A large proportion of our archives is taken up with common forms, technicalities, and petty detail.  It will never be either possible or desirable to print the mass of them in extenso, and most of the efforts made to render them accessible have taken the form of calendars, catalogues, and inventories.  Such attempts began with the costly and unsatisfactory labours of the Record Commission (dissolved in 1836); and in recent years the work has again been taken up and pursued on better lines.  The folio volumes of the Record Commission only remain so far of value as they have not been superseded by the more scholarly octavo calendars which are now being issued under the direction of the deputy-keeper of the records.  These latter are all accompanied by copious indices which, though not always to be trusted implicitly, immensely facilitate the use of them.  The records were preserved by the various royal courts.  Of special importance for the political historian are the records of the Chancery and Exchequer.

Prominent among the Chancery records are the PATENT ROLLS, strips of parchment sewn together continuously for each regnal year, whereon are inscribed copies of the letters patent of the sovereign, so called because they were sent out open, with the great seal pendent.  Beginning in 1200, they present a continuous series throughout all our period, except for 23 and 24 Henry III.  The publication of the complete Latin text of the Patent Rolls of Henry III. is now in progress, and two volumes have been issued, including respectively the years 1216-1225 and 1225-1232.  From the accession of Edward I. onwards the bulk of the rolls renders the method of a calendar in English more desirable.  The Calendars of the Patent Rolls are now complete from 1272 to 1324 and from 1327 to 1348 (Edward I., 4 vols.; Edward II., 4 vols.; Edward III., 7 vols.).  For the years not thus yet dealt with the unsatisfactory Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium (1802, fol.) may still sometimes be of service.

The letters close, or sealed letters addressed to individuals, usually of inferior public interest to the letters patent are preserved in the CLOSE ROLLS, compiled in the same fashion as the Patent Rolls.  The whole extant rolls from 1204 to 1227 are printed in Rotuli Literarum Clausarum (2 vols. fol., 1833 and 1844, Rec. corn.), and it is proposed to continue the integral publication of the text for the rest of Henry III.’s reign on the same plan as that of the Patent Rolls.  One volume of this continuation, 1227-1231 (8vo, 1902), has been issued.  For the subsequent periods a calendar in English is being prepared similar in type to the Calendar of Patent Rolls.  The periods at present covered by the Calendar of Close Rolls (1892-1905) are, Edward I., 1272-1296 (3 vols.):  Edward II., the whole of the reign (4 vols.), and Edward III., 1327-1349 (8 vols.).