Introduction

Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry III (Supplementary) 1244-1266. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1975.

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'Introduction', in Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry III (Supplementary) 1244-1266, (London, 1975) pp. v. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-close-rolls/hen3/supp/1244-66/v [accessed 27 March 2024]

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INTRODUCTION

The three Chancery rolls in this volume were previously listed among the Tower Miscellaneous Rolls, an inventory of which appears in Appendix II of the Second Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1841). The creation of the class of Supplementary Close Rolls seems to have been simultaneous with the formation of the bundles of Chancery Miscellanea (C.47) at the beginning of the present century; prior to that arrangement, these three documents were classified as Chancery Miscellaneous Rolls.

Entries on Patent and Close Rolls relating to a particular subject were sometimes grouped together and occasionally such consecutive enrolments were made into separate rolls; the latter may thus be seen as supplementary to the main series of Chancery rolls. The subject matter of each Supplementary Close Roll is usually quite distinct, the only two associated groups in the class being the four rolls previously known as Exchange Rolls (fn. 1) and the two formerly called Passage Rolls. (fn. 2) The first document included here contains writs of summons to military service in 1244 and the third consists of mandates to sheriffs for the livery of lands of the rebels in the years 1265–6; whereas the second roll contains writs of respite from taking up knighthood and cognate matters as well as entries relating to the collection of an ecclesiastical tenth, covering the years 1256–8. Occasional entries of a similar nature occur on the Patent and Close Rolls of corresponding date, while writs of respite for different reasons are found on other Supplementary Close Rolls. (fn. 3) The closest parallel may be drawn between the third roll transcribed here and a roll in Exchequer K. R. Miscellanea (fn. 4), to which there are footnotes in the text; both concern the disposal of lands of the rebels after the battle of Evesham.

The class of Supplementary Close Rolls now contains eighteen rolls from 28 Henry III to 12 Henry IV (fn. 5), of which these three are the earliest. The other rolls have been printed elsewhere in calendar form (fn. 6), but these three have been transcribed in accordance with the treatment of the Close Rolls of Henry III. This volume therefore completes the publication of the class.

The rolls printed here have been transcribed and indexed by various members of the Public Record Office staff, but the whole of the volume has been edited by Mrs. Ann Morton. All material in the left hand margin of the rolls is printed in italics at the beginning of the entry or entries to which it relates.

Footnotes

  • 1. C.55/15–18.
  • 2. C.55/11, 14.
  • 3. Writs of respite of assizes (C.55/6); writs of respite from an aid (C.55/7).
  • 4. E.163/1/24, printed in Rotuli Selecti, ed. Joseph Hunter (1834), pp. 247–58, under the title Terrae Rebellium datae fidelibus tempore regis Henrici III in diversis comitatibus Angliae.
  • 5. For a complete list see List of Chancery Rolls (P.R.O. Lists and Indexes XXVII).
  • 6. Calendar of Chancery Rolls, Various, 1277–1326; Calendar of Close Rolls, 1374–81, 1389–96, 1409–13, 1422–35.