The Bedford Inventories : The Worldly Goods of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France (1389-1435) Hardback

by Jenny Stratford

Part of the Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London series

Hardback

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Description

For a short time during the Hundred Years War, the Lancastrian monarchy, supported by its Burgundian allies, successfully claimed to rule Paris and northern France.

John, Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V and an outstanding administrator and soldier, was regent of France for his nephew, Henry VI, from 1422 to 1435.

Three inventories of Bedford's wordly goods, compiled after his death for his executors, have survived in the Public Record Office, London.

Hitherto unpublished, these documents are of exceptional importance for historians and art-historians of later medieval England and France.

The introduction and notes which enrich this critical edition explore Bedford's court, his collections, and his artistic patronage in London, Paris and Rouen.

The author discusses questions of provenance - the French royal collections and spoils of war - and investigates a wealth of administrative, financial and legal issues raised by the inventories, as well as technical terminology in Middle English and French.

The book concludes with biographies of forty of Bedford's officers and creditors in England and France. Bedford's executors were historical figures of the first importance such as Cardinal Beaufort and Sir John Fastolf; their activities are unravelled against the background of the loss of France and civil war in England.

Historians of the fifteenth century, specialists in social and economic history, in goldsmith's work, textiles and manuscripts, will find much of importance in this richly illustrated book.

Jenny stratford is a former Assistant Keeper, Department of Manuscripts, the British Museum.

A fifteenth-century specialist, her books include catalogues of manuscripts in the British Library and the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.

She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.