Tag: #medieval

Death and Taxes

Another month and another new coin to add to my collection. March, this time, sees an addition from my own country. A small silver coin from the 14th century.

The coin is quite small, measuring just 14mm in diameter and o.5mm thick. A halfpenny from the reign of Edward III. On the obverse is a forward facing bust of Edward with the legend EDWARDUS REX surrounding it. On the reverse is a long cross with three pellets in each quarter. The legend surrounding the cross says CIVITAS LONDON, which denotes that the coin itself was struck at the mint in London.

As there is no date on the coin, it will have be assumed to have been minted sometime during his reign of 1327-77. A reign which was seen as relatively stable compared to the chaotic and unorthodox reign of his father Edward II.

Edward’s reign is notable for several significant military events. The first, which led to the others, was the start of the series of conflicts which would eventually be known as the Hundred Years War, starting in 1337 and lasting until 1453. During Edward’s reign this conflict would lead to two English victories against the French which would pass into national legend. The battles of Crecy, and Poitiers, and siege and capture of Calais would lead to a favourable outcome for England in the first phase of the war and eventually led to the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360. The treaty gave England large territorial gains in France, whilst Edward would renounce the English claim to the French throne. The treaty would break down by 1369, and France would declare war against England once again.

Domestically, Edwards reign would also see the first wave of the Black Death to hit England in 1348. This would eventually kill off 40-60% of England’s population at the time. It would slow down and disappear by December 1349, but would return again in the 1360’s causing another 20% of the population to fall victim. The Black Death would again return in intermittent phases throughout the 14th and 15th centuries on a local or national scale. The effects would be less severe than the first few waves, and the last recorded outbreak was the Great Plague of London 1665-66. This would be ended with the events of the Great Fire in 1666.

Hungry, Hungry, Hungarians

A new blog post finally after a month absence due to some difficulty in getting some new additions to my collection.  Particularly due to the vents happening globally right now.  However, this month I have managed to attain some new medieval coins to add to my display case.SDC13418

From the picture you can see two small silver coins from the Kingdom of Hungary.  Both were minted under the King Sigismund I, who ruled Hungary from 1387 – 1437.  There are no actual dates on the coins themselves, so the closest I can get is the reign of Sigismund himself.  The coin on the left is a Dinar and weighs 0.17g, whilst the coin on the right is a Parvus and weighs just a measly 0.23g.  You may also notice that the coins are quite small, especially when put in comparison to a penny.  The dinar measures 13.5mm and the parvus is 11mm.  Both are roughly 1mm thick.

Now Sigismund was not just the ruler of Hungary, but was also the King of Croatia (which was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary at this time), King of Germany, King of Bohemia, King of Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor.  But since the coins I got this month are from Hungary, I will just discuss a little history in regards to that part of his life.

Sigismund became king of Hungary in 1387 when his betrothed, Mary, on the death of her father, became Queen of Hungary.  His kingship of Hungary was not peaceful, as he would spend the first nine years after his coronation in a ceaseless struggle to keep hold of the title as the Kingdom itself was very unstable.

Much of the struggle came from trying arrest power back from the local elite who had been administering much of Hungary.  Sigismund had paid over much of the power the Kingship held to the local nobility to keep them loyal when he ascended the throne.  The restoration of the authority of the central administration took decades of work. The bulk of the nation headed by the House of Garai was with him; but in the southern provinces between the Sava and the Drava rivers, the Horvathys with the support of King Tvrtko I of Bosnia, Mary’s maternal uncle, proclaimed as their king Ladislaus, King of Naples, son of the murdered Charles II of Hungary.  It was not until 1395, that the pressure from these nobles had been suppressed

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Collection Update Sept’ 18

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In the picture above we have this months newest addition to my collection.  Being relatively small and thin (16mm in diameter and only 1mm thick), the coin itself is relatively unremarkable.  It dates from the late 12th century, and is a joint issue Denaro from the Kingdom of Sicily.  Issued by the then Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, and his infant son Frederick who was crowned King of Sicily in 1198 at the age of 3.

Henry VI conquered Sicily in 1194 after successfully ransoming off the English king Richard the Lionheart after his capture and arrest whilst returning from the Third Crusade.  Using the ransom money of 150,000 silver marks ($18.5 million or £14.2 million today) to pay for the expedition.  After rooting out the Norman nobles who opposed his rule or fought him prior to the conquest Henry made his wife, Constance, Queen regnant.

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Henry’s son, Frederick, would not however succeed to his father’s position as Holy Roman Emperor after Henry’s death in 1198.  It would not be until 1220 that Frederick would attain the crown of the Holy Roman Empire after the current incumbent, Otto of Brunswick (Otto IV), would be overthrown after his defeat at the Battle of Bouvines, a conclusive battle of the 1213-14 Anglo-French war.  Already recognised as Emperor a year and a half prior to the battle by the Southern states of the Empire, it didn’t take much for him to ascend to the throne.