Chateaudun: the French Feudal Series that Would Not Die

...Hyperbole aside, the viscounty’s coins (deniers and half-deniers, anachronistically called oboles [sic]) embody much of what is most emblematic of French feudal coinage. Especially of the broader series’ early, (only) more chaotic phases, through the first half of the 13th century.
Numismatically, you get a chronological range from immobilizations of Robertian (/’Carolingian’) issues, c. mid-10th century, to imitations of the tournois type in the early 14th. (Cf. Duplessy, Féodales tome I, pp. 112-123.) Over the whole interval, the variations can be dated by surprisingly discrete intervals, sometimes closely enough to identify the anonymous issues with individual viscounts.
Geographically and politically, you get a small feudal polity, which spent most of its early life under the suzereignty of the counts of Blois, Chartres and Champagne. (An aggregate regional superpower, straddling the Capetian royal demesne, west to east.)
Add a seriously cool castle, and you’ve got some stuff going on. ...The circular donjon /keep, c. 1170-1190, predates most of Philippe II’s royal examples, which are aggregately better known. (For Chateaudun, see esp. Mesqui, Chateaux forts et fortifications en France, Paris, 1997, 113-4. For Philippe II’s castles, “which may have been inspired by the example of Chateaudun” (298), see esp. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus, UC Berkeley /LA, 1986/1991, 298-301, with several pages of b/w plates.)
This view shows the donjon surrounded by an agglomeration of 15th-century buildings, mostly residential, ranging from late Gothic to what, for this part of the world, is remarkably early Renaissance architecture.
(Par Patrick GIRAUD — Travail personnel (Personal work), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3342956.)


Back to the coins. Up to the early 13th century, the legends and motifs are as formulaic as you might expect from the series; the reverse legends run heavily to more and less blundered variations of the medieval Latin, ‘CASTRI DVNI’ (‘Castle of the Dunois’), while for obverse motifs, the Bléso-chartraine /Chinonais type predominates. (Other people here have done a lot with this type in previous threads. ...Wish I could find ‘em....)
...Except that, during this, earlier but sustained phase, the sheer profusion of variants is kaleidescopic. Duplessy gives them six pages (Féodales 113-9). Even though these examples are clearly based on prior issues --one in particular-- this is no typically passive ‘immobilization.’ True immobilizations are just that; datable mainly by engraving style and gradual deterioration of the legends, while the motifs themselves are slowly driven into the ground by centuries of repitition. In this series, along with the ongoing blundering of the legends, the most salient variations of the motif are both distinct and consistent enough to denote intentionality. Evoking, for instance, the regularly scheduled reissues of later Anglo-Saxon pennies. The wryly cerebral beauty of this is that, thanks to the wonders of modern numismatic methodology (hoard evidence being front and center), the seemingly endless early variaties can be rescued from the brink of chaos and dated, often within a couple of decades.
...Toward the end of the series, from the early 13th century, the coins abandon the ‘Bléso-chartraine’ type, and begin to be issued in the viscounts’ own names. Here is where you get the final component of the early French feudal ‘perfect storm:’ the convergence of a small, seemingly insignificant polity with a named individual, often enough (along with predecessors) of record in primary sources.
This is the earliest example I have, c. 1020-1040.




Obv. Bléso-chartraine profile, right, with ‘crenellated crown;’ crosslets in left and right fields; retrograde ‘S’ in lower left. Omega in the center (the ‘eye’); three wedges indicating the ‘mouth.’
Rev. +DVNIS CASTI-I-I (‘DVNIS CAST[RVM]’, or something vaguely along those lines.)
(Féodales p. 113, 462. Cf. nos. 456-461 for the legend, with still earlier phases of its, at severe risk of oxymoron, progressive blundering.)
This initial issue has a distinctly closer resemblance to the issues of the county of Chartres than the contemporaneous ones of Blois. With apologies for the pics, here’s one of Chartres.


