The Inquisitions post mortem (IPMs) of Edward V and Richard III are part of a vast archive that are housed at The National Archives (TNA, formerly the Public Record Office). IPMs record government enquiries into the landed estates that feudal tenants held at the time of their deaths. There are 2,163 files of IPMs returned to the court of chancery from the 1230s to 1642 that are arranged by reigns (classes C132–142). They are a huge repository of data about past landowners, their dates of death, their heirs and the ages of the heirs, and the particular properties that they held in every county. There are also IPMs of the palatine counties of Chester, Durham and Lancaster that were originally recorded elsewhere and also survive today at TNA. All these landowners and their lands from all the IPMs up to 1485 were listed in four massive volumes by the Record Commission in 1828. The calendars of inquisitions post mortem (CIPMs) record this data systematically landholder by landholder, county by county and property by property in twenty-six volumes up to 1447; in another three volumes calendar are those from 1485 to 1509. These calendars converted Latin text in medieval handwriting, often faded, tattered and stained, into print in modern English. The CIPMs preserve all the essential information whilst removing repetition and common forms. Their publication is one of the most remarkable cooperative endeavours of the past 150 years: truly a great historical enterprise. That the series remains incomplete is most regrettable. The unpublished IPMs are difficult to access and analyse and will inevitably deteriorate with mere handling. The gap in the calendars from 1447 to 1485, covering Wars of the Roses and Yorkist kings, is especially missed and is unlikely to change in the near future given current funding in the UK.

The IPMs in this volume have been transcribed and calendared, published and funded by the British Academy, the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, and the largely unremunerated labours of the researcher Dr Gordon McKelvie. Access to the published calendars was greatly extended forever by British History Online up to 1422 and for 1485–1509 and from 1422–47 on the Mapping website, both generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The IPMs in this volume will be added to both websites from 2024.