Veiled in precious cloth: a seal bag from Westminster Abbey and its connections with Charlemagne’s shrine in Aachen

The silk used for a hitherto unpublished seal bag that covered an impression of Henry III’s great seal, attached to an inventory of objects related to the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, is revealed to be a precise match to the famous ‘hare silk’ from the shrine of Charlemagne in Aachen Cathedral. This discovery raises broader questions about the function of seal bags.