INTRODUCTION HE manuscript which is here published is one of the registers preserved among the Duchy of Lancaster records at the T 1 Public Record Office. It is on vellum, the folio measurements averaging 9 in. by 13I in., and there are normally 55 lines to the page. The volume contains 153 folios, of which 3 to 152 are num- bered to 154 in an Elizabethan hand not later than about 1580.2 Of the folios as originally numbered 27 are blank, and in addition 26 pages are likewise blank. Between ff. 87 and 88 four leaves have been cut out after the original foliation, as f. 90 follows f. 85 in the original numbering. The writing is mostly in one, small hand, but there have been one or two other scribes at work. Enrolment has not been made without errors.3 The arrangement is orderly and clear ; the individual entries are set out in paragraph form, and the names of the person or persons in whose favour the original was made, or the purpose of the document, occur in the margin. These marginal notes have not been printed here, but where the marginal heading has a variant reading or additional information, it is referred to in a footnote. The various sections are generally preceded by a descriptive heading. Most of the documents enrolled are in French : the few that are in Latin are chiefly presentations to livings, in which the dating is by the Christian era, whereas the documents in French have been dated by the regnal years of Richard II. Some twenty or thirty years ago the volume was rebound at the Public Record Office.4 It is in good condition. 1 Duchy of Lanes. Misc. Books 14. 2 Collation : i2-32, 41, 5*, 68-i38, 144, 158, 1610 (wants 3, 4, 9 and 10), 176, 1810 (wants 10), 196, 20s, 218 (wants 3), 226 (wants 1 and 2), 23s (wants 1, 2 and 5), 244 (wants 2), 25s, 26s (wants 7 and 8). The last folio has two other leaves pasted to it. 3 Textual corruptions are noticed in footnotes. Some of the enrolments can be checked with extant originals, which present a number of variants. See post, p. xxiv, n. 2 and Appendix i.—R. S. 4 At the end of the sixteenth century the register was bound in black leather, without any title, and it was therefore distinguished in a book of ix Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.51.11, on 04 Oct 2021 at 02:48:55, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042171000004921 x INTRODUCTION Enrolments begin on f. 3a, which, with ff. 4 and 5a, contains presentations, and these are followed by two folios, the first of which (now f. 6) contains jottings of interesting matter in the register extracted by William Tusser, clerk of the council of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1572-87, and an index to the contents by Benjamin Ayloffe, deputy clerk and keeper of the records of the Duchy from 1685 to 1723, which is printed below ; and the second of these folios is blank.1 At the head of f. 6 are the following entries in three different hands of the fourteenth century. (a) Remembrance de une lettre envoiee a le conestable de Burdeux pur seiser es mains du roy tous les bens et chateux moevables et im- moveables de Johan Neveu de Burdeux qestoit neye a Dax sauns les departer et de certifier le value queux sount. Item un garrant estoit done a le bailiff de la Bord pur seiser les terres et tenements et autres bens de le seignourye de Nempere dedeins la Bord. (6) Monsire J. Harpeden seneschal de Gyen. (c) Mestre Rennon du Puy Judge de le court sovireine daquitan.2 On ff. 152b and 153a there are more jottings by Tusser which are dated 10 January 1585, and are marked " Tusser's writing " by Ayloffe. Throughout the volume there are occasional marginal notes in later hands. A very few of them are by Ayloffe (calling attention to matters which interested him) ; but most of them are of the sixteenth century and fall into two groups : (a) the letter N, and searches by the fact that it commences with presentations.—D.L. 41 (Misc.)/ 35/19, f. 43b. The original covers are preserved in D.L. 42/148. 