The Crusader Bible: A Picture Book Unlike Any Other

The Crusader Bible, also called the Morgan Bible, is a 13th century French-Gothic bible, containing some of the most notable miniatures of the Old Testament, and serves as the epitome of French gothic illumination. This bible is made up of stories from the old testament, and are noted as some of the greatest visualizations of these stories ever made. 46 folios contain 346 episodes of the Old Testament. The Crusader Bible does not include all the books of the Old Testament, but only parts from Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Samuel.

 The pages themselves are the real focus of the manuscript, images covering every single folio in gold, vibrant paint, and precise figures. Measuring 380 x 300 mm overall, as the commentary is not measured, the book is grand in both its size, and of what is inside of it. This bible was originally conceived as a picture book, not really looking to put text in. The images are made of rich pigment, gold leaf, and clearly outlined pictures. The notion that this book was more concerned with pictures than words, lets any reader, literate or not, read this book. They would have had to have an understanding of the Old Testament to understand the narrative, but regardless, like an picture book, the images tell the story, and are downright just pretty to look at. As time went on, ink commentaries were added to the margins. Past owners deemed it necessary to have a commentary on what the image was depicting, and through time the manuscript acquired Latin, Persian, and Judeo-persian notations. These inscriptions are very defined, and the reader can differentiate between the three translations. The Latin text looks as if it was the first language to be added, as it has gilded initials starting of the Latin commentary. These gilded initials offer another element of decoration to an already extravagant manuscript. The latin script is very organized and very legible to be read from. The Persian and Judeo-persian inscriptions are also, very legible and easy to decipher the distinguishing languages being used. The persian and judeo-persian scripts are only written in ink, and have no decoration purpose to the book, they are there purely for just being text.

 The text has in no way any superiority over the illuminations. The illuminations fill every single folio, creating a sequential narrative to follow along with. The images are truly un-parallel to any other manuscript miniatures I have seen, as they are executed perfectly, by masterful illuminators. Seven artists can be identified, with one being the master artist and doing a majority of the illuminations. The master artist can be distinguished as he had an unprecedented naturalistic quality to his work, and he never used gold backgrounds as well. Who the artists were, we do not know, as manuscript production was moving from monasteries to secular out sourcing.

 An important element to the bible is that all of the illuminations are not set in the time period of the Old Testament, but rather in 13th century France. The well known stories of the creation of the world, King Solomon, and stories any pious person would know, were turned into narratives through a contemporary setting. They weren't set in the Holy Land that these narratives were originally thought to be set in. By putting them into a different context, it makes the image much more relatable, as the reader could see themselves in the image, as it was familiar to them.

 A particular favorite illumination from this manuscripts is f.23v, which depicts Saul Slaying Nahash and Ammonites and Samuel anoints Saul and sacrifices to the Lord. When first looking at this illumination, I had to remind myself of the title over and over, because at first looking at it, this contemporary scene did not remind me of the particular story. It's not the usual image of this scene, instead replacing Old Testament figures with Medieval knights, looking like a scene from a crusade or battle during the Middle Ages. It provides a 13th century spin on an old story that people would have been familiar with. The Illumination of Saul slaying the Ammonites is very dynamic and full of action, figures clad in armor, horses bucking, and images even stretching into the margins. The war machine that the one man is holding on to, expands the scene from the main image, making it a more interesting image to look at as well. It draws the viewer in, with drama and narrative.

   

Folio 23v

Originally made with no captions, the images were the main source of narrative. The images serve to tell the story, without the reliance of text. In this weeks lecture, we have talked about the inclusion of pictures as an indication of status, very apparent in this bible. The higher in the aristocracy you are, the more detailed and image oriented your manuscript was made. But, just because these pictures are included, and serve as a way to "show" the story, the understanding of the Old Testament as a whole was needed as well. One would have had to have an understanding of the stories of the old testament to decipher what was being illustrated in the narratives. More knowledge is needed to understand these images in particular to me, because they are set in 13th century France, and the reader may not recognize them at first glance. One would really have to know the stories in order to have a coherent understanding of what was particularly being illustrated.

