This second volume of the Calendar of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III publishes in English translation the rolls for the regnal years from 9 to 18 Henry III, and thus covers the period from 28 October 1224 to 27 October 1234. Like the first volume, which covers the first eight years of the reign, it is the result of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under its Resource Enhancement Scheme (award no. RE/AN5612/APNN19490), a project which aims to publish the rolls down to 1248. Publication in book form is complemented by publication in electronic form on the project's website (http://www.finerollshenry3.org.uk), a site which also hosts digitized images of the original rolls.

A full introduction to the series as a whole and to the first two volumes may be found in volume one. In what follows, Paul Dryburgh and Beth Hartland provide figures for the annual value of the fines in the rolls covered in the first two volumes (1216–1234). A further section deals with changes in editorial conventions between the first volume and the second, and there is a list of the first volume's errata or at least of those which have so far come to light. There is then a more detailed introduction to the originalia rolls, two of which survive for the period covered by this volume (1226–27 & 1232–33) and which have been collated with the corresponding fine rolls.

The value of fines by regnal year, 1216–1234

As David Carpenter stresses in the introduction to the first volume, it is a thankless task to extrapolate annual revenue from the fine rolls. Many fines, for example, might have been made in the king's wardrobe or have been granted free of charge, or, as is recorded in 1232–33, made with the king's chief ministers, in this case the justiciar, Hubert de Burgh, and so would not be entered on the fine rolls. Moreover, there are many occasions on which fines were made, entered on the fine roll and then subsequently attermined, respited, or pardoned – processes that could be eked out over several years or, indeed, generations – meaning that the king would never have received anything like the total annual values listed below.