The Exercise of the Probate Jurisdiction of the Medieval Archbishops of York

Abstract

The development of testamentary jurisdiction by the English Church authorities has already received considerable attention, and it is generally held that by the close of the thirteenth century the basic probate procedures had been well established, even if some administrative practices continued to be refined. This paper aims to look at the practical evidence of the York archiepiscopal records from the thirteenth century to the Reformation from an archival and administrative viewpoint - the concern is not so much with the canon law touching wills and testaments, or with the testamentary disputes and litigation in the archiepiscopal court, the Curia Eboracensis, or indeed with the contents of the wills proved before the ecclesiastical authorities, but with the routine practicalities of the exercise of probate and intestacy administrations.