page 366 note 1 I hope shortly to publish a Recueil des actes de Jean IV under the aegis of the Institut Armoricain de Recherches Historiques de l’Université de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes. I am particularly grateful to the British Academy for a European Research Grant which enabled me to consult much of the manuscript material cited in this paper.

page 366 note 2 For the general circumstances of the duke’s reign see Jones, Michael, Ducal Brittany 1364–1399, Oxford, 1970Google Scholar.

page 366 note 3 Public Record Office London (= P.R.O.), D.L. 27 nos. 325 and 326, cf. Calendar of Close Rolls, 1361–4 (London, H.M.S.O., 1912), pp. 250–1Google Scholar. In view of my forthcoming edition and in order not to overburden the already extensive notes, I have not cited the published versions of documents unless absolutely necessary.

page 366 note 4 4 Cf. Déprez, E., ‘La querelle de Bretagne de la captivité de Charles deBlois à la majorité de Jean IV de Montfort (1347–1362)’, Mémoires de la société d’histoire et d’archéologie de Bretagne, vii (1926), 47–8Google Scholar; Jones, op. cit., p. 16.

page 367 note 1 P.R.O., D.L. 27 nos. 325–6, E. 30 nos. 194, 195 (1st October 1362), 197. It is presumably to a cast of this seal that the Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. W.de Gray Birch, 6 vols (London, 1887–1900), v. no. 20, 048, refers when it describes: ‘(Round, 1½ inch.) A Shield of arms Ermine, Bretagne. Suspended by the strap from a bifurcated tree. Within a carved gothic rosace or panel of six points, open at the top to allow the tree to issue and ornamented along the inner edge with small quatrefoils. Legend: s’. Joh’is. Ducis. Britanie: Comitjs: De: Montfort. Beaded borders.’

page 367 note 2 Cf. Tessier, G., Diplomatique royale française (Paris, 1962), pp. 192–7Google Scholar.

page 367 note 3 Lettres (et mandements) de Jean V, (due de Bretagne, ed. R. Blanchard, Société des bibliophiles bretons, Nantes, 5 vols., 1889–95), i, pp. lxxv–lxxvi. Blanchard provides the most detailed account of the workings of the Breton chancery, whose practices in the early fifteenth century differ only slightly from those used in the time of John IV. For the durability of Great seals, cf. Y. Metman, Sigillographie, L’histoire et ses méthodes, edx. Samaran, C., Encyclopédic de la Pléiade (Paris, 1961), p. 400Google Scholar.

page 367 note 4 Below, pp. 369–70.

page 367 note 5 Tessier, op. cit., pp. 141–2 for France, or Chaplais, P., English Royal Documents, King John-Henry VI, 1199–1461 (Oxford, 1971), pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar, and Maxwell-Lyte, Sir H. C., Historical Notes on the Use ofthe Great Seal of England (London, 1926)Google Scholar, passim, for England.

page 367 note 6 The Breton Chancery in the late fourteenth century used only red and green wax. In doing so it followed common French practice: grants in perpetuity were authenticated by the Great seal in green wax; all other actes were authenticated by impressions of seals in red wax. The only exception I have found is a signet letter of an uncertain date between 1366 and 1384 which was originally sealed close with green wax (Muniments of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat MS. 390). In the thirteenth century natural or yellow wax had occasionally been used but this was later considered a royal prerogative, although it was used by Duke John III as late as 1315 (A.L.A., E 238 f. 36^r inventory of 1395). For further details, see Boüard, A. de, Manuel de diplomatique française et pontificate, 2 vols. (Paris, 1928–49), i, 335Google Scholar, and Chaplais, op. cit., p. 15.

page 368 note 1 Archives départementales de la Loire-Atlantique, Nantes (= A.L.A.), E 154 no. 3. A photographic record of all seals in this archive is now being prepared by Mile. Illaire, conservateur-adjoint.

page 368 note 2 Cf. Metman, loc. cit., pp. 417–18.

page 368 note 3 Lobineau, Dom G.-A., Histoire de Bretagne, 2 vols. (Paris, 1707)Google Scholar, seal no. clxvi; Morice, Dom P.-H., Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l’histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, 3 vols. (Paris, 1742–6Google Scholar: cited throughout as Preuves), ii, plate ix, no. clxvi. In order to avoid duplication I have simply given references to the plates in Preuves.

