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�"lliF--T TOUCHES ALL:
C:CIN_A,;E AN8 NONETARY POLICY IN LEON-CASTILE
TC l230
BY
James J.
H.
B.
A.,
A.,
Todesca
Georgetown University,
May
Catholic university of America,
1960
February 1985
DISSERTATION
SUB.HITTED IN
PARTIAL FULFI LLNEI\TT OF
THE REQUIRE.HENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTNENT
OF HISTORY AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
NEN YORK
JUNE,
1996
UMI Number:
9702145
Copyright 1996 by
Todesca, James Joseph
All rights reserved.
UMI Microform 9702145
Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.
This microform edition is protected against unauthorized
copying under Title 17, United States Code.
UMI
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
,
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF
ARTS
A�\D
SciENCES
June 18,
· · · · ······· · · · · ··· · ······ ·····················
This dt$.Serration prepared
under my
James J.
96
!9 .....
.
d!rec1ion by
Todesca
g-����X. .��--�.7.?.�::��-�-����---�.'?. . . ��-�-�..........................................
.
.
h::s been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of
. . R.9.'?.��E .<?.� . ?.�J:..�.'?.��EJ!).¥...........................................
.
..
.
in the Department of
..
..
. . . I:I.�.���.:;-.¥.....................................................
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1tf:�(.1,./,:b-:..
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./
(Mentor)
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t.- Zr t<: / _;v
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••••• 0 ....... . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. ..................... . . ...............
'
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............. :··::.:&J.l::...-. /.:��(/
.
L
(Reader}
:,: ....... .
1
. .
..
(Reader)
..
.J
Th� Old Gr�y Donkey,
�orn�r .)f �he forest,
·�n
one
side,
sadly t:c
stood by himself in a thistly
his front f�et
and thought
himsel�,
":-iherefore?"
Eeyore,
"Why?"
we::
a tout 1:hings.
apar!,
some1: im�s
his head
h� thought:
and s o met im� s he t:hought,
.=md sometimes
he thought,
:-f in}:ing al:out.
"Inasmuch as
:-ri ln�
a Ta.:..::.
and Pooh Finds one"
..
.�.
:;.._.
"In tvhich Eeyore L·JSes
once in a\-:hile
In
you
the strangest of
get s hmm th� light
places if
you lo o k at
it right.
CONTENTS
��sr
��
v
r:lustrations
vi
lX
l
�EE
P.?--R.T ONE
FOUNC?:.�ION:3 OF A HONETAAY ECONOI'-fY,
i
:.1- E·.S:
.�.sr- ;_a· i
:ts-L�·:,n and the I�r ian Hon�ta.ry E.:x,nomy
lOOC·: Hut�ammad and Charl.::magne
;-=.,c..:: ns ide red
:::e:..::l·-::
The Loss of Gold (29); Honey in the Hispanic
Christian States in the Nint h Centm·y (38);
The Caliphate and the Return to G o ld ( 42 l;
Solidi Gallicani (45); solidus Al· g enti
The
Di plom a t ic Evidence ( 5L); Solidus ?u.··qenti The Nu:..ismatic Evidence {57); The Question of
Indig-::nous Coinage (64)
-
l. .i
•
The Eleventh Century:
The Age of Farias
Barcelona and the Hancus c.1000-l050 (12); The
First Farias (83); The Town of Leon in the
Early Elevent h century (67); The Farias and
the te
v stern Kingdoms (100); The Leonese
Domest ic Economy Under Fernando I (106); The
Solitary Denarius of Fernando I (111)
PART T\vO
ES TABLISHING A COIN OF THE REAlki,
Alfonso VI ( 1065-1109)
and the Expansion of Hinting
1065-1126
The Early Years of t he Reign ( 121); Expansion
and Reform, 1085-1109 (131); The Impetus For
Reform (143)
1,J.-0
, ,
IV.
:'he Hark and -:he Den arius: Ne1..; Hon etary a nd
N.:n.arial L inks -:..;ith Latin Europe c.llOO
,
15�
Th-e Introductio n of the Hark (166); The
Appearance of the Solidus Denariorum (178)
T!..1-=- Openinq Conf lie�, 1110-1111 ( 1 9 3 ); The
E�ide�ce of the Coins (197); Civil War
.:.:=tn�inue d, llll-1114 (205); T he Royal r-ti.nts a-:
Pal.e:1cia and :..e•:Sn ( 216); Ne\v Hints at sahaqu:1
a!'ld Salamanca (219); The Rebel Hints at: Toledo
ar,j Se9c·via ( 226); T h e Strength of the
Coina-::re
! L. 3-:i)
:-:::... .::!.'J':'.?-..:NING
..::..
PART THREE
CURRENCY,
STABLE
112 5-115 7
'TOI.Iiards .=: Bi-JI.letal l ic S ystem Under
Alfonso �II (:126-1157)
The Ac:�:otion of
(245);
(266)
a Ouaternal S i lv er Standard
(25 3 ) ; Rates of E xcha ae
:-he Ncrabetlno
"JII.
Hints and the Questio n
n
of Monetagi urn
284
Toledo (288); salamanca (290); zamora (294);
Burgos (298l; Sego vi a ( 3 0 3 l; Zaragoza ( 3 06) ;
compostela (309); Lugo (31 3); Leon and Sahagun
(317); Palencia (319); siglienza and Soria
(329)
VIII.
The Prosp:ct c•f Coi nage Re ne\va:L
Defi ning Mutatio ( 336); The Conc-ept of
Renot•atio i"fone:.ae ( 3-i2); The Hoard Evidence
(352); Co c lus ions (359)
n
PART FOUR
DIVISION l>.ND ADAPTATION,
IX.
1157-1230
The Division of the Realm a nd
Expa nsion of Minting
Th� Early �oins of castile
(366)
.334
in Castile (3/l)
siglienza; calahorra;
Plasencia; cuenca
Hints
Th� Denarius in Leon,
r;�,...;
osrna/Soria;
1157-123C•
!·!i nt :3 .in L�On ( 3 � 3 )
.s a atiago and La coruna;
:--:
.
�.... �Jo("i
-=�s-:el.:!.. ;;.odrigo;
om:Jes Ta:1ui t:
o·,•iedo;
Avila and
( 389)
Ciudad Rodrigo;
orense and .l\storga
Ne\.: Poli,�ies
at the Da\._?JI of
"':he 'I'hirteentr. c-::ntury
;:._ �Ja7_2_·,·e ,-;old :::utT-::ncy ( 40/); De ba sement of
:.h-:: :astil.ian Do::narius c.l2C'O (419); Crisis
��-=�:.-::d ir. Leo� (42�); Aftermath - The
��i�:.-::enth
-=-=���ry
407
(434)
APPENDICES
- I
4�-
6.
'-· ·
Sih•er
to
Gold Exchange in the El-::·venth Century
T he Council '='f Va.l.ladolid,
11::.::.
4/·�·
465
C.�TA.:..OGt.iE
-'-.
An<:-n:J-mo;.:s ':'yp:s
TI.
The Reign of Alfonso VI
IV.
The Feign of Alfonso vr=
v.
vr.
castile
Leon
40,,
-
(1�65-1:09)
�
�.
- L
4a
(1126-1157)
(l:i.S"i-1230)
(1157-:230)
518
c:��
_,L L
ILLUSTR:;TICNS
Figu::..-es
L .
_, .
�..7�igf1t
:·is� 1_-ibutic�n •-'�
of th� Sta�-star Mint
3�jl.�..Ja1.ese�
�v�igf"1t : i :3 t r .!.l)ut i('n ::�f 3 �1l·9a� e�e�
!�ct ��f t.I-1� St.a1·-st-=u: r-Iin.t
43�
516
c:• ­
...:.1. I
Haps
i.
,.
Mints 1n �e6n-Casti:e Du�ing the Reign
cf A:f�nsc VII (ll26-�7i
Hint.s in th� :ndep:-ndent Fingdoms of
L�dn and Cast�le, 1157-1232
.,
'
333
406
�milio
del arc hi vo de la .: at.:. dl·a l d"" Leon
715-.:.23,:· 1, l.� .,,,:,ls. to da�e (Leon, l!-87-?4).
S�ez
et.
al.,
e ds.,
�olecci6n
Jocumem:al
1
�nuario de historia del d.:.recho escafiol.
Julie Gonz�lez,
El reino de Castilla en la
:?6 C.).
�o�ca de AJ.fonso VI II,
3 vols.
(Hadrid,
Acta Numism�tic a .
Be, -__ e t i n
d.=. l a Insti t. u cic•n Fernan-Gonzalez
�� let in d.=. la Co mision Provincial de
Hc,:lumentos y Ar t isticos de Burgos l.
Boletin de la Real Academia de Hist•xia.
Eoletin del seminario de estudios de arte y
a1·aueol•Jaia 1dE- la Universidad d.:.
Valladolid 1.
cuade1·nos d,..::. historia de Espafia.
Dark Age
( L ondon,
Economie
1979).
Philip \:;l·ierson,
Dark .i\ge Numismatics
Jean Gautie1-::i.�lch�, E c on omie -=-t societe dans
( London,
1982 ) .
les pays de la cou1·onne de Castill e
Enrique Florez,
(Hadrid,
Espafia sagrada,
1 74 7-72 ).
vols 1-27
Gaceta Numismatica.
HC
Emma Falque Rey,
ed.,
Corpus Christianorum,
1988).
vi
Histol·ia Co:lffipostellana,
7C· (Turnholdt,
vol.
" R .""t l l a z gos
:tl.::netal-ios ..
:-��s�:rna.:--1�5 ..
"E.=:ll.=:zgos
Fo:-liP= H a t-:- u y Ll·:·pis, "n.=tllazgos
See bib::.ic·grap:-.y for
monet.:u-ios."
i ndi vi du a l i�stal�ments.
list of
Fe lip:- r-r ateu y :.. lo pis, "nallazgos
numismaticos musulrnanes."
se-::- bib:::...:.c·graphy
for list of
.indi-,,idual instal�rnents.
�oins of the Hispanic Sch�i�t-1- .::f �..L11�ri<�a,
r:.-=rmanent loar. to the American N:l!T.ismatic
()n
�ariac� j�
-:- st udios num i sma tic os hispano-a1 al:w:s.
Juan
Ignacio
(:araqc.za,
S�enz-Diez,
::.?88).
ed.,
I
Juan Ignacio S�enz-Diez and Maria So l e r
Ealaguero, eds., II j ari a u e de estudic: s
numismaticc.s hisoano-arabes ( L e r i da ,
_
E·::<:.).
Collection •Jf the Ga bi net-=- t·:;_m-·i sm.:;t ic,:;,
Arqueologico N aci·: mal1 Hadl.-id.
P�:.�_lip �1- ie 1·s o n and �rar !:
'·IE
,-:bta
'-�•:'lmpleta
E.lac�:I-,ul
n,
r-ius-=-•:>
�I8di��.ral
Eu· .:)pean Coinaae, vol. ... , The E a1.·ly JI.I.iddle
A�:-=-s (5th-lOth centuries) ('-:ambrid·-j-=-, :?o0).
Numario H is pa ni co.
21
Pio
Be ltr a n Villagr.::.sa,
Numismat i ca de la edad media y de
ed.
(Zaragoza,
Rev�s cat6lic0s1
r-rartinez.
Obra C.:)rnpleta,
Antonio Beltran
1972).
·,rc•l.
lc•s
Hario Gc•mes Ha1.·ques, ed., Prob:erns ,·,f
JI.I edieval Coinage in the Iber i_ar; .:;.rea
?HC II
?1\fC III
(Santarem1
1?84).
Hario Gomes JI.Iar,-; ues and r-r.iauel
C1 usaf.:nt i
....
s aba te r , eds. 1 P l.·ob lems c,f Hedie\�al coinaae
in
the I beria n Are a II
( Av iles ,
1966).
Hario Gomes Haraues and D.H. Ho::-t•:-alf, -=-ds. 1
Problems of Ho::: d eva l Coinaoe in the Iberian
Are a III ( Sant ar e m1 1?68).
.f
a rgue ol og i a y numismati·:a 2:Utu•:-•n-=-sC1.
caesarauqusta:
Publicacion�s del s�minario de
Sahaaun
J.N. Hinguez Fernandez, Harta Herrero de
Fuente, and J.A. Fern a ndez Florez, eds.,
Coleccion diplomatic a del monasterio d�
Sahagun
(857-1300},
4 vols. to d ate.(Le6n,
1976-1991).
Antonio Lopez Ferreiro,
apos toli ca mo:::>t rowlitana
de compostela,
11 vols.
Santiago de Compostela,
La santa
Eistoria de
iglesia de Sant � aa.::�
(1898- 1 911;
1C83t.
reprint,
S)mposi urn Nurnismatico d.::. B a r c elon a ,
(SaL· c elona ,
-:-r
�-ibi-=t•},
"Documentos"
1
simwsi
Earcelona,
la
2
1979).
._:o:s
Numismatic de Earc--=-l- ;; .;,
1980).
Antonio Ubieto Arteta, "Docum-:,nt·-·� p.:,., . :, ..:..:.
estudio de la nwllismatica navarro- -.:wc:nesa
=.:) · J'--,"
"'·
�
- ·•a:
\.:
... u-i..
-_. -'....... -,
m-dl.
·�
pa··ts
1-4 I PS.!l.t.T.!l.
'.L (:c.
�
-1 "
-
2 (1953) :85-102;
183-89.
5 (1954) :
�
--
l47-59;
6
•
(l955}:
ACKNmu..EDGHE 1\'TS
-&
·-��
financia:
Fordham univo:rsity and Dr.
supp.)r-:
Without
:Stahl. Gf
th�ir much-n��d�d
from the American Numismatic 5oci�ty as
lX
INTRODUCTION
Go,
Ye who wou ld more of S pain and Spani ards know,
read whate ' er is writ of bloodiest strife
From f lashing scimitar to secret knife .
Byro n , " Childe Harold ' s Pi lgrimage "
Although Byron ' s lines were meant to invoke sympathy
for Spain ' s strugg le against Napoleo n , they typify what
until recent dec ades was the traditional approac h to the
hi story of I beria in the Middle Ages .
The development of
the Latin kingdoms o f the penins ula and their ultimate
unif ic ation under the " C at ho lic King s , " Ferdinand and
Isabella , was seen as synonymo us with the hi story of the
reco nque st or the Christ ian struggle against I slam .
As
Richard Fletcher po i nted o ut , as a res ult of this emphasis
on the reconquest much o f the le s s glamoro us story
concerning the " behi nd-the-lines " deve lopment of the se
kingdoms sti ll remains to be written . !
This pre se nt study i s concerned broadly with the
gro\vth of a monetary eco nomy in the kingdom of Leoncastile .
More specifically, it seeks to evaluate how
ef fectively the mo narchy of Leon-Castile met the task of
supplying the kingdom with an ample and acceptable
r
1
Richard A . F letc her , The Episcopate in the Kingdom
of Le6n in the Twelfth Century (Oxford, 1978), 1.
1
2
While Byron no doubt wo uld have found royal
c urrenc y .
mo netary policy le ss inspiring than the deeds of the
reconque st , the fate of the kingdom ' s coinage was capable
of s tirring surprising emotions among the inhabitant s of
medieval Leo n-castile .
In 1 2 8 2 , the rebel lious so n of
Alfonso X ( 1 2 5 2 - 8 4 ) , called a meet ing of noble s , c lergy and
to\vnsmen to Valladolid to hear grievance s against hi s
father .
one of the chief complaint s o f that assembly
concer ned Alfo nso X ' s debasement of the currency.
The
as sembly agreed to support Sancho in his revolt on the
condit io n that he restore the co inage that was c urrent i n
the kingdom before his f ather ' s time . 2
While manipulat io n
of the c oi nage was not the only po licy that led to Alfonso
X ' s rui n , the demands of the assembly at Val lado lid
il lustrate the importance that coinage had come to play in
the economy of the kingdom by the thirteenth century .
From a moder n pers pective , it perhaps come s as no
surprise to find a medieval king debasing hi s coin .
I ndeed , in the later Middle Ages many of the ruler s of
We stern E urope , inc luding those of Leo n-Castile , resorted
often to s uc h measures seemingly wit h litt le regard for or
understanding of the consequenc es . 3
2 James J. Todesca ,
The strong re sponse
"Coinage and the Rebellion of
Sancho of casti le , " in Mediterranean studies IV, ed .
Benjamin F.
Taggie et al.
(Kirksville ,
3 see Peter S pufford ' s chapte r ,
1994) ,
27-43.
" The scourge of
Debasement , " in Money and It s Use in Medieval Europe
(
( Cambridge , 1 9 88 ) , 289- 3 1 8 .
3
which Alfonso X ' s succes sive debasement s c aused among hi s
subj ects , howe ver , shows t hat in the mid-thirteenth century
this course of action was not at all taken for granted .
The po pular protest that Alfonso X ' s debasements
provoked rai se s a number of important questions with regard
to monetary po licy i n the kingdom be fore he came to the
throne in 1 2 52 .
Was the coinage be fore Alfo nso X stable
and of good strength or were the men assembled at
Valladolid in 1 2 82 simply romantic izing about good o ld days
gone by?
If the y were not , how lo ng standing was the
traditio n of a sound c urrency in the kingdom?
was this stabi lity achieved?
Final ly , how
Alfo nso X and hi s succes sors
wo uld resort repeatedly to debasement .
How , then, could
the earlier kings of Leo n-Cast ile have avoided s uc h a
recour se ?
With the se que st ions in mind , the present work
addres se s the mo netary po licy of the kings of Leon-castile
before the ascension of Alfonso X .
While the origins of
the kingdom of Leo n- castile date bac k to the eighth
century, inconte stable evidence for a royal coinage cannot
be found in the so urce s unti l the late e leventh cent ury ,
during the reign o f Alfonso VI ( 1 0 65 - 1 1 0 9 ) .
The
proposition that t he kings of Leon waited until the late
eleventh century to is s ue coin s , however , has often struck
hi storians and numi smatist s as suspect .
S ince the days of
the caro lingian empire , secu lar as wel l as religious
r
authoritie s thro ughout E urope had increasingly turned to
4
the business of mint in g .
Furthermore , surviving doc uments
from Leon clearly show that some form of silver c urrency
circ ulated in the kingdom from the ear ly tenth century
onward .
Was thi s coinage imported , either from the Muslim
so ut h or Latin Europe , or was it in fact some type of
indigenous c urrency?
If it was a native c urrenc y , was it
struck by private initiative or by license of the crown?
Answers to the se questio ns ultimately af fect how we
interpret the signific ance of events from the re ign of
Alfonso VI and cannot simply be brushed aside .
In thi s
work , therefore , I have chosen t o survey the growt h of the
use of money in the kingdom ro ughly from its inception
c . 7 1 1 to c . l 2 5 2 .
Overal l , the diplomatic and numi smatic sources
relating to the theme o f money in Leon-Castile prior to
12 52 are not abundant .
Monetary history , however , i s
perhaps best approached comparatively .
The economic or
political factor s that c ause a c urrency in one state to
flourish may c ause the money of another to f alter .
Within
the I berian peninsula in particular , periods of pro s perity
followed by interval s of po litic al upheaval in Mus lim
Andalusia repeatedly affected the fortunes of the Chri stian
kingdoms .
By using an array o f document ary and numi smatic
evidence c ul led not j ust from Leon-Casti le but from the
other Spanish Latin states as we ll as the Mus l im south , it
becomes possible to examine the monetary history of Leon-
(
5
Casti le more f ul ly within the larger context of the
deve loping Iberian eco nomy .
The documentary material f al ls i nto three categories ,
royal diplomas , private charters and narrative sources .
For the crown of Leon- cast ile , no royal archive survives
today and we are therefore reliant on what sc attered
document s are preserved in loc al ecc le s i astical and
munic i pal arc hives whic h s urely represent only a fraction
of what the royal chancery issued .
Al l that primari ly
s urvive of royal acta before the thirteenth century are
charters granting properties or rights to the c lergy and
f ueros or law codes granted to towns along the frontier .
Within the gro up o f charters to the c lergy , there are a
number o f royal grants touching on the right s of certain
bi shops to a percentage of loc al minti ng revenue s whic h
carry obvious import i n al lowing us to reconstruct the mint
network of the kingdom .
