The Parliament Rolls (Rotuli Parliamentorum) serve as the official record of the proceedings, petitions, and statutes enacted by the English Parliament.   Spanning from the late 13th century into the Tudor period, these records reflect major constitutional crises and political realignments.   A large portion of the Parliament Rolls consists of Common Petitions brought by regular knights or towns.   If the King and Lords agreed to a petition, it was moved to the Statute Rolls to become permanent English common law.

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1. The Fall of Simon de Montfort & Legal Restoration (1266-1275)

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The fallout of the Barons' War at Kenilworth dominated the earliest assemblies.

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• 1266 (Parliament at Northampton): Petitions and legal arguments surrounding the drafting of the Dictum of Kenilworth.     The rolls record the absolute refusal of the radical Parliament to grant an outright amnesty to the rebels holding the castle, choosing instead to create a system where they had to pay immense fines (redemptions) to buy their lands back.

• 1275 (3 Edward I): Enrolled petitions from the Prior of Kenilworth seeking compensation from Parliament. The monastery presented evidence that the surrounding royal armies during the 1266 siege completely bankrupt the priory by seizing their wood, stone, and crops without payment.

 

2. The Deposition of King Edward II (1327)

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The Westminster Parliament of January 1327 was one of the most volatile in English history.   It was persuaded by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer to legally depose King Edward II, who was heavily guarded inside Kenilworth Castle.   (The designation ‘ii, 7’, for example, indicates volume 2, page 7).

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• 1327 (1 Edward III - Rot. Parl. ii, 3–5): The Articles of Accusation.   The official recording of the parliamentary session where the lords spiritual and temporal state that the King is unfit to rule.     The rolls explicitly document the dispatching of a formal parliamentary delegation from London to Kenilworth Castle to confront the imprisoned king, strip him of his crown, and force his abdication in favour of his teenage son, Edward III.

• 1327 (1 Edward III - Rot. Parl. ii, 7): A petition submitted to Parliament by Henry, Earl of Lancaster (Edward II’s jailer at Kenilworth), asking for the formal annulment of the treason charges previously levelled against his executed brother, Thomas of Lancaster.     Parliament granted it, legally restoring Kenilworth Castle back into the hereditary hands of the House of Lancaster.

 

3. The Great Lancaster Merger (1399-1402)

 

When Henry Bolingbroke overthrew Richard II and took the throne as Henry IV, his private estate as the Duke of Lancaster was legally unified with the Crown.   Parliament had to define how Kenilworth Castle would be governed.

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• 1399 (1 Henry IV - Rot. Parl. iii, 428): Entry detailing the declaration that the Duchy of Lancaster, and explicitly its capital fortresses including Kenilworth Castle, must remain entirely distinct from the general Crown lands.   Parliament ratified this, protecting Kenilworth as the personal, private inheritance of the King’s family line.

• 1402 (4 Henry IV - Rot. Parl. iii, 495): Petitions brought to the Commons regarding the garrisoning and security of inland castles.   Provisions were made to ensure that Kenilworth’s armouries were fully stocked with bowstaves and gunpowder, as it sat along a critical strategic highway if Welsh or Northern rebellions broke out.

 

4. The War of the Roses & Elite Prisoners (1450-1461)

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As the houses of Lancaster and York descended into a bloody civil war, Kenilworth Castle acted as a heavily fortified Lancastrian safehouse and a prison for enemies of the state.

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• 1450 (28 Henry VI - Rot. Parl. v, 212): Records detailing the Parliamentary backup plan during the Jack Cade rebellion.   Due to riots in London, Parliament notes that the King, the royal treasury records, and key administrative clerks were to be safely evacuated to the security of Kenilworth Castle.

• 1459 (38 Henry VI - Rot. Parl. v, 348): The Parliament of Devils.   Held at Coventry, this parliament issued acts of attainder against the Yorkist lords.   The rolls note the appointment of special funding to transport high-value Yorkist prisoners captured at the Battle of Blore Heath to the dungeons of Kenilworth Castle.