The thirteenth-century plea rolls of the king's courts are a historical source of the first importance for legal historians and for all researchers into the social, economic and political history of England. The Public Record Office aims to make these important documents more accessible to historians and researchers by publishing full and accurate transcripts of these rolls. This latest volume contains texts of the six surviving plea rolls of the courts of Common Bench and King's Bench from Michaelmas term 1242 to Michaelmas term 1245; there is also a full index of persons and places mentioned. The introduction, drawing on the work of the late C.A.F. Meekings, the acknowledged expert on the rolls, describes the individual rolls and traces their archival history. It also uses the evidence of the surviving final concords of the period as well as other external and internal evidence to document the personnel of the judiciary who were serving in these two courts during the period.
DRPAUL BRANDis a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.