of Wales, and the Duchy of Lancaster are deposited in the Public Record Office, and calendars and lists scattered over the Deputy-Keeper of the Records' Reports throw some light on their contents. Unluckily these records of franchise are incompletely preserved and often in bad condition. The best preserved for our period are the Durham records, described in LAPSLEY'S County Palatine of Durham, pp. 327-337 (Harvard Historical Studies); some of the most important are printed in Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense, ed. Hardy (Rolls Series, 4 vols.), which is also an Episcopal register. Welsh records may be illustrated by the Record of Carnarvon (Rec. Corn., fol., 1838). Academic records are illustrated by the Oxford Munimenta Academica (ed. Anstey), Rolls Series. Municipal records are very numerous and important; full particulars as to them can be found in C. Gross's Bibliography of British Municipal History (Harvard Hist. Studies). Admirably edited examples of our wealth of municipal records for this period are to be found in Records of the Borough of Nottingham (ed. W.H. Stevenson), vol. i. (1882); Records of the Borough of Leicester (ed. Mary Bateson), vols. i. and ii. (1899 and 1901); and Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis (ed. H.T. Riley), Rolls Series. The Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission afford much information as to every type of document in private or local custody. Ireland and Scotland have archives of their own; but there are no systematic records in the Register House at Edinburgh before the War of Independence. Among the enterprises now abandoned of the Public Record Office were Calendars of Documents relating to Scotland and Ireland. The Scottish series covers all this period (vols. i.-iv.), the Irish was stopped at 1307. They are derived, by a rather arbitrary selection, from various classes of English records, but contain much valuable material. JOSEPH STEVENSON'S Documents illustrating the History of Scotland (1286-1306) (Scot. Rec. Publications, 1870), and PALGRAVE'S Documents and Records illustrating the History of Scotland (Rec. Corn., 1837), are useful for the reign of Edward I. as are for limited periods of it the Wallace Papers (Maitland Club, 1841) and Scotland in 1298 (ed. Gough, 1888).
A new class of records begins in the thirteenth century with BISHOPS' REGISTERS. These, so far as they survive, are preserved in the diocesan registries. Of printed registers for this period the most important is MARTIN'S Registrum Epistolarum J. Peckham (3 vols., Rolls Series, 1882-1886), the earliest surviving Canterbury register. Other registers printed or calendared are HINGESTON-RANDOLPH'S Exeter Registers, 1257-1291, 1307-1326, and 1327-1369 (5 vols., 1889, etc.); excerpts, particularly from the York registers, in RAINE'S Letters from the Northern Registers, Rolls Series; the two oldest York Registers of ARCHBISHOPS WALTER GREY (1215-1255) and WALTER GIFFARD (1266-1279), both in Surtees Society; the Wells Registers of BPS. DROKENSFORD, 1309-1329, and RALPH OF SHREWSBURY, 1329-1363 (Somerset Record Society); the Worcester Register of BP. GIFFARD, 1268-1302 (Worcester Historical Society); the Winchester Registers of BISHOPS SANDALE and RIGAUD, 1316-1323, and WYKEHAM, 1366-1404 (Hampshire Record Society). A society called the Canterbury and York Society has recently been started to set forth episcopal registers systematically in print. It has begun to publish the earliest Lincoln Register extant, that of Hugh of Wells, bishop of Lincoln, 1209-1235, whose Liber Antiquus de Ordinatione Vicariorum was printed in 1888. Analogous documents are LUARD'S Rob. Grosseteste Epistola (Roll Series, 1861), and the like.
Monastic CARTULARIES are less important for general history in this than in previous periods; large masses of monastic records of this age have survived, not a tithe of which is to be found in DUGDALE'S Monasticon. Some monastic records illustrate the domestic economy or religious life of the house as KIRK'S Accounts of the Obedientiaries of Abingdon, 1322-1479 (Camden Soc.); J.W. CLARK's Observances in use at Barnwell Priory, 1295-1296(1897), and the like.
