ABSTRACT
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries some western European monarchies began to produce documents which recorded their activities in a more sustained and detailed way than before. From this period it is thus possible to reconstruct the practical workings of government. One of the best-documented of medieval governments was that of England, and the map shows the kind of detailed information that can be drawn from twelfth-century English records. In this case the information is drawn from the Pipe Rolls. These were accounts of the sums rendered by the sheriffs and other royal officials to the exchequer, the central financial institution. When the king took goods from the localities directly, these were credited to the sheriff’s account. Plotted on the map is the amount of foodstuffs and materials provided for Henry II’s expedition to Ireland in 1171-2.