Comté de Chartres. Anon., c. 10th-earlier 11th centuries.
Obv. Bleso-chartraine profile; ‘crennelated crown;’ besants in both fields and for the central ‘eye;’ three wedges for the ‘mouth.’
Rev. +CARTIS CIVITAS. (Duplessy 431.)
For contrast, here are two deniers of the county of Blois, c. 980 -1030 and 1050 -1080, respectively. (Duplessy 575 and 578. The later esample is a close variant of the two preceding ones.)



Back to Chateaudun, this one dates to the next interval, c. 1040-1080. As in the case of Blois, the pattern of distinguishing issues by variations of the Bléso-chartraine motif is already beginning to emerge. (Duplessy 464.)


(Duplessy 464.) Right, the blundering of the legend is already accelerating. Meanwhile, though, the distinctly Chartrain three wedges, denoting the mouth, are replaced by a horizontal omega. (That is, a medieval French variation; kind of a rounded ‘W’, also seen on contemporaneous issues of the neighboring county of Maine.) The horizontal omega reappears over the rest of the series’ bléso-chartraine phase, up to the early 13th century. This example continues it into the earlier 12th.

Obole, c.1120-1130. (Duplessy 474.)
This issue admits of identification with the viscount Geoffroy III (fl. c. 1110-1145), who already finds colorful mention, not only in extant legal documents, but in one local monastic chronicle. Livingstone mentions his imprisonment by his cousin, a neighboring baron, in 1136, and his excommunication by the bishop of Chartres a decade lahen he was ‘near death.’ She goes on to note how Geoffroy’s wife, Helvisa (/Heloise) effectively bailed him out, reinstating all the monastery’s privileges he had allegedly impinged upon. In a different vein, as Livingstone continues, “Helvisa and Geoffrey appear to have been a devoted couple. Viscount Geoffrey’s affection for Helvisa is event in several charters where he refers to her as his ‘venerable wife.’ In addition, this couple appeared in many acts together, suggesting that they spent a great deal of time in each other’s company.” (Out of Love for My Kin: Aristocratic Family Life in the Lands of the Loire, 1000-1200. Cornell UP, 2010. 76-7, 197-8.)
Back to the coins, from the early 13th century, things start to get interesting again. Instead of an omega (replaced by a single wedge in several intervening issues of the 12th-century), the ‘mouth’ is now rendered by a star. In two instances (including an obole), this coincides with what can only be called a remarkably early rendering of a Gothic ‘N’ in this medium.


...With the star; rev. ‘+CASTRI [annulet] DVnI: (Duplessy 488; variant.)
Over the next few decades, things take a more dramatic turn. First, Blois --now split off from the main comital dynasty, as the appanage of a younger son-- undergoes a sustained regency. From this interval, the coins begin to adopt entirely different motifs. Only more to the point, they begin to be issued in the viscount’s name, for the first time in the entire series. The trend accelerates from 1234, with Louis IX’s acquisition of direct suzerainty over Chartres, Blois and, in consequence, Chateaudun. One of several listings in the .cgb archives has this comment:
“According to D. Legros, the Viscount of Châteaudun remained under the influence of the Counts of Chartres and Blois. When Thibaut VI died in 1218, is Marguerite, his aunt, who inherited Blois. Geoffroy V took advantage of this change to monetize Chateaudun his name.”
(https://www.cgbfr.com/chateaudun-vicomte-de-chateaudun-geoffroy-v-denier-tb-,v22_0131,a.html.)
Lacking access to Legros, nothing I have in print even confirms this dynastic interval. Here Charles Cawley’s website, Medieval Lands, is of help, citing primary sources as it goes along:
https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/CENTRAL FRANCE.htm#_Toc4742197.
Ironically, it’s from this point that the secondary sources, numismatic and otherwise, begin to seriously diverge. Starting with the relatively innocuous detail of how the operant Geoffroys of Chateaudun are numbered (we’re up to about IV and /or V). From that point, you run into the secondary-source equivalent of ‘mission creep,’ ranging from details of the chronology to the attribution of the coins themselves. But it’s still possible to apply a measure of critical triangulation to available references, such as they are. Especially with Cawley’s dependable reliance on primary sources.


