Calendar of Close Rolls

Description

The Calendar of Close Rolls consist of 20899 rolls of letters close, or letters to important personages often containing instructions or executive orders and typically closed with a seal, dating from 1204-1903. While this range covers nearly 700 years, the use of the typical sealed letter format had fallen out of favor by the mid-16th century. While the original close rolls are kept at the National Archives in Kew, the close rolls dating from 1272-1509 have been summarized in English, and these summaries published in 47 volumes over the first half of the 20th century. The published calendars are available on British History Online.