Book of Fees

Originally in two volumes of parchment, the Liber Feodorum is a collection of about 500 written brief notes made between 1198 and 1292 concerning fiefs held in capite or in-chief, that is to say directly from the Crown.

[7] The surviving documents from which it was compiled are also held by the National Archives, catalogued under E198[8] as follows, in date order: Maxwell-Lyte suggests that the production of the book was prompted by the Aid which was to be collected from King Edward I's tenants-in-chief for the marriage of his eldest daughter.

As the Exchequer needed to initiate inquiries for the purpose of assessing and collecting the aid, it was desired that the various documents should be capable of consultation in a format facilitating quick reference.

[5] Opposing Maxwell-Lyte's suggested purpose, the historian F. M. Powicke objected that the evidence for such a historically concrete motive is weak and asserted that the expertise alone of the officers would have been sufficient for the job.

[11] He proposed instead that a rationale for its production may be found in the political attitudes of King Edward I, whose "insistence upon feudal rights and duties kept the officials of the exchequer very busy".

This is made clear in a memorandum written on the flyleaf, which appears to be contemporary with the manuscript itself: Michael Clanchy describes it as a "register" (after the medieval Latin term registrum), which he defines primarily as an administrative reference book which did not enjoy the authority of the originals as a record in legal proceedings.

Knight's fees held in chief from the Lord King: A printed edition of the book was first produced by staff of the Exchequer in December 1804, at the special request of Royal Commissioners.

[20][21] The preface was written by the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office, Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, who explained that the new edition represented a radical departure from its precursor.