Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/32

16 public documents relating to or alluding to the great seals; some are proclamations of new seals, others are formal recitals of the surrender of the seal by one chancellor and its formal delivery to another, and so on. By means of these I shall shew that Edward III. employed at least seven great seals, and also that he had good reasons for doing so. As the respective documents do not explain the design of the seal in question, that must be picked out from the other sources already mentioned, and a little difficulty sometimes occurs in this respect, but I will first give the history of the successive seals as far as I can make it out from Rymer, and then proceed to identify them with the known impressions. And for the sake of clearness I shall designate the seven seals by the letters A B C D E F G in order, and append these as letters of reference to each seal as it occurs. Although other seals than the great seals of the Chancery are occasionally named in these documents, my sole purpose is with the great seals, and of them only and their history I must be understood to speak in my remarks.

Also the king is usually represented on one side of the seal seated on a throne, and on the other he appears on horseback, but as he is accompanied by no architectural adjunct in the latter case, I have confined myself solely to that side of the seal which represents him seated, and which is termed the reverse.

In the first year and on the fourth day of the reign of Edward III. (namely, Jan. 28, 1327) he gave his great seal (A) to the bishop of Ely as chancellor, and two flowers of the arms of France having been engraved at the under side of the said seal, the bishop caused certain documents to be sealed therewith. This sealing was the usual mode of confirming the possession of the great seal, and as such it is always recited in the various passages of Rymer which I shall have occasion to quote, although I shall not think it necessary to repeat it upon every occasion.

The seal here mentioned is in fact the seal of Edward I., to which Edward II. had already added a castle on each side, and