 The Crusader Bible, with its inclusions of masterful illuminations, provides a great example of French Gothic illumination and book production. It shows that these illuminations were an important part of social status, narrative, and understanding of biblical knowledge. This manuscript, to me, provides a ideal illuminated manuscript, to be seen as inspiration for future manuscripts and illuminators. Imagery is such an important part of the Crusader Bible, that to me, it stresses that while it may not have as many words, it can tell a story in a much more detailed and aesthetically pleasing way than script can. This manuscript might just be a "picture book" in the most generalized terms, but no picture book can truly meet the standard that the Crusader Bible had instilled.

The Gospels of Henry the Lion

The Gospels of Henry the Lion is an extremely ornate, highly luxurious copy of all four of the Holy Gospels on 226 parchment pages. Fifty of the pages are colorful and elaborate full page illuminated miniatures. The manuscript is in excellent condition, all of the pages are intact and when considering its particularly mysterious history that’s pretty amazing. This manuscript definitely seems like it would have been commissioned to be a display piece rather than functionally used, but surprisingly, its existence did serve a very functional purpose; passages would have been read from it during masses. Through the evolution of court culture, commissioned religious books with large pictures served to increase accessibility to the text and would have been seen as a status symbol. This manuscript is pretty huge, 34.2 × 25.5 cm, and when this book of gospels was commissioned in 1188 to honor the Brunswick Cathedral it was during a time of great artistic innovation, which is evident though its design and decoration. Henry the Lion, one of the most powerful rulers of the Middle Ages, definitely displayed his wealth and power with this incredibly luxurious set of gospels.

The twelfth century saw a rapidly advancing cultural and artistic renaissance, the growth of cities, development of urban universities, and the interest of secular populations to become more involved in their own religion sparked many of these changes. Because of these developments more and more books were being composed and copied in the vernacular of their different regions. The Gospels of Henry the Lion are not written in vernacular. Despite vernacular becoming more increasingly common this manuscript is written in Latin, which was still considered the language of learning at that time. The fact that it was written in Latin indicates its high importance for religious purposes. But the large miniatures make the text accessible for even less educated lay audiences. And it makes sense that a ruler would want to both connect with his subjects and also remind them of his extreme wealth and influence. There is no way other nobles in Henry the Lion’s court could have competed in commissioning a book to rival this manuscript. The original binding most probably would have been impressive too, but the current binding, red leather containing relics of saints and other metalwork of religious iconography and looks quite impressive and quite heavy. When the cover was updated in 1594, The Dean of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague got his own coat of arms on the cover. 

Almost every page has decoration of some kind, many of the pages being entirely illustrations. The colors are vibrant reds, blues, greens, and illuminated with much gold leaf. There are thousands of illustrations throughout the book even the pages with fewer decorations are still beautifully detailed. Many of the pages show traditional religious iconography. One of the pages that is of particular interest to me is Folio 171v. This folio depicts the coronation of Henry the Lion and his wife Mathilde in the lower portion. Henry the Lion is shown kneeling with Mathilde standing beside him, the hands of Christ place crowns on their heads as other important family members including his parents, Duke Henry the Proud and Duchess Gertrude, his grandparents, Emperor Lothar III. and Empress Richenza, Mathilde’s father, King Henry II. of England, and her grandmother, Matilda, stand looking on. Each figure in the lower section is labeled and includes captions. In the upper portion of the miniature is Christ surrounded by eight saints, one of which is depicted as Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The page is exquisitely detailed with color and copiously illuminated. Henry the Lion shapes the image that will be remembered of him with pictures in a highly lavish and skillfully painted manuscript. The inclusion of such regal images of himself and other important family members indicates the, rightly deserved, sense of self-importance and inclination to strengthen the image of his family in memory and even in years to come.

