Royal Seals by Paul Dryburgh

Author:Paul Dryburgh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

SC 13/N3, Second Great Seal of Elizabeth I, 1586-1603, obverse.

SC 13/N3, Second Great Seal of Elizabeth I, 1586-1603, reverse.

JAMES I (1603-1625)

Elizabeth died childless in March 1603. Her nominated successor was her kinsman and fellow monarch, King James VI of Scotland, upon whose accession to the English throne became King James I in that realm.

Initially, in the hurry to move south for a coronation, James adopted Elizabeth’s matrix for formal acts under his warrant, it being committed to him at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire on 3 May. Within three months, though, James had a new great seal and caused Elizabeth’s matrix to be defaced at Hampton Court. The visual impression Elizabeth’s seal had apparently made on James during this short period compelled him to resort to Hilliard to design his great seal of state. Hilliard’s designs were approved by 9 May, possibly before James reached London, and the matrices finished by 19 July 1603. The result is another artistic gem full of allusive imagery: on the obverse James is enthroned and crowned and robed in the mantle and collar of the Order of the Garter. He is flanked by shields quartered with the arms of England, Scotland (lion rampant) and Ireland (harp), surrounded by the Garter. To the left of the throne is a crowned, seated lion representing England, bearing a banner with the arms of Cadwaladr, last king of the Britons, to the right a unicorn representing Scotland bearing the banner of the English royal saint Edward the Confessor. This is a highly nuanced portrayal of the union of the crowns of England and Scotland and the fusing of national imagery inherent in the person of a king of both realms. The equestrian portrait of James on the reverse returns to that of the last adult male monarch, Henry VIII, which sees James as a military figure charging in a field full of national symbolism (the crowned Tudor Rose, the Irish harp, the fleur-de-lys) and running alongside him the greyhound protector. Hilliard ensured this seal represented both modern realities and ancient heritage and claims.

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