The Dering Roll

Medieval

British Library

circa 1270-1280

The Dering Roll is the oldest extant English roll of arms. It provides a vital documentary record for the study of knighthood in medieval England, depicting the coats of arms of approximately a quarter of the English baronage during the reign of King Edward I (1272-1307). It gives special emphasis to knights from the counties of Kent and Sussex. The manuscript was altered at some point after 1638 by Sir Edward Dering, an antiquarian scholar and sometime lieutenant of Dover Castle. One of the shields originally bore the arms of Nicholas de Crioll, but Dering had this erased and inserted his own arms bearing the name of a fictional ancestor, Richard fitz Dering. This demonstrates Sir Edward Dering's attempts to prove the antiquity of his own family.

• Medium: paint on vellum
• Dimensions: 264.5 x 21cm
• Art Fund Grant: £40000 ( Total: £194,184; Export stopped)
• ArtFunded in: 2008
• Vendor: Through Sotheby's

Provenance

? Hugh Fitzwilliam of Sprotborough, circa 1550; Mr Knevett, circa 1590, thought to be Thomas Knevett of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk; Sir Edward Dering of Pluckley in Kent died 1644;...; Sir Thomas Philipps, circa 1836; Sir Anthony Wagner, 1948; by descent; Sotheby's, 2007; Private collection.

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