olivier canteaut 385 rench and english royaltestaments reveal the personality of each king, but they are shaped by the writing habits of the chancery clerks in charge of inscribing them on parchment. Therefore, comparing testaments produced by two distinct chanceries reveals how both regard such documents among their written production. Wherever possible, chancery clerks reuse the previous king’s testament to draft his successor’s, so that testaments tend to become standardized. Moreover, from 1270 onwards, the French chancery began to formalize royal testaments as standard patent letters sur double queue (sealed on a tag), an appealing choice thanks to the authority of LouisIX’s will. Afterwards this template is slightly adjusted, notably by Philip the Fair’s chancery; it becomes more solemn as testaments are transformed into perpetual charters. English royal testaments become standardized later and to a lesser extent, and they remain different from other chancery writings, as they blend features that are original with ones that are shared with charters and patent letters. At the same time, both chanceries implement divergent strategies for authenticating and preserving royal testaments. In fourteenth-century England, an increasing number of seals are used to validate the king’s testament; from RichardII’s reign onwards, the king himself adds his sign manual to the seals. In contrast, the great seal is the only one appended to French royal testaments. Moreover, from the beginning of the thirteenth century, French testaments, even cancelled or unexecuted, are carefully archived in the royal Trésor des chartes, where they are still kept. A similar concern sporadically emerges in the English administrations, but most of the royal testaments are kept by their executors alone. Both English and French chanceries consider royal testaments as extraordinary documents, concerning private matters. Thus the English chancery scarcely interferes in their template, which is primarily modeled after canon law. Its French counterpart is more active in shaping F Abstract
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=