delivered up, which had been in his custody as chancellor at the time of his death. This box contained three great seals of the king, to wit, one of gold, and two of silver, which were all given to the new chancellor, the earl of Salisbury. He took out the great seal of silver and sealed documents as usual[1].
The next recorded delivery of the seals, Oct. 11, 35 H. VI., (1456,) describes the three more minutely, as "three royal seals in three leather bags, to wit, one great golden seal, another seal of silver of a large form, and a third seal of silver of a smaller form[2]," and the new chancellor seals his first document with the aforesaid silver seal of the large form.
Also the chancellor is said to be appointed to the safe custody of all the said seals, and to seal the proper documents therewith for the convenience of the king and of his kingdom, dominions, and people.
Finally, however, on the 25th July, 38 H. VI., 1460, in the bishop's palace at London, the three above-mentioned seals were delivered up to the unhappy king (then in the hands of the duke of York, immediately after the defeat at Northampton) and by him given to the bishop of Exeter, who returned to the king two of them, namely, one of gold, and one of silver, and kept the other, with which he sealed documents as usual[3]. And within eight months Edward IV. ascended the throne and Henry VI. took refuge in Scotland, probably taking the seals with him.
It now remains to identify the seals of the above history with the known matrices. A new distinction, however, is presented to us in the material of the seals, for we have a golden seal and silver seals. Henry IV. paid, in the first year of his reign, "to John Edmunds, citizen and goldsmith of London, for the price of 10lbs. weight of silver used in a great seal for the chancery, and for a white seal for the office of privy seal, made by the said John for the king's use, according to the form of a certain pattern remaining in possession of the same John, delivered to him by our lord the king aforesaid, 13l. 10s.[4]" But this king appears to have employed, as already stated, only two great seals, of which one was the old Bretigny matrix with "Francie et Anglie," and the other the
- ↑ Rymer, tom. xi. p. 344.
- ↑ "Tria Sigilla Regia in Tribus Bagis de Corio . . . unum videlicet magnum sigillum Aureum, ac aliud sigillmn Argenteum de magna forma, et Tertium Sigillum Argenteum de minori forma." Rymer, tom. xi. p. 383.
- ↑ Rymer, tom. xi. p. 458.
- ↑ Devon, Issues of the Exch., p. 279, (Aug. 14, 1 H. IV. 1400.)
