weight 2,98gr. | silver Ø 29mm.
obv. Three fleurs-de-lis, arranged two and one, within dotted circle, surrounded
by the legend KAROLVS☉DEI☉GRA☉FRANCORV☉REX and crown
rev. Long cross pattée placed over dotted circle, with in the quarters F-R-A-C′ ,
surrounded by the legend ✠SIT:NO - MЄ:NOM - INI:BЄN - ЄDICTV.
The "C" of BЄNЄDICTVM is pointed.
Charles VII was born on 22 February 1403 at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the royal residence in Paris, as the eleventh child and fifth son of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. He was given the title of comte de Ponthieu at his birth. His four elder brothers, Charles (1386), Charles (1392–1401), Louis (1397–1415) and John (1398–1417) had each held the title of Dauphin of France (heir to the French throne) in turn. All died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles. After the death of his father on 21 October 1422, Charles became the new King of France. However, due to the Treaty of Troyes (1420), in which Charles VI signed for King Henry V of England as his legimate successor to the throne of France, a new conflict with England was born the succession was claimed both by the King of England and by the disinherited younger Charles.
Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which the French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father Charles VI had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown instead. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy allied to the English).
With his court removed to Bourges, south of the Loire River, Charles was disparagingly called the ″King of Bourges″, because the area around this city was one of the few remaining regions left to him. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d′Arc) as a spiritual leader in France. Joan of Arc and other charismatic figures led French troops to lift the siege of Orléans, as well as other strategic cities on the Loire river, and to crush the English at the battle of Patay. With the local English troops dispersed, the people of Reims switched allegiance and opened their gates, which enabled the coronation of Charles VII in 1429 at Reims Cathedral. This long-awaited event boosted French morale as hostilities with England resumed. Following the battle of Castillon in 1453, the French expelled the English from all their continental possessions except for the Pale of Calais. Charles′ later years were marked by hostile relations with his heir, Louis XI the Dauphin, who demanded real power to accompany his position as the Dauphin. In 1458, Charles became ill.
The king lingered on for the next two and a half years, increasingly ill, but unwilling to die. There came a point in July 1461 when the king′s physicians concluded that Charles would not live past August. Ill and weary, the king became delirious, convinced that he was surrounded by traitors loyal only to his son. Under the pressure of sickness and fever, he went mad. By now another infection in his jaw had caused an abscess in his mouth. The swelling caused by this became so large that, for the last week of his life, Charles was unable to swallow food or water. Although he asked the Dauphin to come to his deathbed, Louis refused, instead waiting at Avesnes, in Burgundy, for his father to die. At Mehun-sur-Yèvre, attended by his younger son, Charles, and aware of his elder son′s final betrayal, the King starved to death. He died on 22 July 1461, and was buried, at his request, beside his parents in Saint-Denis.
This type, following the dubbele groot Kromstaert of Flanders, was not minted by the local robber baron but by the king of France himself. Duplessy notes that it had a face value of 14 deniers tournois. Rare.
Duplessy 480C | Ciani 657var. | Lafaurie 480c |
cf. Hoc 169 | de Mey 120 R
vf
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