page 368 note 4 A.L.A., E 154 no. 3.

page 368 note 5 Lettres de Jean V, i, p. Ixxvi.

page 368 note 6 For the Ermine see below, p. 379; Archives départementales d’llle-et-Vilaine, Rennes (= A.I.V.), I E 10, order from John IV to Richard de Lesmenez, his treasurer, 7 April 1388, to pay 20/. ‘de nostre don a celui qui nous aporta un ymaige de Saint Michel de la ville de Paris’. Among the items which Hugh Damery was conveying to Brittany for the duke in 1393 was an alabaster image of Michael, St. (Cal. Close Rolls 1392–1396 (London, 1925), 57)Google Scholar.

page 368 note 7 The iconography of St. Michael can be ap proached through the fine exhibition catalogue Millénaire de Mont Saint-Michel 966–1966, Paris, 1966, especially section I, ‘Saint Michel, vainqueur du démon’, where examples of seals bearing this motif are described. The source of inspiration is Rev. 12:7 ff.

page 369 note 1 Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae, etc., Record Commission Edition, 4 vols (London, 1819–69), iii, part ii, p. 953, grant of the earldom of Richmond to John IV, 19 July 1372. Seisin was ordered on the following day (ibid., p. 955).

page 369 note 2 Archives Nationales, Paris (= A.N.), J. 246 no. 130, to Charles V.

page 369 note 3 Archives départementales du Morbihan, Vannes (= A.M.), H St-Gildas 3.

page 369 note 4 4 Impressions: A.I.V., IF IIII, 25th September 1379 (in red wax); A.N., J 242 no. 59, 19th November 1380; ibid., J 243 no. 64, 30th May 1381; Bibl. mun., Nantes, MS. 1703 no. 8, 30th May 1381 (in red wax); A.L.A., E 152 no. 9, 4th June 1381; ibid., E 78 no. 15, 16 February 1383; ibid., E 152 no. 10, 1st February 1387; ibid., E 17 no. 12, 24th February 1387 (photograph in Histoire de la Bretagne, ed. J. Delumeau, Toulouse, 1969, facing p. 209, and revised edition, 1973, facing p. 209, in both instances either wrongly described or dated); A.N., J 182 no. 112, 4th January 1390 (fragments); ibid., J 243 no. 73, 26th January 1392. I have been unable to see a probable further impression of this seal on a document of 3rd August 1395 (Collection F. Joüon des Longrais, published in Bulletin et mémoirts de la société archéologique du département d’llle-et-Vilaine, xliii (1914), 247–9)Google Scholar. The present owner, Professeur F. Joüon des Longrais, has been unable to find this, as so many other, of his father’s medieval records. I am grateful to him, nevertheless, for his co-operation. In the sealing clause the Great seal is always announced.

page 370 note 1 A.L.A., E 152 no. 10, 1 st February 1387.

page 370 note 2 Cf. A.N., J. 182 no. 112, 4th January 1390, ‘Jehan, due de Bretaigne et comte de Richemont’, which became standard form, with or without et.

page 370 note 3 The impression attached to A.N., J. 243 no. 76, 26th January 1392 (green wax), is of Great seal no. 2, with the surviving legend: +Sigillü: Johannis … Is : Montisfortis : Et : … Ondie.

page 370 note 4 A.L.A., E 245 no. 2 f. 3^V, inventaire de 1561, titres de Montfort. By an act of 3rd November 1395 it can be seen that the duke had kept a controlling say in the affairs of the county: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (= B.N.), MS. fr(ançais), 20692, pp. 388 and 393, grant to the count of Montfort of all the lands previously held in the county by the dame de Bretancourt.

page 370 note 5 A.I.V., I E 10 no. 2, mutual donation by the duke and duchess of all their goods to each other; A.L.A., E 17 no. 16, a public instrument of the same date, announcing the terms of this donation and sealed with the duke’s Great seal. For a précis of an earlier agreement between the duke and duchess of a similar kind see Preuves, ii, 547–8 (1387). A third example may exist in the archives of the parish of Pacé (dép. Ille-et-Vilaine) on a document of 3rd May 1399, but my efforts to locate it have proved fruitless so far (cf. Mélanges d’archéologie et d’Aistoire de Bretagne, ii (Rennes, 1858), 61).

