Historians have agreed, without the least hesitation, to refer this event to the year 1194, and to place it subsequent to the truce of Tillières or about the beginning of August. 'That Richard I,' writes a veteran student,[1] 'adopted a new seal upon his return from the Holy Land is a matter of notoriety.' Speed, in fact, had shown the way. We are told by him that 'the king caused [1194] a new broad seale to be made, requiring that all charters granted under his former seale should be confirmed under this, whereby he drew a great masse of money to his treasurie'.[2] The Bishop of Oxford, with his wonted accuracy, faithfully reproduces the statement of Hoveden (the original and sole authority we shall find for the story), telling us that 'Amongst other oppressive acts he [Richard] took the seal from his unscrupulous but faithful chancellor, and, having ordered a new one to be made, proclaimed the nullity of all charters which had been sealed with the old one.'[3] Mr Freeman similarly places the episode just before 'the licenses for the tournaments' (August 20, 1194), and consistently refers to Dr Stubbs's history.[4] Miss Norgate, in her valuable work, our latest authority on the period, assigns the event to the same date, and tells us that 'Rog. Hoveden's very confused account of the seals is made clear by Bishop Stubbs'.[5] Mr Maitland, in his noble edition of 'Bracton's Note-book', gives a case (ii. 69) in which a charter sealed 'secundo sigillo Regis Ricardi' was actually produced in court (1219), and explains that 'Richard had a new seal made in 1194', referring to Hoveden for his authority.[6]

It should be observed that all these writers rely merely on Hoveden, none of them throwing any light on the process of confirmation, or telling us how it was effected, and whether any traces of it remain. An independent writer, M. Boivin-Champeaux, in his monograph on William Longchamp, discusses the episode at some length, and asserts that the repudiated documents were 'assujettis, pour leur revalidation, à une nouvelle et coûteuse scellure'. Like the others, however, he relies on the authority of Hoveden, and consequently repeats the same date.

In the course of examining some ancient charters, I recognized one of them as nothing less than an actual instance of a confirmation consequent on this change of seal. But its incomprehensible feature was that the charter was confirmed on August 22, 1198, having originally been granted, 'sub primo sigillo', so recently as January 7th preceding. How could this be possible if the great seal had been changed so early as August 1194, and if the first seal, as stated by Dr Stubbs, was 'broken' on that occasion? Careful and prolonged research among the charters of the period (both in the original and in transcripts) has enabled me to answer the question, and to prove that (as, of course, the above charter implies) the change of seal did not take place in 1194, but 1198, and between January and May of that year.

Original charters under the second seal, confirming grants under the first, are distinctly rare. I have found, as yet, but one in the Public Record Office, and only two at the British Museum. But of originals and transcripts together I have noted twenty-eight. The dates of the original grants range from September 5, 1189, to January 7, 1198 (1197-8), and of the confirmations from May 27, 1198, to April 5, 1199.[7]

In a single instance there is fortunately preserved not only the text of the confirmation charter, but also that of the original grant.[8] From this we learn that the charter of confirmation did not necessarily give the wording, but only the gist ('tenor') of the original grant. We are thus brought to the instructive formula invariably used in these charters:

Is erat tenor carte nostre in primo sigillo nostro. Quod quia aliquando perditum fuit, et, dum capti essemus in alem[anniâ], in aliena potestate constitutum, mutatum est. Huius autem innovationis testes sunt Hii, etc., etc.

We may here turn to the passage in Hoveden [ed. Stubbs, iii. 267] on which historians have relied, and see how far the reasons for the change given in the charters themselves correspond with those alleged by the chronicler.

Fecit sibi novum sigillum fieri, et mandavit, per singulas terras suas, quod nihil ratum foret quod fuerat per vetus sigillum suum; tum quia cancellarius ille operatus fuerat inde minus discrete quam esset necesse, tum quia sigillum illud perditum erat, quando Rogerus Malus Catulus, vicecancellarius suus, submersus erat in mari ante insulam de Cipro, et præcepit rex quod omnes qui cartas habebant venirent ad novum sigillum ad cartas suas renovandas.

In both cases we find there are two reasons given; but while one of these is the same in both, namely the temporary loss of the seal when Roger Malchael was drowned, the other is wholly and essentially different. The whole aspect of the transaction is thus altered. To illustrate this I shall now place side by side the independent glosses of the Bishop of Oxford and of M. Boivin-Champeaux:

Richard's first seal was lost when the vice-chancellor was drowned between Rhodes and Cyprus in 1190; but it was recovered with his dead body. The seal that was now broken must have been the one which the chancellor had used during the king's absence. Richard, however, when he was at Messina, had allowed his seal to be set to various grants for which he took money, but which he never intended to confirm. Therefore probably he found it convenient now to have a new seal in lieu of both the former ones, although he threw the blame of the transactions annulled upon the chancellor. The importance of the seal is already very great. (Const. Hist., i. 506, note.) Sur deux exemplaires usuels du grand sceau, le premier, que portait le vice-chancelier Mauchien, avait été perdu lors de l'ouragan qui, en vue de Chypre avait assailli la flotte Anglo-Normande, le second était resté en Angleterre; mais il avait subi, par suite de la revolution du 10 octobre, de nombreuses vicissitudes. Richard se prévalut de ces circonstances jointes au désaveu de la trève de Tillières pour publier un édit aux termes duquels tous les actes publics passés sous son règne, qui avaient été légalisés avec les anciens sceaux étaient frappés de nullité et assujettis, pour leur revalidation â une nouvelle et coûteuse scellure. Cette ordonnance aurait pu, à la rigueur, se colorer, si elle n'avait concerné que les actes accomplis pendant l'expédition et la captivité du roi; mais le comble de l'impudence et de l'iniquité était de l'appliquer même à ceux qui avaient précéde son départ ou suivi son retour (p. 223).