Czy królowa Rycheza używała pieczęci?

Abstrakt

Did Queen Rycheza Use a Seal?

The two extant identical seals supposedly belonging to Queen Rycheza (d. 1063) and accompanying documents allegedly issued by her in 1051 and 1054 are undoubtedly forgeries, but could testify to the existence of the original seals. This supposition is suggested by the bust depiction of the queen, typical for the eleventh century and subsequently vanishing; apparently, the forger executing Rycheza’s seal could have acted in the same way as did the Brauweiler forger (possibly the same person) of the archbishops’ seals, i.e. he copied the bust likeness upon the basis of an accessible eleventh-century original. Just as intriguing is the seal’s rare pear shape – we do not know why the author of the original decided to choose it, and it is even more difficult to explain the selection of such an untypical outline unless the forger resorted to a similarly shaped model. Finally, the hypothetically oldest document mentioning the seal (dated 1054) comes at least from the 1130s. In other words, it originated at a time when seals of female aristocrats and queens were so rare in the Reich that there was still no distinct need for forging them if they were not featured on the original documents. It must be kept in mind that the content of the document in question was recognised by its last publisher as reliable and formulas pertaining to the addition of the seal used therein did not give rise to reservations. The same holds true for their analogous formula inserted into authentic fragments of the corroboration of a document from 1056, known only from later copies. If Queen Rycheza in her capacity as a widow did actually use a seal, which was extremely rare at the time, then it was important evidence of her status and, first and foremost, says a lot about the queen’s conviction relating to her exceptional status and majesty.