enjoyed far greater constitutional importance and influenced justice, finance, and
diplomacy through his administration of crown communications and precedence within
council. With the growth of government after 1100, the Capetians often found the office
too dangerous to fill and suspended it in 1227. Its administrative functions were diverted
to the garde des sceaux (“keeper of the seals”). Louis X restored the office in 1314 and
began appointing laymen. Louis XI, 150 years later, provided lifetime tenure for the
office.
The chancellery developed into a formidable institution in which a growing
bureaucracy of secretaries (fifteen clerical before 1300, over 150 lay and clerical by
1360) operated with ever more rigid procedures. They drafted documents in accordance
with formularies dating from Merovingian times. After editing and verifying texts, they
transcribed them with distinctive scripts in prescribed forms, such as diplomas, letters
patent, or mandements, and sealed them with appropriate ribbons and waxes (e.g., green
wax for the permanently effective ordonnances) to ensure their authenticity, signify their
importance, and preclude forgery. Finally, texts were proclaimed in formal assemblies
and dispatched. Many, but not all, texts were thereafter preserved in the Trésor des
Chartes or synopsized in its annual registers.
In 1482, Louis XI codified chancellery staffing and practices in the ordonnance of
Plessis-les-Tours. The institution continued to grow, but the office of chancellor itself
was reduced to a judicial function as chief magistrate. Kings appointed jurists to the
office but suspended their nonjudicial functions in favor of the garde des sceaux. After
1550, the “great” chancellery lost its effective monopoly on governmental
correspondence. Its productions were complemented by those of the “little” chancelleries
of the parlements and the Chambre des Comptes and its administrative functions
supplanted by those of the king’s household secretaries who emerged as independent
ministers of state.
Paul D.Solon
Danbury, Elizabeth. “The Chanceries of England and France.” In England and Her Neighbors,
1066–1453: Essays in Honour of Pierre Chaplais, ed. Michael Jones and Malcolm Vale.
London: Hambledon, 1989.
Lot, Ferdinand, and Robert Fawtier. Histoire des institutions françaises au moyen âge. 3 vols.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957–63.
Michaud, Hélène. La grande chancellerie et les écritures royales au XVIe siècle. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1967.
CHANDOS HERALD
(fl. late 14th c.). Herald for Sir John Chandos, constable of Aquitaine, the so-called
Chandos Herald was frequently used as a messenger between disputing parties in the
Hundred Years’ War. Working, like Froissart, from personal reminiscences as well as
interviews with those who lived the events described, he composed ca. 1385 a Vie du
Prince Noir in some 4,200 rhymed octosyllables. It records the principal events of the
Black Prince’s life and extols his prowess and piety. Froissart drew extensively upon his
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