Letters patent signed by Queen Elizabeth II three days before her death, declaring Colchester to be a city.[1]
BBC News
BBC News
Letters patent, also known as Royal letters, are official letters or instructions delivered in open rather than sealed form, issued by or on behalf of the Crown and conferring upon individuals or corporate bodies a wide range of special privileges. Such privileges have included grants of land, titles, offices, pensions, rights to hold markets or fairs, monopolies, pardons and patents for inventions.[2]
Before 1733 letters patent were almost invariably written in Latin, except during the 1650s Commonwealth period in England, when the use of English was compulsory. The name derives from the Latin litterae patentes, denoting a message left open with the originator’s seal pendant rather than sealing the document, as in letters close.[2]