This blog post is part of a new series we’re calling ‘Spotlight On…’ where we examine PAS finds in context. We’ll aim to shed some light on what was happening in the world during the first life of these finds. This week, the spotlight falls on a twelfth-century coin. Let’s explore the events that were happening during the decade in which this coin (and coins like it) were first circulating in England.
This is YORYM-0FED25: a silver penny dating from the twelfth century. You can view its full PAS record here: Record ID: YORYM-0FED25 – MEDIEVAL coin (finds.org.uk) This penny was struck sometime between c. AD 1180 and c. 1189, which is a decade that falls right at the end of Henry II’s reign. It was minted in York by the moneyer Hugo, and it was found in Ryedale, North Yorkshire.
Sometimes it can be difficult to relate the finds we identify to the events that were occurring during their time, and that’s why we’ve created this new blog series. These objects were as real to their contemporaries as any of your belongings are to you. In its first life, before it was hidden under layers of earth for a metal detectorist to find, this coin might have passed through dozens or even hundreds of human hands. To help us to understand how this coin fits into history, we’ve considered what else was happening in the world around the time Hugo struck this coin in York. In this penultimate decade of the twelfth century, what events were impacting the people of Yorkshire? What was happening in England? And what events were occurring at the same time across the world?
First, let’s take a look at our coin. The obverse – that is, in this case, the side with the bust – is inscribed with the legend HENRICVS REX (‘King Henry’). The reverse is of the short cross type and says HVGO ON EVERW (‘Hugo in Everwich’, this being one of the many historic names of York. A tip: if you want to explore the Pipe Rolls or any other medieval document from this period and you’re struggling to find mentions of Yorkshire, search instead for Everwichshire.
Now that we’ve examined our coin, let’s take a look at what was happening in Yorkshire at the time it – and other coins like it – was minted.
UP NORTH: YORKSHIRE IN THE 1180s
At this time, much of Yorkshire’s industry revolved around the cloth trade alongside mining and agriculture. York was relatively powerful, being the seat of an archbishop, but this seat was left empty during the period 1181 to 1191. During this period, the crown was collecting large sums of money as a direct result of the empty position, and this may have been a contributing factor as to why the role was not filled for so long. The sums of money collected are recorded in the annual rolls of pipe of the time.
Yorkshire had a rapidly changing landscape during the thirteenth century. In the decades before this coin was struck, a huge number of abbeys and religious buildings sprung up across the county. These sites, which now seem ancient (and which are largely ruined, in large part due to the damage they sustained during the Dissolution) would have been relatively new at the time this coin was struck. Most of Yorkshire’s most recognisable abbeys were under a century old. Fountains Abbey would have turned 50 in 1182 – it must have still seemed somewhat new to the people who lived in the area, and some of them would still have remembered the landscape prior to the abbey’s establishment.
This timeline illustrates the building of five of Yorkshire’s major abbey sites.
St Mary’s of York was founded in 1055, with the abbey re-founded in 1088 on a larger site. The surviving ruins in the Museum Gardens are from the thirteenth century.
Whitby Abbey was re-founded in 1078 after standing as a ruin for centuries following raids by Danes. in the 1220s, most of the structure was rebuilt, and it is this structure that is visible today.
Rievaulx Abbey was founded as England’s first Cistercian monastery in 1132.
Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 and became the second Cistercian monastery in northern England just three years later.
Byland Abbey was founded in 1135, but the monks did not settle at the present site of the abbey until 1177.
Maybe this coin was part of one of the many transactions that took place involving these religious sites. It may also have been part of someone’s wages. Perhaps this coin was held by someone involved in the cloth industry, or it passed through the hands of someone in the king’s household. We know from the Constitutio Domus Regis the amount that members of the king’s household were typically paid. Here’s what this penny would have been worth to one important member of the king’s household.
Aquarius duplicem cibum et quando rex iter agit .i. denarium ad pannos regis exsiccandos et quando rex balneat .iiii.j denarios exceptis tribus festis annuis.
The water bearer has double rations and when the king is on the road, he has a penny for drying the king’s clothes, and when the king takes a bath, he has 4 … pence, except when the king takes a bath at the three annual feasts.
