^{page xii note 1} See Prof. Baldwin's The King's Council. Prof. Tout, in his Chapters…, vol. V, chap. XVII, points out rightly that the Privy Seal was not exclusively the Council's seal: its activities extended far beyond the decisions of the Council; on the other hand, numerous Chancery writs warranted per concilium show that there was also, as might be expected, a direct link between Council and Chancery.

^{page xii note 2} For the treaty of Guines, 1354, and the second treaty of London, 1359, see later, p. xviii.

^{page xii note 3} “En temoignance de ce nous avons fait mettre notre prive seal a ces presentes. Donne en noz tentes estant au champt pres le moulin d'Ardre, le XXVIII^e jour doctobre Ian de notre regne XX^e. Ainsi signe : par le Roy en son conseil, auquel les dues de Guyenne et de Lancastre, et de Gloucestre, et les contes de Derby, de Ruthelande et de Huntyndon, mareschal et de Northumbr' furent presens.” Contemporary copy, Arch. Nat., J, 644, 35–6. Published in Froissart, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. XVIII, pp. 582–3 ; a similar document was published by Douët d'Arcq, Choix de pièces inédites du règne de Charles VI (Soc. Hist. France), vol. I, pp. 136–8, but with the wrong date of 1397.

^{page xii note 4} Tout, Chapters, IV, 4 n.

^{page xii note 5} Tout, I, 34, n. 1 ; II, 304–5 ; III, 72–3, 78, 442. Maxwell Lyte, Notes on the Great Seal, pp. 26–7. The list of warrants discovered by M. Déprez, is not, as he thought (Etudes de diplomatique anglaise, pp. 70–2) a roll, but a memorandum.

^{page xiii note 1} C.P.R., III, 32–3 and 196 ; Tout, III, 442 ; Maxwell Lyte, p. 27. For similar reasons, the important letter to the Pope of May 1390 was sent to the Chancery to be enrolled in the Close Rolls, below, no. 120.

^{page xiii note 2} As does Prof. Tout, V, pp. 64–5.

^{page xiii note 3} This forms the series of Chancery Warrants.

^{page xiii note 4} In the Memoranda Rolls : see also the Warrants for Issue. Other Privy Seal records can be found in Exch. T.R., Council and Privy Seal Offices, from which came many Cottonian documents.

^{page xiv note 1} Etudes de diplomatique anglaise (Paris, 1908)Google Scholar ; see especially pp. 8, 47, 51, 83, 94.

^{page xiv note 1} A Formula Book of English Official Documents (1908), vol. I, pp. 91–2Google Scholar ; of. Studies in English Official Historical Documents, pp. 259–60.

^{page xiv note 3} Notes on the Great Seal (1928), chap. II.

^{page xiv note 4} Chapters, vol. V, chap. XVI.

^{page xiv note 5} B.M., Add. MS. 24,062. For a short description of the MS., see Catalogue of Additions to the MSS. in the British Museum in the Years 1854–1875, vol. II, p. 3.

^{page xv note 1} This hand is not a later addition : in the first part of the MS., the second handwriting, B, seems to have filled a few spaces left by Hoccleve (A), i.e. f. 5b, a warrant for convocation of Parliament : f. 33a, a warrant creating Gaston de Foix “comte de Benanglo ” on the advice of Bedford, regent of France ; f. 106b, a letter patent of Charles V of France directed to the town of Amiens and indicating his attitude towards the Gascon Appellants, March 19, 1369. But later on, the two hands are mixed. B finishes copying a document begun by A, and goes on to cover a few pages (f. 108b), or vice versa (f. 165b). In a section written by B, A erased a few entries and replaced them by other documents (ff. 171a, 172a, 173b). It is possible, though this cannot be clearly established, that a third hand wrote a few entries in a pale yellow ink, in the later parts of the MS. In my references, I have followed the original numbering in ink ; the new numbering in pencil, made by the B.M. officials, is misleading, as it always leaves out the blank folios.

^{page xv note 2} This is consistent with the view held by Prof. Tout, who remarks that if Parliament was always summoned by letters of the great seal, on the other hand the privy seal was used for summoning great councils.

^{page xvi note 1} A nomination of ambassadors to treat with the archbishop of Rouen (sic for Ravenna) and the bishop of Carpentras, papal mediators between France and England, 1375 : “Don. par temoignance de notre grand seal, a notre palais, etc.” (f. 172b). There is also, f. 172a, a letter patent under the privy seal, dealing with the ransom of the count of Denia, which ought to be in the section “Lettres patentes”. Similarly, in this section of letters patent, one can detect a few documents issued under the great seal, e.g. appointments of ambassadors by Henry IV to treat with Robert of Bavaria, Feb. 13, and April 20, 1401 (f. 110b ; see Foed., VIII, 176 and 189) ; a writ of Richard II allowing the bishop of Nantes to administer the Channel Islands during the Schism, April 30, 1398 (f. 108b ; see T.B. 82, m. 4), etc. But these are only exceptions.

^{page xvi note 2} Two petitions of the burgesses of La Rochelle to Edward III, written shortly after the lord of Montferrand had taken possession of the town in the name of the King in accordance with the treaty of Calais (f. 164b) ; a petition of the clergy asking for the help of the secular arm against the new sect of heretics, circa 1376 (f. 199b). Petition from the burgesses of Calais (f. 173b), etc.

^{page xvi note 3} The earliest letter is the protest sent on Aug. 5, 1309, by the English baronage to Clement V against papal encroachments (f. 178a). But the collection does not contain any other document prior to 1338. For our purpose, it is to be regretted that Richard II's reign is hardly represented at all in Hoccleve's formulary ; see below, nos. 63, 233, 234.