Abstract
The documents here collected are exemplifications, enrolled in chancery, of indentures of service between John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and a number of his retainers who secured confirmation of them from the reigning king: all but two of these exemplifications were issued by Richard II, when, after the duke's death, his lands were in the king's hand; and, in a large proportion of cases, the opportunity was taken to transfer the duke's former retainers to the king's sole service. The indentures themselves are examples of the type of contract, familiar in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by which magnates formed the retinues of knights and squires who maintained their position in the country in time of peace and fought under their command in time of war. Of such retinues John of Gaunt's must have been one of the largest; and we have a more detailed knowledge of it than of any other, thanks to the large number of indentures and other evidences recorded in the two volumes of his register.
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