Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem

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 fifth volume in the new series, which calendars the inquisitions and related documents from Henry VI's reign more fully than ever before, deals with the years between 1442 and 1448. It includes valuable information and detailed returns on the estates of the greater aristocracy - e.g. John Beaufort, duke of Somerset (d. 1444), and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester (d. 1447), alongside lesser landholders, jurors' names and full manorial extents. It also provices comprehensive indexes of persons, places, and subjects. ACADEMIC DIRECTOR AND GENERAL EDITOR: Christine Carpenter