 f.71

f.29

Not only is the manuscript itself beautiful, it also boasts a tantalizing mystery about its enigmatic providence, and has limited visibility to the public throughout the year. Almost like a reclusive celebrity, the Gospels of Henry the Lion makes a public appearance only six weeks every year, and then returns to its special safe designed to keep the manuscript in its best condition for the rest. Also, not much is known about the location of the book before arriving in Prague and then being acquired by King George V of Hanover in 1861. After being dethroned in 1866 George V took the gospels with him to Austria. The manuscript somehow ended up in England after World War II, and in 1945 it was offered for sale to the King of England, but he refused the offer. It is unknown where the book remained for the thirty-eight years until it was put up for sale in August, 1983 to the auction house Sotheby’s in London by an unknown party. The book was offered for sixteen million euros ($20.7 million), making it at that time the most expensive piece of art ever purchased. The manuscript was purchased with combined funds from Germany’s federal government, the state governments of Lower Saxony and Bavaria, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and private donors. The gospels were brought back to Germany and are now housed in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel just outside of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony. The manuscript’s spotty provenance is only half of the mystery as it is still unclear who received the 16 million euros.

f.21

The Trinity Apocalypse

          While the Apocalypse is approached by our generation mostly as a conspiracy theory by large haired men on the History Channel, in Medieval Europe it was a constant aspect of their lives that could happen at any moment. Many famous clergy, from Saint Beatus of Liebana who wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelations, to Pope Innocent III who declared 666 AD as the coming again of the Messiah due to the rise of Islam, spent their lives reading, interpreting, and predicting the End of Days. 

          This obsession with the end of the world stemmed from the persecution faced by early Christians from the Romans. The belief that they would be rewarded and those who denied their faith and oppressed them would be punished was a form of solidarity for many Christians. From the 6th Century onward, the Apocalypse became an almost type of safety cushion for medieval Christians whenever anything would go wrong, whether it was the fall of the Roman Empire or the Black Plague. To the point where a trend of predicting the Apocalypse occurred several times a century, or during or after any prominent event.

           By the 13th Century, when the secular masses began to own and read religious manuscripts, the Book of Revelations became a hot topic. Basically as close as one could get to a science-fiction novel at the time. Many of the learned aristocracy and clergy were fascinated by the final book of the Bible, which led to many manuscripts, such as the Trinity Apocalypse, an Anglo Norman commentary on the subject, being produced.

           The manuscript is believed to be made for Queen Eleanor, the wife of King Henry III of England, and its beautiful illumination and gilding demonstrates a richness that only the the Duke of Aquitaine, the largest and wealthiest province of France and another title held by Henry III, could provide. Along with incredible amounts of gold, the manuscripts show an impressive amount of lapis lazuli (the deep blue ink seen below), which at the time in Britain was worth more than its weight in gold.

folio 29r

folio 30r

For so much luxury and expense to be spent on a manuscript, especially one with so many full page miniatures and detailed initials, the subject matter of the text must have held significant value to the owner, and proceeding owners as well.

The manuscript was well kept in private hands until 1649, when Dame Anne Sadleir gave the manuscript to Trinity College in Dublin, with the inscription:

I commit this booke to the custodie of the Right Reuerend Father in God Raffe Lo: Bishop of Exon, when times are better setled (which God hasten) it is with my other booke & my coins giuen to Trinitie Colledge Librarie in Cambridge, God in his good time restore her with her Sister Oxford to there pristine happiness, the Vulger People to there former obedience, and God blesſ and restore Charles the Second, & make him like his most glorious Father. Amen. 

August the 20tie. 1649. Anne Sadleir.

        This demonstrates the importance the Book of Revelations held throughout medieval history and Christianity, focusing less on the horrors of the End, and more on the Paradise that awaited those who were righteous. 

