The flow of coins into and out of the government's treasury was recorded in the rolls of the Exchequer of Receipt. In the mid thirteenth century, England used only a single coin, the silver penny. That is not to say that these great men exerted themselves in the actual copying of the roll. The chancellor, he had already declared, was ‘equally responsible, with the treasurer, for everything that is written in the roll, except for the amounts recorded as having been received “in the treasury“’. Richard fitz Nigel states that the treasurer's (in other words his own) chief tasks were ‘receiving the accounts of the sheriffs and … the writing of the roll’. It is these comments, and a close reading of the rolls themselves, that provide the basis for the following discussion. Richard's treatise not only describes the assaying of coin and the duties of the various officials who sat at the Exchequer, but also sets down in detail how the Pipe Rolls – the annual record of all these transactions – were organized and by whom they were composed. Posing as a master instructing his pupil, Richard fitz Nigel gives a lengthy account of the activities at the Exchequer at Michaelmas, when the sheriffs were summoned from their counties to answer for their farms and the other multifarious debts that they owed to the king.
Between 11 (although it was subsequently revised and interpolated), Richard fitz Nigel, Henry II's treasurer, composed his De necessariis observantiis scaccarii dialogus, known in English as the Dialogue of the Exchequer. Wickham offers both a new conception of Europe’s medieval period and a provocative revision of exactly how and why the Middle Ages matter.īut write not, thou, of theoretical, but of practical things. He provides illuminating vignettes that underscore how shifting social, economic, and political circumstances affected individual lives and international events. Tracking the entire sweep of the Middle Ages across Europe, Wickham focuses on important changes century by century, including such pivotal crises and moments as the fall of the western Roman Empire, Charlemagne’s reforms, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rebuilding of late medieval states, and the appalling devastation of the Black Death. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation. Wilkinson is Professor of Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University David Crook is Honorary Research Fellow at the National Archives and the University of Notthingham.Ĭontributors: Nick Barratt, Paul Brand, David Carpenter, David Crook, Paul Dryburgh, Beth Hartland, Philippa Hoskin, Charles Insley, Adrian Jobson, Tony Moore, Alice Taylor, Nicholas Vincent, Scott Waugh, Louise WilkinsonĪ spirited and thought-provoking history of the vast changes that transformed Europe during the 1,000-year span of the Middle Ages The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period-one not easily chronicled within the scope of a few hundred pages. Related or parallel developments in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are also dealt with, giving a broader British dimension. The volume covers topics including the evidential value of the fine rolls themselves and their wider significance for the English polity, developments in legal and financial administration, the roles of women and the church, and the fascinating details of the development of the office of escheator.
#Piperoll level 130 walkthrough series#
The essays here draw on material available for the first time via the completion of the project to calendar all the Fine Rolls of Henry III these rolls comprise the last series of records of the English Chancery from that period to become readily available in a convenient form, thereby transforming access to several important fields of research, including financial, legal, political and social issues.
The thirteenth century saw major developments in England's administration, as the procedures and processes of government expanded rapidly, the principles enshrined in Magna Carta became embedded, knights and burgesses were summoned to Parliament for the first time, and nothing short of a political revolution took place.
0 kommentar(er)
