The many commands which the crown addressed to bishops represent a rich source of information about the history of government, law, and lay society, as well as about the church itself. The writs collected in this volume touch on many aspects of life in the later fourteenth century, including tax gathering, political upheaval, property disputes, Lollardy, and foreign warfare. The bishop is seen swearing in local officials, setting up commissions of enquiry, organising the attendance of the clergy in parliament, and consulting episcopal archives to answer queries from the lay courts. It also...

The clergy of England, like the laity, were subjected to a series of poll-taxes within a short space of time. This volume prints the surviving assessments made of the clergy of the diocese of Lincoln in the years 1377, 1379 and 1381. Most of the material relates to the old county of Lincoln (now Lincolnshire and South Humberside) but there are also surveys of Leicestershire, Rutland, most of Bedfordshire, and parts of Huntingdonshire and Hertfordshire. These poll-tax asessments represent what was virtually a census of the clerical population whose members were listed parish by parish. The...

Characterised by war and rebellion, show trials, scandalous royalty, horrible murders, attempts to solve the Irish question, and the making of England's oldest alliance, the political history of the first twenty years (1377-97) of Richard II's reign forms an ideal subject for student study.
This accessible collection of translated documents makes available for the first time a wealth of sources covering this dramatic and important period, carefully chosen and arranged to form a coherent narrative. It combines key passages from well-known English chronicles with lesser-known sources,...