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The Curia Regis Rolls

The Curia Regis Rolls are the official records of the King's Court and, unlike financial ledgers or royal letters, these rolls contain the raw legal texts of early England, including property thefts, violent land-grabbing disputes, castle custody defaults, and the fallout of civil wars.   The KB designation stands for King's Bench, the class prefix used by the National Archives for early Curia Regis material.

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1. The Clinton Inheritance Disputes (1199-1214)

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The castle was originally built by Geoffrey de Clinton in the 1120s.   However, by the reign of King John, the Crown wanted full, unchallenged ownership of the fortress.   The Curia Regis Rolls record the legal pressure the King put on the Clinton family to force them to surrender their ownership rights.

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  • 1200 (1 John - KB 26/20, m. 3): An entry tracking a lawsuit brought by Henry de Clinton regarding his hereditary rights to the manor, woods, and castle of Kenilworth.   The King's attorneys argue the Crown has paramount right due to fortifications paid for by Henry II.

  • 1204 (5 John - KB 26/31, m. 6d): A critical dispute over advowson (the right to appoint the priest) of Kenilworth Priory, which sat just outside the castle walls.   The court records a settlement where the Clintons surrender parts of the estate to the King in exchange for land elsewhere.

  • 1212 (14 John - KB 26/55, m. 11): The Final Surrender.   A formal legal record enrolling the final concord (agreement) between King John and Henry de Clinton.   The roll notes that Henry entirely relinquishes all ancestral claims to Kenilworth Castle and its surrounding lake (the Great Mere) to the King "forever."

 

2. The Mid-13th Century: Feudal Service Failures (1220-1250)

 

Once Kenilworth was completely royal, the King used it to anchor local defence.   To maintain it, nearby landowners owed ‘castle-guard’ - the feudal obligation to provide armed knights to guard the walls.

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  • 1223 (7 Henry III - KB 26/82, m. 5): The Sheriff of Warwickshire brings a suit against several local tenants who defaulted on their castle-guard duties at Kenilworth.   The tenants argue their ancient deeds state they only owe service during active wartime, not during the current peacetime.

  • 1234 (18 Henry III - KB 26/115, m. 14d): A trespass case involving the ‘Hay of Kenilworth’ (the castle’s private hunting forest).   The royal castellan sues a group of local minor gentry caught illegally cutting down oaks and assaulting the castle's wood warden when he tried to stop them.

 

3. The Post-Siege ‘Disinherited’ Pleas (1266-1272)

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Following the six-month Siege of Kenilworth in 1266, the rebel defenders were stripped of all their lands.   However, under the legal terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth, they were allowed to sue in court to buy their lands back via heavy fines.   This triggered a series of lawsuits in the Curia Regis Rolls.

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  • 1267 (51 Henry III - KB 26/178, m. 2): A lawsuit brought by a knight who claimed his lands near Kenilworth were illegally plundered by the royal army while they were encamped around the castle during the siege.   The court rules the destruction was an inevitable act of war (communis guerra).

  • 1269 (53 Henry III - KB 26/187, m. 12d): A violent dispute where a former rebel (one of the ‘Disinherited’ who held Kenilworth Castle against the King) sues the new royal tenant who was given his manor.   The record details the rebel's defence that he only joined the garrison inside Kenilworth because Simon de Montfort's men forced him under threat of death.

  • 1271 (55 Henry III - KB 26/202, m. 8): A property case brought before the coram rege (the King's own bench) tracking the boundaries of the Kenilworth estate.   The court details the exact layout of the castle's defensive earthen dykes, ditches, and water systems to settle a boundary line with neighbouring landlords.

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