III. SEALS
There are few impressions of Gloucester’s seal still surviving. In the British Museum there is attached to a warrant a very small seal bearing the Duke’s coat of arms and round it the motto ‘Loyalle et Belle’ (Additional Charters, xxxvi. 146). This is the only evidence to prove the use of this motto by the Duke, save some rather inconclusive remarks on the fly-leaf of one of his manuscripts (Sloane MS., 248). A larger impression is attached to a grant of custody given by Gloucester and dated September 22, 1426 (Additional Charters, 6000). This seal is in fairly good preservation and on one side bears the Duke’s arms between two feathers and surmounted by a cap, on the other a representation of the Duke himself holding a drawn sword and riding on a horse.
In the Mons archives attached to a charter granted by Gloucester there is a round seal which is described as follows: ‘Il represente un ecu ecartele aux 1 et 4 a trois fleurs de lis et aux 2 et 3 trois lions passants, surmounté d’un heaume qui a pour cimier un léopard, et accosté de deux plumes; supports: deux beliers.’ The legend runs: ‘Sigilu. Humfridi. filii et fratris. regis. ducis Glocestrie. comitis Pembr. et camerarii Anglie’ (Cartulaire iv. 440).
Two more seals are preserved amongst the deeds in Magdalen College, Oxford. Both are attached to warrants issued by Gloucester in his capacity of Chief Keeper of the King’s Forests on this side of the river Trent. The first is a round brown seal bearing the ducal arms within a border of antlers rising from a deer’s head. Above is the figure of an heron, which with the antlers were the signs of this particular office. The inscription so far as it can be read runs: ‘S. H. duc Glouc ... Angl ac just. et capit. cust. forestr’ (Magdalen College Deeds, Selborne, 112; cf. Selborne, 115). The second is a seal of green wax, hollow on the reverse, and though much broken, still reveals the stag’s head and antlers surrounding Gloucester’s arms (Magdalen College Deeds, Shotover, 4).