[Page numbers of the printed text appear at the right in bold.]

page 38

Notes 1. Steven Justice, Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381 (Berkeley, 1994), pp. 165-67.
2. William Langland, Piers Plowman: The B Version, ed. George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson (London, 1975), Passus II, lines 74-107. The charter appears in all three versions of the poem, although it was expanded from the A- to the B-version. Since the charter was not substantially changed from the B- to the C-version, I confine my discussion to the B-version. See the Appendix for the complete text of the "feffement at fals has ymaked."
3. See the Appendix for a comparison of Lady Mede's charter with an actual grant made by Edward III to his son Edward, the Black Prince.
4. H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, eds., Fleta, Selden Society 89 (London, 1972), pp. 28-31.
5. John Alford, Piers Plowman: A Glossary of Legal Diction (Wolfeboro, 1988), pp. 73, 109.
6. Langland, Piers Plowman, Passus VII, lines 113-14.
7. San Marino, California, Huntington Library, MS HM 114, fol. 319r.
8. Formula Book of English Official Historical Documents, ed. Hubert Hall, 2 vols. (New York, 1908), 1:30.
9. HM 114, fol. 319r. Compare the salutation in the charter granted by Edward III in the Appendix.
10. HM 114, fol. 319r.
11. Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole, ed. C. Horstman, 2 vols. (London, 1895), 1:338.
12. The Middle English Charters of Christ, ed. Mary Caroline Spalding (Bryn Mawr, 1914), p. 16, line 9.
13. Charters of Christ, ed. Spalding, p. 16, line 34.
14. Charters of Christ, ed. Spalding, pp. 4-5.
15. Justice, Writing and Rebellion, p. 47.
16. I have restored the majority of the manuscript readings where Kane and Donaldson's emendations seem to me unnecessary or indefensible. My emended emendations appear in angled brackets.
17. Formula Book, ed. Hall, 1:38-39.