The Charter of Edward I confirming the privileges of Cambridge University was issued on February 6, 1292.  The document is written in small, concise, and consistent text across the length of the page, in a text with prominent ascenders and descenders, and maybe capital letters as well. The charter itself is not in the best condition, due to numerous losses at the top and bottom of the page. However, the seal and tassel attached to the document are still in tact. The metal seal appears to have a seated man in robes, but pieces are missing and there is corrosion so it is difficult to tell. What is unique about this particular charter is that it contains one of the earliest known examples of illumination produced in Cambridge. The decorative initial E appears to be the first letter in Edward. It depicts the monarch presenting the charter to a doctor of civil law, a doctor of canon law, and two kneeling doctors of theology, all dressed in their respective academic robes.

Why is this small bit of illumination causing such a fuss? There are a ton of illuminated manuscripts that came before the charter, and after as well? The answer is complicated and really awesome. Universities such as those in Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and Bologna were founded in the late 12^th century, and with the emergence of so many institutions, the demand for academic books increased. These universities became important hubs for manuscript production (as opposed to scriptoriums or monasteries).  As you can imagine, on a student budget, illuminated manuscripts were expensive and unnecessary and sort of impractical. However, for the students and scholars that could afford illuminated manuscripts, the texts that were commissioned would most likely have been copies of legal and theological texts and popular encyclopedias. So yes, there were illuminated manuscripts produced at the time, but then the Reformation happened.

Fast-forward three hundred years. The Reformation occurred in the 16^th century during the Tudor reign. King Henry VIII decided to get rid of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she failed to produce a male heir. Luckily for Anne Boleyn, she was Catherine’s successor, but unlike Catherine, the king did not divorce her when he decided to marry Jane Seymour. She lost her head, but such is the fate of King Henry’s other 67 wives. I digress. The Roman Catholic Church did not recognize divorce; the only way for one to remarry was if their previous spouse was dead.  Henry did not want to be excommunicated by the Pope, or have his soul go to Hell. In short, the Pope did not allow Henry to get divorced, even though Henry requested Papal Dispensation. This made Henry angry, so he made the Archbishop of Canterbury grant him one, he subsequently went off the deep end broke away from the Church completely. Henry VIII established himself as the new head of church in Protestant England.  There were also numerous injustices that the Catholic Church committed against the people of England, so perhaps this wasn’t completely selfish on Henry VIII part.

Returning to the charter, a majority of the students at Cambridge during the 13th century focused on divinity, canon and civil law, and medicine.  The Reformation caused many of the texts from this time to become obsolete. Fortunately, foundation charters and official documents of the university remain, and provide insightful evidence on the practice of illumination in Cambridge from this period. The charters and documents also provide insight into how academics were treated by successive monarchs. 

Nullifying the Magna Carta: The Bull of Pope Innocent III

Issued August 24, 1215, by Innocent III, Cotton MS Cleopatra E I is written on very fine white parchment in the typical script of the papal chancery, and authenticated with the leaden "bull" of the pope's office. Innocent III offered it as a response to the signing of the Magna Carta by King John on June 15, 1215.

The Magna Carta, itself a charter as the name says, was an agreement that King John was forced into signing by a group of rebel barons; it guaranteed a certain set of rights and protections for the barons from the king, including the right to swift justice, a limitation of feudal dues, and the establishment of a twenty-five baron council. Though it is generally considered the basis of fair, limited government in England, at the time it was radical, and represented a real threat to royal power. Innocent III had already sent a series of letters to the barons in question rebuking them for their actions. After the signing of the Magna Carta, the barons did not disarm and disperse, which infuriated John.

Innocent III's involvement in the conflict was not grounded only on spiritual power, which is part of what makes this exchange so interesting. The king of England was bound to the papacy by feudal ties -- King John was Innocent's vassal, so any limitation of his power represented an attack on the power of the pope as well.  This arrangement was fairly recent, and indeed had contributed somewhat to the distress of the English barons (the Magna Carta includes a clause declaring that the English Church would remain free and independent, probably in reference to papal suzerainty); King John ceded the territory of England to the pope in 1213, in an attempt to end his excommunication. 

