The Dering Roll

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.