Displaying 1 glossary term in Charter Typology starting with D
Charter Typology
Latin / Greek
Diploma (Royal Landbook / Boc)
Gr. diploma ('folded document') / OE bōc ('book, charter')
The highest and most solemn class of legal instrument in pre-Conquest England: a single-sheet parchment recording a perpetual royal grant of bookland accompanied by fiscal immunities and witnessed by the witenagemot.
Unlike continental private charters, royal diplomas were issued exclusively in the king's name and possessed quasi-sacral authority, transforming customary tenure into permanent ecclesiastical or secular patrimony.
“Royal diplomas served as the legal bedrock of monastic wealth and aristocratic inheritance throughout the heptarchic kingdoms and unified England.”
S 1 — Earliest English Royal Diploma (A.D. 604)
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