Year Books

Substantial numbers of manuscripts circulated during the Late Middle Ages, containing reports of pleas heard before the Common Bench.

They are extant in a continuous series from 1268 to 1535, covering the reigns of King Edward I to Henry VIII.

[1] Maitland and others have considered that the medieval manuscripts were compiled by law students, rather than being officially sanctioned accounts of court proceedings.

[2] Traditionally, they have been divided into eleven separate series: A number of abridgements of the Year Books were compiled and circulated by various editors, who sought to excerpt leading cases and categorise them by subject.

The first abridgment was made by Nicholas Statham, Baron of the Exchequer under Edward IV, in around 1470.