The town tueros are normally
fi lled with references to mo ney since as l aw codes they
established f i ne s for infractions .
Thes e code s as they
survive today , however , have often been amended .
Although
they may still retain the original date of i s s ue , any
informat io n they offer must be interpreted c autious ly .
In the nei ghboring kingdom of Aragon-catalonia , the
royal record i s considerably better pre served .
If not hing
else , the document s that s urvive here show u s what type of
records probably once existed for the crown o f Leon­
(
casti le .
The c artulary known as the Liber Feudorum Maior ,
a
for example , pre serves c harter s detailing the rights and
properties acquired by the e levent h-cent ury co unts of
Barcelona and the later twelfth-cent ur y count-kings of
Aragon-catalonia .
occ asiona lly , t he se documents provide
some insight into the state of t he f inances of the ruler .
Ramo n Bere nguer IV ' s purchase of Genoa ' s share of the city
of Torto sa in 115 3 provide s a good example .
The charter
te ll us not only t he provenance of the vario us gold pieces
Ramo n Berenguer used , but whic h of t he se go ld pieces was
accepted as the standard of wei ght in t he transaction . 4
charters s howing s imilar purchases made by t he c rown of
Leon-Casti le are virtually unknown before the late
thirteenth century .
Inve ntorie s of revenue s owed t he c rown comprise
another genre of doc umentation which is non-existent for
the kingdom of Leo n-castile before 12 52 .
Fi sc al account s
survive for Aragon-Catalonia from t he mid-twe lfth century . s
These and other miscellaneous royal instr umen ta found today
in the arc hive s of t he crown o f Aragon-Catalonia , such as
early mint contrac t s or proc lamations regarding spec if ic
coinage s , are inva luable for t he light t hey he lp shed on
4 Francisco M. Rosell, ed. , Liber Feudorum Maior:
Cartulario real gue se conserva en e l Archive de la Corona
de Aragon
{Barcelona,
1945),
1:485-87
no.
463.
5 Thomas N . B i s son , Fiscal Account s of Catalonia Under
the Ear ly count -K ings (1151-121 3 ) , 2 vo l s . ( Berkeley-Lo s
Ange le s , 1 9 8 4 ) .
(
7
co ntemporary event s in Leon-casti le . 6
For example , the
significance o f a Castilian coin o f the late twe lfth
c entury , the so-c alled pepi6n , can mere ly be gue s sed at if
we rely so le ly on the extant Casti lian sources .
The nat ure
of t he coin become s c lear , however , if o ne examine s
co ntemporary eve nt s in B arcelo na under Pedro I I (119612 1 3 ) .
To supplement the royal docume nt ation, a lar ge body of
private charters s urvive s from both the realm of LeonCast i le and Aragon-cata lonia .
The vast majority o f t hese
charters are simple records of sales or donations of
property .
suc h records can provide a broad gauge of
mo netary c irculation i n that t hey often indicate t he
preferred species of payment i n a given time frame , i . e . ,
whether transactions were mo st o ften conducted in kind ,
in
si lver or in go ld, but t hey se ldom yie ld more s pec i f ic
information about the coins that c hanged hands .
References
to " good money " or money " of f u l l weight " may ref lect
notarial conventions more than t hey accurately describe the
coins that were used .
There are , of course , exceptions to
the ambiguous c harter but their rarity is all the more
reason to cast a wide net when searc hing for re levant
source material .
I f a sma l l sale of property in Arago n
6 see , for example, a document of Alfonso II (1162-96)
of Aragon-Catalonia publi s hed in Thomas N . Bisson,
Conservation o f coinage: Monetary Exploitation and its
(
Restraint in France,
1225)
(Oxford, 1979),
catalonia
201 no.
and
3.
Aragon (c . A.D.
1 000-
8
happened to note the c urrent rate of exc hange between the
go ld dinar and t he Aragonese denar ius , it may ultimate ly
he lp explain aff airs in neighboring castile .
Of the narrative so urce s , the His �ori a compos�el ana ,
whic h detai l s the career of Diego Ge lmirez , bi shop and t hen
archbishop o f Santiago de Compo ste la from 1 1 0 0 to 1 1 4 0 , is
by f ar the most usef ul .
Though it s author s were certainly
not unbiased i n their interpretation o f events , they had
access to the arc hives of the see of compo ste la and were
c lose contemporaries to the events they c hronic led . 7
The
His �oria is a part ic ular ly valuable so urce from the point
of view of monetary hi story in that the town was the site
of a pro sperous mint t hroughout the twelfth century .
Another first- hand narrative for the period can be found ln
the memoirs o f the Mu slim prince of Granada ,
' Abd Allah ,
whose de scri ption of event s at the end of the eleventh
ce nt ury provides one of the few detailed account s of the
size and nature o f t he tribute Mus lim rulers were forced to
pay the more powerf ul Latin kings . a
Other c hro nicler s of the period tend to be more
removed from t he event s they describe .
Mo st do not give
detailed information o n coinage and any pas s ing references
7 See Bernard
F.
Rei lly, " The His tori a Compos telana:
The Genesis and composition of a Twelfth-Century Spanish
(
Ges ta , " SJ?eCUlum 4 4 ( 1 9 6 9 ) : 78-8 5 .
8 'Abd Allah, The Tibyan: Memoirs of 'Abd Allah B .
Bulugg in , Last z irid Arnir o f Granada , trans . Amin T . Tibi
( Leiden , 1 9 8 6 ) .
9
they happen to make to f inancial matters must be weighed
c aref ul ly .
The brief Chronicon comopostellan um , for
example , c laims that Fernando I ( 1 03 5- 6 5 ) of Leo n-cast ile
was due annual tribute from no les s than four Muslim
prince s but never te lls the amount o f these tributes or in
what s pec ies they were paid or how regular ly they were
paid . 9
Whi le Fernando cert ai nly prospered , he may not have
been as wealthy as some historians have ve nt ured to gues s .
Any work of medieval monetary hi story must also take
into account the surviving numismatic record .
Toget her ,
the co llec tion of the Museo Arqueo logico Nac io na l in
Madr id , the collection of the Hi spanic Soc iety of Americ a ,
on loan to the American Numi smatic Soc iety , and the
Americ an Numismatic society ' s own supplementary co llection
provide an excel le nt repre sentative sample of the coin
type s that s urvive from Leon-Castile before 1 2 52 .
not a partic ularly large body of coins .
Thi s �s
The combined trays
of the se collections hold probably less than 500 coins
pertaining to the period .
Nevertheles s , the three
co llections do contain example s of the maj or ity of known
type s and variations wit hin a type .
The c abinet s of
Spain ' s provincial museums a s we l l as those of other
9 E nrique Flore z , ed . , " Chronicon compo stel lanum, " in
ES , 20: 609 .
(
a
European museums and private collections do not ho ld a
great dea l more in thi s regard . 1 o
While I have examined each o f the coins 1n the trays
of the Museo Arqueol6gico Nac ional , the Hi spanic Society of
Americ a and the Americ an Numismatic Society that pertain to
the period prior to 12 5 2 and have likewise exami ned the
major catalogues relevant to private c o l lections as we ll as
publ ished hoard report s , the pre sent work does not pretend
to account for all known types .
witho ut better hoard
evidence it 1s impos sible to place all the se types even in
a tentative chrono logy and it therefore make s litt le sense
in this work to de scribe type after type solely for the
sake of compre hensivenes s .
Mo st coins discussed in the text are described 1n full
in the attac hed catalogue where I also c ite in what
co llection the type or variety c an be fo und or where it can
be found in the numi smatic literat ure .
While this is
a
catalogue of selected type s , it nonetheles s represent s the
mo st comprehensive treatment o f the coinage of Leo n-Cast ile
prior to 1 2 5 2 that is c urrently avai lable .
I have not
10 The late Mercedes Rueda Sabater examined the
(
provincial c o l lections within Leon-Casti le and also vi sited
a number of foreign cabinets . At the time , s he was most
interested in one particular type , but took note s on all
the Leonese pieces s he saw, informat io n whic h she was kind
enough to share with me . See her Primeras ac ufiaciones de
Cast i lla y Leo n (Salamanc a , 1 9 9 1 ) 2 1 and pass im . Antonio
orol Pernas , before hi s death , showed both Rueda Sabater
and I the mo st notable pieces in his vast collection and
shared with us his knowledge o f other private co llec tions .
11
inc luded ln the cata logue any of the gold is sues of Leon­
Ca stile , since they can be found adequately de sc ribed in
older cata logues , nor have I inc luded coins di sc us sed in
the text which were produc ed o ut side the kingdom of Leon­
casti le .
Here again the reader is referred to the
appropriate numi smat ic l iterature that treat s these
coinages .
Modern scholar s have long recognized the need for a
detailed study of the early mo netary history o f Leon­
castile .
In 1 92 8 , C laudio S anchez Alborno z published hi s
paper "La primitiva organi zaci6n monetaria de Le6n y
Casti l la . "
In his openi ng paragraphs , the aut hor remarked
that nearly a third of a century had elapsed s ince Antonio
Vive s presented hi s survey of the co inage of Leon-Castile
to spain ' s Royal Academy of Hi story and that s ince that
time no one had seriously returned to the theme .
sanc he z
Albornoz noted that Pio Be ltran had been preparing a more
in-depth study o f the coinage " for some time , " but he
openly worried that Be ltran ' s methodology was too like that
of Vives before him .
Whi le Vive s had revealed an expert
knowledge of the coinage , Sanc he z Albornoz pointed out that
he had scarcely dealt with any of the doc ument ary evidence .
The bulk of sanchez Albornoz • pape r , then, attempted to
(
12
incorporate hi s own profound knowledge of the archival
material with the numismatic evidence pre sented by Vives . l l
Vive s had accepted the bas ic chronology given in
Aloiss Heiss ' s nineteenth-centur y catalogue covering the
Chri stian coins of S pain from the co llapse o f the
Vi sigothic kingdom . Hei s s co nc luded that there was no c lear
numi smatic evide nce for an indigenous co inage in the
kingdom, royal or otherwise , unti l Alfonso VI (1 0 65-11 0 9)
retook Toledo , the traditional seat of visigot hic power ,
from the Mus lims i n 1 0 85 and minted coins dec lar ing himself
ANFVS REX TOLE TVM . 1 2
Sanc he z Alborno z did not challenge
this chronolo gy , t ho ugh he expre s sed " certain re servations "
about it .
He was mainly concerned wit h countering Vives ' s
suggestion that when a coinage was f inal ly i nitiated , the
crown took no direct role but granted the right to mint to
local authorities in exc hange for a share of the pro fits .
By examining select royal doc ument s , sanchez Alborno z was
able to effect ivel y show that in the twe lfth cent ury the
crown certai nly had retained some contro l over its coin .
Sti l l , his paper was limited in scope and he did not intend
to answer al l the questions he rai sed .
His call for
further work on the subj ect , particularly work that
1 1 C laudio sanche z Albor noz , "La pr imiti�va
organizac i6n monetaria de Leon y Cast i l la . " AHDE
3 01- 4 5 ; Antonio Vives , La moneda c astel l ana :
(
5 ( 1928 ) :
Discur so s
( Madrid , 1 9 01 ) .
leido s ante l a Real Academia de l a Hi storia
12 Alois s Hei s s , Descripci6n genera l de las monedas
hispano-cristianas desde la i nvasi6n de los arabes , vo l . 1
( Madrid, 1 8 65 ) , 3- 4 .
13
incorporated the evidence of the doc uments with the
evidence o f the co ins went large ly unheeded .
Serious ac ademic pur suit s of any kind , o f cour se , were
derai led by the outbreak of civi l war in the 1 9 3 0 s .
The
subsequent emigrat ion of many of Spain ' s leading art ists
and sc ho lars fol lowing the defeat of t he Republic ,
inc luding sanc he z Alborno z himse lf , f urt her hampered
progre s s in the early decade s of Franco ' s dictator ship .
In
the 1 9 5 0 s and early 1 9 6 0 s , Pio Beltran produced several
artic les on the early coins of Leo n- Ca st ile and Aragon that
attempted to follow the interdisciplinary approach endorsed
by s anchez Alborno z , but with questionable s uc cess .
Be ltran wrote broadly and se ldom paused to f ul ly explain
hi s ar gume nt s or pro perly identify his sources .
His work,
whi le important , stands today as enigmat ic f or both the
numi smat i st and the historian . l 3
In 1 9 6 0 , Sanchez Alborno z returned to the theme of the
early mo netary history o f Leon in a pape r de livered at a
sympos i um on mo ney and exchange held i n S po leto , Italy . 1 �
since the public ation of his " La primit i va organizac io n " in
1 9 2 8 , another third of a century had s l i pped by but still
13 For Leon, see prim arily P io Beltran Vil lagr as a ,
"Dinero de vel lo n de Fernando I e l Magno , e n l a colecc ion
'Los Arcos,'" first published in PSANA 3 ( 1 9 52): 97- 1 13 .
For Ar agon , see hi s " Los dineros j aqueses : s u evaluacion y
de s a parici6n, " first published in PSANA 1 (19 51 ) : 5 1- 112 .
1 4 C laudio Sanchez Alborno z , " Mo neda de cambio y de
c uenta en e l reino astur- leones , " Moneta e scambi ne ll '
(
Alto Medioevo , Centro Italiano di Studi S ul l ' Alto
Medioevo , Sett im ane di studio 8 ( Spo leto , 1 9 6 1 ) : 1 7 1 - 2 0 2 .
14
the author had very litt le to add to his e arlier work .
While new hoard finds and some new c o i n type s had been
di scovered in the intervening thirty years , sanc he z
Albornoz scarce ly noted them . l S
Mo st puz z ling was hi s
failure to mention a coin type that had come to light
in
the 1 9 5 0 s whic h was thought to have been struc k by Fernando
I ( 1 0 3 5- 6 5 ) , the f ather of Alfonso VI .
If thi s coin was
indeed an is sue of Fernando I , it revi sed , if only
slight ly , the chrono logy postu lated by Heiss .
The al leged coin o f Fernando I had been exc iting news
at the i nternational numismatic expo sition held in Madrid
in the ear ly 1 9 5 0 s . l 6
I t was , in fact , t he discovery of
this coin that prompted Be ltran to publish his f ir st study
of Leone se coi nage , whic h he had promi sed sanc he z Albornoz
year s be fore . l 7
Yet , Sanchez Alborno z only remarked in his
paper from S po leto , this time more strongly than in 1 9 2 8 ,
that it struck him as incredible that no monarch in Leon
had minted money before the time o f Alfonso VI .
The author
was , as he noted , " exi led in Bue no s Aire s , " but hi s failure
to mention the coin attributed to Fernando I or cite the
paper of Beltran was perhaps more than j ust a factor of hi s
(
1 5 The author did note one new hoard find and also
enthusiast ically endorsed a new numismatic explanation for
the term solidus gallicanus that appears in some tenth­
century Asturian documen t s . Ibid . , 1 8 1 n . 2 8 , 1 82 n . 3 1 .
1 6 See Jose Luis Los Arcos Elio, "Una moneda atr ibuida
a Fernando I de Castilla, " in II exp:? s ic i6n nacional de
numismatica e inter nacional de medallas ( Madr id, 1 9 5 1 ) ,
2 2 8- 2 9 .
17 see n . 13 above .
15
living in Arge nt ina .
It was probably also a ref lectio n of
the widening gulf betwee n " mainstream" historian s and
numi smatists .
Luis Garcia de valdeavel lano attended the sympos ium at
Spo leto and also de livered a paper on the mo netary eco nomy
of ear ly medieval Spai n .
While to uc hi ng often on the same
themes as sanc he z Al borno z , Valdeave llano also made no
al lusion to Be ltran ' s paper or the coin of Fernando I , but
only repeated the old axiom that royal coinage in Leon
started with Alfonso VI .
He did , however , apo logi ze at the
outset that he was not a " spec iali st in numismatic s . nlB
Though Valdeavellano c ited some numi smatic works in the
cour se of hi s paper , his disclaimer that he was not
qualif ied to interpret numismatic evidence is signif ic ant .
Thirty years prior , sanc he z Albornoz had had no such qualms
when reviewing the work of Vives .
Now , thro ugh the work of
Be ltran and ot hers , partic ular ly that of Felipe Mateu y
Llopis who launc hed hi s o ngoing " Hal lazgos monetar io s "
series i n 1 9 4 2 , spanish numi smatic s had begun to def ine
it se lf as an independent discipline . l 9
As in other
18 Lui s Garcia Valdeavellano, "La moneda y la ec onomia
de c arnbio en la peninsul a iberica desde el siglo VI hasta
mediados del siglo XI," Moneta e scambi nell'
Alto
Medioevo , Centro Italiano di Studi Sull ' Alto Medioevo ,
Set tim ane di studio 8 ( Spoleto, 1961):203-30 .
1 9 Mateu L lopi s • s first installment of " Hallazgo s
monetar ios " appeared in Ampur ias: Revista de Argueologia,
y Etnoloqia 4 ( 1 9 42 ) : 2 1 5 -2 4 .
It s subsequent
parts ar e too numerous to give her e .
The complete listing
Prehi storia
(
is provided in the bibliography be low .
115
I
co untrie s , it was beginning to be viewed as an anc i l lary
sc ienc e , which the historian was inc reas ingly le ss able and
perhaps les s wi lling to under st and . 2 o
sanc he z Albornoz made one last attempt to shed light
on the monetary hi story of Leon-Castile in an artic le of
1 9 6 5 which again rel ied mainly on the documentary evidence ,
supplemented occasionally by the general works of Mateu y
L lo pi s and Octavio Gi l Farres ' s Historia de la moneda
espano la which had appeared in 1 9 5 9 . 2 1
Sanc hez Alborno z•
student , Hilda Gras sotti , also contributed an invaluable
review of the docume ntary evidence pertaining to monetary
po licy ln the twelfth century in 1 9 6 9 , but again relied
mainly on Gi l Farres • s general sur vey for her informat io n
on coinage . 22
since that time , t he problems of Leonese monetary
hi story before the thirteent h cent ur y have been mainly the
concern of numismati st s , both se lf-instr ucted co llectors
and sc ho lars who have come to the study of coins large ly
thro ugh their training in arc haeology .
(
While a
2 0 In 1 9 62 , for example , P hi lip Grierson felt
compelled to addres s " the problem of • communic ation , • "
see hi s " Numismatics
between numismatists and historian s .
and t he Historian , " Presidential Addre s s o f the Roya l
Numismatic Society ( 1 9 62 ) , i -xvi i .
2 1 Claudio sanchez Alborno z , " l.Devaluaci6n monetar ia
en Leon y Casti lla al f i lo del 1 2 00 ? " in Homenaje a Vic ens
Vives ( Barcelona, 196 5 ) , 6 0 7 -17 ; Octavio Gil Farres ,
Historia de la mo neda e spanol a , 2 d ed . ( Madrid , 1 9 76 ) .
22 Hilda Grassotti , "El pueblo y la moneda real en
Leon y Castilla durante el siglo XII , " part 2 of " Do s
problemas de hi stor ia c astellano- leonesa, " CHE 49-50
( 1 9 6 9 ) : 1 6 3- 9 7 .
!.7
I
bi bliography on mo ney in medieval Leon-Castile continues to
grow , these works have been almo st overwhe lmingly
numismatic in nature .
The o nly full- lengt h mo nographs
dedicated to the monetary hi story of Leon-cast ile before
1 2 5 2 , Mercede s Rueda ' s Primeras ac unaciones de Castilla
y
Leon publi shed in 1 9 9 1 and Antonio oro l Pernas ' s
Acunaciones de Alfonso IX , are charac teri stic o f this
trend . 2 3
Both the se author s presented sound numismatic
data , but did not attempt to interpret their f indings in
a
broad hi storic al context .
Almo st a full cent ury has now elapsed since Vive s read
hi s discourse on the money o f Leon-Casti le to the Royal
Ac ademy .
This pre sent work is the f ir st attempt to provide
a comprehens ive synt he s i s of t he numi smatic and di plomatic
evidence pertaining to the e ar ly monetary hi story of the
kingdom whic h sanchez Albornoz called for in 1 9 2 8 . 2 �
It
does not , however , pretend to reso lve definitive ly all the
ambiguit ie s inherent in the so urce s .
