Royal Charter Witness Lists for the Reign of Henry IV, 1399-1413

Abstract

FOR both William Stubbs and Frederic Maitland, royal charters were among the most important components in tracing and understanding the evolution and development of the English Constitution.' Yet, it is well known that when the charter rolls were calendared and printed in the second decade of the last century, the lists of witnesses were not published. Chris Given-Wilson thought this editorial omission an 'act of negligence', and in I991, sought to correct at least a portion of this error by publishing an analysis of charter witnesses for the reigns of Edward III and Richard II.2 More recently, Jeff Hamilton has made the names of charter witnesses for Edward II's reign available in print,3 and Richard Huscroft has done the same for Edward I.j Unfortunately, no such study has been published for the reign of Henry IV. Although historians have been consulting the Charter Rolls of Henry IV's reign since James H. Wylie in the late nineteenth century,5 not even a brief hand-list of witnesses exists, and anyone wishing to discover the identity of the witnesses must still consult the eleven rolls preserved in the Public Record Office.6 This brief study places Henry IV's use of charters within the context of his predecessors, makes the names of Henry IV's charter witnesses available to a wider audience and identifies some of those