Letter of Protection

Description

Letters of protection were legal documents which protected a person from liability while they were overseas in the interests of the crown. This often meant protecting their assets or position from legal retaliation. These documents would have witnesses to the passage of this person—to ensure they were in fact abroad—and attorneys to carry out this act.
Letters of protection often involve soldiers in the king’s armies, though they can also protect members of the clergy and others, and were part of a wide variety of immunity documents created in the Middle Ages. Letters of protection still have a space in law, and usually protect a person seeking legal counsel from medical or other fees until their case is concluded.