Geoffroy IV (Cawley: V), Viscount (Duplessy: ‘vers 1215-1233;’ Cawley: fl. 1175/84 -after 1218.) Denier.
Obv. (very weakly struck: ) Crescent; smaller crescents at top and bottom of legend. (From 7 o’clock: ) GAVF / RIDVS.
Rev. Cross, one crescent in upper right angle.
+CASTRVM DVNI.
(Duplessy 119; cf. esp. Boudeau 250. Also Poey d/Avant 1854, Roberts 4351.)
Here’s the obverse of a seal of his, from the France Balade website
(http://www.francebalade.com/chartres/ctdunois.htm).

(From 11 o’clock: )+SIGILLVm GAUFRIDI VICEMOmITIS CASTRI dVNI. (Seal of Geoffroy, Viscount of Chateaudun.)
The next viscount is Geoffroy ...let’s call him V (Duplessy); of record 1209-1250 (Cawley).

Denier. Obv. Chatel tournois (imitating an issue appropriated by Philippe II, along with Tours itself, early in the 13th century). Fleur de lis in center (as if to underscore the point); crescents above and below.
(From 7 o’clock: ) GAVI- / RID’.
Rev. +CATRVM DVNI.
(Duplessy 504; cf. the original listing, from iNumis:
https://www.inumis.com/shop/chateaudun-vicomte-de-geoffroi-v-denier-1601091/.)
The combination of the (now very royal) tournois motif with the fleur de lis seems to denote Louis IX’s acquisition of direct suzereignty over Blois, Chartres and Chateaudun, as noted above. (Le Goff, St. Louis. Trans. Gollrad. 1996 /U of Notre Dame, 2009. Pp.68-9. Cf. Joinville, the old, ridiculously abridged, annoying indexless Penguin translation, p. 185. ...The sudden appearance of fleurs de lis on other feudal issues around this time, symptomizing similar dynamics, gets to be another story.) Under these conditions, however ironically, this Geoffroy continues to issue coins in his own (thank you, hyper-eponymous) name.
Here’s a seal of his, from the previous, France Balade web page:

...And it’s here that we get some particularly revealing detail about the character and demeanor of the operant Geoffroy. From primary sources, which are only better, for sheer drama, than secondary ones. This is from a letter of the papal legate assigned to Louis IX’s first (/ ‘the 7th’) crusade, to Pope Innocent IV.
"On Friday [23 October 1248] after the feast of St Luke, the Viscount of Chateaudun and several other knights landed in Cyprus. After some days a quarrel arose at the Devil's prompting, [...] between the Viscount and his ship's crew. The Viscount's crossbowmen were responsible for killing two on the Genoese side, of whom one was a man of status and good birth. The Viscount himself, moreover, under what influence I do not know, sought, after a discussion with the Count of Montfort, to sail across to Acre [on the Frankish Syrian mainland, rather than to Egypt, the crusade's destination], and many knights with him. But on learning this the King of France restrained him and the other knights from doing so; for it could have brought about the dispersal of the entire army, and impeded the business of Christendom. Yet since the Viscount wanted at all costs to carry out his intention, the King had his own galleys armed and prevented the ships' captains from trying to take the Viscount or his associates any distance whatsoever. At this the Viscount changed tactics, taking possession of the ship and everything in it, and claiming that according to the contract drawn up between them and the ship's masters both the vessel and all its contents were his by right. It was finally proposed, through the French King's mediation, that the parties should entrust the case to two good men and the King should appoint a third. But the parties would not agree, with the result that the dispute could not be resolved at this juncture."
(Jackson, ed. /trans. The Seventh Crusade, 1244-1254: Sources and Documents. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Document 56, pp. 74-5. Cf. Jackson's encapsulation (p. 64), and his observaton that Geoffroy "would be killed in Egypt on 6 February 1250." (P. 75, note 65. This was the day before the ford across the Nile was discovered, precipitating Robert d'Artois's disastrous attack of Mansourah. Cf. p. 72.)
...After enough of this, the Crusades start to look like two centuries' worth of Vietnam.

