Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/302

 •2Crl EXAMPLES OF MEDLEVAL SEALS. not rather have imitated the Frankish fasliion of scaHng ; but such seems to be the fact, except in three well autlien- tieate<l instances to the contrary (on which some observations may on another occasion be otlereil), namely, in the grants of Ofla, Ethehvulf, and Edgar, to the Abbey of St. Denis, all of which, in compliance with the French usage, were sealed en placard. And it is also worthy of notice, that the seals of Edward the Confessor, (the first of the English kings who use<l commonly a seal) were always appnided to the charter, and aflbrd earlier examples of that mode of sealing than are to be met with in the royal charters of France. The practice, indeed, of affiriufj the seal was not introduced into England until the fourteenth century (when it was also revived in France), and then only in regard to a special class of j)ublic instruments. The charter of Eudes which has occasioned these remarks, is written on a sheet of parchment ^ inches in width by 21 inches in height, and contains a grant of a portion of the royal demesne, situated at Jouy [G'aac/iacnm), on the river Eure, two leagues to the north of Chartres, to a certain Ivicbodo, styled " fidelcm nostrum ; " to be held beneficially for the term of his life, or, should he marry and have a son, for the term of their three lives. On the back of the charter are several indorsements in diflcrent hands, one of which may be of the 13th century, " p'ceptu de ioiaco," but the re- mainder are in hands of the last century. One of them is as follows, " Tiltre de Eudes, Koy de France, touchant Jouy, I'an S.OG. Casse neufiesme ; " and another, " Bercheres la ]Iaing| rjot. Jouy. 1'" basse, de I'an 892. Titrc de Eudes, roy de France, par lequel il donne a llicbodon et sa femme et a son fils, pendant lour vie durante, un fief assis au pays Chartraine, sur la riviere d'Eurc, au village de Jouy, cont(.'nant le dit fief trente fermes ou maison.s, que ticnt en benefice le dit llicbodon." This document is not unknown to the l^'rench histoi'ians, having been printc^l by Mabiilon in H)81, in liis wdik /)c Ita Diidoiiialica, ). '^)^)(, (edit. 1789, p. 570), and tlience repi'inted in vol. i.. p. 44<), of Durn Hoiiquet, 1757, but in both cases with some reniarka- ble errors of transcription. A very exact and liteial co])y is therefore here annexed.