Seal matrix of Gleu of Rothwell
John Watkins asked if I could provide him with a valuation on this seal matrix, which is made of lead. It measures 32mm in diameter, it is 21 grams in weight and will date from the 13th century. The matrix has been reported and recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
On the back is a small suspension loop. There is a star or stylised flower in the centre of the face and surrounding it is a legend that reads SIGLEVDIT’FIL’WILL, which has been translated as ‘Seal of Gleudit son of William. Therefore, this is the personal seal matrix of a person called Gleudit, which is a very unusual name. However, the PAS report said that a landowner with the name of Gleu of Rothwell is recorded in the Domesday Book.
Seal matrices dating from the medieval period are just one of the things that used to be rare until detectorists started to dig them up seemingly here, there and everywhere. This has led over the years to a reduction in their commercial value.
Valuation
John’s find is a personal matrix, which is the type that collectors are most interested in. It’s in good condition but as it is made of lead rather than bronze my highest price range would be £70 to £90.
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The founder of the Rothwells of Lincolnshire was a man called Gleu. His forename was Breton and he hailed from Brittany. He probably named his son, Alan, after a popular king of Brittany. Gleu almost certainly was part of a large contingent of warriors who took part in the 20-year-long Norman conquest of England following the invasion of 1066. These Breton settlers were mostly landless younger sons of aristocrats who had been won over by William of Normandy (William I of England), with promises of land should his conquest be successful. Gleu was “daipifer” and possibly kinsman to another Breton who was known as Alfred of Lincoln; daipifer being a Breton title for a steward.
The heraldic seal and counterseal of another Alan, son of William de Rovel (Rowelle), of Rothwell in Lincolnshire is recorded in the Catalogue of seals in the British Museum (Walter de Gray Birch, vol. III, p.459, 1894). It depicts a spur-rowel of six points, and is an example of canting arms – a play upon the surname and placename pronounced as “Rowell.” A rowel fitted the heal of a boot and was used to spur a horse on. Other examples of canting arms include the image of a bell to represent the surname Bell. In addition, Alan used a counterseal, known as a secretum, which depicted a knight’s horse. His heraldic seals are dated to the reign of Henry III (1216-1272). A “spur rowel” is also known as a mullet in heraldry. The mullet becomes a spur rowel when it is “pierced” with a circular hole in the centre and has six points. Only those of high status were legally allowed to wear spurs, knights being allowed gold or gilded spurs; esquires’ had silver spurs, whilst those of a page were tinned. The presence or absence of spurs were the major clues as to a man’s status, more so than the quality of his clothing. When a page became an esquire, or an esquire was knighted, he was given new spurs during the ceremony, from which we get the expression, “he earned his spurs.” The label of three points in the chief or top of Alan’s shield is an early use of a cadency mark, and is used here to show that the arms were the personal property of Alan de Rowell as the eldest son. Although other cadency marks developed after 1500, only the label, indicating the eldest son, was in general use in the medieval period. Before 1500, the method of “differencing,” usually by an alteration in colours or a slight change of design was used to distinguish one branch from another of the same family.
In 1291 there was a bitter dispute between John de Rowell, and his stepmother Philippa regarding the manorial lands of Rothwell, Lincolnshire, with John claiming that she had made waste of part of his inheritance. John also fell into dispute with the Seagraves and in 1301 he attacked the men of Simon de Seagrave who were lodging at Market Rasen. Failing to appear at County Court five times, an enquiry of 1303 comments that he had abjured the realm, (gone to another country) and that his lands and possessions now had been in the king’s hands for a year and a day. In other words, he was now an outlaw and his estate had been confiscated by the Crown. Outlawry tainted not only the offender but their entire family who lost their rights of inheritance and their social status. An outlaw in England could legally be killed by anyone on sight, although there was a legal formula that involved the outlaw keeping to the highway whilst carrying a cross until he left the country.
In the same year, John’s father, Robert de Rothewell was murdered, and probably by his sons as one of them, a priest called Alan, was detained in prison at Lincoln for ‘receiving his brothers’ following the murder. Alan petitioned the Crown twice in 1306 for his release, but Edward I’s reply was, “Let nothing be done.”
In 1304, the Rothwell estates at ‘Langeton and Rothewell,’ Lincolnshire, including ‘the advowson of the church of Rothewelle, which Robert de Rothewell, deceased, held in chief, and which, through the felony of John, his son and heir, for which the said John was outlawed, came to the king’s hands as an escheat,’ were granted in fee simple to ‘Nicholas Malemeyns,’ who is described as a king’s yeoman. (Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office: Edward I).
Some Rothwells continued in the area as tenants, and in 1346 a Robert Rothwell was paying rent for lands in Rothwell, Thoresway and Nettleton, whilst a John Rothwell was renting nearby Ireby. The Rothwells were still tenanting the same lands in 1428.
The seal matrix of ‘Gleudit son of William,’ shown here may have belonged to a younger brother of Alan son of William de Rovel, or at least to a cousin. It seems possible that the ‘ star or stylised flower,’ is a depiction of a knight’s spur, and that it may even be Alan’s “spur rowel,” or heraldic mullet, differenced.
I have some information on this family that I am happy to share.