[876] "_Rex._ Quare in nomine dignitatis derogas ei, non vocans eum imperatorem Alemannorum? _Herbertus._ Rex est Alemannorum; sed ubi scribit, scribit 'Imperator Romanorum, semper Augustus'" (_Becket Memorials_, iii. 100, 101). [877] The two other charters which belong (certainly) to this visit are known to us only from transcripts. [878] "M. Imperatrix Henrici regis filia et Angl[ie] regina." [879] We must remember the then supreme position and lofty pretensions of "the Emperor." [880] Original charters of Stephen's queen are so extremely rare, that we know but little of her seal. Transcripts, however, of two fine charters of hers, formerly in the Cottonian collection, will be found in _Add. MS._ 22,641 (fols. 29, 31), and to one of them is appended a sketch of the seal, the first half of the legend being "Matildis Dei Gratia," and the second being lost. APPENDIX K. GERVASE DE CORNHILL. (See p. 121.) Few discoveries, in the course of these researches, have afforded me more satisfaction and pleasure than that of the origin of Gervase de Cornhill, the founder of an eminent and wealthy house, and himself a great City magnate who played, we shall find, no small part in the affairs of an eventful time. The peculiar interest of the story lies in the light it throws on the close amalgamation of the Normans and the English, even in the days of Henry I., thereby affording a perfect illustration of the well-known passage in the _Dialogus_:— "Jam cohabitantibus Anglicis et Normannis, et alterutrum uxores ducentibus vel nubentibus, sic permixtæ sunt nationes, ut vix discerni possit hodie, de liberis loquor, quis Anglicus, quis Normannus sit genere."[881] It also affords us a welcome glimpse of the territorial aristocracy of the City, as yet its ruling class. It has hitherto been supposed, as in Foss's work, that Gervase de Cornhill first appears in 1155-56 (2 Hen. II.), in which year he figures on the Pipe-Roll as one of the sheriffs of London. I propose to show that he first appears a quarter of a century before, and so to bridge over Stephen's reign, and to connect the Pipe-Roll of Henry I. with the earliest Pipe-Rolls of Henry II. The problem before us is this. We have to identify the "Gervasius filius Rogeri nepotis Huberti," who figures prominently on the Pipe-Roll of 1130 (31 Hen. I.), with "Gervase, Justiciary of London," who meets us twice under Stephen, with "Gervase" who was one of the sheriffs of London in 1155 and 1156, and with Gervase de Cornhill, whose name occurs at least twice under Stephen, and innumerable times under Henry II., both in a public and private capacity.