This volume is a study of Henry Beaufort--the first resident cardinal in the English church, Chancellor of England, and councillor to three kings--who was a leading figure in the rise and decline of the 15th-century Lancastrian kingship. Controversial in his lifetime and vilified in the 16th century for his reputed wealth, pride, and ambition--most notably by Shakespeare in Henry VI--Beaufort's historical reputation has since varied widely. Harris provides the most sympathetic and balanced account to date, focusing on his achievements as statesman, churchman, and financier, and presenting important new insights into the chaotic world of 15th-century English politics.

Fee tails were a heritable interest in land which was both inalienable and could only pass at death by inheritance to descendants of the original grantee. Biancalana's study considers the origins of the entail, and the development of a reliable legal mechanism for their destruction, the common recovery.

The second of a two-volume prosopography of persons occurring in the sources of post-Conquest England.