page 370 note 6 The best surviving manuscript of the Livre is B.N., fr. 616, dating from c. 1405–10. For a useful bibliography: Tucoo-Chala, P., Gaston Fébus et la vicomté de Béarn, 1343–1391 (Bordeaux, 1961), pp. 18–20Google Scholar. See also Gaston Phébus. Livre de Ghasse, ed. Tilander, G. (Karlshamn, 1971), pp. 24–7Google Scholar. At some date before 18th June 1382 Gaston lent John IV 10,000 francs (cf. A.L.A., E 209 no. 1 and A.I.V., I E 18 no. 3, notarial instruments, 18 June 1382, recording the delivery of a quittance for repayment. No actes relating to this transaction appear in Tucoo-Chala’s catalogue of the actes of Gaston Fébus, loc. cit.).

page 371 note 1 Cf. A.N., KK 253, 16 Nov. 1397, mention of a gift of greyhounds to John, duke of Berry, in Berry’s accounts.

page 371 note 2 This emerges most forcibly from such accounts as those of the ducal receiver of La Guierche (A.L.A., E 211 no. 6, for 1385–6, and B 2448, for 1388–9). Licences to build warrens had to be sought from the duke (e.g., Archives du château des Touches, dép. Morbihan, com. Guer, 14 April 1391, letters of John IV for Jean,siredes Touches).

page 371 note 3 The progressive enlargement of seals is a common phenomenon (cf. Tessier, op. cit., p. 192, and A Guide to Seals in the Public Record Office, London, H.M.S.O., 1954, p. 12Google Scholar) but the increase of 20 mm. alone in the course of John’s reign is unusual.

page 371 note 4 Lettres de Jean V, i, plate 1.

page 371 note 5 Blair, C. H. Hunter, ‘Armorials on English Seals from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries’, Archaeohgia, Ixxxix (1943), 6 and plate vGoogle Scholar.

page 371 note 6 Tessier, op. cit., p. 240. This legend remained unchanged on the Great seals of the kings of France for 600 years from Robert the Pious to Louis XIII (Metman, loc. cit., p. 414).

page 371 note 7 The only document purporting to be an original letter of John IV containing this style (A. Morbihan, H St-Gildas 3 no. 14, 8 March 1368, printed in Cartulaire du Morbihan, ed. P. Thomas-Lacroix, Bulletin polymathique du Morbihan, 1935, no. 562) is a fabrication of about 1440.

page 371 note 8 A.L.A., E 78 no. 23, 1 Feb. 1398.

page 371 note 9 d’Avant, F. Poey, Monnaie féodales de France, 3 vols. (Paris, 1858–62)Google Scholar, i, nos. 565–6, 587–92, 614–20, 657, 664, 667–71, etc.

page 372 note 1 I have examined this theme in more detail in ‘Mon pais et ma nation; Breton Identity in the Fourteenth Century’, War, Literature and Politics. Essays in honour of G. W. Coopland, ed. C. Allmand, Liverpool, 1975.

page 372 note 2 Cf. A. de Boüard, Manuel de diplomatique française et pontificate, i, 264. In the twelfth century even quite minor lords in Northern France had freely used the title (cf. W. M. Newman, Les seigneurs de Nesle en Picardie, 2 vols., Paris, 1971, ii, 5) but gradually the practice died out or was forcibly suppressed by the crown, which was strong enough in the fifteenth century to force lords in regions to the south of France which had continued to use the tide into submission (cf. Samaran, C., La maison d’Armagnac au XV^e siècle, Paris, 1907, p. 26)Google Scholar.

page 372 note 3 Lettres de Jean V, i, p. xxxiv.

page 372 note 4 Jones, Ducal Brittany, pp. 114 ff. and in Essays … Coopland.

page 372 note 5 Cf. Preuves, ii, 630 (1394).

page 372 note 6 Essays … Coopland, passim.

page 372 note 7 From A.I.V., I E 10 no. 2. The legend on the other example is difficult to read; the suggested Cots, 10His Ducis Britan. Com. Monte Et Richemo. noted in the photographic catalogue now under preparation at A.L.A. is obviously inaccurate in view of the changed style of the duke.

page 372 note 8 Above, p. 369, and p. 370, n. 1.

page 372 note 9 Lettres de Jean V, i, plate 11. The two exemplars measure 72 mm. and 78 mm. in diameter. For contemporary royal seals of majesty see R.-H. Bautier, ‘Echanges d’influences dans les Chancelleries souveraines du Moyen Age d’après les types des sceaux de majesté‘, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Année 1968, Comptes rendus, pp. 192–220, especially 208 ff.

