Initials and Informed Government in the Anglo-Norman Period

The use of initials rather than names for the king and other official participants in English royal charters from the time of William I until well into the reign of Henry II is a graphic feature, which, it is argued, displays several aspects of royal administration, its control of information, its pursuit of efficiency, and the expression of the latter in simplified, and by the 1120s cursive, script. These features were not widely imitated and remain a distinctive aspect of Anglo-Norman royal diplomatic. The practice, it is argued, was drawn from a then-new trend to use initials in writing letters, though the progression towards efficiency was unique to the royal chancery