In cuius rei euidenciam pleniorem presentis litteris sigillum meum apposui. Et ad huius rei confirmationem et securitatem maiorem sigillum venerabilis patris domini I. dei gratia archepiscopi Cantuariensis totius Anglie primatis huic scripto apponi procuraui. As fuller evidence of this act I have applied my seal to the present letter. And as a confirmation and stronger guarantee of this act I have arranged that the seal of the venerable father the Lord John, by the grace of God archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, be applied to this writing. 48 Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral Archives, CCA-DCc/SVSB/2; calendared in Fisher 1919, pp. 186–7. I follow Woolgar 2011, p. 53, in taking the date on which Anian declared thewill (Anno eiusdem[sc. dei] mo.cco lxxxviiio. ixo kal. marcii) to be 12 February 1289 in modern reckoning, rather than 1288, the year usually given in modern scholarship. 49 Woolgar 2011, pp. 52–4. 50 Cf. Woolgar 2011, pp. xxxiv–xliv. oral bequests and written wills in medieval wales served in a copy made at Canterbury as part of the probate process following the bishop’s death in February 1293.48 His two immediate successors did obtain royal licences to make wills, though no such wills survive. By contrast, from the late 1360s wills survive for several bishops of St Asaph, apparently without their having requested a royal licence.49 AnianII’s will provides a fitting point at which to conclude this discussion, since it exemplifies the adoption in Wales of the form of canonical will or testament as it had developed in England by the late thirteenth century. Arguably the greatest significance of the will is that its diplomatic form and formulae are broadly similar to those of wills of other bishops in both Wales and England by that period.50 The will opens with a pious invocation, In dei nomine amen, followed by the date (21 February 1289), a declaration of capacity and a brief explanation that the bishop, thinking only of death, wished to make arrangements for his end. Most of the text then details the bishop’s bequests. After bequeathing his soul to God and his body for burial in the Dominican friary nearest to his place of death, Anian lists numerous possessions, mostly bequeathed to named recipients, though sometimes the precise distribution is left to the bishop’s executors, who are named towards the end of the document. Two sealing clauses follow: 438
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=