Medieval monetary
hi story is by nature an optimistic , though potential ly
humbling fie ld .
One a lways hope s that the discovery of a
fabulous hoard , with all the right coins contained therein ,
(
2 3 Antonio Orol Pernas , Acunac ione s de Alfonso IX
( Madrid, 1982 ) .
2 4 My study " The Monetary Hi story of casti le-Leo n ( c a .
1 1 0 0- 1 3 0 0 ) in Light o f the Bourgey Hoard, " Americ an
Numismatic Society Mu seum Not e s 3 3 ( 1 9 8 8 ) : 1 2 9- 2 0 3 , touched
brief ly on t he period be fore 1 2 5 2 , t ho ugh it s main concern
was the reign of Alfonso X and his suc ce s sor s .
some of the
conc lusions of that work are revised herein .
(
lS
18
j ust around the corner .
At the same time , the
unearthing o f that hoard c an send previo us theorie s and
co nc lusions crumbl ing to the gro und .
I only hope that t he
work pre sented here is bui lt upon be fore another third o f a
century come s to pas s .
(
(
PART ONE
THE FOUNDATIONS OF A MONETARY ECONOMY , 7 1 1- 1 06 5
(
I
ONE
ASTURIAS-LEON AND
THE IBERIAN MONETARY ECONOMY BEFORE 1 0 0 0 :
MUJ;IAMMAD AND CHARLEMAGNE RE CONS IDERED
The Muslim expeditio nary force s that cro ssed from
Nort h Af rica in 7 1 1 did not anticipate the rapid c o l lapse
of Vis igot hic ru le in Spai n .
With rei nforcement s , these
Berber and Arab forces quick ly overran most of the
peni ns ul a .
They fai led , however , to pur sue the bands of
de fiant Chri stians that took ref uge in the extreme nort h .
Here the rugged mo untains provided a haven that had
withstood the central authority of both the Vi sigoths and
the Romans .
Rather than become mired in the task of
eradic at ing these pocket s of resistanc e , the Mus lim leaders
tr ied to mai ntain the momentum o f their co nque st s by
pushing acro s s the Pyrenee s .
Their initial forays into Merovingian Gaul met little
re sist ance and pro bably impres sed upon t he raiders that
this kingdom was as decadent and as vu lnerable as the
Vi sigothic .
The I slamic t hreat , however , he lped revitalize
the Franki sh realm .
In the absence of strong roya l
leadershi p , t he king ' s maior dom us , Char le s Martel ( 7 1 47 4 1 ) , took the f ie ld against the invader s .
Hi s defeat of
the Muslim force s at Poitiers in 732 served to increase the
(
strength and pre stige of his family .
20
As a result , his son
21
Pe pi n (741-68) was able t o pus h as ide the last of the
Meroving ian kings and as sume the royal t itle .
Pepin ' s son ,
Char lemagne (76 8 - 814), not only drove the Mu slims back
so ut h of the Pyrenee s but by repeated campai gn s on his
other border s tran sformed the Franki sh kingdom into an
empire stretc hing from the North sea to Rome .
The Mus l im invasion of Spain , then , prec ipitated
events t hat quickly put an end to the old order in Euro pe .
The myth that the Roman emperor in Constantinople st il l
cont ro lled the western provinces was put to re st .
By 8 0 0,
po litical power in the Wes� wa s for the mo st part split
betwee n the Caro li ngians and the umayyad emirs of cordoba .
If t hi s divi sion did not have the catac lysmic ef fect
Pirenne envi sioned , it nonethe le s s pro fo undly altered the
Mediterranean world . l
In the northern mountains o f I beria ,
the nascent Christian kingdoms o f Spai n stood prec ar io us ly
in the shadow �f the day ' s two s uper-power s .
Their
survival is te stament to their ski ll in as similation .
Though consc ious o f their Vi sigothic heritage , their
in stitutional and social growt h wo uld draw continuously
from the j uxtaposed c ulture s they stood between . 2
(
1 Henri Pirenne , Mohamme d and Char lemagne ( Lo ndon ,
1 9 3 9 ) . Philip Grier son, " Conunerce i n the Dark Age s : a
critique of the Evidenc e , " no . 2 in Dark Age , 1 2 3- 2 5 ,
provides a good sununary of the debate over the Pirenne
the s i s a s we ll as e s sential bibliogr aphy . See f urther
Ric hard Hodge s and David Whitehouse , Mohammed , Char lemagne
and t he Origi ns of E urope ( Ithac a , 1 9 8 3 ) .
2 The Visigothic tradit ion i s emphasized in C laudio
sanchez Alborno z , E spana : Un enigma his t6rico , 2
22
(
Caro lingian inf luenc e was stro nge s t in the northeast
of the penin sula , in t he Pyrenean land s that would
eventual ly be cal led Cat alonia .
Char lemagne had made an
attempt to c apture Zaragoz a in 7 7 8 , but it was not until
8 0 1 that his son , Lo ui s the Pious , s uc ce s s fu lly gained a
foot hold in I beria by occ upying Barc e lona .
Thro ughout the
nint h centur y , Barcelona and the sur ro unding lands
cont inued under a Franki s h protectorate , forming the march
or frontier of the empire against I s lam .
The secu lar
leaders of t he se distric t s bec ame co unts appointed by the
Frankish kings .
I n the tenth cent ury , the Catalan count s
wo uld grow i nc reas ingly independent though vestiges of
Caro lingian rule remained . 3
As one moved west in Iberia, Carolingian inf luence
dimini shed .
I f the Aragonese had first looked east toward
Catalo nia , t hey gradua lly became more al lied in the ninth
(
vo ls . ( Buenos Aire s , 1 9 5 7 ) . See further Felipe Mateu y
Llopis , " E vocaci6n de la His pania goda ante la del aiio
1 0 5 0, " Arc hive s Leoneses 5 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 6 1 - 6 9 . For the ear ly
insti tutional deve lopment of Ast urias-Leo n , in general , see
the collected studies i n claudio Sanc he z Albornoz , Estudios
sobre las instituciones medievales e s paiio las , ( Mexico city ,
1 9 65 ) . For social-eco nomic development , see Jean Gautier
Dalche , Historia urbana de Leon y Casti l la en la edad medi a
tsiglos IX- XI I ) , 2d ed . , trans . E . Pere z Sedeiio ( Madrid ,
1 9 8 9 ) . on the interaction between Mus lims and Christians ,
see Thomas F . Glick Is lamic and Chri stian Spai n in the
Early Middle Ages ( Princeton , 1 9 7 9 ) . An overview of al l
these t heme s i s provided in Joseph F . O ' Cal laghan , �
History o f Medieval spain ( Ithaca , 1 9 7 5 ) , 1 63 - 9 0 .
3 Thomas Bisson, The Medieval Crown o f Ar a gon : A Short
History (Ox f ord, 19 8 6 ) , 1 9 -2 3 ; P aul Freedman, The origins
o f Peasant servitude in Medieval Ca talonia ( Cambridge ,
1991 ) , 1 8 .
23
a
century with their western neighbors , the Basque s of
Navarre .
In the tenth century , Aragon was virtually
annexed by thi s more aggre ss ive kingdom .
To
the west of
Navarre and Aragon , lay the kingdom of Ast urias whose kings
c laimed de scent from the Vis igot hic roya l line .
Though the
Navarre se made some advances southward in the early phases
of the reconquest , it was Asturias that by virtue of its
territor ial gain wou ld become the dominant Chr istian power
in I beria in the nint h cent ury . �
Under the leader ship o f ordo fio I ( 8 5 0- 8 6 6 ) and his son
Alfo nso I I I ( 8 66- 9 1 0 ) , t he kingdom expanded beyo nd the
safety o f the Asturian mountains south into the Duero River
valley .
The o ld Roman town of Leo n was occupied by 8 5 6 and
in 8 82 its defense s were strong enough to repe l Muslim
attack . s
Meanwhile , Alfonso I I I pushed f urt her sout h .
He
secured Porto at the mouth o f the Duero and po pu lated
Zamora and Toro along the same river .
Whi le the se towns
were somewhat protec ted by the Guadarrama and Gredos
mo untain s , further east the lay of the land was more
expo sed and the Chri stian advance more c autious .
Burgos
was fo unded c . 8 8 4 , but t he Duero river would not be reached
in thi s region unt i l t he fol lowing century .
Bec ause
sett leme nt s here were often reinforced with fortre sses ,
this eastern territory o f the kingdom came to be called
(
4 Bisson , crown of Ar agon , 1 0 - 1 1 ; O ' Cal laghan ,
Medieval Spain , 1 0 7 .
5 Gautier Dalc he , Historia urbana , 2 4 -2 5 .
24
castile . 6
Al fonso ' s overall s ucce s s was suc h that he
ear ned the title " t he Great " and the co ntemporary Cronicon
Albeldense predicted t hat by his deeds Spain would soon
be
entire ly rid of t he Mus lims . 7
Co lo ni z ation o f the new terr itory wa s in part made
po ss ible by Mo zarabic Christians f leeing Mus lim rule in alAndalus , but a large number of sett ler s also came from t he
older regions of Asturias . B
Many o f tho se who came from
the north le ft landed servit ude behind so that , in sanc he z
Alborno z ' word s , " a whir lwind of l iberty shook the
frontier .
"9
This sense of a soc iety in flux is evident in
the surviving document at ion.
Beginning in the early tenth
century, t here is an explo sion in the number of surviving
charters .
Whi le t hi s may re f lect a growing te ndency in
society to record important purc hase s , more probably it
te sti f ie s to a real increase in the buying and sel ling of
land and other goods as people uprooted themselves from the
(
6 I bid . , 2 6 -2 9 .
7 O ' Callaghan , Medieval spain , 1 1 3 .
8 The Moz arabs were Christians who , living under
I s lamic rule , had assimi lated that c ulture and so appeared
"Arab like " to their northern nei ghbors . The mid- ninth
cent ury saw a growing tension between Mo zarabs and Mus lims
in al-Andalus . one redaction of t he Chronicle of Alfonso
III mentions that s uc ce s sful repo pulation of the frontier
under Ordofio I was made possible by " populo partim ex suis ,
part im ex S pania . " Spania referred to the Mus lim so ut h .
see , Jan Prelog , ed . , Die Chro nik Alfons ' II I : Unter suc hung
und Kritische E dition der Vier Redaktionen, Europaische
Hoc h sc hulschriften , 3rd ser . , vo l . 1 3 4 ( Frankf urt , 1 9 8 0 ) ,
redac ti o B , 5 9 . ; cf . Gautier Dalc he , Historia Urbana , 3 5 3 6 ; O ' Cal laghan , Medieval Spain, 1 1 0- 1 1 .
9 s anchez Alborno z , " The Frontier and Casti lian
Libertie s , " 3 4 .
25
nort h and established claims on the frontier .
Sanchez
Albornoz described t he phenome no n :
The charters of the period . . . betray the existenc e ,
i n t he region , o f a n enormou s mas s o f smal l free
proprietor s . . . The freeho lder s appear in hundreds o f
charters . . . selli ng , yielding or exchanging land
holdings of insignif icant size and value . One doc ument
wil l concern a certain holding of seve n , f our , or even
Anot her treats of a
three c uartil las of arable land .
vineyard , an orc hard , a piece of l and , a f lax field, or
a quantity o f fodder . l o
These purc hase s were often paid for in kind , in the
form of live stoc k , grain or other foodstuf f s .
Standards of
value , however , quickly deve loped to hel p fac i litate
transact ions .
A commo n method was to a s se s s items in the
modi us of grain as seen in a transac t ion from the cart ulary
of santo Toribio de Liebana dated 9 1 8 whic h noted that the
price paid \ll'as " two cows , eac h one worth six modii . "
Another mo nastic doc ument from S anta na i n 9 7 2 assigned a
comparable val ue to " o ne cow, blond in c olor worth four
modii of wheat .
"11
The ox or steer ( buey ) was also used as
1 0 Ibid . , 3 4 - 3 5 .
1 1 " ( V ) ac a s duas sub uno i n sex modios . " Luis sanchez
Belda , ed . , c artulario de Santo Toribio de Liebana ( Madrid ,
1 9 4 8 ) , 3 1 - 3 2 no . 2 5 .
" ( I ) bac a rubia per co lore valiente
IIII moios at ( sic ) civaria . " Manue l Serrano y Sanz , ed . ,
" C artulario de l a iglesia Santa Maria de l Puerto
( Santofi.a ) , " BRAH 7 3 ( 1 9 1 8 ) : 42 6 .
see a l so Reyna Pastor de
Togner i , " Ganaderia y prec io s : considerac ione s sobre la
eco nomia de Leon y Castil la ( siglos X I - X I I I ) , " CHE 3 5- 3 6
( 1 9 6 2 ) : 4 2 - 4 3 ; Departamento de Historia Medieval de la
Universidad de oviedo , " Circ ulac i6 n monetaria en Ast urias
durante la alta edad media ( sig lo s VII-XII ) , " Numisma 3 4
( 1 9 8 4 ) : 2 4 4- 4 6 .
(
26
(
a standard a s was the shee p , but neither appear s to have
rivaled t he modi us . l2
Be side s such pastora l measures , there were a lso
standards based on monetary values .
I n some ninth-c entury
doc uments , pr ices are occas io nally expres sed in tremi sses ,
an al lusio n to the gold coin minted under the Vi sigoths
whic h re presented a third of the Roman gold so lidus .
By
the beginning of the tenth century , however, c it ations to
the tremi ssis are ec lipsed by references to a so lidus of
si lver .
Whi le the solidus o f si lver , or solidus argenti ,
appe ar s often in the c harter s of tenth-century Ast uriasLeon , it is diffic ult to discern what type of c urrency the
new term repre sented .
In t he Carolingian wor ld , so lidus argent i had come to
denote a unit of coins called denarii .
The medieval
denari us ( the name was borrowed from t he Roman past ) was a
si lver coin that f ir st appeared in the Frankish lands
during t he l ate Merovingian period . l 3
I
It was subsequently
1 2 For t he use of the steer as unit of val ue see Jean
Gautier Dalc he , "L ' histoire monetaire de l ' E s pagne
septentrionale et centrale du I xe au x r re s iec le s : Quelques
ref lexions s ur divers probleme s , " no . 1 1 in Economie et
soc iete , 5 0 - 5 1 . The unit based o n shee p is les s explic it
in the doc uments . see Emi lio Saez , " Nuevas dato s sabre el
co ste de la vida en Galicia durante la alta edad media , "
ADHE 1 7 ( 1 9 4 6 ) : 8 7 9 ; Sanchez Alborno z , " Mo neda de cambia , "
183 .
1 3 The denarius was original ly a coin of f ine si lver
in t he Roman Republic but was cont inuo us ly debased i n the
early Empire and event ua lly discontinued . Var io us s ilver
coins were s truck in the ear ly s ixth c entury by the
Frankish and O strogothic kings . These were imitations o f
Roman siliquae . From the late sixth t o the late seventh
27
(
reformed by Char lemagne and struck in several mint s
througho ut his empire .
The denarius and its half piece the
obol us or o bo l were t he o nly coins regularly is sued by hi s
succes sors .
originally, t he phrase so lidus argent i mo st
likely referred to t he number of silver denarii required to
equal the go ld so lidus ( or perhaps the gold tremi ssis ) , a
rate which could f luct uate according to the re lative market
values of si lver and gold .
By t he mid-ninth century ,
however , convention within the Carolingian wor ld had
generally established that the solidus argenti was a f ixed
unit of acco unt compri sed of 1 2 denarii , regardles s of t he
current market price o f gold . l 4
see
cent ury very little si lver was produced i n the West .
S pufford , Money , 1 1 - 1 2 , 2 2- 2 8 .
1 4 Preci se ly how t he carolingian solidus argenti
deve loped from t he o ld Roman gold so lidus has been t he
subj ect of considerable debate . As Grierson and B lackburn
noted , t he polemic " ha s given rise to a vast literat ure
that . . . raise s problems of great importance to sc ho lars in
several f ields . " ( MEC , 1 0 2 - 3 ) I hope to examine the is sue
fully in the future . For now, all r.ve need keep in mind is
that by the ninth cent ury the so lidus argenti was almo st
always a unit of account of 12 denar ii . Thi s is evident in
a capitulary of Loui s the Pious of 8 1 6 which dec lared that
all f ines and payment s contained in the Lex Sal ica s ho uld
" in Francia be compo sed of solidi of 1 2 denarii " except in
the case of litigation between Saxons and Frisians when a
solidus of 4 0 denar i i should be employed " according to
Salic law . "
[ Alfredus Boretivs and Victor Krause , eds .
Capitularia Regurn Franc or urn , Monurnenta Gerrnaniae Histor ic a
( Hanover , 1 8 8 3 - 8 7 ) , 1 : 2 6 8 . ] Solidus may also have denoted
a unit of weight in the caro lingian world .
See n . 7 4
below . For an overview of t he Carolingian monetary system
one might sti l l begin with Phi li p Grierson , "Money a nd
Coinage Under Charlemagne , " in Karl der Gro sse : Lebenswerk
und Nachleben , vo l . 1 , ed . w . Braunfel s , ( Dusse ldorf , 1 9 6 5 ) ,
50 1- 36 .
(
28
The primary problem in determini ng what so lidus
argenti meant in the kingdom o f Asturias-Leon in the tenth
cent ury is that there is no clear evidence i ndic ating that
the kings of Ast urias struck coins either along the
caro ling ian mode l or any other standard .
Indeed , it i s not
unti l the late e leventh century, during the reign of
Alfo nso VI , that numismatic and diplomat ic sources c lear ly
What
reveal t hat the crown had begun to strike denar i i .
type of currency then was represented by the term so lidus
arge nt i in the tenth-century sources of Ast urias ?
was
there in fac t an indigenous si lver coinage thi s early or
did the phrase refer to imported silver ?
If it referred to
foreign si lver , wa s it in the form of I s lamic dirhams or
Franki sh denarii?
or , was the silver of the so l idus
arge nt i perhaps not coin at al l , but simply si lver bul lion
or plate ?
As Metc alf pointed out , determining t he reality
behi nd t he solidus argenti of the Asturian doc umentation
"t hrm<�s us into the thick of the debate about the Pire nne
thesis , the continuity of economic activity thro ugh the
early middle age s , and the balance between a nat ural
economy and a money economy .
n lS
To
properly understand the
issue , we must fir st brief ly review the state of coinage in
the late visigothic period and the affec t s of the I s lamic
co nque st in the eighth century before turning to the later
15
(
D . M . Metc alf , " Some Geographical Aspect s of E ar ly
Medieval Monetary circ ulation in the Iberian Peninsula , " in
PMC I I , 324 .
29
'
evidence .
I n ot her words , f o l lowing the advice of Lewis
Carro ll ' s King of Hearts , we must " begin at the beginnin g . "
The Lo s s of Go ld
In 3 0 9 , the emperor co nstantine introduced the solidus
to the Roman economy , a coin o f virt ually pure go ld
weighing approximately 4 . 5 5 grams . l 6
This piece became the
undi sputed standard of val ue i n the Roman world for the
next four hundred years .
The Germanic kingdoms that arose
in the western provinc es dur ing the fifth century adopted
it s use for they had no monetary tradition o f their own .
By the sixth century , mo st o f the barbarian kingdoms were
striking imitations of t he go ld so lidus whic h continued to
be minted in Constantino ple and other imperial mints .
As urban life dec lined i n the We st so did the amount
of gold 1n active circ ulatio n .
It was both hoarded
( evidenced by the treasure c he st s that repeatedly appear in
the page s of Gregory of To ur s ) and drained to other markets
as a res ult of the We st ' s increasing imbalance of trade . l7
In the ear ly seventh century , mo st ful l-weight solidi
ceased to be minted in the Germanic state s outside Italy . la
(
16 spuf ford , Money, 7 ; c f . Allan Evans , " Some coinage
systems of the Fourteenth century , " Journal of E conomic and
Busines s Hi story 3 ( 1 9 3 1 ) : 4 8 2 .
