Following the accidental rediscovery of the parliamentary roll for 1305, the thirty-third year of Edward I's reign, Frederic William Maitland (1850–1906) was able to publish this unique and invaluable historical record in full in 1893. Parliament in this period provided an opportunity for the king's subjects to present petitions and for the king's councillors to dispense justice. In his substantial introduction, Maitland, an eminent legal historian, sets the petitions and the transactions of the privy council in the context of medieval jurisprudence. The work is divided into English, Scottish and Irish petitions, followed by the Placita ('Pleadings'). There are four appendices: thirteen Gascon petitions; excerpts from the Gascon roll of 1305 concerning the government of Aquitaine; details of a diplomatic mission by a representative of the court of Flanders; and an analysis of the Vetus Codex, previously the most valuable primary source for Parliament of this period.