Memoranda Rolls were the working notebooks of the Exchequer, kept by two main officials, the King’s Remembrancer (designated E 159) and the Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (E 368).

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1. The Post-Siege Transition and the Cleansing of Debts (1266-1275)

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Following the six-month Siege of Kenilworth in 1266, the Exchequer used the Memoranda Rolls to track the immense costs of the war and recover the debts of the defeated Montfort and his supporters.

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• 1267 (51 Henry III - E 159/41, m. 4): Entry tracking the expenses of building siege engines (ingenia) used at Kenilworth, specifically auditing the timber taken from local royal forests.

• 1268 (52 Henry III - E 368/42, m. 8): Order to the Sheriff of Warwickshire to distrain [seize property from] the tenants of the Kenilworth manor who failed to pay their traditional rents to the King's son, Edmund, after he took control of the castle.

• 1272 (1 Edward I - E 159/47, m. 11d): A memorandum reviewing the unpaid debts of Simon de Montfort. The Exchequer notes that because Kenilworth Castle was forfeited to the Crown, his outstanding liabilities must be answered out of the issues of the castle's lands.

 

2. The Lancastrian Fall and the Seizure of the Castle (1322-1326)

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When Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, rebelled against King Edward II and was executed in 1322, his properties, including Kenilworth, were seized by the Crown.

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• 1322 (15 Edward II - E 159/95, m. 34): A entry listing the appointment of Odo de Stoke as keeper of the castle, ordering him to answer to the Exchequer for all the armour, crossbows (balistae), provisions, and livestock found inside the fortress upon Lancaster's arrest.

• 1323 (16 Edward II - E 368/93, m. 15): Audit of the ‘King's Works’ at Kenilworth.   The Remembrancer tracks money diverted from local taxes to pay for heavy structural reinforcements to the Great Tower, as Edward II feared a rescue attempt by Lancaster's remaining sympathizers.

• 1325 (18 Edward II - E 159/98, m. 62d): Process against the former keepers of Kenilworth Castle for failing to submit their weekly accounts of the costs to maintain the castle's massive artificial lake (the Great Mere), which formed its primary defence.

 

3. The John of Gaunt Renovations (1370s-1390s)

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John of Gaunt transformed Kenilworth from a military fortress into a palatial home.   The Memoranda Rolls track the financial disputes over the source of the necessary money and materials.

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• 1376 (50 Edward III - E 368/148, m. 19): An order investigating the illegal cutting of oaks in the King's woods nearby.   The local ‘woodward’ [warden of the wood, an important medieval official responsible for guarding and managing a specific area of woodland or forest belonging to a lord, a monastery, or the king] argued the timber was legitimately requisitioned for the structural works on the Great Hall at Kenilworth.

• 1384 (7 Richard II - E 159/160, m. 22): A dispute over the revenues of the Lordship of Kenilworth.   The Exchequer demands to know why certain customs duties were not sent to Westminster, only to discover that John of Gaunt had legally diverted them to pay the wages of his resident masons and carpenters.

 

4. The Tudor Audits and Neglect (1485-1547)

 

As the castle became a more occasional royal retreat under the early Tudors, the Memoranda Rolls reveal the Exchequer trying to rein in local corruption and decay.

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• 1492 (7 Henry VII - E 159/268, m. 14): A summons issued to the Constable of Kenilworth Castle to explain why parts of the outer curtain wall had collapsed, and whether the money previously allocated for repairs had been misappropriated.

• 1524 (16 Henry VIII - E 368/296, m. 41): An entry regarding the Pleasance en marais [the lakeside pleasure pavilion built by Henry V].   The roll records its official abandonment, auditing the salvage value of the lead, timber, and glass being stripped from the structure and brought into the main castle.