During his lifetime, Henry II used at least three seals and probably considerably more than this. Most have been described in the standard literature, albeit with a tiresome failure to standardise terminology.⁵ The earliest for which we have evidence is the seal used by Henry as duke of Normandy, after his recognition as duke in 1150 and before his accession as king in 1154 (Fig. 2.1). This derived from a tradition of double-sided equestrian seals, one side depicted with banner, the other with sword, that can be traced to Henry’s father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, and thence back in time to earlier rulers of Normandy and Anjou, including William the Conqueror.⁶ Rather than repeat here detailed descriptions that will shortly be available in my edition of Henry’s charters, a summary will suffice, based upon the best of the surviving impressions.⁷ The seal is round, approximately 85 millimetres in diameter. The obverse shows a mounted warrior with banner, legend:

+HENRIC<V>S:DEI:GRA<TIA:COMES:AN> DEGAVORVM.

The reverse shows a mounted warrior with brandished sword, legend:

+HENRICVS:<DEI>:GRATIA: <DV>X:NORMANORVM.

Confusion has been sewn by the detailed drawing of what appears to be this same seal in Francis Sandford’s Genealogical History, first published in 1677.⁸ Sandford’s engraving accords with the images on the surviving wax impressions. However, perhaps working from a damaged original, Sandford’s engraver supplied legends for the two sides that fail to correspond with the impressions otherwise known to survive. On both the obverse and reverse, flag and sword sides, he offers the legend:

+HENRICVS:DVX:NORMANORVM:ET:COMES:ANDEGAVORVM.

Given that all surviving impressions of the seal suggest that it employed the invocation DEI GRATIA and that it showed Henry’s titles to Anjou and Normandy not together but distinctly on alternate sides, it is best to assume that Sandford’s engraver invented a legend for an image whose original was partially illegible.

Henry’s pre-1154 seal is very close to that of his father as duke of Normandy and count of Anjou, used by Geoffrey after 1144, equestrian on both sides, with the duke clutching a banner on the obverse and brandishing a sword on the reverse.⁹ It may have been newly fashioned rather than merely recut from Geoffrey’s seal. If recut, then it would have involved the substitution of only four letters on each side, altering GAUFRIDVS to HENRICVS. In either case, it fits into a tradition of deliberate imitation that itself reveals a search for authority and stability on behalf of dynasties, across northern Europe, keen to emphasise their continuity with the past, often by stressing their descent from a particularly powerful ancestor whose seal matrix was either recut or closely copied for the seals of his successor.¹⁰

There are nonetheless problems with Henry’s ducal seal. Henry was politically active for several years before his recognition as duke of Normandy in 1150. As early as 1141, for example, as Henricus filius filie regis Henrici rectus heres Anglie et Normann(ie) he is to be found confirming a grant by his mother in favour of Aubrey de Vere.¹¹ He appears as joint grantor together with his mother in at least three charters issued in England in 1144.¹² In England in 1149, and in Normandy possibly as early as 1147, he granted charters with title as Henricus ducis Normannorum et comitis Andegauorum filius.¹³ That he did not have any sort of ducal seal before 1150 is suggested by the terms of a charter issued jointly with his father, at some time between 1144 and 1150, in which they refer to their confirmation under ‘our seal’ in the singular, implying one rather than two seals.¹⁴ Nonetheless, it is possible, indeed highly likely, that Henry used a privy seal of some sort throughout the 1140s. This indeed may be the origin of the privy seal attributed to him as King, to which we shall return below.¹⁵

Henry was recognised as duke of Normandy from 1150, during the lifetime of his father. He became count of Anjou only after his father’s death, in 1151. As a result, it is conceivable that Henry began by using only the side of his later seal with title as duke of Normandy, employing it from 1150 as a single-sided seal, only joined after 1151 by the second side showing him with banner and title to Anjou. In this scenario, a newly cut seal as duke of Normandy might have been joined, after 1151, to a recut version of his father’s seal as count of Anjou. The lack of any surviving impressions of seals attached to charters issued by Henry in 1150–1 prevents certainty here. Following his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1153, Henry also adopted the title duke of Aquitaine in the protocol to his charters. It is significant that this new title seems not to have been incorporated into his seal until after his accession as King of England in 1154. Even thereafter, when Aquitaine was incorporated within the legend, Henry’s seals continued to follow a tradition distinct from that of the seals employed by previous dukes of Aquitaine.¹⁶

Already, as early 1153–54, we find Henry looking forwards to the time when, as King of England, he would have a ‘seal of kings’ (sigillum regium).¹⁷ The surviving seals he employed as King, after 1154, are double sided with majesty and equestrian sides and derive their inspiration immediately from the seals of King Stephen employed after 1135, and thence from the seals of the kings of England from William I onwards.¹⁸ As King of England, after 1154, Henry II used at least two such royal seals, generally described in the scholarly literature as Henry’s ‘first’ and the ‘second’ great seals. As we shall seem, this is not necessarily an accurate description. The first of these seals is 90 mm in diameter (Figs 2.2–2.3).¹⁹ Its obverse shows the King enthroned and crowned, the crown itself of Byzantine form with three cross pieces on top and long ear pieces hanging down either side of the king’s head almost as far as the shoulders. Legend:

+HENRICVS:DEI:GR<ATI>A:REX:ANGLO-RVM.

The reverse shows a standard equestrian image riding from left to right, the figure wearing a conical helmet with nasal, and brandishing a sword in its right hand. The horse is shown with cloth hugging its belly. Legend:

+HENR’:DEI:GRA’:DVX:NORMA……ET:AQVIT’:ET:COM’:ANDEG’.

The so-called ‘second’ great seal differs from the first most obviously in its size (94 rather than 90 millimetres in diameter)²⁰, on the obverse in the appearance of the crown (here without ear pieces) and the legend, here with uncial capital ‘h’ (Figs 2.4 and 2.5):

+hENRICVS:DEI:GRATIA:REX:ANGLORVM.

The reverse is most easily distinguished from that of the first seal by the cloth that hangs down in fringes below the horse’s belly, and by the legend, again without capital for the King’s name:

+hENRICVS:DVX:NORMANNOR’:­ET:AQVITANOR’:ET:COMES:­ANDEGAVOR:

In addition to the apparently genuine ‘first’ and ‘second’ royal seals of Henry II, a number of spurious or poorly documented casts and matrices testify if not to seals used in the twelfth century then to the on-going fascination with Henry II’s reign on behalf of those who later collected or catalogued seals and seal dies. These spuria include the so-called ‘Third’ great seal of Henry II, known from a single sulphur cast, very close to the obverse of Henry II’s second great seal but larger and with drapery differently posed, reverse missing.²¹ The so-called ‘Fourth’ great seal of Henry II is likewise known from a sulphur cast, itself taken from a surviving lead seal matrix, now in the British Museum. This displays only the reverse or equestrian side of a seal close to but slightly larger than Henry II’s second great seal, not matching the obverse of the ‘Third’ great seal.²² As spuria, these objects will play no part in the discussion that follows, save as reminders of Henry II’s posthumous success in projecting an image of majesty.