CONSTITUTIO DOMUS REGIS: DISPOSITION OF THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD, ED. AMT, EMILIE AND S.D. CHURCH. PP. 208-209
ROYAL AFFAIRS
This coin was minted at some point during the final decade of Henry II’s life. It is a time marked by difficulties, as much of Henry’s reign was, and it is in these final years that his constant battles with his sons reach their peak. Gerald of Wales recounts an anecdote in De Principis Instructione describing the often difficult relationship between Henry and his children. He says that there was a painting commissioned by Henry on the wall of a chamber at Winchester, and this painting depicted an eagle being attacked by its four chicks: three of the chicks claw and scratch at the paternal eagle, which another is poised to take out its eyes. When questioned about the meaning of the painting Henry apparently responded:
Quatuor’, inquit, ‘aquile pulli quatuor filii mei sunt, qui me usque ad mortem persequi non cessabunt. Quorum minor natu, quem tanta dileccione nunc amplector, michi denique longe grauius aliis omnibus et periculosius nonnunquam insultabit.
The four eagle chicks are my four sons, who will not cease persecuting me to death. The youngest of them, whom I now love with such affection, will eventually attack me more seriously than all the rest and sometimes more dangerously.
GERALD OF WALES, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A RULER: DE PRINCIPIS INSTRUCTIONE, BOOK 3, CHAPTER 26, ED. ROBERT BARTLETT (OXFORD SCHOLARLY EDITIONS ONLINE: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2020), 680-681.
In 1183, Henry the Young King (the eldest of Henry’s children with Eleanor of Aquitaine to survive childhood) died while on campaign against his father and his brother Richard. 1185 marked a failed expedition to Ireland by Henry’s son John, who was forced to return in defeat; shortly afterwards his son Geoffrey died in a tournament in Paris. In 1187, Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem stirred calls for another crusade, with Henry and his two surviving sons – as well as French rival Philip II Augustus – throwing their hats in the ring. By 1188, Henry’s relationship with son Richard was under severe strain. Helped by ongoing pressures from Philip II Augustus, war broke out, and by the summer of 1189 Henry was dead.
All of this is happening as our coin is being minted and passed around Yorkshire. It begs the question: how much would this royal turbulence have impacted the day-to-day lives of people living in Yorkshire? What awareness might they have had of the events that were occurring largely abroad? And what did they think when they saw this coin, struck with the portrait of a king, and reflected on what was happening in the world around them?
CONCLUSION
This Yorkshire coin was brought into the world shortly as Temüjin (the future Genghis Khan) was gathering power. The astrolabe was finally making its way to Europe, having been developed in classical antiquity but perfected in more recent times by Islamic scholars, whose leading knowledge of astronomy and mathematics was breaking scientific barriers in their dozens. North Africa and much of the Iberian Peninsula were under control of the Almohad caliphate, remaining so for another thirty years.
These pennies may be little, but they’re symbolic of so much more than small change. This coin emerges from a context of global change, scientific development, literary advancement, and plain old interesting times. It might not be a fancy locket containing a lock of hair, or a diary indicating a twelfth-century person’s innermost thoughts and feelings, but it is part of a wider story.
I hope this blog post has helped to contextualise this find. You can access the record here [YORYM-0FED25] and explore other examples of Henry II coinage over at the Portable Antiquities Scheme website.
RESOURCES USED
Links to publicly available Pipe Rolls via Internet Archive: Medieval source material on the internet: Pipe rolls (medievalgenealogy.org.uk)
Allen, Martin. ‘The Archbishop of York’s Mint after the Norman Conquest’. Northern History, xli (2004).
Amt, Emilie and S.D. Church, eds. Oxford Medieval Texts: Dialogus de Scaccario: The Dialogue of the Exchequer; Constitutio Domus Regis: Disposition of the King’s Household. Print 2007; published online 2019. https://www-oxfordscholarlyeditions-com.libproxy.york.ac.uk/view10.1093/actrade/9780199258611.div1.23?milestones=2
DOI of this edition: https://dx-doi-org.libproxy.york.ac.uk/10.1093/actrade/9780199258611.div1.23
Cook, Barrie. ‘The Royal Household and the Mint (1279-1399)’. The Numismatic Chronicle (1966-), vol. 149 (1989), pp. 12-133. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667574.
Gerald of Wales. Instructions for a Ruler: De Principis Instructione. Edited by Robert Bartlett. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Map, Walter. De nugis curalium: Courtiers’ Trifles. In M. R. James, C. N. L. Brooke, and R. A. B. Mynors (eds). Oxford Medieval Texts: Walter Map: De Nugis Curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles. Print 1983; published online 2019. https://www-oxfordscholarlyeditions-com.libproxy.york.ac.uk/view/instance.00250987?milestones=5.6.title.
Nightingale, Pamela. ‘The Rise and Decline of Medieval York: A Reassessment’ in Past & Present, February 2010, no. 206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40586938.
Tillott, P.M., ed. A History of the County of York: the City of York. London: Victoria County History, 1961. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/city-of-york.