King John is typically presented as a tyrannical ruler, and his interactions with the pope and his barons support that characterization to a degree: Innocent III excommunicated him as a part of the struggle over the independent church and the right of the monarch to have some say in the selection, and consequently the loyalties, of church officials in his territory. Though John ceded to Innocent not just the argument but also his fealty, the struggle over the right of appointment was not laid to rest in any sense, and conflict between church and state tended to intensify as monarchs continued to centralize power. 

Innocent's nullification of the Magna Carta took the typical form of a charter, and it assumes by its nature the authority of the pope to nullify documents which he did not see to be in line with church doctrine or which threatened his power. It represents a tangible reminder that the church was a strong secular as well as religious power for most of its history, though in this case Innocent's declaration was essentially ignored, and the Magna Carta was defended in the First Barons' War. Innocent in particular was one of the most politically active popes, organizing the Fourth Crusade and involving himself in the conflicts of the Continent. The grounds on which Innocent nullified the Magna Carta reveal the tension between the Church's position as both a secular and a religious entity: though his position on its contents was clear (he called it "illegal, unjust, harmful to royal rights, and shameful to the English people"), he declared it void because its signing was coerced and the result of violence, an ostensibly spiritual and moral reason.

The bull itself provides some insight into the mechanisms of these conflicts between political powers, as it follows a particular format and addresses its subjects in particular style and language (literally, in some sense; all these documents were written in formal Latin, inaccessible to the illiterate majority). It also reveals the system of loyalty and individual power that characterized feudalism: the pope could claim domination over the entirety of England because he held control of one man, King John's, soul; it was possible for Innocent III to rebuke a particular set of barons because the group in revolt was relatively small and select. Though rulers were beginning to develop the process of bureaucracy and the institutions of governance, the establishment of a system of rule not focused in an individual person had not yet been occurred. 

Henry III Fine Roll (C 60/30) - The Enduring Nature of Norman Tools of Bureaucracy

King Henry III’s Fine Rolls are some of the most well preserved continuous sets of post-Norman English bureaucratic records in existence.  The Roll in question (C 60/30) records the period from 28 October 1230 – 27 October 1231, placing it on the tail end of Henry III’s disastrous invasion of Brittany and failed attempt at conquering France.   The practice of recording Rolls, as you will remember, began with the Norman King Henry I (1100-1135). The Rolls were utilized to keep track of the amounts of money owed to the King in “fines,” and from whom.  Fines were, in essence, a promise for the payment of a sum in exchange for a royal concession, favor, or grant.  Some examples of fines are: “(1) payment by barons and knights for the right to their inheritances through the death of their immediate ancestors, or (2) payment for the right to marry heiresses and widows, and by widows to control the lands and marriages of their children, and to be allowed themselves to stay single or marry whom they wished” (Henry III Fine Rolls Project Online) In addition to fines, the rolls also held detailed information regarding the purchase of writs for the right to bring legal suit, making the documents integral components of the crystallization of English Common Law.  Other noteworthy types of information recorded in the rolls include fines for the right to set up a new market or fair (indicative of the trend of commercialization), and the structure of the gentry, peasants, and knights.

King Henry III’s Rolls are evidence of the continuing trends of power centralization and the bureaucratization of the kingdom present in post-Norman England.  Beginning with William the Conqueror in the mid-late eleventh century, the Norman kings initiated a process for preserving their kingdom’s integrity in terms of (1) recording its loyal vassals and subjects; (2) ensuring the payment of monies owed to the king; (3) documenting the breadth of the kingdom; and (4) maintaining a continuous legal tradition.  William commissioned the first broad-based survey of his kingdom, its inhabitants, and records of land ownership in 1086.  The result was the Domesday Book, a manuscript compiled during a tumultuous stretch of time for Norman England and designed to track shifting figures of land-worth and titles of ownership.  Though on the surface the Domesday Book appears a dry and practical document, its significance during Norman rule was more symbolic.  The catalogue of the kingdom’s landholders and their property represented a projection of the king’s power across the countryside, serving as a testament to his absolute authority.  At the same time, the fact that the Domesday is written in Latin yet printed in Anglo-Saxon script displays the syncretistic qualities of the bureaucratic tools deployed by the Norman’s during their conquest of England. 

