^{page 269 note 1} Registrum Antiquissimum, vol. I, ed. Foster, C. W., 1931 (Lincoln Record Society).Google Scholar I owe a debt of gratitude to Canon Foster for his kindness and help in examining these documents.

^{page 269 note 2} E.H.R., xxiv, 303 (1909).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^{page 269 note 3} Nos. 1–7 of the facsimiles (pls. xlvi–xlix). The photographs are very much reduced. The script of all the originals is about the same size, that is, very slightly larger than that of no. 10 as reproduced. The original of no. 9 is so large that it has only been possible to reproduce a section of the text.

^{page 270 note 1} Delisle, L., Recueil des actes de Henri II, Introduction, 1909 (Chartes et Diplômes Series). There is also an Atlas of Facsimiles. The subsequent volumes containing the texts of the charters were published posthumously. Delisle's collection concerned only the French provinces and French affairs: the English acts have still to be brought together.Google Scholar

^{page 270 note 2} Op.cit., 151.

^{page 271 note 1} Registrum Antiquissimum, no. 135.

^{page 271 note 2} Eynsham Cartulary, ed. H. E. Salter, vol. i, p. 36 (Oxford Historical Society).

^{page 271 note 3} Op. cit., pp. xviii and 61. The case was apparently begun in the bishop's court and later transferred to that of the king.

^{page 272 note 1} Recueil, Introduction, p. 153.

^{page 272 note 2} Rotuli Chartarum, ed. T. D. Hardy, p.v.

^{page 272 note 3} They are as follows: (1) A charter to the abbot of Fécamp (1155–8) contains the clause ‘et quia diligenter inspexi cartam Ricardi ducis … iterum precipio …’ (Delisle, Atlas, pl. v (7)). It is impossible to make head or tail of this charter, since it exists in two entirely different recensions (except for the date and the witnesses), contains the formula dei gratia (which was adopted only after 1172), and is written in a hand usual only at the end of Henry's reign. The story referred to below (p. 277, n. 2) from the chronicle of Battle Abbey strongly supports the idea of a date after 1180 for the document. (2) A charter of 1176–81 printed in the Calendar of the Charter Rolls, iii, p. 472, which twice refers to a ‘carta … quam ego coram baronibus meis vidi et inspexi’. It has several other peculiar features, about which it is hard to give a judgement as the original has not survived. (3) No. 7 below. (4) Three charters which purport actually to give a vidimus or inspeximus of early charters. They are discussed by Delisle, Introduction, pp. 182–4, who decides that two are spurious and the third doubtful. For the evidential implications of the two formulae see Delisle, Introduction, pp. 155 and 184.

^{page 272 note 4} Registrum Antiquissimum, no. 136.

^{page 272 note 5} Ibid., no. 137. The note quoted is on p. 87.

^{page 273 note 1} i.e. between the version in the cartularies and that of the original charter (here reproduced).

^{page 273 note 2} Registrum Antiquissimum, no. 138.

^{page 273 note 3} Ibid., no. 145.

^{page 273 note 4} Ibid., no. 140.

^{page 273 note 5} Ibid., no. 179.

^{page 273 note 6} Ibid., no. 139 (1155–8). A facsimile is given in the Registrum.

^{page 273 note 7} Ibid., no. 186.

^{page 274 note 1} P. 96 of the Introduction, where the facts are summarized.

^{page 274 note 2} To the five given by Delisle can now be added two more from the Calendar of the Charter Rolls, both noted per manum Stephani Capellani (Cal. Ch. Rolls, i, 51 and iii, 276).

^{page 274 note 3} Delisle is very cautious, and I am not altogether sure what he means. In the Atlas he speaks of one of these charters (pl. XI) as ‘expediée par la main d'Etienne de Fougères’.

^{page 274 note 4} Duchy of Lancaster Royal Charters, no. 27 (Public Record Office). A charter to Furness Abbey, dated by Eyton (Household and Itinerary of Henry II, p. 30) September 1157.

^{page 275 note 1} Charter to the abbey of Foucarmont (1156–61). See Recueil, i, 306: Atlas, pl. xi (124).

^{page 275 note 2} In this case the formula would be equivalent to the ‘scriptum per manum’ clause in the Papal Chancery which, beginning under Hadrian I, only died out in the time of Calixtus II (1119–24). Miss Phyllis Auty has shown me a private charter (Douce Charters (Bodleian), no. 5, before 1150) which is attested thus: ‘Teste domino Samsone de Albin’ per cuius manum hec eadem compositio facta est’, followed by the names of various other witnesses.