1 7 spuf ford , Money, 1 4 -2 2 .
1 8 Full solidi as wel l a s tremi sses were struck i n
Lombardy , at Benevento and Salerno , until the mid-ninth
century . As e lsewhere i n the We st , however . t heir f inenes s
suffered . They may have dropped to as low as one-third
f ine . MEC , 66-7 3 , 5 7 5 - 7 9 ; W . A . Oddy , " Analyse s of
30
The Merovingian , Vis i gothic and Anglo- Saxo n rulers
continued to strike o nly the tremi ssis or third- so lidus .
These bar bari an tremi sses tended to weigh s li ghtly le s s
than the ir imperial co unterpart ( 1 . 3 grams compared to 1 . 5
grams ) and i n the cour se o f the seventh century their
finene s s genera l ly dec lined as we ll . 1 9
By the c lo se o f the seventh century, the continued
sc arcity o f go ld i n circ ulation demanded t hat the Germanic
kings take other measure s .
(
The Merovingians began to
Lombardic Tremis se s by t he Specific Gravity Method , "
Numismatic Chro nic le , 7th ser . , 1 2 ( 1 9 72 ) : 1 9 3 -2 1 5 .
1 9 Grier son contended that the c hange from 1 . 5 to 1 . 3
grams i n the weight of the tremi ssis was t he result not of
a sc arcity o f go ld but o f metrologic al convenience .
I n the
Roman system , 1 . 5 g . was equivalent to 8 c ar at s we ight .
According to Grier so n , 1 . 3 g . was more practical for
Germanic use because it corresponded to 2 0 bar leycorns or
grains in their system . Yet , 1 . 3 g . i s also 7 c arat s in
the Roman system and would be a natural increment by which
to debase .
See Grierson , "Money under C har lemagne , " 5 2 9 3 0 . Cf . the sec t io n o n metro logy i n George c . Mile s , The
Coinage of t he Vis igoths o f Spain, Leovigi ld to Ac hi la I I
( New York, 1 9 5 2 ) , 1 5 4- 6 4 , whic h suggests t hat the weight of
the Visgothic tremi ssis was in reality sometime s c lose to
the imperial standard .
In terms of the f inene s s of the Germanic tremi sses ,
Sti ll ,
the Merovingian i s s ue s have been most studied .
trac ing the debasement i s hampered by lack of a firm
chro no logy for many of t he coins . spufford ' s conc lusion
that the Merovingian piece s were around 3 3 % fine by the end
of the seventh century is somewhat simplif ied but probably
a fair asse ssme nt . S pufford , Money , 1 9- 2 0 .
See a lso MEC ,
1 0 7- 1 0 9 , 4 72 - 9 5 , particularly no s . 4 0 6 - 4 0 8 , 4 3 7 .
I n Vi sgothic Spain , debasement of t he tremi ssis may
have begun as early as the reign of Leovigild ( 5 68 - 8 6 ) .
For a summary of analyse s of vis igothic go ld , see Miguel
Barcelo , " El hiato en las ac ufiac iones de oro en al -Andal us ,
1 2 7- 3 1 6 / 7 4 4 ( 5 ) - 9 3 6 ( 7 ) ( lo s datos f undamentales de un
problema ) , " Moneda y credito 1 32 ( 1 9 75 ) , 3 4 4 ; cf . Mi le s ,
See also D . M . Metc alf , " For What P ur po se
Visigoths , 1 5 6 .
Were suevic and vis igothic Tremi sses Used ? " i n PMC I I I , 1 5
and passim .
31
(
supplement their dec lini ng gold c urrency with a si lver
coin , the coin t hat in time wo uld be called the denarius .
One of the earliest re ferences to it , albeit ind irec t , is
in a c harter from Saint-Germain-de s-Pres of Par i s dated 6 8 2
whic h records a sale o f property for the price o f 3 0
" solidos i n argento .
.
zo
A si lver piece also appeared ln
Anglo-Saxon England where the pening or penny , s imi lar to
the Franki sh denari i in size and wei ght , was int roduced by
the last quarter o f t he cent ur y . 2 1
In Spain , however,
there is no evidence that a si lver piece like t he
Merovingian denari u s or Anglo- saxon penny was introduced .
Tremi sses of low f i ne ne s s continued until the l ast of the
vi sigothic ruler s while a limited copper coinage was also
introduced at some j uncture . 22
The �Iuslim c onquest of t he Visigothic kingdom did
litt le to ef fective ly re lieve the shortage of go ld in the
peninsula .
The I s lamic go ld coin, the dinar , was only
minted steadily in North Afric a and Spanis h mint s until
A . D . 7 2 4 / 5 , though t here may have been sporadic i s sues as
2 0 Some of t he se ear ly denarii invoked royal authority
in their legends whi le other s were i s s ued by ecc le siastical
and lay lords . Judging from t he name s which appear on
s urviving spec imens , t he f ir st denarii may have been struc k
c . 6 7 3 - 7 5 . MEC , 9 3 - 9 4 .
2 1 Silver coin i s mentioned i n the law codes o f Ine of
We s sex ( 68 8- 7 2 6 ) .
I bid . , 1 5 6- 7 .
2 2 See Migue l crusaf ont i Sabater , " The Co pper coinage
of the visigoths of s pain , " in PMC I I I , 3 5 -7 0 ; c f . Metc alf ,
" Suevic and Vi sigo thic Tremi sse s , " 1 5 .
(
32
late a s 7 4 4 / 5 . 2 3
The Is lamic silver denomination , the
dirham, is known to have been struck in Spanish mint s
starting in 72 2 / 3 , coinc iding with the time when the dinar
began to falter there . 2 4
In general , however, the se were
year s of uncertainty in the new province and the Umayyad
governor s , plagued by in-f ight ing, were unable to establish
a steady coinage o f either spec ie s .
Dir hams as wel l as
dinars bec ame sc arce and Arab author s commented on the need
2 3 The Mus lim dinar was at f ir st a direct adaptation
of t he Roman solidus . The ear liest is sues even imitated
Byzantine type s unt i l caliph Abd al-Malik ( 68 5- 70 5 ) ,
bowing to theo logical pressure , removed all symbo ls and
images from hi s go ld and s ilver coins . He also reduced the
weight of the dinar from the Roman standard of ro ughly
4 . 5 5 to approximately 4 . 2 5 grams . By 6 9 7 the caliphal mint
in Damascus was is suing what would become the classic
Is lamic dinar , purely epigraphic in de sign and weighing
slight ly les s than t he Roman solidus .
( See Philip
Grierson , " The Monetary Reforms of Abd al-Malik : Their
Metro logic al Basis and Their F inancial Repercussions , " no .
1 5 in Dark Age , 2 4 4- 4 8 , 2 6 0- 6 3 . )
' Abd al-Malik ' s reform , however , was not immediate ly
followed in the western provinces . Dinar s struck in North
Africa and Spain for a time continued on t he o ld weight
standard and retained Latin legends .
In s pain , dinars wit h
t he abbreviation SLD for solidus were minted until c . 7 1 3 / 4 .
Bilingual dinars were then struc k on both side s of the
strait s c . 7 1 6 / 7 , f o llowed finally by more traditional
piece s until 7 2 4 / 5 . One late specime n , however , apparently
be ar s a date corre s ponding to A . D . 7 4 4 / 5 .
See Michae l L .
Bate s , " The coinage of S pain Under t he Umayyad Caliphs of
the E ast , 7 1 1 - 7 5 0 , " in I I I jarigue de e st udios numimatico s
hispano-arabe s , ed . , Juan Ignacio saenz-Diez and carmen
Alfaro Asins ( Madrid 1 9 9 3 ) , 2 7 1 - 8 9 ; cf . Barcelo , " Hi ato , "
3 3 n . 1 . The standard corpus for these coins is Anna M .
Balaguer , Las emis ione s transicionales arabe-musulmanas de
Hispania ( Barcelona , 1 9 7 6 ) .
2 4 Whi le the dinar o f Is lam was derived from the Roman
so lidus , the dirham was based on t he silver coinage of the
Sass anids of Persia .
See Michae l L . B ates , "Mints and
Money , I s lamic , " in The Dictionary of t he Middle Ages , ed .
Jo seph R . Strayer { New York, 1 98 7 ) , 42 1 - 2 2 ; Philip
Grier son, Numismatic s ( Oxford , 1 9 7 5 ) , 4 0- 4 1 .
'
'
(
33
(
to rely on barter . 2 5
It was revo lution in the East at mid-
cent ury whic h ultimately bro ught stabi lity to al-Andal us .
�vhen t he Abbas id revolt in Damascus toppled Umayyad
-
ru le ln 7 5 0 , a member of the deposed ruling fami ly f led
we st to Spai n .
This umayyad pri nc e ,
'
Abd
al -Ratman I ( 7 5 6-
78 8 ) , and hi s successors were able to so lidify control o f
al-Andalus .
They adopted the les ser title of emir and
he nc eforth r uled independe nt ly o f the Abbasid caliphs .
The
mint at cordoba now began to produced a steady s upply of
si lver c oi ns .
Dirhams survive from that mint with dates
corres po nding to almost every year from the beginning of
' Abd al-Rabffian I ' s reign up through the final year of
Mu�amma d I ( 8 52 - 8 6 ) .
Wit h t he death of Mu�amma d I , the emirate ' s silver
co inage faltered and final ly seems to have ceased entire ly .
After 8 9 7 ( A . H . 2 8 5 ) , there are virt ua lly no surviving
dirhams known from the C6rdo ban mint for the next thirty
ye ar s . 2 6
The immediate c ause of t hi s disruption was s urely
25 B ates , " Coinage of Spai n , " 2 8 7 - 8 8 . The c laim in
some Ara b sources that coinage remained scarce unt i l the
reign of Abd al-Ra�an I I ( 8 2 2 - 8 52 ) is contradicted by t he
numi smatic record; see the discu s s ion in George c . Miles ,
The Coinage of the umayya ds of Spain ( New York , 1 9 5 0 ) , 3 94 0 , c f . 2 0- 2 4 . see also , Evariste Levi-Proven9al , Hi stoire
de l ' E spagne Musulmane , 3 vo ls . ( P aris , 1 9 5 3 ) , 1 : 1 8 0 .
2 6 Miles doubted a reported spec imen dated A . H . 2 9 3
(A. D . 9 05 ) .
See Mi le s , umayyads , 2 3-2 4 , 2 2 6 ; also compare
hi s c hrono logical index and the c atalogue it se lf . Miles
suggested that t his lack of coinage �ay have been due to a
subsequent rec all under ' Abd a l-Rabffian I I I , but the hoard
known as s an Andre s demonstrates t hat this lac una in t he
coinage was real .
'
(
34
I
the period of rebel lion fo llowing the death of MuDammad
I.
Be side s the po litical upheaval , howeve r , the ces sation o f
mi nting was probably t he result o f a long- time drain of the
emirate ' s si lver supply acro ss North Afric a to the eastern
Is lamic world and beyond .
Andal usian dirhams bearing date s
from the 7 2 0 s to roughly 8 2 0 show up repeatedly in hoard s
from Russia and Easter n E urope alongside other I s lamic
si lver from the Ne ar East . 27
While the umayyad emirate did prosper in the ninth
cent ur y , as is evide nt in the growth of cordoba and
sevi l le , the steady lo ss o f si lver poi nt s to an underlying
weakne s s in the Andalusian economy . 2 8
At the same time , it
1 s important to note t hat the emir s also fai led to produce
(
The hoard cont ai ned dirhams from t he beginning o f the
emirate , with steady repre sentatio n up to A . H . 2 7 0 ( A . D .
883/4 ) .
It also contained a few pieces that Mateu
sugges ted represented is s ue s struck outs ide cordoba
( probably similar to the c opper coins that Miles also
as signed to rebel mint s . )
s ince the hoard contained no
pieces f rom the reign of ' Abd al-Ra�an I I I , it was c lear ly
interred either before or s hortly after hi s resumption o f
mint in g at cordoba i n 92 8 / 2 9 . I t , t herefore , demons tr ates
that minti ng had all but ceased in t he se years . See Jorge
de Navascue s y de Palacio , " Revi si6n del tesoro de dirhams
de san Andres de Ordoiz ( E stella, Navarra ) , " Principe de
Viana 6 6 , 9 - 3 7 ; c f . Felipe Mateu y Llopis , " E l hallazgo de
' dir heme s ' del Emirate , en s an Andre s de ordoiz ( E stella ,
Navarra ) , " Princ ipe de Viana 1 1 ( 1 9 5 0 ) : 8 5 - 1 0 1 . On the
troubles o f the emirate in t he se year s , see further
o · cal laghan , Medieval Spain , 1 1 1 - 1 8 .
2 7 Thomas s . Noonan , " Andalucian Umayyad Dir hams From
E astern E urope , " AN 1 0 ( 1 9 8 0 ) : 8 4 - 8 6 , c f . his appendix of
finds , 8 9- 9 1 . See a lso Andrzej Miko laj c zyk , " Moveme nt s of
spanis h Umayyad Dirhams From t he I berian Area to central ,
Nordic and Eastern E urope i n the Early Middle Age s , " in PMC
I II , 2 5 5- 6 8 .
2 8 see Glick, I slamic and Christian spain , 3 7 - 3 9 .
35
gold dinar s .
The Abbasid cali phs in Baghdad as we ll as the
Aghlabid emirs o f Nort h Africa bot h maintained a gold
currency throughout this period .
The lack o f go ld coin
ln
al-Andalus under t he Umayyad emirs , therefore , s hould give
us pause to recons ider the dynamic s of Mediterranean trade
in t he eighth and ninth centur ie s .
Pirenne had propo sed that as a result of I s lam ' s
expansio n acro s s North Afric a and into S pain , Muslim
shipping was able to dominate the Mediterranean in the
eighth and ninth c enturies .
Latin E urope , the n , bec ame cut
off from trade not only with North Afric a , but a lso with
Byzantium in the east .
Hi stor ians s ince Pirenne , however ,
have reali zed that the idea that the Mediterranean
represented an impenetrable barrier for Chr i stian Europe
was over simpli f ied . 2 9
While Morri so n cautioned against the
danger s of using numi smatic evidence to docume nt trade
routes , it remains true that the combined di plomat ic and
numi smat ic sources provide one o f the c leare st means of
demo nstrat ing the weaknes s of the Pirenne mode l . 3°
Pirenne found "material proo f " for the eco nomic
isolat io n of the L atin West in Pepin and Charlemagne ' s
abando nment of a gold c urrency , whic h , in hi s opinio n ,
(
2 9 Henri Pirenne , Medieval cities , tran s . Frank D ,
Halsey ( 1 9 2 5 ; Reprint , Garden city , 1 9 5 6 ) , 1 5- 1 6 ; cf .
Robert s . Lope z , " Mohamme d and Chare lmagne : A Revi sion , "
Specu l um 1 8 ( 1 9 4 3 ) : 1 4 - 3 8 .
3 0 Kar l F . Morri son , " Numi smatic s and caro lingian
Trade : A crit ique of the Evidence , " Spec u lum 3 8 ( 1 9 6 3 ) :
432 .
36
a
meant European merc hants were not seriously engaged in long
di stance trade . J I
While it is true that the Caro lingians
did not mint go ld , at least not extensive ly , 3 2 gold solidi
continued to be struck in Italy at syrac use under
Byzantium ' s authority and in the kingdom o f the Lombards as
we ll . 3 3
More s ignific ant , however , in terms of Europe ' s
contact with other regions of the Mediterranean , i s the
appearance of the dinars of the Aghlabids and Abbasids in
the Latin so urc es . 3 4
I
Referred to as the so lidus
man c usi
or
3 1 Pirenne , Medieval cities , 2 0 -2 6 .
3 2 Limited gold coins were struc k sporadic ally under
the Caro lingians .
see the discussion in Grier so n ,
" Charlemagne , " 5 3 0 - 3 4 .
His conc lusion ( repeated by
Spufford , Money , 2 1 ) that Charlemagne attempted to forbid
the circ ulat io n of gold in Lombardy and in so doing was
fo llowing a " de liberate p:> licy " of preferring si lver
coinage is based o n a very liberal reading of the
Capitulary o f Mantua whic h never makes any s pecific
reference to go ld .
See Boret ivs and Krause , Capitular ia ,
1 : 19 1 .
3 3 The Byz anti ne gold so lidus cont inued to be minted
at syrac use unt i l 8 7 8 and at constantinople until 1 2 0 4 .
Though its wei ght dec lined s lightly to a bo ut 4 . 4 0 grams ,
it s integrity was maintained until the e leventh centur y .
See Philip Grier so n , " Caro lingian Europe and the Arabs : The
Myt h of the Mancu s , " no . 3 in Dark Age , 1 0 72 n . 2 ; c f .
Phil ip Grier so n , " The De ba sement of the Bezant in the
E levent h ce ntury , " Byz anti ni sc he zeitschrift 4 7 ( 1 9 5 4 ) :
3 7 9- 9 4 . On the Lombard is sues , see n . 1 8 above .
3 4 Two hoards i l lu strate the mixed provenance of the
go ld in circ ulat io n . A find from Bo lo gna di scovered in the
nineteenth century contained a mixture o f Byzantine and
Lombard solidi alongside ' Abbasid dinar s . The late st dinar
was dated A . H . 1 9 8 ( A . D . 8 1 3 / 4 ) . one of t he Byz antine
pieces may have be lo nged to Constantine VI I ( 8 1 3 -2 0 ) . A
second hoard from Venice , found in 1 9 3 4 , was reported to
contain 6 Byz antine so lidi of the ear ly- ni nt h cent ury along
with 1 gold coin " avec des c aractere s orie nt aux , "
See Jean Duples sey, " La c irculation
presumably a dinar .
des monnaies arabes en Europe occ identale du VI I Ie au x r r re
37
simply the manc u s , the dinar i s cited re peated ly in
charters from Italy throughout the nint h cent ur y . 3 s
In
England , Off a o f Mercia ( 7 5 7 - 9 6 ) struc k imitat io n manc usos
to use in payment to Rome and by the tenth century the gold
manc us had become the basis of both a unit of acco unt and
system of weight in Anglo- saxon England . 3 6
Fina l ly , we
should note that gold was suff ic ient ly pre sent i n the
Franki sh economy , either in pl ate or coi n , for Charles the
Bald to attempt to regulate it s pr ice in his Edict of
Pitre s of 8 6 4 . 37
The presence o f I s lamic dinars in Italy in contrast to
the lack of go ld in Muslim I beria suggests that , unlike
Pire nne • s mode l whic h divided the economy of t he
(
s iecle , " Revue N umismatique , 5th ser . , 1 8 ( 1 9 5 6 ) : 1 2 2 nos .
6- 7 ; Grier son , " Myth o f the Manc us , " 1 0 6 4 , n . 3 .
3 5 The debate over the identity of the manc us has
It i s now generally recognized
mo st ly been put to rest .
that the term co uld only have meant the I s lamic dinar .
Grierson , in " Myth o f the Manc us , " 1 0 5 9- 7 4 , had argued
stro ngly that it referred not to the dinar , but rather the
debased solidus of Lombardy . Though thi s article remains
an invaluable introduction to the source mater ia l , its
reasoning was f l awed . Grier so n and B lac kburn all but
abandoned the argument in MEC , 32 7 . The manc us polemic is
be st s umma ri zed in Duple ssey , "Monnaie s arabes , " 1 0 8 - 1 2 ;
see al so 1 3 5 - 3 6 for the earlie st reference s to manc us in
the docume nt s .
3 6 J . Al lan , " Of fa ' s Imitation o f an Arab dinar . "
see also
Numismatic Chronicle , 4th ser . , 1 4 ( 1 9 1 4 ) : 7 7- 8 9 .
Pame la Nightinga le , " The ora , the Mark and the Mancus :
Weight standards and t he coinage i n 1 1 th century E ngland , "
Numi smatic Chronicle 1 4 3 ( 1 9 8 3 ) : 2 4 8 - 5 7 ; 1 4 4 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 2 3 448 .
3 7 " Ut i n omne regno nostro non amplius vendatur libra
auri purissime c octi , nis i duodecim libr i s argenti de novi s
et meri s denarr is . " Boretivs and Krause , capit ularia ,
2 : 32 0 .
