The Plumpton Letters and Papers

This volume in the Royal Historical Society's Camden Fifth Series is a comprehensive edition of the only surviving northern medieval letter collection.

Joan Kirby (Edited by)

9780521573948, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 1997

384 pages
22.4 x 14.6 x 2.7 cm, 0.615 kg

Review of the hardback: 'This volume is absolutely essential for all libraries of fifteenth-century English studies. It covers all the available letters and the most important documents, with detailed notes on every point … it is an outstanding edition of an almost unique source.' Parergon

This volume in the Royal Historical Society's Camden Fifth Series is a comprehensive edition of the only surviving northern medieval letter collection. Of particular value to social and legal historians, Joan Kirby's text contains a wealth of material unavailable to the editor of the previous edition of 1836. The collection offers a vivid day-to-day portrayal of a northern knightly family during a period of decline in the military function of knighthood. Parochial, proud, violent and litigious, as Percy tenants and feed officials their fortunes fluctuated with those of their patrons; loyalty to the Lancastrian cause in 1461, for example, cost both families loss of life, liberty and office. Two protracted lawsuits drew them deep into the complexities of the legal process and the political patronage on which they depended. The resulting correspondence with their lawyers constitutes a unique primary source for all scholars of medieval England.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Sir William Plumpton
2. Sir Robert Plumpton
3. The Plumpton inheritance
4. The Babthorpe inheritance
5. The manuscripts
6. The Plumpton Coucher book
7. Editorial method
8. Sir Edward Plumpton's letter book, Nos 1-252
Appendix I. Transcripts of selected documents from the Plumpton Coucher book and other sources, Nos 1-9
Appendix II. Calendar of selected documents from the Plumpton Coucher book and other sources, Nos 1-88
Appendix III. Biographical notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]