Pipe rolls

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Pipe roll from 1194

The pipe rolls , sometimes called great rolls, are tax records of the British and British governments. They go largely completely from the year 1156 to the year 1833 and, due to their continuity and completeness, are one of the most important sources for the social history of the Middle Ages. On parchment scrolls accountability reports were sheriffs , according to counties ( county ) ordered logged orally twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas , in connection with the payments before the Exchequer were presented. Until 1733 the records were made in Latin, from then on they were kept in English, which had been used for a short time around 1650.

The Pipe Rolls were created together with the Domesday Book as part of the centralization of the English financial administration under the Norman conquerors. The oldest surviving document dates from 1130 and shows an already established procedure. The pipe rolls have been preserved since 1155. They were used to control local tax collectors through a central financial administration. The pipe rolls for Normandy , which was under English rule until 1205, have only been preserved in isolated cases.

As a source in the historical sciences , they are of particular importance, as they not only record the income of the English king, but also the expenses of the tax collectors, which they were allowed to deduct from the income. They allow an insight into the institutions and organs of the local administration. They also give a comprehensive picture of everyday administrative life in the Middle Ages and allow a detailed insight into the development and formation of the English state in the Middle Ages.

In the holdings of the Public Record Office , now part of The National Archives in Kew , they form the E 372 series . For the publication of these English financial files, the PRO founded the Pipe Roll Society in 1883 , which plans to continue the editions until 1350.

literature

Remarks

  1. Pipe Rolls 1130-c.1300 2. Language
  2. ^ A b David S. Bachrach: The Military Administration of England: The Royal Artillery (1216-1272) in: The Journal of Military History 68 (October 2004) p. 1085
  3. ^ Annual report 2011-2012 of the Pipe Roll Society

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