Essays exploring the potential of the Inquisitions post mortem to shed important new light on the medieval world. The Inquisitions post mortem (IPMs) are a truly wonderful source for many different aspects of late medieval countryside and rural life. They have recently been made digitally accessible and interrogatable by the Mappingthe Medieval Countryside project, and the first fruits of these developments are presented here. The chapters examine IPMs in connection with the landscape and topography of England, in particular markets and fairs and mills;and consider the utility of proofs of age for everyday life on such topics as the Church, retaining, and the wine trade. MICHAEL HICKS is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Winchester. Contributors: Katie A. Clarke, William S. Deller, Paul Dryburgh, Christopher Dyer, Janette Garrett, Michael Hicks, Matthew Holford, Gordon McKelvie, Stephen Mileson, Simon Payling, Matthew Tompkins, Jennifer Ward.

A valuable resource on the social and economic life of medieval England Inquisitions post mortem are the single most important source for the history of medieval English landed society and are indispensable to social, economic, and political historians of the later middle ages; they were compiled with the help of jurors from the area, as a county-by-county record of a deceased individual's land-holdings and associated rights, where the individual held land directly of the crown. It is this explicit connection with land and locality - in economic, social, political, and topographical terms - that makes these documents of such comprehensive interest. This volume calendars the inquisitions and related documents from the short reigns of Edward V and Richard III, from the protectorate to the battle of Bosworth (1483-1485). It looks at 101 individuals across 181 inquisitions and includes valuable information and detailed returns on the estates of the greater aristocracy, among them Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex and William Lord Hastings [d. 1483], alongside lesser landholders, jurors' names and full manorial extents. The volume incorporates not only inquisitions post mortem but also assignments of dower and a proof of age from across the counties of England and the Marches of Wales. It is especially rich in inquisitions relating to the lands of the royal justices and widowed dowagers and documents how many landholders had conveyed lands to trustees, thus escaping royal wardship and prompting remedial legislation by Richard's parliament. Standard information includes medieval descriptions of towns and villages and the charting of land and its descent at all social levels. The volume also provides comprehensive indexes of jurors, persons, places, and subjects.

A fresh look at the idea of bastard feudalism, deploying little-used records to provide new insights. Regulation of the distribution of liveries and the practice of retaining, which underpinned the so-called system of bastard feudalism in late medieval England, are the subject of this book. Rather than relying primarily on the records of noble estates, as much previous scholarship has done, it draws on the records of the court of King's Bench, covering all 336 known cases of illegal livery and retaining over 130 years. The author examines the political events and legal processes surrounding illegal livery, by exploring the nature of the legislation and its enforcement, particularly the relationship between law-making in parliament and law-enforcement in the localities. The wider social and cultural contexts in which the statutes operated are also investigated, along with the legal processes and outcomes of the cases. Finally, the book considers the importance of retaining in the numerous acts of magnate violence during the fifteenth century, how they shaped the Wars of the Roses and the ways in which Henry VII accepted most noble retaining, save the most extreme cases. Dr GORDON MCKELVIE is a lecturer in History at the University of Winchester