Seals and Society : Medieval Wales, the Welsh Marches and Their English Border Region

In the Middle Ages, the use of unique seals to authenticate and enclose documents began with royalty, and over the centuries the practice widened to include religious institutions, knights, and free citizens. Seals and Society arises from a major project investigating seals and their use in medieval Wales, the Welsh Marches, and neighbouring counties in England. P.R. Schofield, E. A. New, and S. M. Johns provide important new insights into the history of medieval Wales and the English border counties. A ground-breaking treatment of seals as historical documents, it offers a new perspective on the history of medieval Wales and its periphery by addressing a variety of themes in terms of the insight that seals can offer the historian.

Seals and Society arises from a major project investigating seals and their use in medieval Wales, the Welsh March and neighbouring counties in England. The first major study of seals in the context of one part of medieval Western European society, the volume also offers a new perspective on the history of medieval Wales and its periphery by addressing a variety of themes in terms of the insight that seals can offer the historian. Though the present study suggests important regional distinctions in the take-up of seals in medieval Wales, it is also clear that seal usage increased from the later twelfth century and spread widely in Welsh society, especially in those parts of Wales neighbouring England or where there had been an early English incursion. Through a series of chapters, the authors examine the ways in which seals can shed light on the legal, administrative, social and economic history of the period in Wales and its border region. Seals provide unique insights into the choices individuals, men and women, made in representing themselves to the wider world, and this issue is examined closely. Supported by almost 100 images gathered by the project team, the volume is of great interest to those working on seals, their motifs, their use and developments in their usage over the high and later Middle Ages.

Acknowledgements List of figures List of maps and tables List of abbreviations Introduction Elizabeth A. New and Phillipp R. Schofield 1. Seals in Medieval Wales and its Neighbouring Counties: Trends in Motifs John A. McEwan 2. Seals: Administration and Law Phillipp R. Schofield 3. Seals and Exchange Phillipp R. Schofield 4. Ecclesiastical Seals Elizabeth A. New 5. Seals and Lordship Susan M. Johns 6. Seals, Women, Gender and Identity Susan M. Johns 7. Seals as Expressions of Identity Elizabeth A. New Conclusion Elizabeth A. New and Phillipp R. Schofield Appendix Elizabeth A. New, John A. McEwan and Phillipp R. Schofield Bibliography Index Edited By P.r. Schofield And E.a. New With S.m. Johns And J.a. Mcewan. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [327]-340) And Index.