It is a truth insufficiently acknowledged that the registers of medieval English bishops are a rich quarry for the political historian. Historians of secular events overlook this material because they do not imagine that church records will contain anything useful for their enquiries, and it is the purpose of this essay to urge them to look more carefully at bishops’ registers, for in this class of record will be found rich and unexpected rewards, the ‘Uncovenanted Blessings of Ecclesiastical Records’, of which the late Professor Rosalind Hill (a warm admirer of David Smith) so eloquently spoke.1 In this article I will not attempt to give a complete catalogue of such material, but rather, by drawing examples from a number of different dioceses, hope to encourage students of English political history in the later middle ages to investigate this class of record for themselves. It will be immediately obvious that any such collection of examples will owe much to the editors of bishops’ registers, those unsung heroes and heroines whose work is published by such learned societies as the Canterbury and York Society and the Lincoln Record Society, to both of which David Smith has given, and continues to give, such distinguished service.

Medieval bishops were, in every sense, public figures and public servants, and many had previous or concurrent experience in secular administration. Helping to administer the realm and putting into execution crown policy was part of their job, and there is no evidence that they resented this or regarded their secular administrative duties as an imposition; nor is this surprising, for good order and respect for authority were the goals of both crown and church governments. The bulk of this secular work, as recorded in their registers, was of a local nature. Yet what would seem to be purely local matters could sometimes have wider implications. For example, John le Breton, bishop of Hereford, was also sheriff of Hereford, and a servant of the Lord Edward; he was bailiff at Abergavenny and keeper of Montgomery castle in 1257, but by 1261 had become keeper of the prince's wardrobe. He died in 1275 and over the next two years his executors filed a series of accounts which were copied into the register of his successor.