1 The first two folios are blank, except for a note (inverted) on f. 2a : " mons. Johan Butiller | meistr' Forester de noz | Forestes & parkes deinz | Westderbyshire " (14th cent.). F. ib has the number 4 inverted in the left corner at the foot, and in the same hand as the other folio numbers. This points to a slight rearrangement at some time when the volume was rebound, probably during the eighteenth century, when many books in the Duchy of Lancaster office were rebound. F. 6, which comes between the folios origin- ally numbered 3 and 5 (now 5 and 7), has no number. The explanation is that what are now three separate gatherings of 2 folios each were originally one of 6, but the present first gathering was inverted and formed the two outer leaves, the first of which (blank on the right side, with the note about Butiller on the dorse) was followed by the present f. 6 (originally un- numbered), f. 3 (original 1, with presentations of 3 Ric. II), f. 4 (original 2), f. 5 (original 3), and the original number 4 is thus on the following folio, which is blank. The rearrangement has therefore been made since Ayloffe's time. 2 The supreme court was formed in 1375, with Raimon Guillaume as one of its members, and in the same year Harpeden was appointed seneschal for two years. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.51.11, on 04 Oct 2021 at 02:48:55, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042171000004921 INTRODUCTION xi (b) the letter B, placed against entries. The first are by Tusser, and, wherever they are found, a reference to that particular entry occurs in his jottings referred to above. At the head of f. 152b occurs the following entry in the same hand as the major part of the register: Depar le Roy de Castile et de Leon due de Lancastre Au gardein du prive sel nostre tres- Soit faire lettre de protection soubz le redoutez seignur le Roy grand sel nostre dit seignur le Roy oue la clause volumus a durer pur un an pur nostre seignur Hugh Calvelay le neveue qi est oueqs nous en Espaygne Done soub nostre prive sel a nostre loggis de Quintela le xiii jour de Marc Ian de grace xx m1. ccciiii. vi. Item une autre tele bille de protection pur . AYLOFFE'S INDEX (Present folio numbers added in parentheses) Presentacions, f. 1 (3). The names of Knights and Esquires, f. 6 (8). Reteyning Knights and Esquires for the warres, f. 8 (10). Warrants, f. 14 (16), of severall Natures. Contracts for building, f. 81 (83). Leave to Elect, f. 83 (85). Obligations, f. 84 (86). Acquitances, f. 90 (88). Grants of offices and other grants, f. 96 (94). Leases, f. 105 (103). Grants of Manages, f. 111 (109). Commissions or warrants, f. 115 (113). Licence to Give to Religious Uses, f. 126 (124). Pardons and Releases, f. 131 (129). Concerning Homage, f. 134 (132). Protections, f. 137 (135). Some from paying Toll. F. 66 To Collect money for a Religious house, f. 140 (138). Passes, f. 141 (139b). The Foundacion of the priory of Doncaster, f. 143 (141b). An alliance between R. 2 and the Duke of Brittain, ff. 144, 145 & 146 pt. (142, etc.). A Lycence to John Duke of Lancaster to Coin Moneys in the City of Bayonne, etc., f. 146 (144). Instruments concerning the Scoth [sic] Affairs, ff. 147-8 (145b, etc.). Grants from W. the Conqueror of Inglemore & other antient Records of diverse natures from ff. 148b to 150 (146D-148). Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.51.11, on 04 Oct 2021 at 02:48:55, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042171000004921 xii INTRODUCTION Speciall Passports, etc., to John Duke of Lancr., ff. 150 (148b), 151 (149). 2 Grants of the Wardship of the Heir of Lestrange from Edw. 3 to the D. of Lancaster, f. 151 (149b). A Letter to Richard 2a in the nature of a Lycence to one of the Duke's Tennants to prosecute a Writ of Right in the Kings Courts, f. 151b (149b). Passports, f. 152 (150). The following may be added : Letters by the duke of Lancaster from Spain, ff. 150 et seq. Manumissions, f. 151b. Fees of the duke's attornies in the king's courts, f. 152. This index gives an outline of the contents of the volume. From it will be seen that after f. 140, the end of the enrolment of safe-con- ducts, the register proper terminates. Henceforward the docu- ments enrolled are of a miscellaneous type, some falling outside the limiting dates of the register proper, and many of them not under the duke's seal. It is perhaps necessary to repeat here Professor Baldwin's remark that this register is only one of several registers formed in the duke's chancery.