During his reign, King Henry I established the use of Pipe Rolls (the format of the Fine Rolls), creating a repository of sorts for royal charters, edicts, writs, etc., though the earliest Fine Rolls that have been found date back only to King John (1199-1216), Henry III’s father.  The design of the document allowed for new entries to be pasted on, end-to-end, in a continuous fashion.  The use of legal precedent and common law, along with written documentation, were emphasized more and more as the Rolls moved from Henry I to Henry II.  The ruling house used existing church networks as organs for their own bureaucracy, eventually bringing Henry II into intense conflict with the church.  

            The Fine Rolls are written in Latin on parchment in a relatively messy, inconsistent, and heavily abbreviated English Cursive documentary script.  All of these characteristics mark it as a bureaucratic piece of text in a way similar to Roman Cursive almost 1,000 years prior.  The subject matter of the Rolls correlates to the general themes outlined by the Henry III Fine Rolls Project.  For example, on Membrane 9, some entries include:

(1) Memorandum.  For Stephen of Seagrave.  Stephen of Seagrave has made fine with the king by 100 pounds for having the marriage of Emma de Caux, who was the wife of John of Seagrave, in order to marry her to whoever he and his heirs or assigns will wish without disparagement, and for having custody of Emma’s lands for as long as she ought to be in custody according to the law of the land. 

(An example of a marriage Fine)

(2) For Gilbert of Preston.  Gilbert, son and heir of Walter of Preston, has made fine with the king by 100s.  for his relief for having his lands which Walter, his father, held from t he king in chief and which fall to him by hereditary right, and the king has taken his homage herein. Order to the sheriff of Northamptonshire that, having accepted security from Gilbert for the aforesaid 100s, he is to cause him to have full seisin of all aforesaid lands.  By S. of Seagrave. 
(Rights of inheritance and immediate family)

(3) Westminster.  Ireland.  For Walter de Lacy.  The king has granted to Walter de Lacy that, of the debts he owes him, for which he made fine with him to render 400 m. per annum at the Exchequer of Dublin, he may render 200 m. to the king at the Exchequer in England, namely 100 m. at Easter in the fifteenth year, 100 m. at Michaelmas in the same year, and thus from year to year.
(The management of outstanding debt).  

In conclusion, Henry III’s Fine Rolls were a bureaucratic tool utilized first by the Normans, and adopted by later English kings in an effort to adequately catalogue the kingdom’s land, its owners, and the crown’s sources of revenue in written form and in a single location.  The Rolls speak to the Norman goal of state centralization that began under the rule of William the Conqueror with his Domesday Book.  The persistence of the Roll system past the end of Norman rule speaks to the desirability of such an orderly system of record to rulers who found themselves challenged by invasion and civil war, the barons’ Magna Carta and church backlash against state control of ecclesiastical members and institutions. 

- Dorney

Henry III’s Fine Rolls

                Hello fellow manuscript enthusiasts.  Today I will be telling you about the fine rolls of King Henry III of England.  Fine rolls were records of offers of money made to the king in exchange for concessions or favours.  For example, if a lord wished to expand his holdings, he would have to seek the permission of the current monarch, and make a payment which could vary from gold to goods or even political hostages.  These fine rolls are an important source for historians because they tell us what types of transactions were common amongst the nobility in the Middle Ages and also show what sorts of services the nobility were willing to request from the king.