38
Mediterranean along re li gious line s , trade was more like ly
organi zed laterally from wes t to east often ignoring t he
bo undaries of fait h .
Lope z po inted to the example o f
Aghlabid emi ssarie s in 8 1 3 who aided a Venetian ship in its
attack on a Spanish Mus l im convoy .
The emis saries then
cont inued on to sicily where they re newed an agreement with
the Byzant ine governor t here ensur ing mutual trade .
( The
Aghlabids did not begin their conque st o f sic i ly unt i l
c . 82 7 . ) 3 8
If Andalusian merchant s regular ly ventured int o
t he eastern Mediterranean i n t he se c enturies , they must
have expended si lver dirhams and at the same time did not
have the means to proc ure go ld . 39
Money 1n t he Hispanic Chr i stian states
in t he Ninth century
In the eleventh and twelfth cent urie s , the Christian
kingdoms of Spain gained f ame in E urope as lands ric h in
Muslim go ld .
Ironic a l ly , in the e ar ly middle ages the se
ki ngdoms may have had access to le s s gold than the rest o f
Latin Europe .
(
Whi le Anglo - S axon trade with Italy drew the
3 8 Robert s . Lopez , " E ast and West in the Ear ly Midd le
Age s , " in The Pirenne Thesi s : Analysi s , Critc i sm and
Revis io n , ed . Alfred F . Havighur st ( Bo ston , 1 9 5 8 ) , 7 5 .
3 9 Olivia R . constable ' s recent work unfortunate ly
pays little direct attention to the commercial strengths
In
and weakne sses of Andalusia under t he emirate .
partic ular , she does not seem to realize t he emirate ' s
f ailure to str ike go ld coinage , leading her to s ugge st t he
presence " Andalusi dinar s " i n so uthern France at the end o f
t he e ig ht h ce ntury .
See her Trade and Traders in Mus lim
Spai n : The Commerc ial Realignment of the I berian Peninsula ,
9 0 0 - 1 5 0 0 , ( Cambr idge , 1 9 9 4 ) , 3 9- 40 ; c f . 3 - 4 .
39
I
manc us or di nar of the Abbasids and Aghlabids nort hward
thro ugh France , there is almost no evide nce t hat Mus lim
gold coin or gold of any kind circ ulated i n Chri st ian Spai n
in thi s time frame . 4 0
Although these kingdoms bordered on
the I s lamic world , their neighbor was the umayyad emirate ,
whic h appear s to have been unable to produce its o�vn gold
co inage .
In terms o f si lver c urrency , we know t hat the Catalan
lands were exposed directly to the reformed co inage of
Char lemagne and hi s successors .
Denarii were struck both
in the regio n of Ampurias and in Barce lo na by the reign of
Lo ui s the Pious .
A mint appears to have continued in
Barcelona thro ugh the reign of Charles the B ald and perhaps
later .
I n 8 78 , a year after charles ' s death , hi s so n Lo ui s
the Stamme rer ( 8 7 7 - 7 9 ) granted the bisho p of Barcelona a
third of t he mint ' s profits . 4 1
(
Denarii a lso may have bee n
4 0 Later , in t he eleventh cent ur y , t he C atalan s wo uld
adopt the name mancus for the dinar of t he c al iphate . Thi s
may imply that previously Catalo nia had some exposure to
dinars from the east .
I n Asturias , manc us doe s not appear
in t he sources . For a comparative overview of the ear ly
document at io n , see Octavia Gil Farre s , " La c irc ulac ion
monetaria en la pe ninsula hi spanic a entre 7 1 1 y 1 1 0 0 de
J . c . " ouaderni t ic i nesi di Numismatic a e antic hi ta
c lassic he 1 0 ( 1 9 8 1 ) : 3 7 5- 9 7 . For the mancu s in eleventh­
century Cata lo ni a , see c hapter 2 below .
4 1 For Louis the Pious ' s coinage o f the S panis h marc h ,
see Kar l F . Morri son and Henry Grunthal , caro lingian
Coinage ( New York , 1 9 6 7 ) , 1 4 1 - 4 2 , c f . 3 4 4 - 4 5 no . 1 4 and 1 5 .
Be sides the coins of Louis , the other c lear product of the
Barcelona mi nt i s a denarius who se legend reads CARLVS REX
BARC INONA .
This was probably a coin o f Char le s the Bald
whic h was later immo bi li zed after his deat h , l ike the Me lle
coin at Poitou .
For a synopsi s of the problems of
chrono logy wit h caro lingian Catalan is sue s see Pio Beltran
40
(
struck 1n the town of Vich , north of Barce lona , before
9 0 0 . 42
Evidence o f co inage in the western Christian lands
during t he ninth century is sc arce .
For the kingdom of
Asturias , there are a handful of charter s preserved mainly
in the car tularies of the mo naster ies of santo Tor ibio
( Santander ) , cel anova ( Orense ) and Sobrado ( La corufia ) that
sometime s quote pr ices in so lidi and occ asionally in
tremi sses . 4 3
The fourteenth-century cart ulary of Santo
Tori bio cont ai ns an transaction dated 7 9 6 where part of the
Vi llagrasa , " I nt erpretac ion de l usatge ' so lidus aure us ' "
Memorial Numi smatica E spafio l , 2 d ser . , ( 1 9 2 1 ) : 2 0- 2 3 . see
also Miguel Crusafont i S abater , Numismatic a de la coro na
c atal ano- ar agones a medieval ( 7 8 5 - 1 5 1 6 ) ( Madr id , 1 9 82 ) , 2 9 ;
Joaquin Botet y S iso , Les Monedes cat alane s , vo l . 1
( Barce lona , 1 9 0 8 ) , 8 - 9 .
4 2 I n 9 1 1 , Count Wilfred I I of Barcelona , Gerona and
Ausona , on his deathbed , granted the bishop of Vic h a third
of the mint prof it s of vic h , which the count noted he
himself held by grant of the kin g . Federico Udina
Martore ll , E l arc hive condal de Barce lona en lo s siglos IX­
K ( Barce lona , 1 9 5 1 ) , 1 5 0 - 5 2 no . 3 3 ; cf . B i sso n , crown of
Arago n , 2 2 .
4 3 For t he c artulary o f Santo Toribio , see Sanchez
Se lda , S anto Toribio . For sobrado , see Pi lar Lo scertale s
de Garc ia de Valdeave llano , ed . , Tumbos del Monasterio de
Sobrado ( Madr id , 1 9 7 6 ) . The c artulary of Celanova was
partially published by Manue l Serrano y sanz , " Doc umento s
del c artulario de l mo nasterio de Ce lanova , " Revi sta de
c ienc ias j uridicas y soc i ales 4 6 ( 1 92 9 ) : 5 - 4 7 , 5 1 2 - 2 4 .
Many o f the Ce lanova and Sobrado documents also appear in
Emilio s ae z , " Doc umentos gallego s ineditos del periodo
ast ur iano , ADHE 1 8 ( 1 9 4 7 ) and Antonio c . Flor iano
Cumbreno , Diplomatica espano la del periodo astur ( 7 1 8- 9 1 0 )
2 vo ls . ( Oviedo , 1 9 4 9- 5 1 ) . The citations for S anto Toribio
and Ce lanova as we ll as the few ninth-cent ury tran sactions
from the cart ulary of San Vicente of oviedo and the Becerra
goticos o f Sahagun and cardena are summarized i n Gautier
Dalc he 1 " Histoire monetaire , " 6 8 - 9 5 .
"
(
41
price paid was a steer a nd a c ow each apprai sed at
so lidus , 1 tremi ssi s .
1
Another e ntry from the same
c artulary dated 82 7 also appraises a steer at the same
va lue of 1 so lidus , 1 tremi s si s . 4 4
Because these document s spec ifically mention the
tremissi s , sanchez Albornoz took them as evidence that
Vi sigothic go ld continued to c ircu late unt il roughly the
mid- ninth century . 4 5
He i gnored the fact that these two
document s , and almost all other c i tations before the tenth
cent ury , c lear ly refer to purc hase s paid in-kind appraised
in solidi and tremi sses . 4 6
Whi le it is conceivable that
some Vis igothic go ld c irculated in the ninth century , thes e
c harters by themse lves do not prove it .
None o f the
transac tions ever mention solid i or tremi sses " of gold . "
The Asturian eco nomy at this po i nt was undeniably based
mainly on barter with the solidus a nd tremi ssis acting as
44 " ( B ) ove in so lido et tremme ( sic ) bac a vitulata in
so lido et tremi se , " and " bove c o lore nigro in so lido et
tremi se . " Sanchez Belda , S anto Toribio , 4 - 5 no . 2 , 7 - 8 no .
4.
4 5 s anchez Alborno z , " Primit iva or gani zaci6n , " 3 0 3 a nd
the s ame author ' s "Moneda de c ambio , " 1 8 4- 8 5 .
4 6 There is one document rec orded in the cartu lary o f
So br ado that might imply actual c o i n i n the transactio n .
I t i s dated to 8 6 5 and reads , " vendo vobis i n ader ato et
def i nito precio , id e s t , una ivicione ( sic ) et unum animal
et vi so lido s quos vos dedist i s et ego accepi . " The
c art ulary it self dates to the late 1 3th century and its
early entrie s are j umbled chrono logically . Loscerta le s ,
Sobrado , 9 , 9 2 no . 5 8 .
(
42
abstract val ue s , arc haic remnant s of the o ld visigothic
system . 4 7
st i l l , t he campaigns of ordofio I and Alfonso I II
probably bro ught some Is lamic coin i nto the royal treasury .
In his expedit ion against TO ledo c . 9 0 6 , reported by a later
chronic ler , Al fo nso was said to have accepted many gif t s
( munera ) . 4 a
There i s one reference to gold coin in the
Cronicon Al beldense which reports that Alfonso was able to
ransom an important Muslim c aptive f or 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 " auri
so lido s . "
I f this citation is reliable , any go ld dinars
Al fonso I I I received had to have been either Aghlabid or
Abbasid in origin for at his death in 9 1 0 there were sti ll
no dinars produced in Andal usia . 49
The caliphate
and the Return to Go ld
4 7 Tremi ssis and the adj ect ival f orm tremi sale
cont inue to appear in the Ce lanova doc umentation throughout
the te nth cent ury . see Gautier Dalc he , " Histoire
monetaire , " 4 6 , 74- 7 7 .
4 8 see Justo Perez de urbe l and Atilano Gonz alez Rui z­
Zorri lla, eds . , Historia sile nse ( Madr id , 1 9 5 9 ) , 3 0 6 .
Hilda Gras sotti in " Para la hi stori a del botin y de las
parias en Leon y Castilla , " CHE 3 9- 4 0 ( 1 9 64 ) : 4 9- 5 0 reviews
the evidence from other narrative so urce s .
4 9 Yves Bonnaz , Chronigue s astur ienne s ( f in IX�
s iec le ) ( Pari s , 1 9 8 7 ) , 2 6 . A c harter from Sant iago dated
9 1 5 refers to 5 0 0 "metcales ex auro purissimo " that Alfonso
II I had bequeathed to Composte la .
I n the late-e leve nth
century , metcal was the commo n term u sed in the kingdom o f
Leon for t he Mus lim dinar , but i t is not known in any ot her
so urce thi s ear l y . The text s ho uld be treated as suspec t .
See Santiago , 1 : appendix , 8 5 ; c f . s anchez Alborno z
" Primitiva organizacion, " 3 0 6- 7 .
(
' A.bd al-Ra.tunan I I I ( 9 1 2 - 9 6 1 ) \vas able to gradual ly
que l l the unre st that had plagued al-Andalus s ince the
death of Mu� amma d I in 8 8 6 .
He does not appear to have
reopened the mint at cordo ba , howeve r , until some sixtee n
year s into his reign .
His ear liest surviving dirham is
dated A . H . 3 1 6 ( A . D . 9 2 8 / 2 9 ) , on which he assumed the title
of c aliph .
Narrative evidence c orro borate s that at the
same t ime he ordered gold to be stuc k , tho ugh the earliest
surviving dinar date s to A . H . 3 1 7 . 50
Thi s new go ld piece
also proclaimed him as c al iph .
Mus l im Spain ' s f ai lure to mint the dinar for t\vo
hundred years is sometimes attri buted to a deference shown
by the umayyad emirs to the caliph in the east who
theoretically had so le a ut hority to is sue go ld .
But , as we
have see n , the production of dinar s had ceased i n Spain
before the establishment of the emirate .
Furt hermore ,
deference to the c al iph had not restrained the Aghlabid
emir s in North Afric a from striking dinars throughout the
ninth century .
More likely, it was the demi se o f the
Aghlabid emirate in the early te nth ce ntury that gave ' A.bd
al -Ra.tunan I I I both the means to strike gold and the
ince ntive to ado pt the c a lipha l title .
SO
Mi le s , umavvad s , 2 4 n . 6 , 2 8 . Barcelo , " Hiato , "
33-3 4 .
( The tit le o f B arcelo ' s article give s A . D . 9 3 6 ( 7 )
for the resumption o f go ld , but this i s clearly a misprint .
It sho uld read A . D . 92 8 / 2 9 . )
r
44
-
The dec line of Agh labids created a polit ic al vac uum in
North Africa and
' Abd
al -Ra�an attempted to secure the
Maghreb agai nst the ri sing power o f the Fatimids .
occ upied Melilla in 9 2 7 and ceuta by 9 3 1 .
He
His interve ntio n
in North Afric a probably put the Umayyads in c lo ser co ntact
with the trans- s ahara gold trade from Ghana part of whic h
may already have bee n diverted to the town o f sidj ilmasa
Ibn ' Idh ar i
so uth of Fez by the ear ly tenth century . s l
reported that ' Abd al-Rabffia n paid for the marble of Mad l nat
al - Z ahra c . 9 3 7 ( A . H . 3 2 5 ) in " dinars of sidj i lmasa . " s2
Though the Fat imids were able to e stablish nominal
al legiance in the Maghreb and even brief ly minted dinars at
Sidj ilmasa , their ho ld on this region was tenuou s and wo uld
complete ly falter by mid-centur y . s 3
' Abd al-RaOffia n I I I ' s long reign was followed by that
of his son , al-ijakam I I ( 9 6 1 - 9 7 6 ) .
Together the se two
rulers provided an i nternal stability for al-Andalus that
allowed the c ulture and eco nomy to f lourish .
Domestic
stability combined wit h the dec line of the Aghlabids , whose
dominion had reached acros s the mid-Mediterranean to
sic i ly , now appear s to have al lowed Andalusian merchants to
trade more s uc ce s s f ully f urther eastward .
(
F urthermore , for
5 1 O ' Callagha n , Medieval Spai n , 1 1 9 ; Barce lo , " Hiato , "
3 5 ; Glick , I s lamic and Christian spain, 4 1 .
5 2 Mi les , umayyads , 4 6 .
5 3 The umayyads wo uld eventual ly mint direct ly in
sidj ilmasa in the later half of the century .
see Juan
I gnac io Sae nz-Die z , Las ac ufiac iones de l cali f ato de cordoba
en el norte de Africa ( Madrid , 1 9 8 4 ) , 6 3- 6 4 .
45
I
reasons that are not e nt irely c lear , the balance o f trade
seems to have shifted so as to draw si lver and gold back to
al-Andalus .
For example , the Andalus ian merc hant Marawani ,
who died in 9 6 8 , was reported to have lo st 3 0 , 0 0 0 dinars in
a shipwrec k returning home from the market s of Iraq and
India . 5 4
Under ' Abd al -Ra�an I I I and al-�akam I I ,
Cordoba ' s prosperity and wealth was unmatc hed in both the
Is lamic and Chri stian worlds .
With the dec line of the
caliphate that set in after al-�akam ' s death , coin ,
partic ular ly gold dinars , would begin to be siphoned north
to the Chr istian lands .
At the he ight of the caliphate ' s
power in the tenth century , however , there is litt le
evidence t hat the Latin states shared signific antly in t hi s
wealth simply because o f t heir proximity .
Solidi Ga llicani
At the very end of t he ninth century , the phrase
solidus gal licanus begins to appear sporadic ally in
charters from the we stern region of Asturias-Leo n .
The
cart ular ie s of the two Gal ic ian monasterie s , Sobrado and
Ce lanova , both pre serve document s that use the term while
the cart ulary of the monastery of santo Toribio , loc ated
further to t he eas t , has none .
outside of the se , there are
several scattered c it at ions to so lidi gal li cani all in
(
54 Constable , Trade , 7 9 -8 1 .
See also Thomas s .
Noonan , " The Start of t he Si lver cri sis in I sl am : A
Comparative study of Central Asia and the I ber ian
Peninsula , " in PMC I I I , 1 3 2 .
46
charters from the more western regio ns o f the kingdom . ss
The term seems to signal the appearance of an actual coin,
who se use was now undermining the ghost money of the solidi
and tremi sse s . 5 6
Vive s originally suggested that the phrase so lidi
gal li cani referred to solidi from Gau l , that is , that the
term denoted t he Frankish so lidi argenti of 1 2 denarii .
Sanc he z Albornoz , however , pointed out that references to
so lidi gal li cani appear only in doc uments from the region
of Galicia .
He therefore suggested that the term may have
indicated a coi nage pec uliar to Galici a . s 7
{
While initially
55 There are no more than a dozen known citations to
t he solidus gal lican us . The ear liest may date to 8 8 5 and
the late st c . 1 0 0 4- 5 .
sanc he z Albornoz compi led eleven
citations in " Primitiva organi zaci6n , " 3 0 9 n . 3 0 . He
re peated the se with no addit io ns in "Moneda de c ambio , " 1 8 0
n . 2 3 . Gautier Dalc he , " Hi stoire monetaire , " 7 4 - 7 7 ,
inc l uded one more citation from Ce lanova . Gil Farre s
excerpts eight of the text s in " Circ ulaci6n monetaria, "
3 8 1 , 3 8 7 -8 8 .
5 6 The Celanova cartulary shows that some transact ions
co nt inued to be evaluated in the o ld manner of solidi and
tremi sses while others employ the so lidus gal lican us .
( See
Gautier Dalc he , " Histoire monetaire , " 7 4 - 7 7 . ) one c harter
from the monastery of Sobrado , in partic ular , seems to
It
s ugge st that the so lidus gal licanus involved real coi n .
records the s ale of a heredit as in 9 62 : " ( E ) t accepimus a
vo bi s prec ium so lido s VI I I usu gal lecie , precium integrum
quod no bi s bene complac avit . " Loscertales , Sobrado , 9 1 no .
57 .
5 7 Vive s , Moneda, 9- 1 0 ; sanc hez Albornoz , " Primitiva
organiz ac i6n, " 3 0 9- 1 0 . I n the late Roman empire , Gal l aeci a
was the admini strative name applied to northwe stern Spai n ,
probably ref lecting its Ce ltic heritage . The o lder , more
general name for the land of t he celts or Gauls ( moder n
Franc e ) was Gal li a . Pope Gregory the Great ( 5 9 0 - 6 0 4 ) was
pres umably referring to Merovingian gold when he complained
of " so lidi galliarum qui in terra no stra expendi non
po s sunt . " see P hi lippe Guilhiermo z , Notes sur le s ooids du
Moyen Age ( 1 9 0 6 ) , 2 1 9 -2 0 .
47
c
at a lo s s to explain what this Galic ian co inage may have
been , he eve nt ua l ly embraced Reinhardt ' s the s i s that
solidus gal lican us referred to go ld coins of the o ld Suevic
kingdom .
Thanks large ly to sanc he z Albornoz • enthusiastic
endorsement , thi s Suevic attri bution has generally been
accepted s i nce . s a
The mo st tro ubling aspec t of t hi s explanatio n is that
by the time the phrase so lidus gal l i canus began to be used
in the doc uments of Galicia, any gold coins struck by the
suevi wo uld have been three hundred year s old or more .
[
The Asturian doc uments use a var iety o f spellings .
They mainly derive from gal licanus , e . g . , " in simul so lido s
gal licanus" ( Lo scertale s , Sobrado , 9 5 no . 6 2 ) which ln
c las sical usage wo uld be correct to de scribe thi ng s of
Gaul . The doc ument quoted above i n n. 4 8 , however , uses
ga llecie .
sanc he z Albornoz o bj ected that Asturian society used
the adj ective francisca to de s i gnate Franki sh items .
