The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504

Abstract

THE Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (PROME) provides for the first time a complete edition of the principal record of the medieval assemblies, from the first surviving roll in 1290 to the last parliament of Henry VII in 1504. PROME supersedes the six-volume Rotuli Parliamentorum, published in 1767–77 under the general editorship of the Reverend John Strachey. The new edition incorporates material edited subsequently, not least by Maitland and by Richardson and Sayles. Other sections are transcribed for the first time: for instance, the rediscovered twelfth and final membrane of the roll for the parliament of October 1318. Unlike the old edition, PROME includes notes of interlineations, erasures, lacunae, and other scribal features. It also describes the condition of each roll. Translations for all parts of the rolls—those parts in English as well as those in Latin and in Anglo-Norman French—are provided in a parallel-text format. Footnotes provide cross-references to original documents (principally the texts of the original bills, petitions, and proviso clauses). References are also supplied for direct quotations and for the chapter numbers of statutes. PROME therefore provides a complete and authoritative text of the rolls. The translations should ensure that the parliament rolls become more widely used as a historical source, and are read in their entirety rather than in excerpted collections.