Casgliadau Arlein
Amgueddfa Cymru
Chwilio Uwch
Seal impression: Royal
Reverse. Equestrian: the King on a horse galloping to sinister; wearing a shirt of fluted armour with (on clear impressions) a large plume of nodding feathers over an open helmet, holding with his right hand a short broad-sword aloft, his left hand grasping a shield to his breast: quarterly, FRANCE (Modern) and ENGLAND. The horse bears a stiff caparison diapered lozengy, a rose in each compartment; in place of armorials, two large double roses (alluding to Henry’s descent from both York and Lancaster). The horse’s head bears a plume of feathers, the chaufron has a spike in front, and around the neck is an ornamental breast-band. In field, which is enriched with flowering plants, above the horse’s tail a large double rose. Beneath the horse, is a collared greyhound at full speed to sinister (the greyhound of the Beauforts was the favourite badge of the King’s father, and kept this place on later seals, down to that of Charles II).
Around the inside of the legend runs a border ornamented with roses and fleurs-de-lis alternately. In the legend, as on his earlier ‘Golden Seal’, Henry uses a number to distinguish him from his predecessors of the same name. The Golden Seal and this Second Seal are also the first to employ in the legend the term 'Defender of the Faith', granted Henry VIII in 1521 by Pope Leo X. A small fleur-de-lis is used as a stop between each word of the legend.