page 373 note 1 The contemporary royal sigillum secreti was not a chancery seal but one kept by a chamberlain, From the description given by Tessier (op. cit., pp. 203–5) it would appear that the ‘secret’ seal of John IV conformed closely in design and usage to the royal one, although, as will be obvious from the text, a rigorous distinction between it and the Privy seal was not always made in practice. See also Metman, loc. cit., p. 418; d’Arcq, L. Doüet, Collection de sceaux, 3 vols. (Paris, 1863–4), i, nos. 421–2Google Scholar, 427 and cf. Lacour, R., Le gouvernement de l’apanage de Jean, due de Berry, 1360–1416 (Paris, 1934), p. 164Google Scholar.

page 373 note 2 A.L.A., E 120 no. 13, 9th September 1383, see below, p. 375, n. 2.

page 373 note 3 Cf. B.N., MS. fr. 22339 f. 110^r seventeenth-century transcript of letters of John IV discharging the vicomte de Rohan from the office of chancellor, 5th May 1384: ‘Donne tesmoing notre secret seel dont nous avons la garde et notre signet et le passemen de notre main. …’

page 373 note 4 B.N., MS. fr. 20590 no. 28, 1 Feb. 1384, cf. below, p. 375, n. 2.

page 373 note 5 Below, p. 377.

page 373 note 6 Cf. Sharp, M., ‘A Jodrell Deed and the Seals of the Black Prince’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vii (1922), 7 ffGoogle Scholar. For overlap in the use of privy seals nos. 1 and 2, the latter probably the duke’s secret seal, see next two notes, and cf. Tout, T. F., Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, v (Manchester, 1930), 161 ffGoogle Scholar. and 195 ff.

page 373 note 7 All given ‘under our seal’: A.L.A., E 154 no. 8, 26th January 1366; ibid., E 212 no. 1, 13th May 1366; A.I.V., I F 1544 (a fragment), 2nd August 1366; A.L.A., E 119 no. 11, 20th May 1367; B.N., MS. Nouv. acq. fr. 5216 no. 7, 21st May 1367; A.L.A., E 232 no. 3/3, 22nd January 1368; A.N., J 241 no. 50, 25th October 1369; A.I.V., 3 H 23, 14th July 1370. From a description by Blanchard of a seal attached to a document of 17th January 1368 (in the Bibl. mun., Nantes, MS. fr. 1535, as late as February–March 1900, but now lost) it is clear that this too was sealed with this seal (A.L.A., 7 JJ 20, papiers de Blanchard), whilst A.I.V., 3 H 23, 3rd July 1366, has a small fragment of this seal still adhering.

page 374 note 1 A.I.V., 18 H 2, 30th November 1368; ibid., 3 H 23, 7th May 1369; ibid., 18 H 2, 10th November 1369; A.L.A., E 162 no. 4, 8th December 1369; cf. description by Blanchard of this last example: ‘un écu penché chargé d’hermines, sommé d’un heaume à cornes au lion accroupi entre les cornes, tenants de chaque côté: au bas 2 animaux llions passants, surmontés de 2 lions montants, surmontés eux-mêmes de 2 anges en pied’ (A.L.A., 7 JJ 20). Unfortunately the surviving impressions are so mutilated that it has proved impossible to get a clear reproduction.

page 374 note 2 A.L.A., E 233 no. 29, dated the 15th of an unknown month 1370/1, with no note on sealing; A.N., J 242 no. 54, 20th February 1372, ‘souz nostre prive seel’ (described in Doüet d’Arcq, nos. 547–8); P.R.O., E 30 no. 262, 21st February 1372, ‘souz nostre prive seel’; ibid., no. 265, 25th February 1372, ‘souz nostre prive seel et signet’ (cf. below, p. 378); A.L.A., E 165 no. 17, 8th September 1372, ‘souz nostre prive seelle’; P.R.O., E 30 no. 269, 22nd November 1372, ‘par tesmoignance de nostre prive seal et signet en labsence de nostre grant seal’; British Museum (= B.M.), Add. Charter 7909, 20th October 1374, under ‘our seal’; Muniments of Lord de l’lsle and Dudley, V.C., Penshurst Place, 29th November 1377, no note on sealing (see also next note); A.L.A., E 117 no. 3, 1st December 1377, ‘south nostre seial’; ibid., no. 7, 5th February 1378, ‘south nostre seel’.

