Oxford LibGuides: Legal history: England & common law tradition: 1399-1483

Regnal years

Plantagenet dynasty tails off in a usurpation, and power struggle between two branches Houses of Lancaster & York

Henry IV 30 Sep 1399 - 20 Mar 1413

Henry V 21 Mar 1413 - 31 Aug 1422

Henry VI 1 Sep 1422 - 4 Mar 1461

Edward IV 4 Mar 1461 - 9 Apr 1483

Edward V 9 Apr 1483 - 25 June 1483

The Politics of Magnate Power: England and Wales 1389-1413 by Alastair Dunn
Call Number: BHFL Lower Camera Open Shelves DA235 DUN 2003
ISBN: 0199263108
Publication Date: 2003

Shifting times?

The Decline of Serfdom in Late Medieval England by Mark Bailey
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 1843838907
Publication Date: 2014
Print copy can be requested from Closed Stacks if preferred.

1399-1483: contemporary sources

By 1610 year books for the following regnal years had been printed

Hen. IV & V
1-20 Hen. VI
21-39 Hen. VI
Edw. IV
Long Quinto (5 Edw. IV)
Edw. V (with Ric. III, Hen.VII & Hen. VIII)

In 1679-1680 they were reprinted in the edition which has become known as the Maynard edition.
For later generations of lawyers and legal historians this (17th publishing exercise became the standard resource - though as Professor Sir John Baker makes clear, they are not good texts.

Since then the Selden Society has extended and improved the quality of case law for these reigns via their publications.

English historical documents, 1327-1485 Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. Print copy at Legal Hist E58.4

HeinOnline
Selden Society Publications & the history of early English law
Alternative names: Hein Online ; HOL

HeinOnline includes five major collections:
The Law Journal Library includes over 500 U.S., U.K., Australian and International Law Journals. For most journals the date coverage starts very early (in many cases at the first issue). However the most recent editions (within the last calendar year) are sometime unavailable due to licensing restrictions. HeinOnline makes these journals available on a rolling yearly basis.
The Treaties and Agreements Library includes all U.S. treaties and agreements including those in force, expired or yet to be published.
The U.S. Supreme Court Library includes all U.S. Supreme Court opinions as published in the U.S. Reports
The Federal Register 1936-1995, and indexes to the register.
Legal Classics Library. Full text of over 100 legal texts including Blackstone's Commentaries (1803), Cardozo's Growth of the Law (1924), and Story's first edition of Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833). Provincial Statutes of Canada includes Provincial Statutes for ten of the Canadian provinces. Contains public and private acts passed by Canadian provincial governments. Current, revised, and historical content is now available for Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Historical and revised content only is available for Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
All content consists of scanned images of the original printed editions. This allows you to view the content as it originally appeared in print complete with page numbers and pictures.
To save or print articles from HeinOnline choose PRINT OPTIONS followed by DOWNLOAD AS PDF. You will then be able to print out and/or save articles using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Legal history: the year books (Seipp's Index)
Open access.Affectionally - and gratefully - referred to as Seipp's Index. This tool indexes all year book cases printed in the chronological series for all years between 1268 and 1535, and many of the year book cases printed only in alphabetical abridgements. Of these the 6,901 dating from 1399 to 1535 have been paraphrased as well.
Anglo American Legal Tradition (AALT)
Open Access.From the University of Houston. Digitised images of court records surviving in the National Archives, Kew. Together with useful tools to help with the language, handwriting and layout.
Click on the name of each monarch (Richard 1 to Victoria) to see what is available. Track down left hand column for year (1176-1879), then across to the courts. Coverage varies with the years but courts included are: PC Privy Council, CP Common Pleas, KB Kings Bench, E Exchequer, C Chancery, RE Requests, DL Lancaster
English Medieval Legal Documents: A Compilation of Published Sources AD 600 -1535
Open Access Bibliography -use as finding aide then, search SOLO for Bodleian holdings of particular titles. Maintained by Gould School of Law University of Southern California "The goal of this project is to create a collaborative database on the published sources of English medieval legal documents, and to provide links to the growing number of online sources currently being developed.
The guide has been created for the use of scholars and students of English medieval law, and it is our expectation that it will continue to grow and take off in new directions, based on the contributions of legal scholars, librarians, and information specialists throughout the world."

Government & parliament

Statutes of the Realm (c1236-1713) in MOMW Making of the Modern World Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. The official edition of pre-1713 legislation - but not complete, and not without apocrypha (per Baker, IELH 3rd edn 219). This link takes you to v. 1 - use Related Volumes links in the left hand column for speedy navigation to later volumes. Contents v.1: temp unknown, Hen1 to Edw3. v.2: Ric2 to Hen7; v.3: Hen8; v.4: Edw6 to Jas1; v.5: Chas 1 & 2; v.6: Jas 2, W & M; v.7 Wm3; v.8: Anne regnal years 1-6; v.9 Anne regnal years 7-13; v.10 Chronological Index; v.11 Alphabetical Index

The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504 [16 Volume Set] by Christopher Given-Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 9781843831617
Publication Date: 2005
Major edition of all the surviving medieval Rolls of Parliament ... the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of the lords, and, somewhat later, the commons."

Proceedings and ordinances of the Privy Council of England Remote access requires Oxford SSO. From Making of Modern Law. v1: 1386-1410; v.2:1410-1422; v.3:1422-1424; v.4:1429-1436; v.5:1436-1443; v.6: 1443-1461.

Justice and Grace : private petitioning and the English parliament in the late Middle Ages by Gwilym Dodd
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this via title link
ISBN: 9780199202805
Publication Date: 2007
Print copies in the Bodleian History Faculty Reading Rooms

Sir John Fortescue (c.1397–1479)

A "partial" man (Lancastrian partisan), he was CJKB from 1442 until the Yorkists gained the upper hand c1461.
He did write essays on political theory - though his phrases such as ‘the regal power is restrained by political law’ must be read in the contemporary context.

St Eadburga's church, Ebrington: Fortescue monument (detail 2) (Mike Searle) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Fortescue's De laudibus legum Angliæ Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. STC (2nd ed.) 11193. from EEBO

John Fortescue : otherwise called The difference between an absolute and a limited monarchy by Plummer, Charles, 1851-1927
Call Number: Legal Hist F738b
Publication Date: (rev edn, 1926)
On the Laws and Governance of England by Shelley Lockwood (Editor); John Fortescue; Raymond Geuss (Contribution by); Quentin Skinner (Contribution by)
Call Number: Legal Hist F738a2
ISBN: 0521434459
Publication Date: (2nd edn, 1997)