Topic summary
Close Rolls
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Close Roll.
Nature of contents
Until that point, however, the Close Rolls contained a mine of information about late medieval England. Setting aside political and military matters, or the regulation of commerce or of the Angevin Jewry, the origins of representation and parliament can, for example, be followed in the "twelve of the better and more discreet men" of Bristol summoned by King John in 1211, as well as in Close Rolls copies of letters of summons of barons to Parliament. Culturally, a royal gift of a scarlet cloak to a man about to become a knight sheds possible light on the origins of the Knights of the Bath; while the detailed concern of Henry III for the decoration of his treasures, as purchased through the Close Rolls, reveals the extent of his connoisseurship.