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1. Between Magna Carta and the Parliamentary State: The fine rolls of King Henry III 1216–1272 and the project
A fine in the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272) was an agreement to pay the king a sum of money for a specified concession. The rolls on which the fines were recorded provide the earliest systematic evidence of what people and institutions across society wanted from the king and he was prepared to give. They open a large window onto the politics, government, economy and society of England in the hinge period between the establishment of Magna Carta at the start of Henry’s reign and the parliamentary state which was emerging at its end. This Project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, makes the rolls freely available to a wide audience while at the same time, in the Fine of the Month feature, providing regular comment on their historical interest.
1.Fine of the Month
Fine of the Month – Methodological Problems of Standardisation in Medieval Source Material: The Compton Bassett Charters
William Stewart-Parker examines what variant spellings and the general diplomatic conventions might tell us about the processes, administrative and ceremonial, behind the production of charters of land conveyance. Read this essay.
The winner of the Fine of the Month Competition for 2009 is Tony Moore with ‘The Thorrington dispute: a case study of Henry III’s interference with judicial process’.
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