This volume was inspired by the conference held on Saturday 16 March 2002 hosted by the Medieval and Early Modern Records Service at the Public Record Office on the theme ‘The Birth of Red Tape: English Government in the Thirteenth Century’. Many debts of gratitude are incurred in the preparation of a conference such as the one that this volume records. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Sean Cunningham and Nick Barratt for their support and encouragement in instigating the conference. For their assistance in organising the conference, thanks are due to Claire Bertrand and Eleanor van Heyningen of the Interpretation Team. I am grateful to Elizabeth Hallam Smith for chairing the opening session and Adrian Ailes and Nigel Taylor for helping ensure that the conference ran smoothly on the day itself and fostering good relations between the conference delegates. Thanks are owed to James Cronan, Hannes Kleineke, James Travers and Colin Williams for their invaluable help in the preparation of this volume. I would like particularly to record my thanks to the Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales for their permission to reproduce David Carpenter’s paper. Thanks are also due to Aidan Lawes of The National Archives and the staff of Boydell & Brewer, and in particular Caroline Palmer, for their help and support in the production of this volume. A special debt of gratitude is owed to David Carpenter for his guidance and advice since my undergraduate days. Most of all, I would like to thank my parents for all their support and encouragement over the year and also my grandmother, who passed away shortly before the completion of this volume. This book is dedicated to her memory.