page 374 note 3 Kingsford, C. L., ‘On some Ancient Deeds and Seals belonging to Lord de l’lsle and Dudley’, Archaeologia, lxv (1913–1914), 262Google Scholar, cf. pl. XXXIII, no. 6.

page 374 note 4 Catalogue, ed. de Gray Birch, v, no. 20, 047.

page 375 note 1 Above, p. 374, n. 2.

page 375 note 2 A.N., J 243 no. 64/3, 4th July 1381, ‘nostre seel’ (this document also bears an impression of signet seal no. 4, below, p. 378, n. 4); A.L.A., E 172 no. 2, 1st December 1381, ‘nostre seau’; Bibl.mun., Nantes, MS. 1703 no. 3ⁱⁱ, 17th February 1382, ‘nostre propre seel’; A.I.V., 3 H 23, 19th August 1382, ‘soubz nostre seel’; A.L.A., E 92 no. 20, 27th October 1382, ‘soubz nostre secret seel’; ibid., E 120 no. 13, 9th September 1383, ‘souz nostre seau’ (cf. above, p. 373, n. 2); B.N., MS. fr. 20590 no. 28, 1st February 1384, ‘soubz nostre seel’ (cf. above, p. 373, n. 4); A.L.A., E 17 no. 10, 15th February 1387, a fragment; ibid., E 143 no. 29, 28th November 1393, ‘our seal’; Bibl.mun., Nantes, MS. 1691, no. 10 bis, 29th June 1396, no mention of sealing; P.R.O., E 30 no. 332, 23rd April 1398, ‘nostre seel secret’; A.L.A., E 162 no. 46, 18th December 1398, under ‘the duke’s seal’.

page 375 note 3 Lettres de Jean V, i, p. lxxix. The mantling of one supporter with cheeky, a canton ermine, makes reference to the arms of the Dreux-Montfort family used by the dukes of Brittany from Pierre Mauclerc to John II and abandoned by John III about the year 1312 (cf. Haut-Jussé, B.-A. Pocquet du, ‘Les faux états de Bretagne de 1315 et les premiers états de Bretagne’, Bibliothéque de l’école des chartes, lxxxvi (1925), 393–5)Google Scholar. The lions refer to Montfort. In 1387 Philip, duke of Burgundy, intended to send a lion to John IV as a gift (cf. Prost, B., Inventaires mobiliers et extraits des comptes des dues de Bourgogne de la maison de Valols, 1363–1477, i (Paris, 1902), 298)Google Scholar.

page 375 note 4 Lettres de Jean V, i, p. lxxvii.

page 375 note 5 A. N., J 242 no. 58ⁱ, 10th April 1381, ‘soubz nostre seau’ (Doüet d’Arcq, no. 549); ibid., J 243 no. 68, 19th August 1383, ‘nostre seel’; A.L.A., E 154 no. 15, 29th January 1385, no mention of sealing; ibid., E 166 no. 6, 27th August 1388, no mention of sealing; ibid., E. 108 no. 22, 19th April 1389, ‘nostre seel’; ibid., E 8 no. 1, E 181 no. 11, and A.I.V., I E no. 3, all 19th April 1391 and under ‘nostre prive seel’; A.L.A., E 115 no. 7, 31st July 1391, ‘soubz nostre seel’; A. Morbihan, H. Abbaie de la Joie, fonds non classés, 17th November 1395, no mention of sealing; A.I.V., 4 H 10, 16th March 1397, a fragment, no mention of sealing. There is a seventeenth-century sketch of an impression of this seal in B.N., MS. fr. 22325, p. 17 from a document of 23rd October 1389 (now A.I.V., G 195, and without seal). Whilst the description of a seal on a letter of 25 September 1397 shows that it was still in use at this date (Arch, dép. Côtes-du-Nord, H abbaie de Beaulieu, livre parchemin, f. 5^V).

page 376 note 1 Collection de sceaux, no. 549.

page 376 note 2 A similar helm served as a head-rest for the effigy on the duke’s tomb (cf. J. Adhémar, with G. Dordor, ‘Les tombeaux de la collection Gaignières. Dessins d’archéologie du XVIII^e siècle’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6ème sér., lxxxv (1974), 173, no. 970).

