Sourcing silver for Anglo-Saxon coinage

 

The Mail Online and some other sources reported recently on an interesting and important piece of research published in Antiquity about the sources for silver used to make coins in England in the period 660-820. This divides supplies clearly between two sources and consequently into two periods, with the change happening around 750. Before that date the silver appears to come from Byzantine sources in table and similar ware. After the mid-eighth century the silver was being mind western France. That more or less coincides with the accession of King Offa of Mercia in 757 and his documented trading relationship with the Carolingians in succeeding decades.

The Mail article can be seen at Unravelling the mystery of England's Dark Age coins

There is a similar account from the BBC News website at Anglo-Saxon silver coin source mystery solved

Medievalists.net has a rather more detailed summary of the research and it can be read at Early medieval money mystery solved

This is an interesting piece of research not just in what it reveals but also in its combination of numismatics with archaeology, documentary sources and understanding of economic history both in theory as to money supply and in the reality of trade over long distances, together with modern scientific methods of analysis. As a result we have what appears to be a cogent and coherent argument that elegantly links together all the available evidence.

Still looking for King John’s treasure

When The Queen went on Maundy Thursday to Worcester Cathedral to distribute the Royal Maundy on behalf of The King I assume that the Bishop and Chapter pointed out that the first monarch known to have distributed the Maundy in this country, in the year 1212, was King John, whose tomb lies before the high altar.

King John has had a ‘bad press’ and despite the efforts of serious historians to challenge the prevailing popular narrative, he is usually remembered as, in Seller and Yeatman’s classic system, a “Bad King”. Shakespeare’s distinctly idiosyncratic retelling of the reign - no mention of Magna Carta, but a lot of trouble caused by the Pope for the Elizabethan audience - cannot make King John a hero king nor a martyr king. He is a Lear with bathos, not pathos.

Historically his reign is a series of melodramatic crises and losses - the loss of Normandy and Anjou, the loss of his nephew Arthur, the loss of the clash with Pope Innocent III over the appointment of Stephen Langton, the loss of the confidence of a substantial part of the political nation leading to Magna Carta, and the loss of his treasure in the Wash just before his death in 1216. 

King John – detail from his funerary effigy in Worcester Cathedral. 

Image: copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral.

He does manage nevertheless to still look a little smug and not a little truculent in his effigy, which is often dated to about 1225, a man bowed perhaps, but not broken, as indeed one of his biographers, R.V.Turner, sees him.  

I will admit to having a somewhat more favourable view of King John than the traditional one, if only because we have the same Christian name. Undoubtedly John did do a number of unattractive, cruel and malicious things, but as some of his biographers have seen he did things with flair and panache. He is the entertaining villain who the audience secretly cheers on. He was also unlucky - unlucky in the resolve of his opponents and also just plain unlucky as with the collapse of his grand strategy in 1214 to recover his lost lands in France, or the loss of his treasure in 1216.

 

There is something about the loss of the baggage train from Lincolnshire Live at The lost treasure in Lincolnshire missing for 100s of years 

In respect of the treasure I wrote the other year about a claim that the site of King John’s treasure had been identified. That story goes back to a metal detectorist’s theories as set out in 2017 by the BBC at The lost jewels of Bad King John. 

Nothing seems to have come from that so far but according to Yahoo News a new line of research has been triggered by plans to erect yet another proposed solar farm. The article can be read at Excavation looks to solve mystery of King John's lost treasure after 800 years 

There is more about the prospect in an article from the Eastern Daily Press at Could new Norfolk search solve 800-year-old riddle of King John's lost treasure?

The borderlands of Lincolnshire and Norfolk where the Wellstream once flowed have changed very much over eight centuries and locating where the opening of the Wellstream into the Wash was is one thing, but whither the currents may have carried the contents of the baggage train is another matter. Various villages and towns strung out along the Old Sea Bank road are suggested for the site of the disaster.

The Newark Advertiser - which has an interest in the story because King John died at the castle in the town only days after the loss of his treasure - reports and speculates on the possibilities of finding the lost treasure at ‘One in a million chance’ of finding King John’s treasure with new search to get under way

The Daily Telegraph in 2022 reported on research that explains the scale of the incoming tide which swamped the baggage train, and includes a useful map. This can be seen at How King John really lost the Crown Jewels... according to an astronomer

Returning to Worcester, to whose Anglo-Saxon saints Oswald and Wulfstan the far from noticeably pious King had a strong devotion, the Cathedral Library and Archive blog has an interesting account of the King’s last Christmas spent at the cathedral priory in 1214. Both the cathedral and city were still recovering from a serious fire in 1202. Even as his authority crumbled this was still planned as a major event. It also describes some of the items which may have been swallowed by the Wellstream less than two years later and illustrates a fragment of the King’s shroud at Christmas 1214: King John at Worcester

The blog also writes about the King’s devotion to SS Oswald and Wulfstan in 1218 –Rededicating the Cathedral to Saints Wulfstan and Oswald

More relics from the battlefield at Culloden

Today is the 278th anniversary of the battle of Culloden in 1746. 

The battlefield near Inverness quite often makes the news, and often due to perceived threats to the integrity of the site as not all of it is owned and managed as a heritage asset. Fortunately there are resolute voices to speak out for its protection.

