The Red Book of the Exchequer

A rich resource for medieval historians, the Liber rubeus de Scaccario is a register, or book of remembrance, first compiled in the clerical offices of the Exchequer during the reign of Henry III. It contains documents from the post-Conquest period up to the year 1230. Including deeds and grants, as well as records of serjeanties and material from pipe rolls and various other sources, it has been deemed second only to the Domesday Book in importance for its wealth of genealogical and geographical information. The various records were brought together in order to provide a convenient single source for establishing legal precedents, and it remained in use throughout the middle ages. This three-volume edition was prepared by the archivist Hubert Hall (1857-1944) and published in 1896. Among the documents in Volume 3 are the Constitutio domus regis (c.1135) and selected writs of privilege.