 

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Here is a later obole:


RAOUL II de CLERMONT-NESLE (1268-1293/1302) as Seigneur de NESLE (1286-1302), Grand Chamberlain of FRANCE (1283-1302) and Constable of FRANCE (1285-1302)
AR15mm, 0.56g, billon obole tournois, minted at Chateaudun, cca. 1285-1286(?).
+ RADVLFVS VICONS; cross pomettee, dot in 2nd quarter and small chateau in 3rd quarter
CASTR + I DVNI (legends starting at 7 o'clock); Chateau tournois fleurdelise surmounted by cross, standing over upside down crescent with dot inside.
Boudeau 258, Poey d'Avant 1879 p 258, Pl. XXXIX 9.


Raoul de Clermont was one of the generals who followed Louis IX to Tunis in the Eighth Crusade, and later on he served as a general for kings Philip III and IV against different revolts in the realm, and most importantly in the Flemish Wars.
He died in the Battle of the Golden Spurs trying to squash the Flemish revolt in 1302, together with his brother Guy and Robert II d'Artois.

At the Chateau Chateaudun, his possession de jure uxoris with Alix de Dreux, were minted billon deniers and oboles tournois in his name, until around 1290/93(?). He ruled as Viscount of Chateaudun with Alix until her death in 1293, after which he served as regent for their minor son Guillaume.

This specimen is very rare, possibly a special issue, with the small chateau in the 3rd quarter of the obverse. The significance of this small chateau is unknown, but it might suggest the favor Raoul enjoyed at the royal French Court as Grand Chamberlain and Constable and his hold on the ancestral realm of the family, the Seigneurie de Nesle. If so, this would help in narrowing the date for this rare issue around 1285 or 1286 when Raoul was at the peak of his prestige and military might.

Similar specimen here.

 

Great coins and fun write up on an area I've been getting more and more interested in.
Here's a feudal coin I've been working on identifying for a while and an not had much luck:


And then my first feudal coin, an ex @Bing :

FRANCE, FEUDAL, Valence, Bishops of Valence (1157-1276), Silver Denier, 0.71g., stylized angel facing, +VRBS VALENTIAI, rev., cross annulet in fourth quadrant, +S APOLLI NARS, (Boudeau 1021), fine

 

I think @Ryro your top coin is a denier of Provins in Champagne. Something like this.

The legend of left hand image of your coin looks to read CASTRI PRVVINS and the right side reads TEBALT COMES. That said I know, thanks to @FitzNigel. That these denier were imitated as far away as Rome, so take my poorly informed identification with a giant hunk of salt.

 

It's an emission of Provins for certain.

 

Man, you guys are crack shots when it comes to medieval coins! Thanks so much @TheRed and @seth77

 

@Ryro you now know the type, the minting place and the name of the lord, but your coin is not Thibaut II as the one posted by @TheRed but another Thibaut.

 

Interesting coins and write up @+VGO.DVCKS

 

Thanks so much! This is one of my favorite parts of collecting
Going with the parameters that I have and using AC search the only other person is Thibaut IV. I thought the symbols on the reverse looked different. And when I squint I think I can see the castle that he added to the top above the comb (how funny that they chose a comb).
Here is a cool back history to my coin that I found during my searching:
The coins of Champagne feature a type of symbolism beloved by medieval Europeans. The field (champ) of the coin features a comb (peigne) which thus visually spells the name of the county. These coins were widely circulated as a result of the fairs held in Champagne during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries – so much so that even the senate in Rome copied the design. Thibaut IV was the last count to issue the design, but included a castle on top of the comb, perhaps lending further visual wordplay to the place of issue (as the legend denotes the place as being the Castri of Provins). There is a castle at Provins whose central keep bears a striking resemblance to the crenellations shown on this denier, but any connections to this being the inspiration for the design is speculation.

 

sounds incredibly familiar...

