Petitions are an important source for our knowledge of legal history in the middle ages - giving voice to the subjects of the medieval English state. They deal with matters that could not be resolved at common law and required some application of the king's special grace; they therefore tell us much about attitudes to, and the extent of, public authority in the later Middle Ages. They also provide a wealth of material about social conventions and political culture, while the the formal statement of grievance that lies at the heart of each petition includes detailed information about the circumstances of the petitioner and other parties, and the conditions of the locality.

This book, published to tie iin with the completion of the Medieval Petitions on-line project, represents the first full-length study of petitions and petitioning. Essays explore the political contexts of petitioning; the broad geographical and social range of petitioners; the performative qualities of petitioning and its place in the culture of royal intercessionl and the fascinating `worm-s eye' view of medieval life that the petitions provide.

CONTRIBUTORS: W. MARK ORMROD, GWILYM DODD, SERENA CONNOLLY, BARBARA BOMBI, PATRICK ZUTSHI, PAUL BRAND, GUILHEM PEPIN, ANTHONY MUSSON, SIMON J. HARRIS, SHELAGH A. SNEDDON, DAVID CROOK