Respites in charge and discharge statements

Abstract

An entry which appears on some medieval charge and discharge statements is the respite. This paper shows some of the forms a respite might take and how different ways of accounting for it may affect the balances of those statements. It examines in particular the significance of respites in the building accounts of Tattershall Castle 1434–72 and suggests that the nature of these respites was misinterpreted by Myatt-Price (1966). It concludes by considering Ross's explanation of respites in the fifteenth-century Talbot Household Accounts (Ross 1968).