( See
the author ' s una ciudad de la E spana cristiana hace mil
ano s : E stampas de la vida en Leon , 5 t h ed . ( Madr id , 1 9 6 6 ) ,
64 n . 3 0 . ] Thi s does not exc lude t he use o f gal licanus to
de scribe thi ngs of Frankish origin .
Doc uments origi nating
from Sahagun in the late e leve nt h century refer to a
" barrio de Gal leco s " and a " vi l l a que vocifant
Galleque llos . " It seems more like ly that such a settlement
would take its name from a predominanc e of Frenc hmen than
Galic ians .
( Sahagun , 3 : 1 5 4- 5 6 nos . 8 4 9- 5 0 , 1 6 8- 6 9 no .
8 6 1 . ) As l ate as the t hirteent h c e nt ur y , the General
His toria of Alfonso X used gal lo to refer to the Frenc h .
( See Martin Alonso , Dicc ionario med ieval E spano l ,
( Salamanca , 1 9 8 6 ) , s . v . " gal lo . " ]
5 8 Wil he lm Reinhardt , "Los s ue ldos • gallecanos , ·
monedas gal legas , " cuadernos de estudio s gal lego s 2 ( 1 9 4 4 ) :
1 7 7- 8 4 . octavio Gil Farre s accepted t he s uevic thesis in
his review o f Reinhardt i n NH 3 ( 1 9 5 4 ) : 1 2 4 - 2 5 and it was
later endorsed by sanc he z Albornoz i n "Mo neda de c ambio , "
181 .
see al so Gil Farre s , " Circ ulac i6 n mo netaria, " 38 1 ;
Gaut ier Dalc he , " Histoire monetaire , " 4 6 ; Antonio Orol
Pernas , " Numismatic a gallega , " Nurnisma 3 0 ( 1 98 0 ) : 2 3 1 ; c f .
saenz -Die z , L as acunacione s , 1 8 .
48
This Germanic people had e stabli s hed an inde pendent
state
around t he area o f Braga in the f i f t h cent ury but were
conquered by t he Vis igot hs
in
In t heir time ,
58 5 .
s uevic kings had i s s ued bo t h go ld s o l idi and
i n the ot her Germanic kingdoms ,
common denomi nation struck . S 9
t he
If
As
tremi sses .
tremi sses
was t he more
Galic ian society
res urrected these coins three cent ur ie s
regu lar l y as c urre nc y ,
t he
later and used t hem
it wo uld re present a phenomenon
unique in the mo netary h i s tory of E uro pe and indicate a
remarkably anac hronistic and i n s ular economy . 6 o
The t heory
re st s upon several f lawed as sumption s .
First ,
it i s founded o n the premise that i n the nint h
century Vi sigot hic
t h i s were so ,
tremi sses
were
st i l l circ ulat ing .
If
then why c o u ld s uevic co lnage not be
re surrected at t he beginning o f the tent h ?
cent ur y doc ume nt s ,
however ,
remai ni ng in c irc ulat io n .
an abstract unit of va lue .
The ninth-
never attest to Visigothic go l d
They only use the
tremi ssi s
as
Even i f one al lowed that t here
5 9 MEC , 7 8 - 8 0 , 4 5 2 ; O ' C a l laghan , Medieval Spain , 3 9 40 , 43-4 6 .
6 0 Archaic coins were certainly known to medieva l
soc iet y , but t hey must have been rare oddities .
The Hon
hoar d , f or example , interred near Os lo i n mid-ninth cent ury
co nt ai ned one gold piece o f the late Roman empire , but t he
coin seems to have been used a s an ornament .
See Philip
Gr ierson , " The Gold so lidus of Louis t he P io us and Its
I mitations , " no . 2 2 i n Dark Age , 9 .
See a l so the hoard
cont ai ni ng 4 Roman copper piec e s from the late-t hird and
early- fourth century a lo ngside ninth-cent ury I s l amic
copper s .
Jorge de Navas c ues y de Palacio , " E studios de
numismatica mus ulmana occ identa l , " NH 7 ( 1 9 5 8 ) : 5 2 - 5 4 ; cf .
(
the same aut hor ' s " Tesor i l lo de cobre romano-mus ulman de
cordoba , " NH 1 0 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 1 7 2 - 7 3 .
49
c
were occ asio na l Vi s i gothic go ld piece s
circ ul at io n ,
it is dif ficult to acc e pt t hat suevi coin s ,
whic h ended a f u l l century be f ore the
issue s ,
sti l l in
last Visigothic
wo uld a l so be present and that t hey wo uld be
recognized a s di stinct from their vi s i gothic counterpart s .
( I n appe ar ance t he s uevi coins are at time s very simi l ar to
the Vi s i gothic
i s s ue s . )
Furt hermore ,
solidus
gal li can us
describe s it
as
t he s uevic attr ibut ion as sume s that t he
was a go ld co i n a lt ho ugh no doc ument
suc h .
I n fact ,
referenc e s to t he s o l idus
compri sed of
s i lver .
one of t he ear lier
gal lican us
A c harter dated
implies that it was
905
records the
of two c hurc he s to a priest named Homar whic h read s ;
ac ce pt
from yo u a price whic h please s
25
" we
so l idos
in c lot h or si lver or c at t le . " 6 1
gallicenses
Final l y ,
deve lopments
gal lican us
us o f
s a le
t he s uevic theory i gnores important
i n Galicia at t he time t h at the solidus
i s c ited in the document s .
Apostle Jame s the Great wa s
T he be l ie f that t he
buried i n nort hwestern Gal ic ia
at compo ste l a began to take ho ld somet ime in t he ninth
century . 6 2
By the c lose of t he cent ury ,
prec isely when the
6 1 " ( E ) t accepimus de te pret i um
complac u it XXV solidos gal lice nses i n
boves . "
F lor iano C umbrefio ,
quod nobis be ne
pannos vel argento et
Diplomatica e spano l a , 2 : 3 3 4 no .
G i l Farre s , " Circ ulac i6 n monetar i a , "
Aloorno z , " Mo neda de c ambio , " 1 9 2- 9 3 .
182;
387;
s anc he z
6 2 Jan Van Herwaadren , " The orgins of the cult o f st .
Jame s o f Compo ste la , " Journal o f Medieval s t udies 6 ( 1 9 80 )
(
1-35 .
:
50
term so lidus
Al fonso
gal licanus
begins to appear in document s ,
I I I had begun to promote t he c ul t .
church on the
site ,
whic h was c o nsecrated in
genero u s ly e ndowed it .
To ur s dated
906
He rebui lt t he
If
his
is genuine ,
899
and
letter to the c lergy of
as F letc he r argues it is ,
he
had a l s o made an e f f ort to s pread news o f the cult to the
ki ngdom of t he Franks . 6 3
Al fonso ' s effort to promot e the c ult of
po i nt s to several explanations
for the
st .
so lidus
Jame s
gal lican us .
It i s po s s ible t hat the king s t r uc k denarii in Gal ic ia in
co nnec t ion wit h the pro j ec t of rebui lding the church
dedi c ated to t he A po st le .
or ,
t he c lergy there may have
themse lve s str uc k coin to finance the
more like ly ,
however ,
t hat so lidi
It
bui ldi ng .
gal li cani
seems
did in f act
Whi le t he se were ye ar s of
re fer to denarii from France .
Viking raids on the coast of France and Asturias ,
the
threat o f the Norsemen doe s not mean t hat the water s were
impa s s able .
Alfonso was s aid to
have bro u ght marble and
s c u l pt ure by sea from Portugal to decorate the new c hurc h
of s t .
Jame s .
trustworthy ,
Again ,
if t he letter to Tours is
t he king himse l f pl anned to trave l to Bordeaux
by sea and l ikewise a s s umed that t ho se
vi sit the shrine of st .
6 3 For the
5 7- 6 0 , no . 2 7 .
letter to Tour s ,
(
F letc her ,
see
s antiago ,
Rich ard A .
2:
F letc her ,
appendi x ,
saint
The Life and T imes o f Diego Gelmirez o f
Santi ago de Compostela
64
Jame s wo u l d a l s o come by boat . 6 4
see f urther ,
Jame s ' s catapu lt :
in France wishing to
( OXford ,
Catapult ,
1 9 8 4 ) , 5 7 , 6 9- 7 3 , 3 1 7- 2 3 .
7 1 , 3 1 7 -2 3 ; s antiago , 2 : 1 8 3 - 8 4 .
'5 1
(
I ndeed ,
there is evidence that at
Franki s h kingdom c ame and stayed ;
tent h cent ury name s
le ast o ne person from the
a c harter of t he mid-
" B ertendus f ranc us "
as a pro perty m-1ner
in compo stela . 6 5
It
seems
plaus ible ,
then ,
t hat G a l ic ia in the tent h
Per haps t hrough a
cent ury was expo sed to Frank i s h c o in .
maritime c onnectio n ,
t he Galic ians be c ame
particu lar denari us from we stern
ident i f y as t he
gal licanus .
Francia
fami liar wit h one
whi c h t hey came to
A doc ument dated
ref lect t hi s sent iment when it re ferred to
" i n use in o ur land . n 6 6
that by
919
In t hi s regar d ,
the c ler gy at st .
92 4
so lidi
may
qa llicani
i t i s wort h not ing
Marti n of To ur s convinced the
We st Frank i s h ruler Char le s the s imple
( 8 9 8- 92 2 )
to
recognize t he ir right to mi nt . 6 7
65
Lo scertale s ,
Sobrado ,
1:
no .
2;
F letc her ,
cat apu l t ,
10 .
6 6 " ( s ) o lido s ga l l icario s u s ui terrae no stre . "
Portuqal i ae Monumenta Historica : Diplomata et C hartae ,
( L i sbo n , 1 8 6 7 ) , 1 : 1 9 ; c f . 37 where a s ec o nd doc ume nt dated
s peaks of " XXVI I I so lido s romano s us um terre nostre . "
Vive s be lieved t hi s referred to Byz ant ine s o l idi whi le
Sanc he z Albornoz implied it referred to o l der Roman co1n .
( See Vive s , Moneda , 8 ; s anchez Alborno z , " Pr imitiva
organi z ac i6 n , " 3 0 8 and " Mo neda de cambio , " 1 7 8 - 7 9 . )
No
other reference to so lido s romanos is known to my
knowledge .
952
67
s t . Martin ' s was not alone .
After the deat h of
Char le s t he Bald ( 8 4 0- 7 7 ) , t he C ar o lingians i n general
al lowed a prol i f er ation of independent or semi -independent
mints in the tenth cent ury .
see S puf ford , Money, 5 6 -6 0 .
Ttvo " Caro l ingian " coins were reported by C hamo so Lamas
in " Exc avaciones arqueo l6gic as e n l a c atedr a l de s anti ago
( tercera f a se ) , " Comoo stel lanum 2 ( 1 9 5 7 ) , which I have been
unable t o obtai n .
Joaquin Maria de Navasc ue s in " Hallaz go s
monet ario s e n l a c atedral de sant iago de Compo stela , " NH 7
r
( 1 9 5 8 ) : 1 9 5- 7 , c at a logued additional s pec imens and reviewed
in det ai l al l f i nd s to date .
He and C hamo so bo t h
52
so lidus Ar qe nt i - The Di plomat ic E vidence
At the same t ime that t he
solidus
c ited in the sources o f the nort hwest ,
doc ume nt s ,
gal lican us
is
first
other Ast ur ian
particu lar ly from t he town of Leo n ,
begin to
employ t he term so lidus arge nt i in descr ibing transactio ns .
A c harter from Leo n dated
enc lo s ure of
so lidi
"of
894
recorded t he s al e of an
l and with two hou s e s for the price of four
silver . " 6 6
From t hat date onward ,
arge nt i appear s re gular ly in t he c harter s ,
t he f ew referenc e s to t he so lidus
solidus
gal lican us,
so lidus
f ar o ut pacing
gal lican us .
As with t he
it i s evident in many tran s actions t hat
the so lidus ar ge nti wa s ac ting o nl y as standard of value
and no
s i lver was trading hand s . 6 9
From the be ginni ng ,
attr ibuted t he two " Caro lingian " c oins to Char lemagne .
Bot h are denarii from the mint at Me lle , in so uth-we ster n
France , whic h had probably o perated from t he t ime of
Char lemagne .
After the death o f C harles the B ald , however ,
the c o unts o f Poitou immobi l i z ed the type and minted it
unti l t he twe l f t h cent ur y .
Therefore , the two
" C arol i n gian " coins recovered at com� stela may be
One o f the two c arrie s the reverse
cons iderably l ater .
legend METALO whic h may date i t to the e leve nt h cent ury
( MEC , 2 3 5- 4 0 ) .
Indeed , a l l ot her coins found at Com�ste l a
date t o the e leventh century .
Des pite t hi s , t he se two
coins c o ntinue to be uncriti c a l l y assigned to Char lemagne .
See Sanc he z Al borno z , " Moneda de c ambio , " 1 9 3 ; Gautier
Dalc he , " Histoire mo netaire , " 4 8 ; Anna M . Ba laguer ,
" Troba l le s de moneda c aro lingia a c atalunya , " GN 7 4- 7 5
(
( 1 9 8 4 ) : 1 4 3- 4 6 .
6 8 " ( O ) rto c um s ua c lausa et dua s ka sas . . . pretium
. . . r r r ror so lido s de argenteo s . " ACL , 1 : 1 8 - 1 9 no . 9 .
6 9 Thi s i s i ll ustrated by the abbot of S ah agun ' s
purc ha se of land i n 9 4 6 .
The price he paid was a " c abal l um
doinum pro c o lore et frenum, a pe ti at um i pso c a ba l lo in L
s o l ido s " , S ahagun , 2 : 5- 6 no . 3 6 4 .
Cf . sanc he z Albornoz ,
however ,
ot her c harter s make it c lear t hat some form o f
si lver w a s pre sent .
her so n s
so lidi ,
In
s o l d a piece of
2
argenti
fo llow t hi s
16
..
7o
emphas i z in g t hat pay�e nt was made
sti l l other tran sac t ions
s uc h as
Asturia s -Leo n was not a mere
tremi ssis
" 100
solidi argenti ,
Whi l e it i s c lear that t he
and
were ear l ier ,
gal li canus
and
so lidi argenti ,
3 modii
and
of wheat .
..
3
72
s o l id u s argenti i n
" ghost money , "
as t he solidus
t he documents do not reveal
spec if ic a l ly what this s i lver was .
sol idus
2
other Leonese doc ume nt s
de argen to . 7 1
refer to mixed payment s ,
cows val ued at
land i n t he d istrict of Leon for
" in s i l ver .
same pattern ,
in s o l id i argenti
a woman named Filia Bona and
92 1 ,
I f we ac ce pt t hat the
repre sented Franki s h denarii coming to
Galic i a via a maritime l ink wit h southern France ,
then t he
so lidu s arge nt i in the rest of t he kingdom may repre sent
E st ampas ,
for the aver age va lue in s o l id i as signed to a
37 ,
horse in t hi s period .
Emil io S ae z calc u l ated t hat be twee n t he year s 9 1 2 and
9 5 2 , t he monas tery of san Co sme y San Damian in Leon made
purc hase s that totaled 4 7 7 s o l idi .
In 1 3 7 of these
instance s the doc ume nt s spec if y that t he solidi were paid
in kind , t ho ug h one cannot extrapo late from this t hat the
remainder were a l l paid in s i l ver . see S ae z • s introduc tion
to ACL , 1 : xxxvii .
70
" ( P ) ro quo ac cepimus de vos i n ader atum et
def init um d uo s
1 : 87
no .
71
arge n z o s
in argento . " ACL ,
52 .
see
saez in ACL ,
celada ,
ed . ,
carrion
( 1047-1300)
72
{
so lido s et I I05
1 : xxxv i i .
see a lso Julio A .
Documentac i6 n de l mo nasterio de san
( Burgo s ,
1 9 86 ) , 9
no .
" ( I ) n aderato et def i nite precio ,
Perez
Zoilo de
3.
c entum so lido s de
argento , et I IIes bove s adprec iato s i n XVI XVI ( sic )
The charter
so lido s de argento , et I I I modio s de trigo . "
is dated 9 1 5 , but may be as l ate a 9 2 4 .
ACL , 1 : 5 5 - 5 6 no .
37 .
54
the s imu lt aneo us i nf iltrat io n of denar ii f rom cataloni a and
perhaps be yond .
The c lo se o f the nint h c e nt ury re presents
the be gi nning of t he period when minting privilege s we re
either granted to or
u s urped by loc a l c o unt s and bis ho ps
throughout t he Frank i s h domains .
In c at alonia ,
be side s the
po ss ible continuat ion of mints at Barc e lona and Vich in the
tent h cent ur y ,
Gerona also may have minted s poradic ally . 7 3
As we have see n ,
world ,
norma l l y s i gnif ied a unit of denari i .
cent ury ,
coin s ,
By t he tenth
t he phrase almo st i nvariably indicated
12
s uc h
a c onve ntion whic h had also s pread t o Ang lo - s axon
E ngland . 7 4
us s ay
solidus argenti i n t he caro lingian
26
In Frank i s h pract ice ,
de narii ,
if a payment required let
t he s um was normally expr e s sed as
2
73
For t he c o i ns of Vich and Gerona , see cru safont
Numismat ic a , 2 9 .
see f urther , Arturo Pedr a l s y Mo l ine ,
" Mo nedas ac unadas e n Gerona e n lo s siglos X y X I , " Memoria l
N umi smatico E spano l
2 ( 1 8 6 8 ) : 2 64 - 6 8 ;
F ide l F it a ,
" Cart a de
d . F ide l F it a dirigida a d . Ce le st ino P u j o l y Camps so bre
n umi smatica gerundense , " Memorial Numi smatic o E spa.no l 3
( 1 872-73 ) : 2 0 1 -7 .
7 4 For t he s o l idus
of account of 1 2 de narii in
Caro l i ngian E uro pe , see n . 1 4 above .
For Anglo- saxon
England , see P ame l a Nighti ngale , " The Evo l ut io n of �"feight­
St andards and the Creation o f New Mo netary and commerc ial
L i nks i n Norther n E uro pe from the Te nt h Cent ury to t he
Twe lf th Century , " E c o nomic Hi story Review , 2 d ser . , 3 8
( 1985 ) : 196.
Just a s there was a pound of wei ght and a denar i u s of
we ight , the Caro li ngians may also have employed a so lidus
of wei ght , t ho ugh it is not as evident i n the s o urce s .
The
so lidus argenti , t he n , at time s may have repre sented a
we ight o f si lver bul lion and not a unit of 1 2 coins .
See
see Grierson , " C harlemagne , " 5 0 9 ; cf . Harry A . Miskimi n ,
" Two Ref orms o f Char lemagne ?
We ight s and Me a s ures i n the
Middle Age s , " E co nomic Hi story Review , 2 d ser . , 2 o ( 1 9 6 7 ) :
45 .
(
55
so lidi ,
2 de narii .
The Ast urian doc uments reveal a
seemingly similar system ,
but do not use t he term de nari us .
A charter preserved in one o f the cart ular ie s of t he
mo nastery of S an Mi l lan de la cogo lla in casti le shows the
abbot purc ha sing t ime at t he mi l l of Ar lanzon from various
persons between 94 3 and 9 5 1 .
Didaco Albura so ld three
turns at t he mi ll for an eve n 4 so lidi , while Alvaro oveco z
and his companio n so ld two t urns for 1 solidus and 6
ar ge nti .
Godrniro of Ar lan z on received 2 solidi and 6
ar genti for one of his allotme nt s whereas another perso n ,
Al la , rece ived only 1 1 argenti for one turn . 7 5
Thi s
payment to Al la of 1 1 arge nt i represents the lar ge st s um o f
individual argenti c ited in the li st .
It wo uld seem to
imply that a solidus was c omprised o f 12 argenti j ust as
the Franki sh so lidu s was made up of
12 de narii . 7 6
A doc ume nt from t he nearby monastery o f Al be lda in the
Rio j a records a co ntemporary transaction that may further
support this conc l us io n .
