Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T14:13:44.854Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Handwriting of Fifteenth-Century Signet Clerks and the King’s French Secretaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2022

Margaret Connolly
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Holly James-Maddocks
Affiliation:
University of York
Derek Pearsall
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Literary scholars have had little reason to think of Signet clerks or the French secretaries who crafted missives for Lancastrian kings and their consorts. A notable exception is George Ashby (d. 1475), the author of three substantial poems, including the Active Policy of a Prince and A Prisoner's Reflections. I have recently identified Ashby's hand, attributing to him eleven documents as well as CUL, MS Mm.4.42, the holograph text of Active Policy of a Prince. This essay will introduce and identify the handwriting of a number of Lancastrian Signet clerks and French secretaries of Henry V and Henry VI. As such, this will be the first discussion not only of their hands, but also of the scripts used by these two closely coordinated offices. Together with its companion piece, ‘The Handwriting of Fifteenth-Century Privy Seal and Council Clerks’, this essay will help to delineate the use of the secretary family of scripts in the four main writing offices that relied on it in England's central government: the privy seal secretary, which was also in use in the Council during the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V; the lettre-courante-based secretary script of the Signet; and the French lettre courante deployed by the king's French secretaries.

SIGNET CLERKS

In the course of the fourteenth century, the Privy Seal, which used to serve the monarch's personal communication, became increasingly involved in general government and inter-office communication. The Privy Seal developed into a clearing-house for government business with a wide remit, from conducting foreign correspondence to issuing warrants for the Great Seal. With the Privy Seal ceasing to function solely or predominantly as the king's private seal, a third seal began to assume such functions. This seal was initially called the ‘secret’ seal, but towards the end of Edward III's reign the keeper of this seal was called the king's secretary, and the seal itself became known as the Signet. Unlike the other writing offices, such as Chancery, Exchequer, or Privy Seal, which were based in Westminster, the Signet was headquartered in Windsor Castle, although its clerks were mobile, constantly accompanying the king and his secretary.

Type
Chapter
Information
Scribal Cultures in Late Medieval England
Essays in Honour of Linne R. Mooney
, pp. 82 - 124
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×