Medieval History, study or interest anyone?

[Davidchecksall]

Currently I am trying to find details of early Laws, Hundred Courts and Manor Courts.
Wikipedia is quite thorough, I get a good overview. Some of the references and sources are helpful.
I would like to read Court Records, Rolls. Are there any pre Invasion records? Your local History Society perhaps?

Anyone like to comment

This sounds very interesting. Have you tried The National Archives, The British Library or some sort of Archive or records relating to legal matters?

Hi @Greycat100 I am not in London, Electronic access to British Library is cancelled because of a Ransom attack.
I have found some that are from John's reign.
Are you a historian or a keen amateur?

National archive.

Oh yes, I forgot about the cyber attack at The British Library, terrible thing to happen. Where are you based @Davidchecksall? I am interested in Medieval History, very amateur, I watch a lot documentaries. This made me think of Lucy Worseley looking at Witch Trial records in The National Records of Scotland. Its interesting that you found records as far back as King John.

I am in the Midlands, the problem is getting explanations, or 'translations' they used so many abbreviations.
Yes I have been through YouTube; Michael Wood, David Starkey for Saxons and Normans to Magna Carta. Starkey did a good book on Magna Carta. Robert Bartlett is excellent and Dan Jones 'Plantagenets'

I've just finished a book by Robert Bartlett about Medieval Royal Dynasties. Also I've read Dan Jones 'Plantagenents'. Afraid I can't be of more help. I'll let you know if I hear of anything.

I sent the thread to my son (3rd year studying Ancient, Medieval and Modern history)

"i dont know about court rolls or recods or anything but law coedes survive from anglo saxon times and are available online. for instance the Law code of Ine is pretty easy to find"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_book

Just finished a degree in Medieval History. I'll need to check for a url but Manchester University has an online collection of medieval documents from the UK - if I remember correctly it's Manchester Medieval but it will be tomorrow before I can check. County archives are also a good place to start as they sometimes have local documentation; the National Library of Wales (ditto Scotland) also have vast archives. Also, weirdly, Lambeth Palace (Archbishop of Canterbury) may have some of the earlier law codes in theirs.

Oh, amd Michael Wood is based at Manchester & could point you in the right direction . I know he uzed an archive at Merton College, Oxford when researching avillage for a show about 10 years ago & all their court leet and hundred documents were in the Merton archive as the college had held the land in the 13th and 14th centuries.

@Greycat100 Hi, how did you get on with the Robert Bartlett book? Was it as good to read as Dan Jones which I thought was very good.

I did get lost down a rabbit hole on where the laws (dooms) originally came from.
It seems that they originated in mid Europe, Merovingians etc and were brought with the Saxons as they migrated to different areas of England. Firstly this gave slightly different traditions in different shires depending on origin of the migrants.

I prefered the Dan Jones book. The Robert Bartlett book was called 'Royal Blood', it was a lot more complex and I lost track of it. I like the look of some of his others, there is one about films that are set in medieval times.

Thanks I will look for the film book.

Nottingham University has a good site about records, palaeography etc. Will look for the link. (Autocorrect turned palaeography into pornography!)

ETA Here's the link: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/index.aspx

Does your county have a county historical/archaeology society? A lot of them have put their older journals online, or publish transcripts of records.

Also try British History Online for transcripts of records.

The National Archives has some digitised records free to access on its website. Wills, for example. Create an account and make sure you're signed in to get free access.

Pre-invasion records: Anglo Saxon land charters. Some counties have more than others. This is a good place to start: https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/about/index.html

Some of them give the boundaries of the piece of land being given, and sometimes it's possible to trace them today, from place names and physical features such as rivers.

If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend W.G. Hoskins' The Making of the English Landscape.

@MedievalNun and @Abouttimeforanamechange Thank you for your suggestions on books and sources.
I have just returned from Oxford. I have been granted a Readers Card for the Bodleian Library. Not quite as good as it sounds, I have to read there. Not take books away. But I can order books from the Off Site Store and they are left for me at a place of my choosing.

Pharos Tutors do a number of courses that cover Manor Courts and other Manorial Records, for example here:

Manorial Records for Family and Local Historians