"The type of seal of the empress which is invariably fixed to every document among this collection that bears a seal is that used by her in Germany as 'Queen of the Romans.'... From this date (1106) to that of her death, which took place on the 16th of December, A.D. 1167, long after the solution of the troubles of the years 1140-1142 in England, she was accustomed to use this seal, and this only. It has never been suggested by any writer upon the historic seals of England that Mathildis employed any Great Seal as Queen of England, made after the conventional characteristics which obtain in the Great Seals of Stephen, her predecessor, or of her son, King Henry II. The troubled state of this country, the uncertain movements of the lady, the unsettled confidence of the people, and the consequent inability of attending to such a matter as the engraving of a Great Seal—a work, it must be borne in mind, involving some time and care—are, when taken together, more than sufficient causes to account for the continued usage of this type; although we may fairly presume that it was intended to supersede this foreign seal with one more consentaneously in keeping with English tradition."[872] The seal to which Mr. Birch refers bore the legend "Mathildis dei Gratia Romanorum regina." The question, of course, at once arises as to the amount of reliance that can be placed on the above transcriber's note. For my part, while fully admitting the right to reject such evidence, I cannot believe that any transcriber would for his own private gratification have forged such a legend, which he could not hope to foist upon the world, if it were indeed a forgery, since a reference to the original would at once expose him.[873] And it is quite certain that we cannot account for it by any misreading, however gross. A comparison of the two legends will put this out of the question:— MATHILDIS DEI GRATIA ROMANORUM REGINA. MATILDIS IMPERATRIX ROM' ET REGINA ANGLIÆ. If we accept the fact, and believe the legend genuine, the first point to strike us is the substitution of "_Imperatrix_" for "_Regina_ Romanorum."