Royal Chancellery, April 15, 1196
Mandate of Constance Hauteville,
Queen of Sicily and Empress, represented in the pendent seal
parchment manuscript, red sealing wax
inside wooden case (37,6×33,8 cm; seal Ø 5,6 cm)
Palermo, Diocesan Historical Archive,
Tabularium, parch. I, 29

The document attests to the autonomous authority of Constance of Hauteville, represented on the throne with a lily in her right hand in the red wax seal reading “CONSTANTIA DEI GRATIA ROMANORUM IMPERATRIX SEMPER AUGUSTA ET REGINA SICILIE” (Constance by the grace of God, Empress of the Romans always august and Queen of Sicily).
The text acknowledges the donation made to the Church of Palermo, at the time represented by Archbishop Bartholomew, and orders (gives mandate, hence the name of the document) that some peasants of the Casale del Lago of Nicotera (Calabria), previously granted by Archbishop Gualtiero, brother and predecessor of Bartholomew, be returned to the notary Rainaldo.
In the Middle Ages peasants were a whole with the land they worked and followed its fates. In support of this resolution, there are documents issued by the Great Count Roger I and King Roger II, respectively grandfather and father of Constance (cat. 18).
In the seal, the throne, the open crown surmounted by three large pearls with pendants, and the rich Byzantine-style robe recall the mosaics of Palermo and Monreale, where King Roger II and William II of Hauteville, the queen’s father and nephew respectively, are depicted.