Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/271

 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. 251 It will be observed that the seal appended to the eharter is in remarkable preservation. The rider is represented, ap- parently, without any defensive covering for the head^; bear- ing on his left arm a kite-shaped shield, of large size ; he wears a prycke spm', and is seated on a high curved saddle. The attestation of this grant by the hand of the Con(jueror calls for a few remarks. It was usual among the French sovereigns of the Merovingian and Carlovingian races to sub- scribe their own more important diplomata with a cross, and occasionally with a monogram ; the latter form, adopted by Charlemagne, continued in use until the reign of Philip the Third ^. This practice was customary also in England under our Saxon sovereigns ; the royal mark being followed by the subscriptions of numerous witnesses to the acf^. It was rarely, however, that in early times the sovereign in either country affixed his mark to charters granted by subjects. The French kings of the third race appear to have been the first who used this formality, and the deed under consider- ation is probably contemporary with a charter of Burchard, comte de Corbeil, dated 1071, attested by the hand of Philip the First'. William the Conqueror adopted the ordinary forms of French diplomacy ; the foundation charter of Battle Abbey is subscribed by him''; but it is believed there is no other instance known than the present of his attestation of the charter of a subject. Indeed, after the Conquest it is rare to find any personal mark either in royal charters or private deeds : a few of the latter description, of various dates, exist, purporting to have been marked propria manu ; but in this country the general use of seals entirely superseded, for many centuries, the custom of manual subscription. T. HUDSON TURNER. f Unless indeed that which appears to •» See Kemble's Codex Diploniaticum be a very long; nose is the projection of aevi Saxonici, passim. the nasal head-piece of the eleventh cen- ' Mabillon, ut supra, cap. xxi. tury. — See Meyrick's Critical Enquiry, i^ Cart. Antiq. Mus. Brit. 83 A. 12; &c., vol. i. p. 10. Mr. De la Motte's draw- printed in the Monasticon, vol. iii. p. 244. ing is faithful to the original. Several of the early charters of the Con- f Mabillon de Re Diplomatica, lib. .ii. queror exist bearing his mark, cap. X.