The fruits of new research on the politics, society and culture of England in the fourteenth century. Drawing on a diverse range of documentary, literary and material evidence, the essays collected here consider a wide range of important issues for the period. Political and institutional history is addressed in essays on Edward II's personal expenditure and the development and workings of parliament, including an analysis of those neglected "parliamentarians" of the period, the parliamentary proctors. Important new insights into the social history of the fourteenth century are provided by chapters on marriage and the accumulation of lay estates, the brokerage of royal wardship and the important and difficult subject of sexual violence towards under-age girls. Another chapter considers the enormously costly and complex task of feeding and supplying medieval armies across the "long" fourteenth century, while two final pieces offer important new insights into the material culture of the age, focusing in turn on St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, and the phenomenon of royal reburial. Richly textured with personal and local detail, these new studies provide numerous insights into the lives of great and small in this fascinating period ofmedieval history. GWILYM DODD is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. Contributors: Elizabeth Biggs, Anna M. Duch, Bridget Wells-Furby, Alan Kissane, Ilana Krug, Alison K.McHardy, Seymour Phillips, Laura Tompkins, Kathryn Warner.

First full analysis of the rich records surviving from medieval English town courts. Town courts were the principal institution responsible for the delivery of justice and urban administration within medieval towns. Their records survive in large quantities in archives across England, and they provide an unparalleled insight into the lives and work of thousands of men and women who lived in these towns. The court rolls tell us much about the practice of law at the local level within towns, as well as yielding a broad range of perspectiveson the economy, society and administration of towns. This volume is the first collection dedicated to the analysis of town courts and their records. Through a wide range of approaches, it offers new interpretations of the role that these courts played. It also demonstrates the wide range of uses to which court records can be put to in order to more fully understand medieval urban society. The volume draws on the records of a considerable number of towns and their courts across England, including London, York, Norwich, Lincoln, Nottingham, Lynn, Chester, Bromsgrove and Shipston-on-Stour. RICHARD GODDARD is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham; TERESA PHIPPS is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History at Swansea University. Contributors: Christopher Dyer, Richard Goddard, Jeremy Goldberg, Alan Kissane, Maryanne Kowaleski, JaneLaughton, Esther Liberman Cuenca, Susan Maddock, Teresa Phipps, Samantha Sagui

An examination of the community of a major late medieval town: its economy, its customs, and its relationship with the Crown. The later middle ages saw provincial towns and their civic community contending with a number of economic, social and religious problems - including famine and the plague. This book, using Lincoln - then a significant urban centre- as a case study, investigates how such a community dealt with these issues, looking in particular at the links between town and central government, and how they influenced local customs and practices. The author then argues, with an assessment of industry, trade and civic finance, that towns such as Lincoln were often well placed to react to changes in the economy, by actively forging closer links with the crown both as suppliers of goods and servicesand as financiers. The book goes on to explore the foundations of civic government and the emergence of local guilds and chantries, showing that each reflected broader trends in local civic culture, being influenced in only a minor way by the Black Death, an event traditionally seen as a major turning point in late medieval urban history. Alan Kissane gained his PhD from the University of Nottingham.