Medieval Seals

Seals were common items in Medieval England during the time of 1150 to 1350. Seals were used for a variety of exchanges, the most frequent being land agreement but any document that needed proof of identity were used by seals. A seal is composed of two parts, the wax seal and the metal matrix which combined form a seal. Seals were a common part of society as then were used to exchange documents and many different social classes within England had a seal. Seals were used in a personal capacity: for selling land, binding serf contracts, or most commonly rental agreements. Seals could also be used by offices such as the mayor or other officials of London or other cities, or they could be used by the clergy, usually with the bishop. Seals
Much of Medieval society had a seal, at least most likely those from a decent socio-economic status of merchant up through the royalty. Seals were mass produced so there was an ease at having a seal made and as they were mass produced the owner can have several different seal matrices within his or her lifetime. The seals were used as the only source of identification that was acceptable within the Medieval era, while signatures existed they were not a valid identification source for land documents and were only used in an informal setting. This therefore means that seals and their matrices help create an important concept for the people, the identity of self. The seal was the physical representation of an identity that could stand for them when they were away. The King and Queens used the Great Seal of England to sign documents and this seal is a symbol of the king. A seal is used to validate a document because now the document has someone’s legacy and identity attached to the document. The Medieval society of the time was mostly illiterate so the seal became a way of acknowledging ownership and also many of the documents of the time were written by scribes who transcribed the message so the seal became a way to claim ownership of a document. Seals were important
London had a seal that was used for all its legal and administrative documents by the office of the mayor. This seal however was not used in an administrative capacity for it was a personal seal. It most likely belonged to Margaret, the daughter of Alfred, who was a medieval business woman. This seal would have been what she authenticated documents for her business or her husband’s business. Many of the gilds within London had seals that they used to sign official documents along with all of the court documents were signed with a seal. Seals within London served mostly in business and administrative means for the mayoralty, sheriff, alderman, the courts, and many of the personally wealthy