the explanation of the
period must be sought. The age of Edward III. has been alternatively
decried and exalted. Both verdicts are true, but neither contains the
whole truth. The explanation of both is to be found in the annals of a
later age.

APPENDIX.

ON AUTHORITIES.

(1216-1377.)

Our two main sources of knowledge for medieval history are records and
chronicles. Chronicles are more accessible, easier to study, more
continuous, readable, and coloured than records can generally be. Yet
the record far excels the chronicle in scope, authority, and
objectivity, and a prime characteristic of modern research is the
increasing reliance on the record rather than the chronicle as the
sounder basis of historical investigation. The medieval archives of
England, now mainly collected in the Public Record Office, are
unrivalled by those of any other country. From the accession of Henry
III. several of the more important classes of records have become
copious and continuous, while in the course of the reign nearly all the
chief groups of documents have made a beginning. The whole of the
period 1216 to 1377 can therefore be well studied in them.

A large proportion of our archives is taken up with common forms,
technicalities, and petty detail. It will never be either possible or
desirable to print the mass of them _in extenso_, and most of the
efforts made to render them accessible have taken the form of
calendars, catalogues, and inventories. Such attempts began with the
costly and unsatisfactory labours of the Record Commission (dissolved
in 1836); and in recent years the work has again been taken up and
pursued on better lines. The folio volumes of the Record Commission
only remain so far of value as they have not been superseded by the
more scholarly octavo calendars which are now being issued under the
direction of the deputy-keeper of the records. These latter are all
accompanied by copious indices which, though not always to be trusted
implicitly, immensely facilitate the use of them. The records were
preserved by the various royal courts. Of special importance for the
political historian are the records of the Chancery and Exchequer.

Prominent among the Chancery records are the PATENT ROLLS, strips of
parchment sewn together continuously for each regnal year, whereon are
inscribed copies of the letters patent of the sovereign, so called
because they were sent out open, with the great seal pendent. Beginning