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  • C 2561260-c1603Chancery: Various Summonses

    A miscellaneous collection of writs summoning individuals and groups of persons to appear before the king, the council, in Parliament or in Chancery.

    As with any series of records affecting the king and council, the king's peculiar interests are well represented. Thus, the protection of heirs and their inheritances and the care of the insane appear frequently.

    In religious matters the council seems, as late as 1347, to be prepared to defend a papal provision; in Richard II's reign Lollardy came before it.

    The council dealt with Englishmen imprisoned on the king's special instructions, with a French prisoner of war, and a suspected spy against whom the realm must be protected.

    Other writs concern the wool industry, opposition to the new gold coinage, and the academic disputes which led to the removal of the seal, muniments and library of The Queen's College, Oxford.