probably until the complete ratification of the treaty. Thus time was given for the making of the seal.
I may add, that of these seven seals, Sandford engraves and assigns to Edward three, B, C, and F, only. Wailly describes A, B, C, D, F, and G, and is entirely unconscious of the existence of E, which is easily accounted for, for this seal was wholly confined to English affairs, and is only mentioned, as I have shewn, in Rymer's Fœdera, which Wailly apparently did not consult.
I will now endeavour to pursue the history of the succeeding seals.
Richard II. employed the Bretigny seal of his father, merely substituting in the same matrix, "Ricardus" for "Edwardus." Speed and Sandford in fact engrave this Bretigny seal as the seal of Richard, not being aware of its previous employment by Edward. In the Appendix I have quoted impressions from 4 R. II. to 21 R. II. Wailly, however, says, that Richard employed the two last seals of Edward, namely F and G; and F with "Ricardus" in the legend is engraved in the French "Tresor de Numismatique," (pl. viii.) Wailly adds that the seal G appears to have been exclusively used for acts dated from Calais. This of course is true only for the French archives, and it may be concluded that G was the seal for English affairs, and F generally for French affairs, although in both legends we find "Francie" before "Anglie." Rymer has abundant documents concerning the delivery of the seals from one chancellor to another, but they contain no information on this point. There is however a precept from Richard to the chancellor of Ireland in 1 R. II. (1377.) commanding him to change the circumscription of the great seal of his father Edward, and to put "Ricardus" in the place of "Edwardus[1]." A similar order to the Irish chancellor in the first year of Henry IV., commands him to erase "Ricardus" and insert "Henricus" in the great seal and other seals of that country[2]. The legend of the Bretigny matrix appears therefore in four states; (No. 1.) as it was first engraved in 1360. omitting
- ↑ Rymer, tom. vii. p. 174. The new edition was stopped at the end of Edward III., and I must therefore quote from the old in future. "31 Jan. 4. R. 2. To William Geyton, the king's engraver in the tower of London, for alterations by him made as well on the great seal used in the chancery, as upon the king's seals used in the King's Bench, Exchequer, and Common Bench at the commencement of the king's reign, 2l. 10s." Devon's Issue Roll, p. 214. This evidently refers to the substitution of one name for the other in the English seals, and is another case of the retardation of the payments.
- ↑ Rymer, tom. viii. p. 114.