page 376 note 3 The implication of the letter s is a mystery at present, like so many of the devices and mottoes adopted by the later medieval nobility,

page 376 note 4 A.L.A., H 57, ‘soubz nostre seel’. A copy of 1668 notes that it was ‘scellé sur simple queue en cire rouge du seel de Bretagne’ (ibid.).

page 376 note 5 V. no. 19, 138.

page 377 note 1 A.L.A., E 245 no. 3 f. 15^r, 17th May 1367, cf. ibid., E 232 no. 2/13, 6th January 1371, ‘Donne ceste copie soubz la merche des actes de la court de Nantes’ written over ‘Tesmoin la merche de la prevoste de Nantes’, struck out.

page 377 note 2 For an example with both legend and supporters, see the seal for contracts at Champtoceaux (A.L.A., E 232 no. 2/9, 1st February 1368, approximately 45 mm. in diameter, a shield, ermine, 4, 3, 2, 1, suspended from the head of a lion affronté, supporters two lampreys, with a surround bearing the legend: +Johannis Duc … Br … Is).

page 377 note 3 Cf. above, p. 376, n. 4.

page 377 note 4 For some loose examples of privy and secret seal no. 4 incorrectly attributed to Jean V, see Lettres de Jean V, i, p. lxxix, amending L. Delisle, Les collections de Bastard d’Estang à la Bibliothèque Nationale. Catalogue analytijue (Nogent-le-Rotrou, 1885), pp. 200–1, nos. 69 and 72.

page 377 note 5 Arch. dép. d’Indre-et-Loire, H 932, 20th October 1365, ‘soubz nostre seau doudit parlement’.

page 377 note 6 A.L.A., E 120, no. 1, 19th June 1397, ‘nostre grant seau avecques le seau de nostre chancelerie’.

page 377 note 7 Ibid., E 233 no. 41, 26th March 1373, cf. A. Morbihan, H St-Gildas 3, 3rd December 1379, ‘soubz le seau de noz acomptz en absence de noz autres seaux’, cf. also Jones, Ducal Brittany, p. 28.

page 378 note 8 Cf. Cartulaire du Morbihan, ed. Thomas-Lacroix, no. 585, letters of 14th April 1380, sealedx ‘en nostre grant conseil … de limpressure de nostre grant seau en laz de soie et cire verte en maniere acoustumee avec nostre prive signet lequel nous portons que nous y avons mis et appose et signe de nostre propre main pour ce que nostre dit cousin (le vicomte de Rohan) avoit la garde de nostre seau....’

page 378 note 9 Cf. Foedera, iii, part ii, 935–6, commissions for Thomas de Melbourne, envoy to Edward III, February 1372 (below, p. 378, n. 2), and A.N., J 240 no. 40, before 9th July 1385, requests to Charles VI.

page 378 note 10 A.L.A., E 159 no. 3, 20 June 1365, a fragment; ibid., E 129 n. 1, 12th August 1365 ; ibid., E 204 n. 1, 20th May 1366, ‘souz nostre signet’, In the first two cases it seems probable that one of the larger seals was appended first and the signet was appended beneath it (cf. plate cited above, p. 369, n. 4).

page 378 note 1 1 B.N., MS. Nouv. acq. fr. 5216 n. 7, 21st May 1367.

page 378 note 2 P.R.O., E 30 nos. 263 and 265, both 25th February 1372, and given ‘souz nostre prive seel et signet’.

page 378 note 3 For A ma vie, see below, p. 379. The initial I may be taken to signify the duke’s name Jehan. For the implications behind the adoption of the crown motif, cf. B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jusé, ’Couronne fermée et cercle ducal en Bretagne’, Bull, philologique et historique du comité des travaux scientifiques (1951–2), pp. 103–12. Charles de Blois had a signet which displayed a crowned helmet (Déprez, art. cit., Méms. de la soc. d’hist, et d’arch. de Bretagne, vii (1926), 50–1, with plate from P.R.O. E 30 no. 74, 9th August 1356, the unique example).

page 378 note 4 A.N., J 242 no. 58ⁱ, 10th April 1381 (with privy seal no. 5); ibid., J 243 no. 64, 30th May 1381 (with Great seal no. 2) ; Bibl. mun., Nantes, MS. 1686 no. 1, 30th May 1381 (with Great seal no. 2); A.L.A., E 1 52 no. 9, 4th June 1381 (with Great seal no. 2); A.N., J 243 no. 64ⁱⁱ, 25th June 1381, ‘nostre seel’; ibid., no. 64ⁱⁱⁱ, 4th July 1381 (with Privy seal no. 4); A.L.A., E 117 no. 4, 1 March 1384, ‘soubz nostre signet en labsence de nostre seel’.

