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letters under the small seals

English translation: letters from the king sealed by one of his small seals

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:letters under the small seals
Selected answer:letters from the king sealed by one of his small seals
Entered by: Charles Davis

12:17 Nov 2, 2011
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Law/Patents - History / English law, parliamentary legislation, 14th century
English term or phrase: letters under the small seals
On the constitutional side we have tbe important statutory pronouncement
requiring annual parliaments - which during our period was substantially
observed - and an impressive statement that the course of
justice was not to be diverted by letters under the small seals set up a
standard to which practice slowly conformed. Numerous branches of
the royal prerogative were defined and limited; two of these reforms
seem to have been particularly urgent, those touching purveyance and
the prerogative of pardon.

Thanks in advance
inmb
Local time: 21:39
letters from the king sealed by one of his small seals
Explanation:
In this era, the authority of documents depended on the seal applied to them. There were several such seals, known as the "small seals" to distinguish them from the great seal of the Chancery. The latter, though a royal seal like the others, was at times taken out of the king's personal control. In England, the royal wardrobe became a kind of alternative or domestic chancery, where documents were sealed by the king's personal or privy seal. This was the most important of the so-called small seals.

However, the privy seal, though originally kept in the royal chamber, was in time entrusted to the wardrobe clerks (under Henry III). The keeper of the privy seal developed into an important minister of state.

So the privy seal became a seal of state rather than of the king personally, and in the fourteenth century other small seals, notably the secret seal, the griffin seal and the signet, were introduced and kept under the king's personal control.

So letters under the small seals were documents issued under the king's personal authority and initiative, rather than documents of state sealed with the great seal of the chancery, which by the time of Edward III was not under the king's personal control. The context is therefore the limitation of royal power.

On all this, see T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England: The Wardrobe, the Chamber and the Small Seals, pp. 22 ff.
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/tout/AdminHist01.p...

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Note added at 50 mins (2011-11-02 13:08:30 GMT)
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To say that a document was "under a seal" means that it bore a seal which signified its authority, a seal being, of course, "a piece of wax, lead , or other material with an individual design stamped into it, attached to a document as a guarantee of authenticity", and also the unique metal device bearing that original design.
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 21:39
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +2letters from the king sealed by one of his small seals
Charles Davis
4...as opposed to the "Great Seal" used by the King
Christopher Crockett
3letters hidden under small wax seals
Martin Riordan


  

Answers


26 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
letters hidden under small wax seals


Explanation:
This is one possible interpretation, which would suggest that judges who favoured one side in a dispute used doubts created by letters hidden under small seals to divert justice.

Martin Riordan
Brazil
Local time: 16:39
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

42 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
letters from the king sealed by one of his small seals


Explanation:
In this era, the authority of documents depended on the seal applied to them. There were several such seals, known as the "small seals" to distinguish them from the great seal of the Chancery. The latter, though a royal seal like the others, was at times taken out of the king's personal control. In England, the royal wardrobe became a kind of alternative or domestic chancery, where documents were sealed by the king's personal or privy seal. This was the most important of the so-called small seals.

However, the privy seal, though originally kept in the royal chamber, was in time entrusted to the wardrobe clerks (under Henry III). The keeper of the privy seal developed into an important minister of state.

So the privy seal became a seal of state rather than of the king personally, and in the fourteenth century other small seals, notably the secret seal, the griffin seal and the signet, were introduced and kept under the king's personal control.

So letters under the small seals were documents issued under the king's personal authority and initiative, rather than documents of state sealed with the great seal of the chancery, which by the time of Edward III was not under the king's personal control. The context is therefore the limitation of royal power.

On all this, see T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England: The Wardrobe, the Chamber and the Small Seals, pp. 22 ff.
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/tout/AdminHist01.p...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 50 mins (2011-11-02 13:08:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

To say that a document was "under a seal" means that it bore a seal which signified its authority, a seal being, of course, "a piece of wax, lead , or other material with an individual design stamped into it, attached to a document as a guarantee of authenticity", and also the unique metal device bearing that original design.

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 21:39
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 52
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Christopher Crockett: I think you've got it, Charles (medieval France is my baliwick, and a D.Phil. from Oxenford trumps an A.B.D. from Indiana.).
9 mins
  -> Many thanks, Christopher!
agree  Jenni Lukac (X)
25 mins
  -> Cheers and thanks, Jenni :)
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49 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
...as opposed to the "Great Seal" used by the King


Explanation:
Edicts/charters drawn up by the King were issued over the Great Seal of England ("over," i.e., the seal was attached by a strip of parchment to the bottom of the charter) --which actually was quite large, 4-5 inches in diameter.

I would suspect that non-royal acta would have been sealed as well, but with seals of more modest size.

Personal seals were, typically, quite small --an inch or so in diameter-- but the Parliament itself may have had a --or more-- seal, which would have been smaller than the Great Seal of the King.

Btw, the "letters" mentioned here were not personal "letters" in our sense of the word, but were "letters patent" --i.e., more informal acta of the King issued under his seal (which may have been a smaller seal than the Great Seal --I'll have to check and see).

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Note added at 52 mins (2011-11-02 13:10:21 GMT)
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Well, I was (more or less) on the Right Track. But Charles has Nailed it.

Christopher Crockett
Local time: 15:39
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
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