Between 1200 and 1413, 285 individuals held sees in England and Wales. Many of them made wills, appointed executors who administered their estates, prepared inventories and rendered accounts of their administrations. This volume edits all the unpublished probate material and provides a comprehensive overview of the surviving records. These deeply personal documents allow comparisons to be made across the late medieval episcopate. They demonstrate common patterns in terms of goods, styles of living and customary practices, as well as the power of devotion, intellectual interests and relationships between bishop and chapter. At the same time, they illuminate the devices that were employed to keep ecclesiastical property out of the hands of the Crown, and how to manage the business of church, diocese and family from beyond the grave.
The documents are presented here with full introduction and explanatorynotes.
C.M. Woolgar is Professor of History and Archival Studies at the University of Southampton and Head of Special Collections in the University Library.
- ISBN10 0907239749
- ISBN13 9780907239741
- Publish Date 15 September 2011
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 28 May 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Imprint Canterbury & York Society
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 418
- Language English