`Set to become an indispensible series for anyone who wishes to keep abreast of recent work in the field.' WELSH HISTORY REVIEWImportant papers playing a key role in re-awakening scholarly interest in a comparatively neglected period of English history.

Essays looking at the links between England and Europe in the long thirteenth century.

Papers on aspects of the growth of royal government during the century. The size and jurisdiction of English royal government underwent sustained development in the thirteenth century, an understanding of which is crucial to a balanced view of medieval English society. The papers here follow three central themes: the development of central government, law and justice, and the crown and the localities. Examined within this framework are bureaucracy and enrolment under John and his contemporaries; the Royal Chancery; the adaptation of the Exchequer in response to the rapidly changing demands of the crown; the introduction of a licensing system for mortmain alienations; the administration of local justice; women as sheriffs; and a Nottinghamshire study examining the tensions between the role of the king as manorial lord and as monarch. Contributors: NICK BARRATT, PAUL R. BRAND, DAVID CARPENTER, DAVID CROOK, ANTHONY MUSSON, NICHOLAS C. VINCENT, LOUISE WILKINSON

Examines how thirteenth-century clergymen used pastoral care - preaching, sacraments and confession - to increase their parishioners' religious knowledge, devotion and expectations.

The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307

Study of one of the most influential aristocratic families of medieval England. The Bigods were one of the most powerful and important families in thirteenth-century England. They are chiefly remembered for their dramatic interventions in high politics. Roger III Bigod (c. 1209-70) famously led the march on Westminster Hall in 1258 against Henry III, while Roger IV Bigod (1245-1306) confronted Edward I in 1297 in similar fashion. This book is the first full-scale study of these two earls, and explores in depth the reasons thatled each of them to take the extreme step of confronting his king. It is only in part, however, a political study. In seeking to understand the motives that lay behind their public actions, the book scrutinizes the earls' privateaffairs. It establishes for the first time the precise extent of their landed estate, the size of their incomes, and the membership and quality of their affinities. It also examines their relationships with friends and relatives, their building works, and even their personalities. Extensive use is made throughout of unpublished manuscript sources: in particular, the hundreds of ministers' accounts that have survived from the administration of Roger IV Bigod, and the charters given by both earls, which are calendared and translated in an appendix.

This series is home to scholarship of the highest order covering a wide range of themes: from politics and warfare to administration, justice and society. The topics of the papers in this book range from the sublime to the macabre: romance, rape, money, politics and religion. Wide-ranging papers cover many themes: the role of knights in the civil war at the end of John's reign, the politics of Ireland at the time of Richard Marshal's rebellion, the crusading context of the de Montfort family, the Petition of the Barons of 1258, and the government of England during Edward I's absence on crusade form one group of papers which illuminate the politics of the period. The history of the Jews in their final days in England is examined, as are the techniques used to supply Edward I's armies. Legal matters are considered, with papers on manorial courts, capital punishment, and the offence of rape. Romance is treated in a historical context with Edward I's marriage plans of 1294. Also included is discussion of the dissemination of the Sarum rite, the building of Westminster Abbey, ecclesiastical mints, and Matthew Paris's maps. Contributors: MARTIN ALLEN, DAVID CARPENTER, DAVIDCROOK, KATHERINE FAULKNER, PETER EDBURY, PAUL HARVEY, RICHARD HUSCROFT, NIGEL MORGAN, MARK ORMROD, ZEFIRA ROKEAH, CORINNE SAUNDERS, BRENDAN SMITH, KATHERINE STOCKS, HENRY SUMMERSON, MARK VAUGHN.