ABSTRACT
The primary significance of the role of English kings as landowners from the reign of Henry III to the usurpation of Henry IV lay in their development of a new English royal family estate. The Plantagenet family estate of the fourteenth century consisted of lands, rents and feefarms which the king could use for the permanent endowment of the royal family or favoured royal servants. The fourteenth-century fine rolls do provide authentic information for illustrating both the extent of the residual operation of royal patronage after the needs of the royal family and other permanent endowments had been met, and the ultimate, residual financial income left at the disposal of the Exchequer. The significance of the royal lands in the workings of English government during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries thus lay primarily in supporting the king’s family.
