[941] See the writ for St. Paul’s, K. 1319 (vi. 183). Mr Adams (p. 44) stigmatizes this as an evident forgery; but the reasons for this severe judgment are not apparent. See also K. 1321 (vi. 190), and the Latin writ of Harthacnut K. 1330 (vi. 192), which may have a genuine basis.
[942] Cnut, II. 12 (Schmid, p. 276).
[943] Thus if a statute requires written and signed evidence of an agreement, a letter in which the writer says, ‘True, I made such and such an agreement, but I am not going to keep it,’ may be evidence enough; see Bailey v. Sweeting, 9 C. B. N. S. 843.
[944] Brunner, Carta und Notitia (Commentationes in honorem T. Mommsen); Brunner, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der Röm. u. Germ. Urkunde.
[945] Both the Angevin charter and the Angevin letters patent are in what we call ‘writ-form.’ The main formal difference is that the charter professes to be witnessed by a number of the king’s councillors, while Teste Meipso does for letters patent. This distinction is coming to the front about the year 1200.
[946] K. 731 (iv. 9); T. 308.
[947] K. 642 (iii. 203); compare D. B. i. 41.
[948] The Conqueror’s charter for Exeter reproduced in Ordnance Facsimiles, vol. ii. is a fine specimen of the solemn charters referred to above. A considerable number of specimens, genuine and spurious (for our present purpose a forgery is almost as valuable as a true charter), will be found in the Monasticon, e.g. i. 174, Rufus for Rochester; i. 266, Rufus for Bath; ii. 109–111, 126, Henry I. for Abingdon; i. 163, Henry I. for Rochester; ii. 65–6, Henry I. for Evesham; ii. 267, Henry I. for Bath; ii. 539, Henry I. for Exeter; iii. 448, Henry I. for Malvern; vi. (1) 247, Henry I. for Merton; iii. 406, Stephen for Eye. Nor was this solemn form employed only by kings:—See Monast. ii. 385–6, Earl Hugh for Chester; iii. 404, Robert Malet for Eye; v. 121, Hugh de la Val for Pontefract; v. 167, William of Mortain for Montacute; v. 190, Simon of Senlis for St. Andrew Northampton; v. 247, Stephen of Boulogne for Furness; v. 316, Richard Earl of Exeter for Quarr; v. 628, Ranulf of Chester for Pulton. As to Normandy, see the charters in the Neustria Pia and the Gallia Christiana. A charter of Henry II. for Fontenay recites a charter by which the ancestors of Jordan Tesson founded the abbey with the consent of Duke William, also a charter of Duke William, ‘quae cartae crucibus sunt signatae secundum antiquam consuetudinem’; Neustria Pia, p. 80; Gallia Christiana, xi. Ap. col. 82. It is probable that during the Norman reigns the king’s cross was considered more valuable even than the king’s seal; Monast. iv. p. 18, Henry I. says, ‘hanc donationem confirmo ego Henricus rex et astipulatione sanctae crucis et appositione sigilli mei’; Ibid. ii. 385–6, Earl Hugh confirms a gift ‘non solum sigillo meo sed etiam sigillo Dei omnipotentis, id est, signo sanctae crucis.’ It is not implied in our text that every specimen of each of the two forms of instrument that we have mentioned will always display all the characteristics that have been noticed. There is no reason, for example, why in a solemn charter the king should not speak in the past tense of the act of gift, and as a matter of fact he does so in some of the Anglo-Saxon books, while, on the other hand, an instrument which begins with a salutation may well have the words of gift in the present tense (this is by no means uncommon in Anglo-Norman documents); nor of course is it necessary that an instrument in writ-form should be authenticated by a seal instead of a cross. Again, a solemn charter with crosses and pious recitals may begin with a salutation. We merely point out that the diplomata of Edward the Confessor and his Norman successors tend to conform to two distinct types. As to this matter see the remarks of Hickes, Dissertatio Epistolaris, p. 77; Hardy, Introduction to Charter Rolls, xiv., xxxvi.
[949] The curious formula, Schmid, App. XI., already has ‘ne sace ne socne.’ This seems to suppose that it is a common thing for a man to have sake and soke over his land.
[950] R. H. ii. 231.