Ebook: English Government in the Thirteenth Century

The thirteenth century witnessed a sustained development in the size and jurisdiction of English royal government. This growth is the subject of the essays collected in this book. Written by a mixture of established and upcoming scholars, the papers are coherently formulated around three central themes: the development of central government, law and justice, and the crown and the localities. Topics examined within this framework include bureaucracy and enrolment under John and his contemporaries; the thirteenth century English Royal Chancery; the adaptation of the Exchequer in response to the rapidly changing demands of the crown in the thirteenth century; the introduction of a licensing system for mortmain alienations; the administration of local justice; women as sheriffs in the thirteenth century; and a Nottinghamshire study examining the tensions between the role of the king as a manorial lord and as a monarch. Contributing new insights into the inner workings of royal administration during the thirteenth century, this work highlights the continuing vibrancy of the academic study of administrative history and its importance in our overall understanding of medieval English society.