Catalogue description BUTLERAGE.

These are the accounts and supporting particulars of the king's butler (pincerna regis) of duty levied on imported wine between 8 Edward I and 17 James I. They show the ports at which ships landed wine, the quantity of wine landed, and the amount taken for the king's use.

Prior to 42 Edward III accounts were enrolled on the pipe rolls, E 372 and their duplicate chancellor's rolls, E 352. After 42 Edward III they are enrolled in the foreign accounts rolls, E 364. From 1500 butlerage declared accounts are in E 351/454-529 and declared accounts of wine licences in E 351/3153-3197. Prisage and customs accounts on wines from ships arriving in the ports of the duchy of Cornwall are in the haveners' accounts, E 306. Other customs accounts are in E 122 and E 356.

See also M K James, Studies in the medieval wine trade, ed E M Veale (London, 1971); E M Carus-Wilson, 'The effects of the acquisition and the loss of Gascony on the English wine trade', Medieval merchant venturers (London, 2nd edn, 1967), pp 265-279; T Unwin, Wine and the vine: an historical geography of viticulture and the wine trade (London, 1991), pp 166-202.

A detailed list of the accounts is in PRO Lists and Indexes, vol 35 (London, 1912), pp 73-80, where the accounts are listed in chronological order, not by port of entry.