Of the nations that held power in western Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire there, the Ostrogoths, who occupied Italy from the late 5th to the mid-6th century, took over the ancient Roman imperial-chancery system in its entirety. Very little is known about the royal documents of the Lombards, their successors in Northern Italy, since not one of them has been preserved in its original form. But Lombard officials in charge of drawing up the documents were still trained in the Roman tradition. As well as referendarii, there were notaries who also acted as scribes. It is very likely that all of them were laymen.

Until the 12th century two main types of documents, diplomas and mandates, were produced north of the Alps, in the Merovingian, Carolingian, German, and French royal chanceries. Very little is known about the Merovingian royal chancery and its organization. The names of the scribes are never mentioned in the documents, but they were signed by high chancery officials, the referendarii.

When the Merovingian dynasty was supplanted by the Carolingians, chancery procedure changed drastically. In contrast to the Merovingian kings, the first Carolingian king, Pippin III the Short, was unable either to read or write. He therefore entrusted the responsibility for the correctness of the royal documents to an official of the court. At about the same time, the task of drawing up documents was taken over by those clerics whose original duty had been to look after the most important relic of the royal court, the coat (cappa) of St. Martin of Tours. Collectively named the capella (chapel), these clerks were individually called capellani, chaplains. This close connection between the court chapel and the chancery existed under the later Carolingians and at the German and French and other royal courts, including that of England. Until well into the 12th century, European chanceries were not bureaucratic offices in the modern sense but, rather, in most cases an assemblage of chaplains suited for the task of issuing documents and usually working under a cleric who was not the head of the chapel. Not all chaplains wrote documents, however, and the chapel and chancery thus remained separate institutions. From the reign of the emperor Louis I the Pious (814–840), the heads of the chancery were not personally involved in writing the documents, a task performed by unnamed and unknown scribes. At first the scribes were indiscriminately designated as either notarii or cancellarii (higher, Roman provincial officials of the 5th and 6th centuries, who stood at the barriers, cancelli, of the council rooms), but, by the 9th century, the title of cancellarius was gaining ground and was increasingly applied to the head of the chancery. The 9th century was a period of transition, during which, for a while, the archchaplain, the head of the chapel, became also the head of the clerks who wrote the charters.

Under the Ottonian dynasty, which came to power in the eastern division of the original Carolingian empire early in the 10th century, the German royal chancery developed the organization that was to characterize it throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages. The heads of the chancery were the archchancellors, but the office was entirely honorary and soon came to be automatically held, as far as Germany was concerned, by whoever was archbishop of Mainz. When the German kings or emperors established administrations in Italy, Italian bishops were at first made archchancellors for Italy, but in 1031 the office was attached to the archbishopric of Cologne. From the 11th century, Burgundian bishops were archchancellors for Burgundy, but, in the second half of the 13th century, the archbishop of Trier took over the office.

The actual heads of the chancery were the chancellors. At first there was a chancellor, as well as an archchancellor, for each separate part of the empire—Germany, Italy, and Burgundy—but from 1118 there was only one chancellor for all three kingdoms. But even the chancellors, all of whom were clerics, were rarely involved in the actual composition and engrossing of documents, being usually engaged, as important advisers to the king or emperor, in much weightier matters. They do seem to have been especially concerned, however, with decisions about the granting of charters, and they supervised the work of the scribes or notaries. From among the ranks of these notaries, a group of protonotaries gradually developed after the mid-12th century, as a result of influence from the chancery of the Norman rulers of Sicily. Often called upon to deputize for the chancellor, the protonotaries, from the late 13th century onward, frequently titled themselves vice chancellors.

From the 12th century onward, the documents issued by the German royal chancery were divided into various classifications. The diploma, by then usually called a privilege, existed in two categories, the solemn and the simple privilege. A solemn privilege included the invocatio, the signum and recognition line, and a detailed dating or at least one of these three elements, which were entirely lacking in simple privileges. Gradually, simple privileges merged into documents called mandates; it is not always easy to distinguish between them, but, in general, privileges were concerned with rights in perpetuity, while the mandates dealt mainly with matters of only temporary importance. From the early 14th century, mandates were superseded by the use of letters patent and letters close (open or closed letters). Privileges continued to be sealed with a hanging seal; the seal on letters patent was impressed on the document and was used to seal up letters close.

As the power of the German kings declined during the later Middle Ages, so that of the archchancellors increased, and in the 14th century they attempted to win control of the chancery. But, despite fluctuations in the power struggle, the king retained control of the chancellor, who, by the end of the 15th century, held the title of imperial vice chancellor.

Under the Carolingians and the first Capetians in France, various bishops and archbishops, especially the archbishops of Reims, held the office of royal chancellor. But at that time the office was merely titular, and, by the end of the 11th century, it disappeared entirely. From the 12th century onward, the title of chancellor became reserved to the head of the chancery. These new chancellors became so powerful that in 1185 King Philip II Augustus left the office vacant, and, during almost the whole of the 13th century, the chancery was administered by subordinate officials. Chancellors, often laymen, were appointed again in the 14th century, however, and the office remained important until 1789. As in other parts of Europe, the French chancellor merely directed the work of the notaries, and it was they who were responsible for drawing up the documents. From 1350 onward, the notaries were called secretaries, and both their numbers and their importance steadily increased. From the 15th century, the tremendous expansion of business occupying the Grande Chancellerie led to the establishment of several subsidiary petites chancelleries, all issuing royal documents sealed with the king’s signet. Until the reign of Henry I (1031–60), the old Frankish type of diploma was issued almost exclusively. Then, gradually, charters in the simpler form of letters began to replace the diplomas, and, during the 13th century, the lettres patentes became the common type of document. These lacked the invocatio, the monogram, and the signature of the high dignitaries, and they gave the simple form of dating. From the 14th century, two forms of lettres patentes existed: the charte, which was sealed with a green wax seal hanging on red and green silk cords; and the lettre patente, used mainly for administrative mandates, which was sealed with a yellow wax seal on double and single cord. Besides, lettres closes were used from the 13th century onward.