^{page 275 note 3} A private charter (1158–64) by which William Derlie, chamberlain, and his wife give to Robert de Jovigneio certain lands in consideration of a large money payment from Henry II is witnessed by a number of important members of Henry II's court and noted—exactly like the seven charters mentioned above— ‘per manum Stephani capellani [apud Pedestram]’. Is this Stephen of Fougères ? The writing of the original, now Latin MS. 1–10063 f. 144 in the Bibliothèque Nationale, is not the same as that of nos. 8 and 9—not, in fact, a chancery hand at all. If we could be sure that the reference was to Master Stephen, it would settle the question. The charter is no. 528 in Round's Calendar.

^{page 275 note 4} Recueil, i, 402, 404; Round, Calendar of Documents preserved in France, nos. 745, 746. No. 746 also gives the year of the pontificate of Alexander III.

^{page 275 note 5} Op. cit., i, 402. The same scribe wrote the charters reproduced on pl. x in the Atlas, and perhaps also pl. XV (220), XVI (230), and XVII (284).

^{page 275 note 6} e.g., while the scribe normally writes 7 for et and est, in both charters he occasionally uses the ampersand (in identical forms) and ÷.

^{page 276 note 1} Charter to the abbey of Fontevrault confirming the customs of Pont-de-Cé (1166). Delisle, Recueil, i, 406: Atlas, pl. VIII (166).

^{page 276 note 2} There is nothing improbable in the suggestion that documents not in common form should be in the handwriting of senior officials. The charters of Queen Eleanor are a case in point. The Roger, ‘our chaplain’, who actually wrote an important charter of Queen Eleanor in May 1199 (‘qui cartam harum libertatum scripsit’, Round, Calendar, no. 1304), was performing the chancellor's office two months later. See no. 1248 in Round's Calendar: ‘Data apud Solacum per manum Rogerii capellani et notarii nostri’: cf. no. 1108, which he may also have written. See, too, Round's Calendar, no. 415, which is both witnessed and written by Master Anketil; and no. 434, which is similarly witnessed and written by Master Peter.

^{page 276 note 3} Recueil, i, 364; Round, Calendar, no. 1284. Later, as bishop of Rennes, he showed the same originality by styling himself in some of his acts ‘Ego Stephanus dei gratia Redonensis ęcclesię presbiter et regis capellanus’ (Delisle, Introduction, p. 98).

^{page 276 note 4} For a recent remarkable instance, see Professor Stenton's Northampton Charters (Northants. Record Soc. IV), nos. viii and x.

^{page 277 note 1} Or (not infrequently) ‘sicut carte donatorum quas inde habent testantur’. More explicit is the formula in the Mont St. Michel charter cited above, which mentions ‘cyrographa … que coram me lecta fuerunt’. A charter of 1187–8 has the formula ‘quia audivijcoram me per cartam’ (Delisle, Introduction, p. 11). The logical outcome of these incipient formulae was the charter of inspeximus.

^{page 277 note 2} Chronicon monasterii de Bello, p. 165: ‘Quoniam inspexi cartam Willelm proavi mei’.

^{page 277 note 3} The charter mentioned above, p. 272, n. 3 (1), has almost the same clause, and may well have been written about this date. Whatever view we take of it, or of the other charters there cited, they show that the need for some such clause was increasingly felt in the latter part of the twelfth century.

^{page 278 note 1} e.g. Cal. Ch. Rolls, iii, 472 (cited above), and Delisle, Atlas, pl. xxi (382), assigned to 1177–81 (Datum per manum magistri Walteri de Constantiis).

^{page 278 note 2} The formula teste me ipso is still another example of a formula rapidly becoming general after the death of Henry II. See Miss Prescott's article, E.H.R., xxxv, pp. 214–17. With regard to the quam vidi clause, it should be noted that the formula ‘sicut carte ipsius regis quas oculis nostris conspeximus testantur’ is found in a charter of archbishop Theobald, n 51–2 [Facsimiles of Royal Charters, ed. Warner and Ellis, no. 28]. Becket had served in Theobald's household, and the phrase may well have passed directly from Theobald's to the royal chancery.