page 378 note 5 A.N., J 240 no. 40, before 9th July 1385 (= Doüet d’Arcq, no. 8719); A.L.A., E 129 no. 6, 1st February 1386; ibid., E 210 no. 3, 16th August 1386; ibid., E 152 no. 10, 1st February 1387, ‘noz grant seel et signet’; ibid., E 17 no. 12, 24 Feb. 1387, ‘nostre grant seel en laz de saie et cire vert et signe de nostre propre main et de nostre prive signet a maire fermete’.

page 378 note 6 Collection de sceaux, no. 8719.

page 379 note 1 1 The history of the Order of the Ermine is obscure, but see Jones, Ducal Brittany, p. 140 for references.

page 379 note 2 B.N., MS. Clairambault 48 p. 3637 no. 206, 17th March 1388; A.L.A., E 126 no. 11, 7th February 1395; A.I.V., 2 Er 186, fonds de Robien, 12th February 1395, a fragment; Bibl.mun., Nantes MS. 1691 no. 10ⁱⁱ; A.L.A., E 167 no. 27, 25th July 1397; ibid., E 78 no. 26, 4th September 1398.

page 379 note 3 Demay, G., Inventaire des sceaux de la collection Clairambault à la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1909), no. 1512Google Scholar.

page 379 note 4 Usually, of course, they are read from the inside, but in the particular circumstances of this seal and the poor state of the surround of most of the impressions, the scarcely discernible letters can be as easily read from the outside.

page 379 note 5 Chaplais, English Royal Documents, p. 24, with further references.

page 379 note 6 I am grateful to Mrs. Janet Hamilton for her comments on this seal.

page 379 note 7 Wentzel, H., ‘Portraits “à 1’Antique” on French Mediaeval Gems and Seals’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xvi (1953), 342–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 348 and plate 50k, for John’s seal, and p. 347 no. 54, for Guillaume le Barbu’s (cf. Jones, Ducal Brittany, Index sub Barbu).

page 380 note 1 Cf. Lettres de Jean V, i, p. lxxviii, and plate III.

page 380 note 2 Cf. Wylie, J. H., The Reign of Henry the Fifth, ii: 1415–1416 (Cambridge, 1919), pp. 408 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 380 note 3 For John’s finances see Michael Jones, ‘Les finances de Jean IV, due de Bretagne’, Méms. de la soc. d’hist. et d’arch. de Bretagne, lii (1973–4).

page 380 note 4 Ibid, and above, p. 368, n. 6.

page 380 note 5 This coat has been adopted c. 1312 (above, p. 375, n. 3, and G. Brault, ‘The Use of Plain Arms in Arthurian Legend and the Origin of the Arms of Brittany’, Bulletin bibliographique de la société internationale arthurienne, 1966, pp. 117–23). For the history of the Ermine in Brittany to the beginning of the fourteenth century, see S. de la Nicollière-Teijeiro, Etudes Heraldiques. L’Hermine, Vannes, 1894, tirage à part from Mxyemoires de la Société archéologique de Nantes, xxxii (1893)Google Scholar.

page 380 note 6 Cf. above, p. 371, n. 3.

page 380 note 7 John’s seals are in the mainstream of stylistic developments in sigillography (cf. above, p. 373, n. 1). There is some evidence for the local engraving of seals for the duke: cf. A.L.A., E 211 no. 3, accounts of Guillaume Moreau, receiver of the rdgale of Nantes, 1392–3, m. 4, order from the duke to pay 2l. to Jean Liemer ‘pour avoir fait taille et merche les seaulz et merche des actes de la court de Sable’, 9 Jan. 1393. Jean V obtained some of his seals from Paris (Lettres de Jean V, i, p. lxxv).

page 381 note 1 Cf. Lettres de Jean V, i, pp. lxxv-lxxix. I wish to thank Dr. P. Chaplais for reading and commenting on a draft of this paper. Since completing the paper I have come across an eleventh impression, again unfortunately much damaged, of Privy Seal no. 5 (above p. 375) in A. Morbihan, H (176) Auray 5, 26th January 1387.