Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/279

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The Green Bag.

Queen Elizabeth's second, and last, Great Seal is shown in No. 11. The seal is mainly Elizabeth, whose head nearly touches the top of the seal, and whose mantle, descend ing from her shoulders, is held off from her arms by a hand and arm issuing from clouds at both sides of her chair. Campbell narrates in his " Lives " an episode

"The Court then lay at the Archbishop of Canterbury's Palace at Croydon, and there, in a walk near her private chamber, the Queen, in the midst of a numerous circle of nobles and courtiers, taking the Seal in its velvet bag, delivered it to her Vice-Chamberlain [Hatton], ordered him before the assembled company to seal a writ of subpoena with it, and then declared that he was to hold it as Lord Chancellor of England."

No. lit The Second Seal of Queen Elizabeth. Period of use, 1586-1603. Diameter 5.7 inches. KLIZABETHA .DEI . GRACIA . AM. I II . FRANCIE . ET . HIBERNIE. REC'.INA . FIDEI . DEFENSOR.

connected with this Great Seal and with the appointment of Sir Christopher Hatton to the .Chancellorship that is worth quoting here. Elizabeth's Lord Chancellor, Bromley, died in the spring of 1587, and the Great Seal was to be disposed of.

Legend: Obverse.

One of the results of Hatton's absolute incompetency for the Chancellorship was that " meetings of the bar were held, and it was resolved by many Serjeants and Ap prentices that they would not plead before the new Chancellor; but a few who looked