Images of power: Seals in the city of Caen during the Middle Ages

To this day, more than 120 medieval seals related to the city of Caen have been recorded. Used from the year 1100 until the beginning of the sixteenth century, they belonged to the representatives of royal power (French as well as English), religious institutions, or even local residents. The emblems found on jurisdiction seals reflect the alternation of Capetian and English authority in the city during the Hundred Years’ War. Furthermore, seals reveal powers beyond the merely political or administrative: We need look no further than the economic role of the bourgeoisie, who sealed various sales and donations of houses or land to the benefit of Caen’s religious establishments. Among these, the Abbaye aux Hommes and Abbaye aux Dames expressed their long-standing and prestigious ducal origins through the use of large seals with refined iconography that rivaled those of bishops. In contrast, the ideal of poverty preached by the Friars Minor of Caen was conveyed via the use of humble images of modest size. The quality of the engraving and the size of the matrices were indicators of the extent of the authority wielded by those who sealed the documents.