In the late medieval period, it became common for private charters to be enrolled among the public records for greater safety - many on the Close Rolls of the Chancery, but others on the rolls of the Exchequer and those of the courts of common law. Some problems If a relevant charter can be found, there are potentially the usual problems of handwriting and language. However, charters are even more formulaic than most medieval documents, and a straightforward example should not be too difficult to decipher. Dating may also present problems. Where charters are dated, the commonest form is by giving the day of the week, the nearest church feast-day and the regnal year.
More serious problems arise if, as for many early charters, no date at all is given.
These are largely matters for the expert, although in printed editions they will often already have been addressed. There is, sadly, one other danger to bear in mind when using charter evidence. But many medieval charters are known to be forgeries, particularly in cases where they survive as copies in monastic cartularies rather than as originals. Forgery is usually detected by the same methods used to date charters - anachronistic phrases may be present, or the list of witnesses may be chronologically impossible. The purpose of these forgeries was not always fraudulent - they may have been undertaken to provide 'evidence' for grants that were made orally, or to replace documents that had been lost.