Justice and Grace

In this ground-breaking new study Gwilym Dodd focuses on the private petition and its place in the late medieval English parliament (c.1270-1450). Concentrating on parliament's role as an instrument of government, a place where the king's subjects brought petitions in the hope of securing remedial action, Dodd reasserts the importance of this role. His book sheds new light on the concept of royal grace and its practical application to parliamentary petitions that required the king's personal intervention, and contributes to our understanding of the nature of medieval monarchy, and its ability (or willingness) to address the problems that faced individuals and communities in medieval society.