Anglo-Saxon Survivals

It will be evident from an examination of the formulas of the later Old English diplomata that the turning point in the evolution of the charter may be assigned to a date previous to the Conquest itself. We have seen that from the close of the 10th century the Latin “land-boc” had begun to give place to the vernacular “writ.” This Old English writ served as a model for the post-Conquest writ, from which in turn the true post-Conquest charter was evolved. In that transitional instrument more ample diplomatic formulas were grafted on to the vigorous stem of the native writ. Long before the close of the 12th century this hybrid growth had superseded the older stock of native charters, and in the substituted style of “Letters Patent” it has survived to our own times.

Assuming that the diplomatic construction of the post-Conquest writ is practically identical with that of the pre-Conquest “gewritte,” we are naturally tempted to surmize that the former is practically a version of the latter from a diplomatic point of view. In the first place it has been suggested that this Anglo-Norman writ, which obviously reproduces the essential features of its Old English precursor, has no exact parallel in the Continental chanceries before the beginning of the 12th century. Therefore, unless earlier Continental forms once existed, or unless practically the whole of these Old English types are fictitious versions of a later date, the above conclusion would seem to be inevitable.