The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504

The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of the lords, and, somewhat later, the commons. Those edited in this volume cover the dramatic period from the Black Death to the end of the reign of Edward III. The parliaments of the 1350s and 1360s were marked by a strong sense of combined purpose as crown and political community drew together to buttress their economic interests and enjoy the benefits of peace with Scotland and France. The 1370s, by contrast, was a decade of military disaster, economic gloom and increasing faction-fighting at court. Notably, the volume provides the first ever translation of the official record of the so-called "Good Parliament" of 1376, at which Edward III's mistress and ministers were publicly exposed as enemies of the common good. This assembly was a major turning-point in political history, marking the first appearance of the office of Speaker of the House of Commons and the first use of parliamentary impeachment in medieval England. The rolls from the period are reproduced in their entirely, complented by a full translation of all the texts from the three languages used by the medieval clerks (Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle English).