A key point of reference for all political and social historians of twelfth-century England. Early in 1166, Henry II sent out orders via his sheriffs to all his tenants-in-chief, instructing them to send him returns (subsequently referred to as the cartae baronum) that listed the number of knights enfeoffed upon their estates in 1135 (when Henry I died); the number of knights they had enfeoffed since 1135; how many knights were charged on their demesne; and the names of their knightly tenants. The returns submitted by his tenants-in-chief are therefore indispensable records for the nature of tenurial lordship as it operated under King Henry II. The cartae were instrumental in their own day in confirming ligeance from rear tenants, and providing up-to-date lists of honorial knights from whom the king might collect such feudal incidents (wardships and reliefs as well as scutages and aids) as fell during a period of royal custody. They also laid the groundwork for a possible revision ofknightly quotas owing to the crown. Due to the sheer level of detail within the returns, they are also a key source for those scholars who are interested in tracing the histories of individual honors and identifying comital, baronial and knightly landholders in twelfth-century England. This important volume brings together all the extant cartae baronum for the first time. In addition to these, there are notices, mostly from the early thirteenthcentury, of those cartae which are now lost. Each individual cartae here is accompanied by a detailed note that identifies the individual tenant in chief, briefly discusses the history of his barony or holding, anddefines the nature of his obligations to the crown under Henry II. The editor has also corrected a number of long-established textual errors, and identified as many subtenants as possible and located their toponyms. NEIL STACY gained his DPhil from Oxford. His publications include books on the estates of the abbeys of Glastonbury and Shaftesbury.

Studies focusing on medieval lordship and education. The exercise of lordship in England is examined in relation to personal and tenurial dependence, estate management, and changing social and economic conditions. There are papers on the formation of kingdoms and national identitiesin early medieval Britain and Ireland, on Anglo-Saxon lordship, and on lords and peasants in Byzantium. In contributions on medieval education the institutions of late medieval Oxford are reassessed; the provisions made for theirarchives by medieval corporations, and the practical importance of muniments explained; and, at the other end of the spectrum, material from across western Europe is deployed to show how images were used to convey non-verbal messages to the non-literate. Contributors: MARGARET ASTON, TREVOR ASTON, PAUL BRAND, JEREMY CATTO, T.M. CHARLES-EDWARDS, PETER COSS. RALPH EVANS, ROSAMOND FAITH, I.M.W. HARVEY, P.D.A. HARVEY, JAMES HOWARD-JOHNSTON, ERIC JOHN, N.E. STACY, MALCOLM UNDERWOOD.