Another example of a small seal with a stylised flower motif makes it absolutely clear that not only could seals with such images be highly sophisticated, but that they were used by people of the highest levels in society and therefore cannot automatically be considered as an indicator of an owner of humble social status. Impressions of a seal only 23 mm across, attached to two documents dated 1265, has what at first glance once again appears to be a standard stylised flower (Fig. 11.2).²⁴ However, each of the six petals clearly bears a shield with the three chevrons of the de Clare family. Given the small size of the original matrix and the overall design of the seal, an assumption might be that the matrix was made for the younger brother or a female relative of one of the senior Clare lords. In fact, as the legend makes quite clear, it was one of the seals of Gilbert de Clare, ‘Gilbert the Red’, (d. 1295) seventh earl of Gloucester and sixth earl of Hertford, a leading ally of Simon de Montfort who later became the son-in-law of Edward I, and one of the most powerful men in later thirteenth century England and Wales.²⁵