Writing to the King from medieval Cambridge

Formulary
England, c. 1385

University Library, MS Ee.4.20, f. 158v
England, c. 1380–1400
Vellum, 310 x 240 mm (161 x 228 mm), II + 284 + II ff.

This page shows a letter to the king from the scholars of King’s Hall, Cambridge (now surviving as part of the northern side of Trinity College Great Court). It draws his attention to the ruinous state of the buildings, and asks him to repair them. This petition is part of a formulary, a collection of official letters designed to provide scribes with examples to adapt for their own purposes, and was assembled around 1385. French continued to be a major language of royal correspondence throughout the later Middle Ages: it was the mother tongue of every English king from William I (†1087) until Richard II (†1400).

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