An 11th-century seal once owned by Edward the Confessor has been found again in the French National Archives in Paris. It has not been seen by historians for more than 40 years. Dr. Guilhem Durandeau, a researcher at the University of Exeter, found this artifact while examining medieval documents.
This seal dates from the 1050s and was originally attached to a document from the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Since the 1980s, it has remained hidden among uncatalogued collections. The seal is about three inches wide and stands out as the only complete example of its design before the Norman Conquest.
Why has the 1,000-year-old royal seal been absent for decades?
Dr. Durandeau made a startling discovery while examining some “cross-channel” documents, records shared between England and France over many years of history.
The seal has been lost for a long time because it was located in a section of the archive that was not prioritized for digital cataloguing. Once Dr. Durandeau realized how important this beeswax artifact was, he described it as a “career-defining moment.” As noted in a study conducted at the University of Exeter, fragments of Edward’s seals are known to exist; This example stands out as the most intact and well-preserved example of the King’s ‘Great Seal’ yet discovered.
The hidden politics of the Great Seal
The seal shows an interesting change in how the early English kings viewed their power. In the images, Edward the Confessor sits on a throne, with a scepter and orb in his hand, symbols inspired by the “Chrysobulls” (golden bulls) of the Byzantine Empire. Historians believe that this “Eastern” influence was not accidental. The Wessex wanted to be seen as having imperial greatness like the Roman emperors in Constantinople, not just as regional rulers.
How medieval waxworks defied time in Paris
The seal, made around 1050-1060 AD, is an important link between the late Anglo-Saxon period and the Norman invasion in 1066. It reveals that complex administrative practices often attributed to the Normans, such as the use of the ‘Great Seal’ for legal documents, were already well-developed by King Edward’s reign. Remarkably, the wax has survived for nearly a thousand years. This is due to the stable conditions of the Parisian cellars, where they have been kept since the late 18th century.