The 1341 Royal Inquest in Lincolnshire

This volume is a calendar edition of the judicial proceedings held in Lincoln in January, February, April and October 1341 as part of a nationwide investigation into official misconduct and local disorder. This inquest, conducted by specially appointed royal justices, royal officials and trusted local men, was held in the aftermath of the opening campaign of the Hundred Years War and was intended by Edward III to uncover the reasons why he had not been adequately supported in his first Continental campaign, to quell popular unrest over corrupt officials and the unprecedented royal demands for money and supplies that had been imposed on the local communities during the late 1330s, and to deal with the constant problem of local disorder.
The resulting proceedings at Lincoln provide detailed evidence of the problems posed by unscrupulous royal and local officials and criminals and the limited extent to which royal judicial mechanisms could be used to deal with them. In a more general sense, the proceedings also reveal the impact of the growth of royal government on local communities, a process that had begun in the twelfth century. Finally, this calendar serves as a companion piece to W.S. Thompson’s edition of the 1298 royal inquest into official misconduct in Lincolnshire (Lincoln Record Society Volume 36 for 1944).