EQUITIUM REGIS.

Sub-series within E 101

These accounts relate to the management and expenses of the royal stable (equitium regis) and stud from the reign of Edward I to the reign of James I, sent to the Exchequer by the keepers of the king's horses and the keepers of the stud farms in the North and South of England, and of the Masters of the Horse from the reign of Richard II onwards. The majority of the accounts date from the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They do not include accounts for warhorses or other stabling expenses incurred during war.

The contents of the accounts include: accounts of provender for the animals - hay, beans and oats; equipment and tack bought and repaired - harnesses, saddles, horseshoes, nails; surveys and stocktaking of animals; sales of horses, carts and other related equipment; documents relating to the business of the keepers or masters of the horse - goods and debts; indentures of the receipt and delivery of horses; accounts relating to purchase of horses abroad; accounts relating to royal studs which were located mainly in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, with a few elsewhere in England, most notably at Burstwick in Holderness.

For warhorse accounts see E 101 army, navy and ordnance. Ceremonial saddles, harnesses, fine horse gifts, payments of livery of horse keepers' accounts, see E 101, wardrobe and household section, foreign expenses; for household stables and sumpterhorses, daily expenses. Equitium regis enrolled accounts see E 372 pipe rolls and chancellor's rolls, E 352. From 42 Edward I - 1638 enrolments are in foreign account rolls, E 364; from 1638 see 'Master of the Horse', E 351/1748-1769.

The king's stables were part of the administration of the royal household, and the keepers of the royal horses and stud were liveried members of the household. This resulted in the equitium regis accounts in this series being audited by the keeper of the wardrobe, rather than by the Exchequer before 1324. The documents of the equitium regis which date from before 1324 were placed in E 101 with post-1324 accounts on the sortation of the class in the nineteenth century, even though they are not properly Exchequer accounts.