            The fine rolls of Henry III provide an invaluable insight into the reign of this medieval monarch, which lasted from 1216 to 1272.  At first these fine rolls do not look like much.  Unlike other manuscripts we have worked with, the fine scrolls are very plain, being little more that light brown parchment pages with a messy insular hand in red-brown ink.  The manuscripts were clearly meant for function, rather than display, which makes sense as they were used to record financial transactions and would probably not be seen frequently by anyone outside of the royal Exchequer.

            The fines scrolls provided an exacting record of the services rendered by the king and the compensation he received in exchange, which could be quite varied, as the following examples amply demonstrate:

[No Date] (1216).  Kent.  Robert Arsic has made fine with the king by 100 m. for his delivery from the king’s prison, and he is to serve the king with three knights (se quarto militum) for a year, namely by Robert himself, Hasculph de Soligny, and two of Hasculph’s nephews, and he gave hostages for rendering that fine at the set terms and for performing faithful service to the king.

[No Date] (1217) Bedfordshire. Buckinghamshire. Northamptonshire. Kent.  Robert de Lisle and Rose of Tattershall, his wife, and Robert of Bassingham and Angnes of Bassingham, sisters of John of Odell, have made fine with the king by £200 for their relief and for having the lands formerly of John wich fall to them by inheritance, of which they are to render £100 at Hilary in the second year and the other £100 at Easter next following in the same year.  Order to the sheriff of Bedfordshire that, having accepted security from Rose and Agnes for rendering the aforesaid £200 at the aforesaid terms, he is to cause them to have full seisin of the lands formerly of John which fall to them by inheritance.  Order to the sheriffs of Buckinghamshire, Norhthamptonshire, and Kent that once the sheriff of Bedfordshire has sent to them by his letters that he has taken security from Rose and Agnes for rendering that fine to the king, they are to cause them to have full seisin of all lands formerly of John in their bailiwicks without delay.

17 June (1242) Saintes.  For H. earl of Essex and Hereford.  To the barons of the Exchequer.  The king, for himself and his heirs, has granted to H. de Bohun, earl of Essex and Hereford, that he may henceforth render £40 10s. at the Exchequer for the remainder of the whole debt he owes him of the 20000 m. by which Geoffrey de Mandeville, formerly earl of Essex, his uncle, made fine with King J., the king’s father, for having Isabella, formerly countess of Gloucester, to wife, and for all other debts which the same earl owes the king at the Exchequer, for which he previously made fine with the hing to render £50 at the aforesaid Exchequer, and that the king and his heirs, by the hand of the sheriff of Essex who will be, will take those £40 10s. that the same earl was accustomed to take each year from the county of Essex in the name of the Earl.  And the king and his heirs will retain them in their hand in part payment of the aforesaid debts and will cause this to be allowed to him and his heirs each year until the king will be satisfied for all of the aforesaid debts.  In the meantime, the hing or his heirs will not distrain the same earl or his heirs by their lands, chattel, or tenements for the aforesaid debts, or casue them to be distrained.  Once the aforesaid £40 10s. and thereafter will not claim, or be able to claim, anything when the earl and his heir shall take the aforesaid rent as fully and freely as the same earl was accustomed to take before that grant from the aforesaid county.  Order to cause this to be done and enrolled thus.

            These passages reveal not only the medieval fondness for repetition, but also the great care that was taken by officials within the exchequer to ensure that not a single shilling in a transaction with the crown would be misplaced.  The fine rolls also serve the purpose of identifying who owned what in medieval England for later historians, and allowed an intricate view of the politics, economy, and governance of English society during the Middle Ages.  Henry III’s fine rolls also included some rather strange entries which served to illustrate that even the high nobility and chancellery could have a sense of humor, such as an offer from the wife of Hugh de Neville of 200 chickens for the honor of spending one night with her lord, Hugh de Neville.  All of these insights are provided by the scrolls, which are invaluable to anyone who wishes to know more about the society of Medieval England.