SOURCE: “The Letters and Charters of Eleanor of Aquitaine,” The English Historical Review, Vol. LXXIV, No. CCXCI, April, 1959, pp. 193-213.

In the following essay, Richardson painstakingly examines many of the official written documents of Eleanor, and concludes that she did not have the services of a formal chancellor.

It may be worth while, if only to remove doubts and misconceptions, to devote some pages to the clerks who served Eleanor of Aquitaine in the capacity of chancellor or, if they did not bear that title, were responsible for the writing and sealing of her charters and letters. Though nothing like a complete collection of Eleanor's surviving acta exists, a good many have been printed (more or less accurately) here and there and are not unduly difficult of access, sufficient, at all events, with the addition of some in manuscript, to provide a representative sample and to enable us...