Around 9 4 7 , Garc ia c ic levo gave
the monastery o f Al be lda s a lt lands
( areas salinar um ) that
he had purchased in the vi l lage of Ganiz .
de scribing t he beque st ,
I n the charter
he l isted the prices he paid for
7 5 Antonio Ubieto Artet a , cart ulario de san Mi llan de
la cogo lla ( 7 5 9 - 1 0 7 6 ) ( Va le nc ia , 1 9 7 6 ) , 7 2 no . 5 9 ; cf . 7 3
no . 6 1 .
7 6 By the late tenth c entury , so lidus a l so c learly
(
denoted a unit of we ight in the I berian Chr i st ian kingdoms ,
compri sed of 8 argenti o f weight .
( See appe ndix B below . )
I hope to explore the re lation between this Hi spanic unit
and the Caro lingian po und more f ul ly in the f uture .
56
eac h parcel .
E ight areas he purc hased from a single owner
in exc hange for a horse .
however ,
The remaining seven parcel s ,
had been purc hased individual ly .
The prices paid
for eac h were li sted in the fo l lowing order :
1 area
area
area
area
area
area
1 area
1
1
1
1
1
3 " so l idos et medio "
3 " so l idos "
3 " so lidos et medio "
3 " so l ido s "
3 " so l idos "
3 " so l idos et medio "
1 " so l ido et sex
arge ntei s "
one interpretation of this list is that 6 argent i wa s
anot her way o f expre s s ing a half so lidus . 77
There are other para l le l s suggesting that argent us in
Asturias -Leo n was syno nymo u s with de nari us .
I n the abbot
of s an Mi l lan ' s purc hase of mi l l right s , some individuals
were not paid in s ilver but ln kind .
Mufio Nunez received s
argenza tas o f wax for one t urn at the mi ll which c lear ly
me ant a quant ity of wax valued at 5 argenti . 7 B
contrast ,
in c atalonia ,
By
a payment in-kind amount ing to les s
than a solidus was somet imes expre s sed in terms of the
7 7 Albelda at this time appear s to be in t he kingdom
o f Navarre .
see E l iseo Sainz Ripa , co lecc io n diplomat ic a
de las co leqiatas de Al be lda y Loqrofio , vo l . 1 , ( 9 2 4 - 1 3 9 9 )
( Logrofio , 1 9 8 1 ) , 2 4 no . 2 - ii .
T he doc ument is a copy
dating at least to the e le ve nt h cent ury .
7 8 " E go Monnio Nunni z una vice i n V ar anzatas de cera
et tres vice s sunt de Sali t u s abba . "
The prec ise meaning
here is unc le ar .
He seems to have sold three turns at 5
argenza tas e ac h . Another part ic ipant wa s a lso paid
partial ly in argenza tas t ho ugh these are not modif ied ; " E go
Nunniz Gonza lvo vendo in i i i s o lidos alia vice et iii
argen zata s . " Ubieto , s an Mil lan , 72 no . 5 9 .
(
57
dinera ta , i . e . , a denar i u s wort h . 7 9
Both dinera ta and
argenzata are also eventual ly applied in a wider co ntext .
Charters f rom France in the tent h and eleventh century
refer to a measure of l and ca l led the denaria t a which may
have been the equivalent o f a twelfth of a rod .
In
Astur i a s , o ne f inds referenc e s to a n argenza ta o f land in
the doc ume nt s ,
tho ugh it i s dif f ic ult to determi ne i f this
represented t he same mea sure a s the denari ata . a o
So lidus Arge nt i - The Numi smatic Evidence
De s pite the simi larities between the use o f arge nt us
and de narius in the doc ume nt s ,
there i s litt le numismatic
evidence to support the pro pos itio n that Frank i s h de narii
7 9 For the dinerata , see Gi l Farre s , " C ir c u lacion
monetar ia , " 3 8 9 ; cru s af ont , Numismatic a , 5 2 .
C lear
citatio n s to t he actual denarius in catalonia in t hi s time
see t he reference o f 9 2 1 ,
frame are not frequent .
" solidatas VI in rem valentem et dinario s quater , " and the
later sale o f 9 9 0 for " prec io manc usos uno de aura mero et
so lido s duos de denario s .
Cf . two sales o f 9 2 1 where the
pr ice wa s expres sed as " de narios . . . in rem va lentem . "
Udi na , E l archive condal , 1 9 9 - 2 0 2 no s . 6 7 - 6 8 , 2 0 4 - 2 0 6 no .
7 1 , 4 1 1 - 1 2 no . 2 2 3 .
see also J . Alt ura i Perucho , " Note s
numi smat ique s de l s diplomatari s de Santa Anna de B arce lona
( fons de santa Anna i de santa E ul alia de l Camq ) del 9 4 2 al
1 2 0 0 , " AN 1 1 ( 1 9 8 1 ) , 1 2 2 .
8 0 For the denaria t a of land , see J . F . Niermeyer ,
(
Mediae Latinitati s Lexicon Minus ( Leiden , 1 9 8 4 ) , s . v .
" denar iata , " who tentative ly c onc l udes that it equaled a
twelfth o f a rod .
For the argenzata of land see , f or
example , " I I I argenzatas de terra pro populare , " in Perez
Celad a , san Z o i lo , 2 5 no . 1 1 ; cf . Alonso , Diccionario , s . v .
" aranzada . "
F letcher in E pi sc opate , 2 7 9 , write s that t he
argenza ta was a little larger than an acre , tho ugh he doe s
not reveal his sourc e .
I f he i s correct , than it was muc h
larger t han a twelfth of a rod , but the subj ect require s
more t horough inve stigat io n .
58
c irc ulated in Asturias in the te nt h cent ury .
The only
" C aro lingian " coins known to have been found within the
conf ines of the ki ngdom are the immo bili zed type s of
Char le s the Bald at compo ste la , but these 2 coin s co uld
have been struck as late as the eleventh or even twe lf t h
ce nt ury . a 1
More compe l li ng test imo ny that de narii cro s sed
the Pyrenees to some extent in t he tenth century comes from
excavations at the c ha pe l of I bafieta in Navarre .
The
c hapel i s loc ated on one of the main pi l grim route s over
the Pyrenees at the pas s of Ci ze near Ronceva lle s . a z
Excavations here uncovered 6 denarii o f Ethelred I I
( 9 78 -
1 0 1 6 ) o f E ngland and 1 example o f the immo bi li zed MELLE
type of Char les the Bald s imilar to the 2 found at
compo ste la ,
indicating that by t he c lo se o f the tent h
cent ury there wa s traf fic entering Spain from beyo nd t he
Pyrenee s . 8 3
some of this traf f ic was undoubtedly bound for
santiago . 84
(
8 1 see n . 67 above .
8 2 Wi lliam Melc zer , trans . , The Pi lgrim ' s Guide to
s antiago de compostela ( New York , 1 9 9 3 ) , 2 6- 2 7 , 8 5 ; Luis
Vazquez de Parga , Jose Maria Lac arra and Juan uria Ri u , Las
peregrinaciones a santiago de compostela ( Madrid , 1 9 4 8 - 4 9 ) ,
2 : 78-9 3 .
8 3 Mateu y L lo pi s in " Hallaz go s mo netario s , " pt . 2 ,
2 3 3 no . 6 8 , original ly reported only o ne coin of E the lred .
Al l of t he E nglish coins , however , are discu s sed in hi s " E l
hal lazgo de ' pennie s • ingle se s e n Ronce sval le s , " Principe
de Viana 1 2 ( 1 9 5 0 ) : 2 0 1 - 1 0 .
The immobilized type of
Char le s the Bald was reported in " Ha llaz go s mo netario s , "
pt . 7 , 2 5 0 no . 5 7 7 . As with o ne of the spec imens fo und at
compostela , this coin seems to be of t he variety that reads
METALO instead of MELLE , which may place it in the e levent h
cent ury or contemporary with t he Ang lo - S axon f inds .
59
I n eval uating the degree t o whic h denarii from
nort hern E urope may have c ircu lated in C hristian S pain in
the te nt h cent ury , o ne must keep in mi nd that even i n
cata loni a , whi c h had formed part o f the caro li ngian empire ,
reported f inds of ni nt h and te nt h cent ury de narii ( either
from t he C at a l an mints or from mints beyond the Pyrenee s )
are extreme l y l imited . 8 5
I ndeed , the overall survival rate
of denarii from caro lingian E urope is very low indeed .
The
tota l number of coins that exi st today surely re presents
only a frac tion o f what once c irc ulated . B 6
B y t he l ate tent h cent ury , Ang lo- S axon mint o utput
appear s to have been high and Anglo- Saxon merc hant s were
probably tradi ng in France and I ta ly .
( Nightingale ,
" Weight- Standards , " 1 9 6 . )
I n this l ight , the find s of
Engl i s h coins at I bafieta are not s ur prising .
8 4 For t he documentary evidence relating to pi lgrim
traf fic to santiago in the tenth century , see Vazque z de
P arga , et a l . Las pereqrinaciones , 1 : 4 1 - 4 6 .
8 5 Balaguer , " Troba l le s de mo neda c aro l ingia , " 1 4 3 - 4 6 .
(
see f urther , crusafont , Numismatica , 2 9 , who combines the
coins known in f inds wit h tho se known from c o l lections .
8 6 For t he period from c . 8 0 0 to the end of the reign
of C harles t he Bald in 8 7 7 there are o nl y severa l thousand
coins known .
The relative size of this corpus is even
smal ler when o ne considers t hat mo st of these coins are
immobi li zed types of Charles t he B ald , which may repre sent
mint s of t he tenth , eleventh and even twelfth centurie s .
See D . M . Metc alf , " The Prosperity of North-We stern E uro pe
in the E i ghth and Ninth Centuries , " Economic His tory
Review, 2d s er . , 2 0 ( 1 9 6 7 ) : 3 5 2 - 5 3 .
Our tenuous knowledge of t he size of E urope ' s co inage
in t he tenth c entury was demon strated by t he discovery o f
the Fec amp hoard .
containing near ly 8 , 0 0 0 coins from a
wide array o f die s , it s howed the coinage of Ric hard I o f
Normandy t o be a s ubstantial i s s ue and revol utio ni zed the
e stimate of late Caro lingi an /early Capetian mint out put .
see Fran�oi se Dumas -Dubor g , Le tre sor de Fec amp et le
monnayage en Francie occ identale pendant le second moitie
du � s iec le ( Paris , 1 9 7 1 ) . See also Morrison , c aro lingian
Coi nage , 3 8 1 - 8 3 .
60
To t he s c attered f inds a t Ibanet a , one must add the
evidence of two hoards ,
Mu slim in origin .
altho ugh t hey are both pro bably
The f ir st ,
a hoard fo und in cordo ba ,
contained approximately 1 7 0 dirhams of the umayyad emirate
with dates ranging from 7 7 3 to the late nint h century .
Interred a lo ng wit h these dirhams were 6 denarii and some
2 0 fragment s of de nari i .
Tho s e de narii that could be
identi fied be longed to Louis t he Pio us and e ither
Char lemagne or Char le s the B ald . B 7
provenance is unknown ,
A second hoard , who se
a lso cont ai ned mainly I s lamic s ilver
alongs ide 2 0 l ate-ni nt h and tent h cent ury Franki sh
denarii . 8 B
The s e hoards , while they do not s hed direc t
li ght on c ir c u lation in the Chri stian realms , at least
support the ge neral propo s itio n that the peninsu la was not
devoid of commercial c ontact wit h the rest of E uro pe .
8 7 The exact bre akdown of the hoard known as " la
Sagrada Fami li a " varie s s light ly in the publ is hed ac co unt s .
Exhi bited in Madrid in 1 9 5 1 it was reported that s ame year
( He
by Mateu in " Ha l la zgo s mus ulmane s , " pt . 5 , 4 8 1 no 6 0
c i te s a loca l C6rdoban pub lication I have been unable to
obtain . )
The hoard was subseque nt ly reported in more
detail by s . de lo s Santos Jener , " Mo nedas c arol ingi as en
un tesori llo de dirheme s de l emirate cordobes , " NH 5
( 1 95 6 ) : 79-8 7 .
see f urther , Anna M . B al aguer , " Primeres
conc lusions de l ' e st udi de la moneda c at alan a comt al , " in
SNB , 2 : 3 1 9 no . 3 .
I n t he se report s , the denarii are assigned to
Char lemagne and Lo ui s , but it is impo s sible to tel l if the
authors acc o unt for the problems of attribut ion regarding
the coins of C harlemagne and his grand son Char le s the Bald .
8 8 Morrison , c arolingi an coinage , 3 8 4 no . 1 2 0 ; c f .
Ba laguer , " Primere s co nc lusions " , 3 1 9 no . 4 and co nstable ,
Trade , 4 1 n . 8 9 .
. .
(
F5 1
The alternative to acc epting that the Asturian solidus
arge nti was a produc t o f c arol ingian i nf luence is to see it
as a unit of account based o n the Hu slim dir ham .
Within
al -Andal us , the abse nc e of a gold currency under the
emirate probably promo ted the prac tice of rendering the
di nar in s ilver , what later Mu slim c hronic lers and j ur ists
would c all the dln ar darah im ( dinar o f dirhams ) . a 9
Beltran
and others have s ugge s ted that the Moz arab s who left al­
Anda lus in t hat late ninth century to sett le a lo ng the
Asturian frontier establ i s hed a si lver connectio n between
Asturias and Mus lim spai n ,
i . e . , that they bro ught dir hams
with them in t he ir initial j ourney north and t he n continued
to maintai n economic c ontac t s with the south afterwards .
Ac cording to this sc ho o l o f thought ,
a lo ng wit h silver
co in , the Mo z arabs a l s o bro ught the I s lamic unit o f va lue ,
t he dln ar darahim , to t he north where it be c ame the solidus
ar ge nti in the tenth c entury document s .
The growing
monetary eco nomy of Ast uri as-Leo n , therefore , wa s ac tual ly
8 9 It also wa s referred to as the dinar fi99a or di nar
-
-
of silver .
See Pedro Chalmet a , " E l dirham ar ba ' ini , duh l ,
qurtubi , andalusi : su valor , " AN 1 6 ( 1 9 8 6 ) : 1 1 8- 1 9 .
see
f urt her , by the same a ut hor , " Prec is ions au s u j et du
monnayage hispano -arabe ( dirham q a sirnl et dirham
arba ' l nl ) , " Jo ur nal of the Economic and soc ia l History o f
the orient 2 4 ( 1 9 8 1 ) : 3 2 2 ; c f . Levi-Provenq a l , Es pagne
mus ulmane , 3 : 2 5 8 .
(
62
based on the value o f the I s lamic si lver dir ham and
dinar . 9 °
It would be foo l i s h to contend that no dir hams made
their way to t he Chr i s t i an kingdoms in the se years ,
part ic ular ly a s booty in the c ampaigns o f ordo no I , Al fonso
I I I and his son ordo no I I . 9 1
st i l l , there is no bas is for
suppo s ing a steady f low of Mus lim si lver north at this
time . 9 2
(
There are s ever al find s of dirhams from cata lonia ,
9 0 Beltran Vil lagrasa was perhaps the stro nges t
proponent o f t he view t h at t he so lidus argenti i n we stern
Spai n was based on t he d irham of al-Andalu s .
see pr imari ly
hi s " Dinero de Fer nando I , " 5 9 5 - 6 0 3 .
See a l so appendix A,
n. 2 3 be low.
Mate u y L lo pis i n " E vocac i6 n , " 6 9 , s po ke of
" una economi a que se basaba en los dir heme s musulmanes . "
see a lso Chalmet a , " Prec i s io ns , " 3 2 1 ; cf . Jaime L l ui s y
Navas " Aspecto s de la organi z aci6n legal de la amo nedac i6n
en la edad media c a st e l lana , " Numisma 9 ( 1 9 5 9 ) : 1 3 .
Sanche z Alborno z envisioned a hybrid system, pro po sing
that t here may have been two s o lidi argent i , o ne derived
from t he C arol ingian s o l idus argenti and another based on
See " Mo neda de c ambia , " 2 0 0 - 2 0 2 .
the dirham of al-And a lus .
const able in Trade , 6 2 - 6 3 , agr ue s agai nst the theory that
the Mo z arabs " forged a vital c ommerc ia l and c u ltural link
betwee n nort h and south acro s s s the I berian frontier . "
9 1 Gras sotti , " Bo tin , " 4 7 - 5 0 .
9 2 Beginning i n the late-t enth century a nd conti nuing
sporadic ally in the e leventh century , charter s in the Latin
kingdoms oc casional ly refer to so lidi argenti kazimi .
These solidi are at t ime s further modi fied a s being from
Spani a , i . e , a l-Anda l us , leaving no doubt that the term
referred to dirhams .
But , it ha s been frequently
over looked in the secondary liter ature that t hese citations
be lo ng to a later stage , coinc iding with t he dis integratio n
of t he c aliphate .
see appendix A be low .
Besides t he se reference s to solidi kazimi , there is a
so litary reference i n a c harter dated 9 3 3 to s o lidi
toledanos . Thi s i s puz z ling sinc e the caliph ate never
operated a mint in Toledo .
The charter is pre served in a
cart ular y of t he monastery of Lorvao in Port ugal and most
like ly should not be trusted .
See Port ugal iae Mo nume nta
Hi storic a : Diplomat a et C hartae , 1 : 2 4 ; cf . Antonio Lo sa ,
"The Money Amo ng t he Moz arabs of t he Portugue se Territory :
Data Obtained From t he ' Li vro Preto ' of the See of
I
but they date to t he e ighth century when the Mus lims sti l l
co ntro lled muc h o f the area . 9 3
With t he exception o f the
San Andres hoard interred in Navarre aro und the opening of
the early tent h centur y , there are no f i nd s of emirate
si lver t hat can be s hown to come from Chri st ian-oc cupied
terri tory . 9 4
For the Umayyad mints , see
Coimbra , " in PMC I , 2 8 4- 8 5 .
Miles , umayyads , 3 3 - 5 4 .
On forgerie s f rom Lorvao , cf . the
comme nt s in P i l ar B lanc o Lo z ano , ed . , Co lecc i6 n diplomat ic a
de Fernando I ( 1 0 3 7 - 6 5 ) ( Le o n , 1 9 8 7 ) , 1 7 8 - 7 9 no . 7 0 .
9 3 The Garraf ho ard from Barce lo na i s the be st
il lustration of this phase . It was i nt erred c . 7 5 0 .
see the
detai led account in " Hal lazgos musulmane s , " pt . 8 , 4 3 9 - 4 4 6
no . 8 6 ; c f . " Hal lazgos monetario s , " pt . 1 1 , 2 5 3
no . 7 3 1 .
Anna M . B a laguer s umma ri zed the knmvn detai l s in " Troba l le s
i c irc ulac i6 monet aria : corpus de le s troba l les de moneda
arab a Catalunya ( segles VI I I - X I I I ) , " AN 2 0 ( 1 9 9 0 ) , 9 8 .
see al so her s ummary o f other find s , 8 6- 8 8 .
L ikewise ,
there are several find s of eighth-cent ur y Umayyad dirhams
in southern France , but none from later year s .
See
Miko la j c zyk , " Spani s h Umayyad Dirhams , " 2 5 5 - 2 6 8 .
9 4 The s an Andre s hoard contained several hundred
dirhams .
The last dat able c oins i n it are late-nint h
centur y , but i t contained pieces dating back t o the
( See n . 2 6 above . )
With suc h a
be ginning of t he emirate .
range of coin date s , o ne might be tempted to conclude that
it repre sent s a lo ng-terms s avings hoard f rom Chri stian
It i s more l ikely, however , t h at t he emirs did
territory .
not reca l l coins of their predec e s sor s , whic h re sulted in a
very mixed c ircu lating medium .
Ho ard s f rom t he tenth
century indicate t hat the c a liphs fo l l owed s uc h a po licy .
( See Alberto canto Garc ia , " Perforat io ns i n Coins of t he
Andalusian umayyad C a liphate : A Form o f Demo neti zation , " in
PMC I I , 3 4 6- 5 3 . )
Mate u , in " Halla zgo de dirheme s , " 8 5 - 1 0 1 ,
ascribed the S an Andre s hoard to t he Mus lim campai gn s
He wa s perhaps
against sancho Garces ( 9 0 5 - 9 2 5 ) of Navarre .
correc t .
