Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/34

18 upon certain great and weighty matters, (namely, to prosecute his claim to the throne of France,) and intended to take with him his great seal (B.) And that he had provided another seal (C ) which was to be used for the rule of the kingdom during his absence, of which he sends impressions. There are also formal documents to shew that the new seal was sent by the king, on July 11, to John de Saint Paul, and Thomas de Bamburgh, who then officiated as keepers of the great seal ; and that they delivered the old seal to the king on the 14th of July, he being then at the port of Orwell, on board the ship "la Cristofre." They afterwards delivered the new seal to the chancellor, the bishop of London.

This seal C, Sandford engraves from an impression dated Windsor, September 20, 1339, and therefore during the king's absence. It is in the same style as the second seal B, with slight differences for distinction sake. The chair has no high back with ogee arch, and instead of one fleur-de-lis on each side, there are three lions. The fleur-de-lis was introduced into the other two seals, in assertion of his right to the throne of France. But the seal C being intended solely for English affairs, the lions of England were employed to distinguish it from the seal B, which he took with him.

Wailly imagines the seal B to have been the third seal, and C to have been the second, but he had no date to guide him in assigning this place to the latter seal, which he knew only from the engraving in the new edition of Rymer. The dates which I have given, combined with the extracts from Rymer, are sufficient to justify my statement, which agrees with Sandford, and is also confirmed by an allusion to the fleur-de-lis, in a letter from Edward to the chancellor of Ireland, dated October, 1327, and accompanying the announcement of the new seal B, already quoted at p. 17 above.

This letter states that the king is desirous to make some alteration in the seal then used in Ireland, and therefore commands "two images of two flowers like those contained in the new seal (B)," (an impression of which accompanies the letter,) to be added to the Irish seal.