Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other Analogous Documents preserved in the Public Record Office XXV: 16-20 Henry VI (1437-1442)

Inquisitions post mortem are the single most important source for the history of medieval English landed society, and are indispensable to social, economic, and political historians of the later middle ages; they were compiled with the help of jurors from the area, as a county-by-county record of a deceased individual’s land-holdings and associated rights, where the individual held land directly of the crown. It is this explicit connection with land and locality - in economic, social, political, and topographical terms - that makes these documents of such comprehensive interest.

This volume incorporates not only inquisitions post mortem but also assignments of dower and proofs of age from across the counties of England and the Marches of Wales. Covering the period between 1437 and 1442, it is especially rich in inquisitions relating to the lands of the earls of Warwick, and the Arundels and Fitzalans. Rich rewards also await the more casual inquirer. Quite apart from buried treasure [gold and silver were unearthed at St Paul’s Cray, Kent], standard information includes medieval descriptions of towns and villages and the charting of land and its descent at all social levels. The volume also provides comprehensive indexes of persons, places, and subjects.

ACADEMIC DIRECTOR AND GENERAL EDITOR: Christine Carpenter