Henry III Fine Rolls Project

The Henry III Fine Rolls Project is a three year enterprise commencing in April 2005, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It aims to publish the Fine Rolls of Henry III from 1216 down to 1248. It is hoped that a second three year project will complete publication down to the end of the reign in 1272.

There is a fine roll for each of Henry III’s fifty-six regnal years held in the National Archives at Kew in the record series C 60. Containing offers of money to the king for a multiplicity of concessions and favours, as well as a great deal of other material, they are of the first importance for the study of political, governmental, legal, social, and economic history.

With the aim of making the material accessible to a wide audience, the rolls are being published in English translation, both in book form with Boydell and Brewer, and on the KCL Website where they are linked to a sophisticated search engine and the digitised images of the rolls.

The project is the result of close co-operation between the The National Archives and the History Department and the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s (link).