great seal

In Britain, royal seal used to authenticate the monarch's assent to official documents, required for all the most important acts of state, such as dissolving parliaments and signing treaties. It was first used by Edward the Confessor in a period when monarchs were not expected to be able to write. The seal is kept by the Lord Chancellor who travelled with the monarch until the 13th century, when the court of chancery became established in Westminster. A lesser seal, the privy seal, was then devised to authorize the chancellor to move the great seal. The circular design of the great seal has remained fairly constant, showing the monarch enthroned on one side and on horseback on the other, although during the interregnum of the 1650s, an alternative design was created, with an image of the Speaker's Chair in the House of Commons representing sovereign authority.