Catalogue description Chancery: Roman Rolls

This series consists largely of enrolled copies of correspondence sent from the king of England to the pope and to the cardinals, mostly about the ecclesiatical affairs of the kingdom.

The rolls include items of high royal policy, as well as letters in favour of various English people, both lay and clerical. There are also letters to foreign dignitaries, such as the kings of Aragon, Castille, France, Leon, Portugal and Sicily, and the Emperor of the Tartars. Some of these concern ecclesiastical politics, such as letters in support of crusades; others refer to strictly temporal affairs, such as complaints against pirates.

Transcripts of most of the enrolments are printed in Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae, etc, ed T Rymer (all editions). The general index to Rymer's Foedera: Syllabus in English, ed T D Hardy (1869-1885) should be consulted to trace specific enrolments. Particular items are calendared in Catalogue des Rolles Gascons, Normans et François, ed T Carte (London, 1743).