I like the coins @+VGO.DVCKS - I’ve been meaning to get one of these for a long time. On the ‘to-do’ list

 

Thibaut IV dit "le Chansonnier" is a very important 13th century figure.



Until 1222 when he came of age, Thibaut was under the regency of his mother Blanche de Navarre. During the 1220s he solidified his rule in Champagne with enormous material costs. In 1234 he inherited the Kingdom of Navarre and established himself as one of the most powerful barons in France and Spain. In 1239 he conducted the "Barons Crusade" -- one of the most successful crusading endeavors since the First Crusade, which brought back into the rule of the Kingdom of Jerusalem the City of Jerusalem (such as it was by this time) and most of the territory between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea. Thibaut also remained in history as a great poet and trouvere.



His coinage in Provins continued the traditional denier ou provinois, which by the 1200s was widespread not only in the whole County of Champagne but in the neighboring fiefs too. The new design with the three towers was introduced perhaps around the 1210s, at the height of the denier parisis of Philip II Augustus of France, with which it circulated at a parity.

 

I noticed the auction house was "close to home". Wonderful and enlightening comments and a VERY cool coin!
I have been trying to find more on the period of feudal France. Where might you point one looking to learn more about this seemingly obscure place in time?

 

I’m honestly not sure of any specific book that covers French numismatics that aren’t simply catalogs. Roberts ‘Silver Coinage of Medieval France’ gives some small bits of background, but not much as the book mashes so many coins into a single volume. If you are just interested in Medieval French history, there are loads of books out there (some might argue it’s the history of France by which the rest of Medieval European history is measured)

 

France, Feudal. Blois (Comté), time of Thibaut III. Circa AD 1037-1089/1090. AR Denier (19mm, 1.27g, 5h). Obv: Stylized Blois-style head right; pellet to right. Rev: + BEISIS CΛSTRO; Cross pattée. Ref: Poey D'Avant 1690; Boudeau 193; Roberts 5056; Duplessy 578.

 

@FitzNigel, regarding your first point, I sure can't think of any. The cataloguing itself has been such a huge, continuously evolving project that the broader interpretive and contextual side ends up being relegated to a secondary role, relative to the attribution per se. The exceptions I'm aware of are either regional studies or journal articles, both of course on a much less comprehensive scale. Adam's Corpus des Monnaies Féodales Champenoises (Troyes, 2018; sometimes for sale on the cgb website) evokes Metcalf and Malloy on coins of the crusader states, with concise historical introductions to each section. ...Best example that comes to mind.
...But otherwise, we're still in the early phases of 'mainstream' historians fully acknowledging numismatic evidence; why shouldn't the converse be true? ...Come to think of it, has the integration of the two disciplines progressed much further with the English hammered series? Maybe by a little....
Regarding your endorsement of medieval French history generally, I for one can't agree with you more. During the Gothic era, France is effectively the cultural superpower. To that you can add the primarily French impetus of the Crusades, as Europe's leading experiment beyond its own borders. ...Not even sure it's an accident that the Renaissance follows on France's effective eclipse by the Hundred Years' War. At that interval, needless to say, the whole continent's cultural center of gravity, so to speak, undergoes a major shift. ...And at least regarding the relation of cultural and political history, I for one think we can just shelve the notion that they aren't mutually integral. (...It's morning here; sorry (just not enough) for the verbosity.)

 

@Edessa, thanks for your much better pics (At Least) of this issue, along with your much more comprehensive references.

 

I might also add - stay tuned for the Medieval European Coinage series from Cambridge. The first volume of French coinage (“the age of the denier”) is in production. So far these volumes have been excellent resources for history and coins, and are fairly comprehensive. I have no idea when the volume will be published though

 

Have you heard anything about who the contributors are? This was completely off my radar.

 

Marc Bompaire for the first volume at least.
https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/research/mec

 

Many thanks for the link! Having only seen a couple of articles, Bompaire is very evidently top-drawer. I was surprised to find out from the website that he's collaborated with Dumas.