For this period by far the most important series of foreign records is the magnificent collections of the papacy. A summary of many of these is to be found in BLISS, JOHNSON, and TWEMLOW's Calendars of Papal Registers illustrating the History of Great Britain and Ireland; Papal Letters (vols. i.-iv., 1198-1404), and Petitions to the Pope (vol. i., 1342-1419), of special importance for the fourteenth century. These useful calendars, however, do not always dispense us from consulting the grand series of papal records published or analysed under the care of the French School of Rome, which has not yet sufficiently been studied in this country. This enterprise is divided into two sections. In the first the Registers from Gregory IX. to Benedict XI. are in course of publication; in the second the letters of the Avignon popes relating to France are printed or analysed. Portions of the letters of John XXII, Benedict XII, and Clement VI, are already issued. PRESSUTI has published one volume of the Registers of Honorius III (1888). From the Vatican archives also comes THEINER'S Vetera Monumenta Hib. et Scot. Historiam illustrantia (1864), beginning in 1216.
Extracts from various archives are found in such collections as RYMER's Foedera of which the Record Commission's edition in folio reaches just beyond the end of this period; WILKINS'S Concilia (1737), containing many extracts from episcopal registers and canons of councils; HADDAN and STUBBS'S Councils, vol. i. (for the thirteenth century Welsh Church); CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC'S Lettres des Rois et des Reines d'Angleterre (2 vols., 1847, Doc. Inédits); STUBBS'S Select Charters (Henry III. and Edward I.), and BÉMONT'S excellent Chartes des Libertés anglaises in the Collection de Textes pour l'Étude et l'Enseignement de l'Histoire. Equally useful is COSNEAU'S Grands Traités de la Guerre de Cent Ans also in the same Collection de Textes. The Statutes of the Realm (vol. i., fol., 1810) contains the text of the laws and of the great charters of this period.
Chronicles, with all their deficiencies, must ever be largely used as sources of continuous historical narrative. For the thirteenth century our chief reliance must still be placed upon the annals drawn up in various monasteries, some based upon little more than gossip or hearsay, others showing real efforts to acquire authentic information. The greatest centre of historical composition in thirteenth-century England was the Abbey of St. Alban's, whose chronicles form so important a series that they may appropriately be considered as a whole, before the other chroniclers are dealt with in approximately chronological order. The fame of St. Alban's as a school of history had its origin in the order of Abbot Simon (d. 1183) that the house should always appoint a special historiographer. The first of these whose work is now extant is ROGER OF WENDOVER (d. 1236), whose Flores Historiarum (ed. H.O. Coxe, Engl. Hist. Soc., 1842, or ed. Hewlett, Rolls Series, 1886-89—this latter edition is unscholarly) becomes original in 1216 and remains a chief source, copious and interesting, if not always precise, until 1235. On Wendover's death, MATTHEW PARIS, who took the monastic habit in 1217, became the official St. Alban's chronicler. His great work, the Chronica Majora, is, up to 1235, little more than an expansion and embellishment of Wendover. He re-edited Wendover's work with a patriotic and anti-curialist bias quite alien to the spirit of the earlier writer, whose version should preferably be followed. Paris's book is a first-hand source from 1235 to 1259. The narrative of the years 1254-1259 is considerably later in composition to the history of the period 1235-1253, since on reaching 1253 Paris devoted himself to an abridgment of what he had already written, called the Historia Minor. On completing this he resumed his earlier book, and carried it on to the eve of his death in 1259, though he did not live to complete its final revision; that was the work of another monk who added a picture of his death-bed. The Chronica Majora has been excellently edited by Dr. H.R. Luard in seven volumes for the Rolls Series, with elaborate introductions tracing the literary history of the work and a magnificent index. The Historia Minor has been published in three volumes by Sir F. Madden in the Rolls Series. Paris also wrote the lives of the abbots of his house up to 1255, a work not now extant, and the basis of the later Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, compiled by Thomas Walsingham (d. 1422?) and likewise issued in the Rolls Series. The thirteenth century biographies have some original value. Paris's Life of Stephen Langton is printed in LIEBERMANN'S Ungedruckte Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen (1870).