Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/434

 870 EXAMPLES OF MEDIiEYAL SEALS. . supplying the missing letters ia parentheses, it reads thus : ^ sigillvm ]Ia(elidis c)omitis.se avgi. The name Alice is found occasionally in the form of Aelis, and in the passage from the necrology of the abhey of Eu quoted by Mr. Stapleton " the expression " Aelidis Comitissa; Aiigi " occurs. Among the variations in the spelling of this name Vrcdius furnishes several examples of Aelis and Aelidis. The initial aspirate presents no difHculty. On the reverse is an escutcheon of arms, barry a label of seven points ; above it is an eight petalled flower, an angemme, or double rose ; and below the escutcheon a portion of another. The legend on this side is also imperfect, but supplying the missing letters it reads like that on the obverse. Mr. Stapleton describes a seal of this Countess, attached to a document at Paris dated in 1319 soon after her husband's death, which is also imperfect, but so much of it as remained appears to have agreed with this." It is highly probable, therefore, that the matrix had been in use as her personal seal from the connnenccment of her widowhood, if not in her husband's life-time. The arms on tlio shield are not those of Eu, but of i.usignan, the family of the Counts of La Marche, of which house her husband was one of many cadets, and hence the label. The coat undifFerenced was barry, ar<j. and az. It was subjected to divers brisures. ^Vith an orle of martlets it formed the Valence coat in this country, they having been descended from Hugh le Brun by Isabella, widow of king John. Guy de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, another cadet, differenced with a lion ramp (/ii. over all. Others might be mentioned, but they are less known in this country. The simple coat, as bishops in those days did not bear any mark of cadency, occurs in stone on the monument in Winchester cathedral, commemorative of the deposit there of the heart of Athelmar bishop elect of that see, who was a younger brother of William de Valence. The arms of Eu were, according to Vredius, fi~. billetty or, a lion rampant of the last. Whether they were ever borne by the father of Alice is doubtful ; we know no example of them so early. They niay have been in reality those of Bricnne, as the heiress of Eu, a granddaughter of Alice, married Alphonse of Bricnne, and Vredius attributes the same coat to Bricnne. It is not uncommon on foreign seals to find ladies figured, holding a fleur-de-lis, or some other flower ; nor are roses or flowers resembling them unfrcfjuent on such seals, and examples of fleurs-de-lis and roses on personal seals of the xiiith century are numerous in this country. The fleur-de-lis was often a conventional form of a flower ; and there is much reason to think that this and the rose, and also the angemnu', as well as the proper lily, are allusive to the Blessed Virgin. The occasional introduction of the fleur-de-lis into the subject of the Annunciation coun- tenunccH such opinion in regard to that floral device, but this is a topic too extensive to be treated of incidentally. 2. Si;ai, of MaK(aukt di-: Nkvimj: ; wlio was the wife of .lolin de Neville of Ivssex, and afterwards the third wif(! of Sir .lolin Ciiranl of iirimsfiold, (Jlouci'sterhhire ; the former died in iL'tSU, the latter in 121)!) ; hiio lived till the begir)nitig of the reign of Edward 111. l"'ur the exhibition of an iniprcfision of this personal seal with heraldry we are indebted to the J Ion. Kichard Neville. Jt representH the lady habited in a gown and niantli', with a head-dress '' I'nf. Itof, Sfiic NuiiiKiii ii. ]i. fcxxw. ' ll». |>. n-xxxiv. iiotr. 'I'Ik! kt there meiitioiiL-il w/ih most liki'ly it iiiisi'riuliiig of r.L.