Uncover Worcester’s medieval landscape through the Inquisitiones post mortem — a meticulous 13th‑century land history edited for modern readers.
This volume presents the early Worcestershire inquests that tracked landownership, heirship, and crown rights at the death of great landowners. Part I covers 1242 to the end of the 13th century, compiling 69 inquiries that illuminate how families like the Stutevills, Clares, Tatlings, Someries, Mortimers, Corbets, Beauchamps, and others held property and rendered service. The pages reveal the workings of feudal law, the king’s rights, and the practical details of estates, manors, and rents, with notes on notable local places and trades.
What you’ll experience
- A window into medieval Worcestershire through primary inquest records and the juries that valued every estate, acre, and duty.
- Insight into how land passed, who inherited it, and how guardianship worked when heirs were underage.
- Examples of how crown rights shaped local history, including discussions of royal forests, salt pits, and inquests related to mortmain and enclosures.
- Context about influential families and their ties to the county’s geography, from Malvern and Worcester to Dudley’s iron and coal trade.
Ideal for readers of local history, genealogy, and medieval England, this edition makes a dense archival core accessible and engaging.