DAVID CROOK, now retired, spent his working life in The National Archives, where he became immersed in the extensive surviving early records of the English royal administration and common law. From those sources have emerged important findings which may identify a real criminal as the original of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln. ADRIAN JOBSON is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia. CHARLES INSLEY is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Manchester. DAVID CROOK, now retired, spent his working life in The National Archives, where he became immersed in the extensive surviving early records of the English royal administration and common law. From those sources have emerged important findings which may identify a real criminal as the original of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln. NICHOLAS VINCENT is Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia and a Fellow of the British Academy PAUL DRYBURGH is Principal Records Specialist (Medieval) at The National Archives, UK. Professor PHILIPPA HOSKIN is Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Fellow Librarian, Corpus Christi College, and Keeper of the Parker Library, University of Cambridge. She is also General Editor of the Lincoln Record Society.

• Introduction - David Carpenter and David Crook and Louise J. WilkinsonBetween Magna Carta and the Parliamentary State: The Fine Rolls of King Henry III, 1216-72 - David CarpenterThe Form and Function of the Originalia Rolls - Paul DryburghThe Fine Rolls of Henry III as a Source for the Legal Historian - Paul BrandThe Fine Rolls as Evidence for the Expansion of Royal Justice during the Reign of Henry III - Tony K. MooreAdministering the Irish Fines, 1199-1254: The English Chancery, the Dublin Exchequer and the Seeking of Favours - Beth HartlandAuditing and Enrolment in Thirteenth-Century Scotland - Alice TaylorImitation and Independence in Native Welsh Administrative Culture, c.1180-1280 - Charles InsleyAn Inventory of Gifts to King Henry III, 1234-35 - Nicholas VincentAnother Fine Mess: Evidence for the Resumption of Exchequer Authority in the Minority of Henry III - Nick BarrattRoger of Wendover, Prior of Belvoir, and the Implementation of the Charter of the Forest, 1225-27 - David CrookRoyal Government and Administration in Post-Evesham England, 1265-70 - Adrian L JobsonThe Church and the King: Canon Law and Kingship in England, 1257-61 - Philippa M. HoskinWomen in English Local Government: Sheriffs, Castellans and Foresters - Louise J. WilkinsonThe Origins of the Office of Escheator - Scott L. Waugh

This volume serves a dual purpose, in presenting new research while providing a survey of royal administration in England and the other lands of the British Isles under Henry III. As such, it will obviously be of interest to aficionados; but it should also be the first port of call for postgraduates and researchers exploring the records of Henry III's reign for the first time.