Lost and Found: the Saint-Denis Seal Impression of Edward the Confessor (1053 × 1057) and the Development of the Early English Writ-Charter

Abstract A review of the material within the detached seals ( Sceaux détachés ) section of the Archives nationales (Paris) recently led to the discovery of a well-preserved, detached impression of the seal of Edward the Confessor. Although the impression in question was already known to scholars, it had been registered as missing since the 1980s and presumed lost. The authors take the opportunity of its felicitous rediscovery to discuss the impression, its iconography and its wider documentary context. As a pendant majesty seal, the impression attests to the adoption of new iconographic motifs and sealing practices in England in the immediately pre-Conquest years. Yet in adjusting these for use on the writ-charter – itself a distinctively English innovation – the seal is also highly innovative, pointing toward future developments in both British and continental European diplomatic.