Henry II Penny, Short cross type 1b, Carlisle, Alain, ex Parsons, Doubleday, Mass, Wayne, Mattinson and English Doctor

Henry II (1154-89), silver short cross Penny, class 1b (1180-89), Carlisle Mint, moneyer Alain, facing crowned head with linear collar, hand holding sceptre at left, Latin legend and beaded borders surrounding both sides, commences upper left, hENRICVS. R E X, rev. short voided cross pommee, small cross pommee in each angle, +ALAIN. ON. CARD, weight 1.33g (Mass 331 this coin; N.963; S.1344). Toned, a little weak in parts otherwise a bold very fine with a great provenance.

The legend reads "Henry King" on the obverse and "Alain of Carlisle" on the reverse.

The first Plantagenet King of England Henry Curtmantle, as he was also known was the son of Matilda Empress and Count Geoffrey V of Anjou born on the 5^th March 1133, ruled England from 19^th December 1154 to 6^th July 1189. He was made Duke of Normandy age 17 in 1150 by King Louis VII of France, and became Count of Anjou and Maine a year later upon the death of his Father. He married Eleanor of Aquitaine making him Duke of that region in 1152 after her marriage to Louis VIII had been annulled. He later also became Count of Nantes by a treaty in 1158 meaning that before even the age of 40 he was in control of a great swarth of land stretching from parts of Wales and eastern Ireland across to the western part of France later called the Angevin Empire. At times during his reign he also partially controlled Scotland and the Duchy of Britanny. He became King of England after King Stephen agreed to a peace treaty in the light of Henry's military expedition of 1153 meaning that he would inherit the kingdom on Stephen's death which duly happened the year after. After the turmoil of the previous reign Henry successfully restored Royal administration and built the kingdom back up to be similar to what it had been under his grandfather Henry I with a hegemony over Wales as well as control of lands in Anjou, Maine and Touraine. However his attempts to forge a relationship with the church resulted in a conflict with former ally and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket through the 1160s until Becket's infamous murder by knights in the sanctity of Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. He also faced a "cold war" conflict with King Louis VII of France for several decades having expanded his empire at Louis' expense.

Henry produced eight children with Eleanor, five sons and three daughters. His second son Henry was made co-ruler with his Father and was known as Henry the Young King but would pre-decease his Father by six years, the eldest son William who was the ninth Count of Poitier had died at the age of 3. Henry the Young King did rebel against his Father over tensions of inheritance and was supported by younger brothers Richard (later the Lion Heart) and Geoffrey as well as their mother Eleanor. The rebel alliance was supported by France under King Louis and later his son Philip II, Scotland, Brittany, Flanders and Boulogne and the Great Revolt of 1173-74 was only silenced by King Henry's swift military action spearheaded by talented local commanders. The revolt arose again a decade later in 1183 which culminated in the death of Henry the Young King at the age of 28. Meanwhile the Norman invasion of Ireland from 1169 until 1177 resulted in King Henry declaring his son John, later King, as Lord of Ireland and claiming all lands though his Norman knights there had to continue to gradually fight and physically adopt the territory as part of the Angevin Empire.

A final rebellion in 1189 caused by Richard's fears that John would be made the next King rather than the proper succession of himself as the elder surviving brother, led to King Henry being defeated by Richard and Philip II and retreating to Chinon Castle suffering from a bleeding ulcer where he died and was succeeded by Richard.

Some sixty miles west of Newcastle, the City of Carlisle on the River Eden was devastated by the Danes in 875 and in ruins until 1092 when William II fortified it by building a castle. The silver and lead mines on nearby Alston Moor were used to supply the mint with metal during the twelfth century and a Bishopric was established in 1133. David of Scotland seized the town on the accession of Stephen but later in the Peace of Durham, was confirmed to his son Henry. In 1139 the town was ceded with his Earldom of Northumbria to the Scottish crown and not restored to the English till 1157. Minting activity occurs from Henry I to Henry III with issues of David of Scotland and Henry of Northumbria.

The relatively recently published book "The Metal in Britain's Coins" by Dr Graham Birch and published by Spink has a chapter devoted to the sources of medieval silver coinage, and one of the few issues traceable to silver mined locally in England, is the penny coinage of the Carlisle Mint from the later Norman reigns of Henry I and Stephen to that of Henry II and Richard I. Henry I visited Carlisle in 1122 and was impressed by the minting potential first establishing a mint there having commissioned extra defences, and a rental from the Burgesses of £5 a year is recorded to the King from 1125 onward. This fee had jumped to £45 per annum by 1130 and then to £500 by 1133 clearly showing the success from a discovery of a new vein of silver near Cross Fell in the Silver Beck-Minersdale region. The powerful Erembald family from Flanders soon arrived to become involved in the minting activity, and three generations over a fifty-year period dominated the moneying of coinage in this region continuing through the Anarchy period in the reign of King Stephen. Stability returned with the advent of the reign of Henry II and in 1158 Henry reorganised the royalty payments system taking away the miners rights to silver giving them only a revenue stream from the lead by products. Henry offered them the chance to mint as well as mine giving the opportunity for integrated business, that was first taken up by William Fitzerembald. Henry also authorised a new mint to open at Newcastle and William operated at both locations on a combined rental of £100 a year. An auction process of the rights to mint and mine occurred on an annual basis, and though Fitzerembald was usually the winning bidder against all comers at ever higher levels, he sometimes failed to meet the rental targets, accruing an eventual debt of some £2,100. The activity certainly boosted the economy of this northern area and Dr Birch estimates that the mines accounted for about 1% of the national gross domestic product of England at this time. William Fitzerembald did lose the rental for 1180-81, and again in 1184-85 when it was run by custodians with more proper accounting passing to Alanus Monetarius - Alain as we have here on this coin, who either alone or with partners ran the mint and mines till 1198 at lower rent levels than his predecessor and met his targets. He perhaps also operated at Durham. For further detailed reading it is advised to consult Dr Birch's learned publication.

Provenance:

Ex H. A. Parsons, part II, Glendining, 11^-13th May 1954, lot 264 part.

Ex Gordon V. Doubleday, Glendining, 8^th June 1988, lot 969 part.

Ex Jeffrey P. Mass, part IV, Dix Noonan and Webb, Auction 73A, 14^th March 2007, lot 1217.

Ex Andrew Wayne, Classical Numismatic Group, mailbid sale 90, 23^rd May 2012, lot 2446.

Ex John Mattinson Collection of Carlisle Mint, part I, Dix Noonan and Webb, Auction 164, 9^th October 2019, lot 2243.

Ex Collection of an English Doctor part III, Sovereign Rarities fixed price list online August 2022.