Small finds from the site also occur and The National recently reported on one, which might even be assignable to a known individual. Their  article can be seen at Archaeologists announce 'intriguing' finds at site of Battle of Culloden

Although as the article says it is ultimately unknowable if the shoe buckle really did belong to Cameron of Lochiel it is an intriguing idea. The idea that it might brings a more individual note to something as mundane as a broken buckle and a link to a family whose strong loyalty to the Stuart cause was a century old at Culloden, and whose current head was recently ennobled as a Life Peer and government minister in the Lords - his Jacobite peerage not withstanding.

 

Medieval elite horses in Westminster

Analysis of a substantial number of medieval equine skeletons found in what was clearly a recognised burial place for the animals in Westminster has indicated something of the range of horses that were available and that they came from a variety of breeds. It also suggests that it was very definitely a case of ‘different horses for different courses’ when it came to their use.

The site is on Elverton Street which lies close to the site of the medieval Palace of Westminster and may well therefore indicate the ownership of the animals. It is clear that some at least of the horses were definitely from the equine elite.

Of the more than seventy horses on the site teeth from fifteen were studied and at least seven shown to have come from Scandinavia or the western Alps. Some of the horses were dated to the period 1425-1517, but others could be earlier or later.

New Scientist has a article about the research at Medieval horses buried in London had far-flung origins

There is perhaps more detail from a historian’s point of view in an article about the cemetary from Medieval Histories at What warhorse would you shop for if you were a Medieval knight?

This article suggests a likely source for some of the horses being the Cistercian abbey stud at Esrum in north Zeeland in Denmark. This had a long tradition of breeding quality horses, and which still survives today as the Frederiksborger.

I wrote in 2022 about recent research into the size of English cavalry horses in the period 300 to 1650, and urged interested readers to look at the original report rather than the more journalistic digest. My post and the related links can be found at The size of English medieval warhorses

The taste of Roman wine

 

The Conversation has an article, based on one by the author in Antiquity which argues that, despite the non uncommon contemporary view that Roman wine was, by modern standards, distinctly inferior, the Romans did have a range of very palatable wines.

The secret appears to have lain in their method of fermentation with the wine developing in earthenware jars buried in the ground. This method has survived and still flourishes in

Georgia, producing wines that are still appreciated. Indeed there is apparently a revival of interest in them by modern practitioners in France and Italy.

The article, which reads at times like a wine tasting listing, can be seen at What did Roman wine taste like? Much better than previously thought, according to new research 

More on medieval spectacles

I recently posted Medieval spectacles about the development and availability of ocular aids to reading in the medieval and early modern periods and I have now chanced upon a blog post which adds to the evidence.

Once you get past the slightly jokey opening paragraphs there is a lot of interest in the article, including more about King Henry VIII’s myopia and an illustration of what may be the spectacles of King James II and VII. There is also the argument made that by the fifteenth century in Flanders at least there were shops in which one could purchase ready-made spectacles as some do in chemists today, or maybe one found the best set and then the optician adjusted the lenses with further grinding. That maybe was what was available at the shops referred to in the article linked to in my original article.

The online article can be seen at medieval glasses – The Pragmatic Costumer

A significant villa site in north Berkshire

Building work at Grove, just north of Wantage in what is historically north Berkshire, has revealed significant remains of a Roman villa. It appears to have been a prominent part of the landscape and the local economy, noticeably bigger than others in the vicinity. The discovery is outlined in an article on the BBC News website at 'Remarkable' Roman villa discovered at Grove housing site

The Mail Online website also reports on the excavations at 'Remarkable' Roman villa is discovered in Oxfordshire

A whole series of discoveries, ganging from individual finds to full scale excavations have done much in recent years to fill-in the map of Roman Britain and to raise many important new possibilities and options for understanding and interpreting that period.

A facelift for Anne of Cleves

The cleaning by the Louvre of their very well known Holbein portrait of Anne of Cleves has attracted quite a bit of attention on the Internet. The cleaning has transformed it by revealing a rich blue background and the red tones of the dress, whilst Anne herself has regained a more youthful and attractive appearance and completion. Commentators have also drawn attention to Holbein’s mastery of portraiture. Although it has been studied this very well known portrait has apparently not been cleaned or restored since at least 1793, and quite possibly not since it’s completion in 1539.

Whether or not Holbein flattered Anne in his portrait remains unclear - all the other evidence we have suggests he was a supremely skilled and faithful portrait painter. The miniature which used to be identified as Catherine Howard is now suggested, on the basis of the age of the sitter and the jewels she is wearing,  to be actually of Anne of Cleves. I am inclined to accept that reassignment and in that she looks less attractive, if not slightly truculent. If that miniature was painted as her situation changed from being Queen Consort to the King’s adoptive sister, but as she calculated the not inconsiderable deal she had bargained for herself, then it too may reflect something of this clearly formidable north German Ducal highness.

The Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the restoration by the Louvre at See the Portrait That Made Henry VIII Fall in Love With Anne of Cleves, Newly Restored to Its Former Glory

The On the Tudor Trail website has an account which looks in more detail at the painting and the details of Anne’s costume and jewellery by her biographer Heather R. Darsie and which can be seen at Restoration of Anna of Cleves Holbein Portrait