Casgliadau Arlein

Obverse. As R52 (25.384/224), but distinguished by the addition of a fleur-de-lis above each of the castles in the field; this differencing mark deriving from the arms of France, for his mother, Isabella. (It is the first use, in the field, of fleurs-de-lis on an English royal seal, and it was recorded in the Close Rolls, that on 29 January 1327, ‘two flowers of the arms of France were engraved on the lower part of the seal’ (Close 1327, 98). Again, a leaf or hand of blessing precedes the initial cross of the legend but, unlike the preceding seal, the dove on top of the sceptre does not penetrate the legend.