There is no ot he r hoard evidence pointing to the
c irc ulation of Mus lim coins among the C hr i st ian states t hi s
early .
See Mateu ' s s ummary of f inds o f emirate coins in
" Hallazgos monetario s , " pt . 1 1 , 2 5 0 .
see f urther, Metca lf ,
" Geographica l Aspect s " , 3 2 2 - 2 3 , though h i s map here
inc ludes f inds up to t he mid-twelfth c e nt ury .
(
15 4
On t he co ntrary, there i s c lear evidence that the
si lver o f the emirate was generally be ing pu l led in an
oppo site direction .
As we have seen ,
hoard evidence from
outs ide the pe ni ns ula shows the emir ate ' s dirhams were
drai ned ea stward acro s s Nort h Af rica and up into Central
E uro pe ,
pre s umably in the hand s o f Rus traders a long the
Vo lga .
By the later part of t he ninth century ,
j u st when
the Mo z arabs were emigrating to Christian terr itory and
j ust as the so lidu s arge nti make s it s first appearance in
the L at i n doc ume nt s , the emirate ' s s i lver co inage had in
fact c ome to an end .
The produc tion o f dirhams re sumed
under the caliphate , but by then the solidus argenti was
alre ady in place in Asturias -Leo n .
The Question o f I ndige no us coi nage
o n balance ,
there seems litt le rea so n to doubt that
the phrases solidus argenti and so lidus gal li canus which
appe ar in the source s almo st s imultaneously at the o pe ning
of t he tenth century point to the inf l ue nce of the
caro lingian mo netary system .
The que stion remai ns ,
however , whether these terms po i nt o nl y to t he c irculation
of foreign denarii in Asturias or if they po ss ibly indicate
the be gi nning of domestic mi nt ing based on t he c arolingian
mode l .
The Asturian monarchs o f t he ninth and tenth
c e nt ury were not negligible rulers .
I n hi s life of
Char lemagne , E inhard tells us that C harles " made his rei gn
(
more g lorious " by establishi ng friendly re lations with
Alfonso I I
( 7 9 1 - 8 4 2 ) o f Asturias .
As E i nhard recognized ,
the rulers o f Asturias considered themse lves kings in their
own ri ght unlike t he c o unt s of t he Pyrenean land s , who se
authority derived from the Frank is h emperor . 9 5
Economic
considerat io ns aside , co inage provided a tangible
af firmat io n of a monarc h ' s power and it seems inco ngruo us
or , to quote s anchez Alborno z ,
" abso lute ly inc redi ble " that
the ki ngs o f Ast urias-Leon did not i s s ue coin be fo re the
elevent h century 9 6
Of the coin type s s urviving today for the ki ngdom of
Leon ,
there are a variety of ano nymo us 1 s s ue s .
The
ma j ority o f these type s s hare a common c haracter i s tic .
(
9 5 Einhar d , " The Life of char lemagne , " in Two live s of
C har lemagne , tr an s . Lewis Thorpe ( Middlesex , 1 9 69 ) , 7 0 .
It
i s wort h not i ng t hat , according to the Chronicle of Alfonso
III , t he muwal lad leader Musa , having s ucce s s f u l ly carved
out a dominion centered around Z ar ago z a , Hue s c a and Tude la
in t he mid- ninth century , cons idered himse lf t he " tert iam
regem in His pania . " the other two " kings " in the peninsula
pres umably being the king of Ast urias and the Umayyad emir .
see Pre lo g , c hronik Alfons ' I I I , 6 0 ; c f . O ' Callagha n ,
Medieva l spai n , 96 , 1 1 1 - 1 2 .
9 6 s anchez Albor no z , " Mo neda de cambio , " 1 7 1 - 7 5 .
Gautier Dalc he in " Hi sto ire mo netaire , " 5 2 , perhaps
expre s sed t he paradox be s t : " Le roi de Leon , au xe s iec le ,
I l se considere c omme
n ' e st pas un per so nage neg lige able .
un sover ai n , a u plein se ns du terme , et af firme une sorte
de suprernatie .
Le s monarque s qui regnent a Oviedo pui s a
Leon o nt autant d ' autorite et de rnoyens d ' ac tion , s i no n
davantage , que les c aro l ingien s , et plus , a coup s frr , que
le s derniers repre sentan t s de la dynastie de c harl emagne o u
le premier C apetien .
Si l ' o n se place a u n po int de vue
strictement po litique , rien ne j ustifie , semble-t ' il ,
l ' absence de frappe mo netaire , l a renonc iation a l ' un de s
attribut s e s sent ie l s de la souverainete , d ' une s ouverainete
que l ' on s ' e f f or9 ait de retablir , de rnaintenir et d '
See a lso Georges Duby , The E ar ly
aff irmer par ai lleurs . "
Growt h of t he E uropean E conomy , trans . Howard Clar ke
( I thac a , 1 9 7 9 ) , 6 6
66
Their legends carry the title IMPERATOR fo l lowed by some
form o f LEO C IVITAS , LEONI S or LEG IONI S . 9 7
survive today in re l at ively few number s .
there are o nly one or two spec imens known .
Al l these t ype s
In some case s
No ne have been
reported in hoards t hat give any c lue to their time frame ,
though t he y can safe ly be said to be no later than the
twe l ft h ce ntury sinc e they are who l ly absent from ho ards o f
the thirteenth century o nward .
He i s s ,
of S pain ,
in hi s pioneering work on the Christian coi nage
a s signed mos t of the se ano nymo us coins to the
reign of Alfonso VI I
( 1 1 2 6- 5 7 )
using two premi se s .
Fir s t ,
he a s s umed a l l denar ii o f Leon must date to Al fonso VI
( 1 0 6 5 - 1 1 0 9 ) or later .
Secondly , Alfonso VII is known to
have bee n crowned emperor in Leo n in 1 1 3 5 and genera lly
referred to as emperor both in his own diplomas and other
co ntemporary doc ume nt s . 9 8
Heis s ' s initial as sumption
generally has been f o l lowed since , eve n though addit io nal
anonymou s type s have bee n di sc overed s ince his day .
It
seems unlike ly that a l l were s truc k i n the reign o f Al f o nso
VI I .
Judging from style and i n some c ases privy marks ,
many o f the se anonymou s imperial coins , if not the
(
9 7 other types u se the t i t le SUPER REX f o l lowed by a
reference to Leo n .
There are 2 f urther anonymou s type s
whic h make no reference to either emperor or any sec ular
ru ler .
They both invoke Leo n and are ecclesiastic a l i n
one portray s a c hurch and the other i s inscribe d
nature .
For these t ype s and other examples of ano nymo us
IHE SUS .
imperi al i s s ue s , see c atalogue 1 , no s . 1 - 1 0 be low; c f .
cata logue 4 , nos . 2 - 4 .
9 8 Heis s , Las monedas , pl ates 1 - 3 .
67
ma j o rity ,
probably were in f ac t twelft h- century is sues .
Be side s be lo nging to Alfonso V I I ,
however , they co uld be
is sues o f Al fonso VI , Alfonso I of Aragon ( 1 1 0 4 - 3 4 ) or
Fernando I I of Leon ( 1 1 5 7- 8 8 ) ,
a l l o f whom at one po int
made c laims to hegemo ny in the peninsu la . 9 9
Nonethe le s s ,
there is no way to rule out that some of this imperial
coin age be lo ngs to an earlier era .
The ear liest c laims to Leo nese hegemony o r imperi um in
the pe ni n s u l a emerge in the te nt h ce ntury in the wake of
Al fonso I I I ' s victor ie s agai nst I s lam .
letter o f Al fonso I I I to Tours ,
" Hi s paniae rex . n 1 0 0
I n t he a l leged
the king is de scribed as
Whi le Alfonso is not known to have made
simi l ar c l aims in any other docume nt ,
hi s so n Ordono I I
de sc ribed himself as " f i li us Ade fo ns i magni imperatori s " l n
a t least two charter s dr awn up in 9 1 6 and 9 1 7 . 1 0 1
I t should
be he ld as a possibil ity , then , that some of t he se imperial
Leone se is s ue s may have been struck by Alf onso I I I or hi s
c lo s e s ucce s sors .
In t he e nd , the question o f whether the kings of
Asturias minted their own de nari i is of secondary
(
9 9 The imper ial c l aims of Alfo nso VI and Fernando I I
are di sc u s sed in chapter 2 be low .
The c areer o f Alfonso I
of Arago n is treated i n c hapter 5 .
1 0 0 Fletcher , catapult , 3 1 9 .
1 0 1 ACL , 1 : 5 6 - 5 8 no . 3 8 ( probably an or iginal ) , 6 4 - 6 8
no . 4 1 .
see f urther , C l audio Sanc hez Alborno z , " Imper ante s
y po te stades en el reino ast ur - l eo ne s ( 7 1 8 - 1 0 3 7 ) , " in
Inve st igac ione s y docurne ntos sobre l as i nstituc iones
hispana s ( Sant iago , 1 9 7 0 ) , 2 9 2 - 3 0 7 .
import ance .
I t is more imperative t hat we rea sses s the
compo s ite pictur e of t he Ast urian ec onomy drawn pr imar ily
by Vive s ,
Sanc he z Albornoz and Beltr an Vil lagras a .
These
author s a l l co ntributed to t he hypo t he si s that the kingdom
in the se centuries was so cut off from eco nomic
de velo pments nort h of the Pyrenees t hat a unique monetary
sy stem emerged t hat had litt le in common wit h the
caro li ngian .
The pict ure these three author s drew was of a
soc iety forced to use whatever coinage it co uld find .
In
their mode l , o ld s uevic and Vi sigothic go ld co ins
c irculated a lo ng side Byz antine solidi in the ninth and
tenth cent ur ie s and this gold currency was gradually
suppleme nted by I s lamic si lver dir hams from the so ut h ,
i . e . , the s o lidus arge nti . 1 o 2
Thi s sc hool of tho ught , then ,
ha s te nded to po rtray Asturias-Leo n in the se centuries as
an eco nomic sate l l ite of the umayyad emirate to the so ut h .
Though a Chr is t ian kingdom ,
it was ,
i n effec t , o n the wrong
side of Pirenne • s iron c urtain and thus c ut of f from
deve lopme nt s in caro lingian Europe . 1 0 3
(
1 0 2 Vive s , Moneda , a , had s ugge sted t hat the so lidu s
argenti in Ast ur i a s wa s based on t he v al ue of the Byzantine
gold solidus which he proposed c ircu lated in Astur ias in
the ninth and tent h centur y .
( The t heory wa s fo unded on a
so litary ref erence in a tent h-cent ury c harter to " so lido s
romano s . "
See n . 6 6 above . )
1 0 3 Angus MacKay , in his overview o f Spain in the
Middle Age s , for example , s poke of two monet ary zo nes -- a
" C aro lingian ster l ing area " re stricted to Ar agon and
Cataloni a and that o f Asturias , who s e monetary s ystem wa s
more tied to a l-Andal us .
Angus MacKay , Spai n in the Middle
Age s , From Frontier t o Empire , 1 0 0 0 - 1 5 0 0 ( Lo ndon , 1 9 7 7 ) ,
50 .
(
While it is true that the kingdom of Astur ias-Leon
wo uld lo ng re s is t some " Fr anki sh " customs , mo s t notably
Caro lingian script and t he Roman liturgy ,
this doe s not
me an that be fore t he twe lf th century it wa s complete ly
isolated from the re st of Lati n E uro pe .
and te nt h cent urie s ,
I n the late -ninth
the Asturian mo narc hs s ucce s s f u l ly
co loni zed the Duero va lley and at the same t ime began to
promote the pi lgrimage t o Sant iago
Rat her than accept an
economic model that sugge s t s that the ki ngdom in thi s time
frame wa s the backwater of L at in E urope , where soc iety
simult aneo u s ly used anc ient s uevic go ld piec e s a lo ng side
I s lamic dirhams ,
it make s far more sense to acc e pt t he
sol idus gal licanus and so l idus argenti in the tenth-century
source s for what they on f ir st impre s s io n appear to be -- a
produc t of the kingdom ' s tie s with Carol ingian E uro pe .
(
TWO
THE ELEVENTH CENTURY :
THE AGE OF FARIAS
The de at h of the c a l iph a l -ijakam in 9 7 6 initiated a
struggle for power in al -Andal us which s ignaled the end o f
Umayyad rule in Spain .
His ham I I
( 976-1009 ,
�'lhile Al-ijakam s ten-year-old so n ,
·
1 0 1 0- 1 3 ) ,
bec ame caliph i n name ,
dic tatorial c ontrol f e l l to his minister ,
who adopted the title al-Man� lir .
-
I bn Abi
' Amir ,
Al-Man�ur · s power rested
prec ario us ly o n an army composed large ly of S lavs from
E uro pe and Berbers from Nort h Africa .
1002 ,
After his death in
hi s two so ns held hi s of fice i n succes sion ,
second was o vert hrown and ki lled in 1 0 0 9 .
but the
Thi s ignited two
decade s of po l it ic al c haos f ue led by ethnic rivalry betwee n
the o lder Andalu sian populatio n and the unas simi lated S l av
and Berber f ac tions .
Claimant s to the c al iphal throne rose
and fe l l rapidly in cordoba unti l fina l ly in 1 0 3 1 the
exhau s ted to\vn expe l led the last o f these a s pirants and the
ca liphate wa s abolished in prac t ice if not completely in
theory .
I n it s plac e ,
sma ll kingdoms emer ged ,
the so­
called tai f a s tate s , who se ruler s j e alously guarded their
inde pe ndence from one another . !
r
1 David J . was serste in , The Ri se and F al l of the
Party-Kings : P o litic s and society in I s lamic Spain 1 0 0 2 1 0 8 6 ( Pr inceto n , 1 9 8 5 ) , 3 8 - 8 1 ; c f . David J . Wasserstei n ,
" Wa s t he Cali phate Abo l i s hed i n 4 2 2 / 1 0 3 1 ? " i n his The
70
71
a
Mo re than at any other time since the Mu s l im invas io n ,
the balance o f power i n the pe ni ns ula now shi f ted in favor
of the Christian s .
The pro s perity of the ca li phate had
enric hed Andal us ia ' s go ld and si lver stock to le gendary
proportions and the Lati n pr ince s si phoned thi s wealth
nort hwards by establ i s hi ng what Angus MacKay has apt ly
labe led a protection rac ket . 2
payme nt s , c al led parias ,
In exc hange for tri bute
they agreed not to att ac k the
taif a ki ngs and to pro tect them from one another . 3
This
moveme nt of co in from al-Andal us to the Christian states in
the cour se of the eleventh century i s perhaps unrivaled in
the medieval epoch .
The Vikings had c arried large s um s of
si lver coin back to sc andinavi a , but it wa s often treated
as bul lion and s umma ri ly hoarded alongside s ilver plate and
j ewe lry . 4
Chri st ian Spai n ,
however , had a Roman heritage
and the co ncept of c o i nage a s a me ans of exc hange wa s by no
caliphate in t he We st : An I s lamic Po litical I n s t it ut io n in
the I berian Peninsu la ( Oxford , 1 9 9 3 ) , 1 4 6 - 6 1 .
2 MacK ay , Spain in the Middle Age s , 1 5 - 2 6 .
3 The term paria and the pl ural parias must derive
from pariare, i . e , to pay .
( Niermeyer , Lexic on Minus , s . v .
" paria . " )
Thi s is pre ferable to Alonso ' s sugges tion t hat
it derive s from par .
( Alonso , Dicc ionario , s . v . " pari as . " )
4 The extent of c ommerce in Viking-age sc andi navi a
(
remains the subj ec t of debate .
See P . Sawyer , " Co in s and
commerc e , " in siqtuna Paper s : Proc eedi ngs of t he s igtuna
symposium on Viki ng-Age coi nage , 1 - 4 June , 1 9 8 4 , ed . K .
Jo ns son and B . Malmer ( Stockho lm , 1 9 9 0 ) , 2 8 3 - 8 8 ; c f . D . M .
Metc alf , " Some Twentieth-century Runes : stat i stical
Analysis of the Viking-Age Hoards and the Interpretation of
Wastage Rates , " in Viki ng-Age Coinage i n the Nort hern
Land s : The sixth Oxford sympos i um o n coinage and Monetary
History , ed . Mark B lackburn and D . M . Metc alf ( Oxf ord,
1 9 8 1 ) , 347 .
72
(
means nove l t o it s so ciet y .
therefore ,
The phenomenon o f the par� a s ,
bro ught a s upply o f precious meta l to a soc iety
ripe for economic renewa l .
Whi l e we are concerned primari ly wit h the kingdom of
Asturias-Leo n , or what more commonly is ca l led Leon-Cast ile
in this per io d , t he impac t of the paria s o n this kingdom
can only be f u lly understood if contra sted wit h events in
the ot her C hrist ian st ates .
I n the first plac e , the wealth
of al-Anda lus wa s limited and the Chri stian magnates
competed wit h one anot her to exploit it .
The s ucc es s of
one o f t he Latin ki ngdom in c o l lecting paria s , theref ore ,
often af fected t he pro sperity of its neighbors .
secondly,
a comparat ive approach to this per iod is i ndis pe nsable
simply bec ause perti ne nt evidence is scarc e and sc attered .
As with many a s pec t s o f medieval I beri a , evidence is
stro nge s t for Catalo ni a .
surviving coins and di plomat ic
records from B arce lo na preserve a wealth of de tai l s who se
full s igni fic ance has largely been ignored .
By first
trac ing deve lo pment s in Barcelona , therefore , we can more
conf ident ly reco nstruc t events in the we stern kingdoms .
Barce lona and the Manc us
c . l 0 00-1 050
The Catalans rea li zed early o n t he c ommerc ial bene fits
to be gained from Cordoba ' s dec line .
I n a letter dated
9 7 4 , count Bore ll ( 9 4 0 - 9 9 2 ) of Barce lona dec lared hi s
r
wi llingne s s to bec ome a " c lient " of the c a l i ph and the
I
vi sit of his emi s s ar ie s to cordo ba was recorded by Nus lim
c hro ni c ler s . s
Shortly thereafter ,
cited in Catalan documents .
-
heritage ,
go ld dinars be ga n to be
True to their c arolingi an
the Catalans c al led the dinar a manc us .
Des pite
al -Man $ ur ' s sack of B arce lona i n 9 8 5 , manc uso s continued to
be c ited in the Catalan doc ume nt s in the f inal dec ade of
the century . 6
With al-Man$ur ' s death t he f low of gold from alAnda lus inte nsif ied .
Bonnas sie estimated that by the
dec ade 1 0 1 0- 2 0 , near ly 9 0 percent of surviving transac tions
in the region of B arce lona expre ssed prices in gold and in
the who le of c atalonia at least 5 0 perce nt o f extant
transactio ns were recorded in this fa s hion .
T he dinar i s
quoted not j us t in rec ords o f large land sales ,
but a l so in
more mundane purc hases of gr ai n and livestoc k .
As
Bo nnas sie pointed out ,
po pulation . " 7
it wa s used by " a ll leve l s of t he
While doc ume nt s occ asionally c ite si lver
5 The C at alans may have sent envoys to cordoba as
early as 9 5 0 , but there are no i ndic ations of commercial
exc hange that e arly .
See Anna M . B al aguer , " Faria s and t he
Myth of t he Mancus , " in PMC I I I , 5 0 7 ; c f . B i s so n , crown of
Arago n , 2 2 - 2 3 .
6 According to P ierre Bonnas sie , La cat aloqne du
mi l ie u de X� a la fin de X I e s ie c le : Crois sanc e et
mut at ions d ' une societe , vo l . 1 ( Toulouse , 1 9 7 5 ) , 3 7 3 , 3 7 8 7 9 , manc us doe s not appear in the Cata lan doc ument s before
9 8 1 . See also , Udina , E l arc hivo condal , 4 0 7 - 9 no s . 2 2 0 -2 1 ,
4 1 1 - 1 2 no . 2 2 3 .
7 Bonnas sie , La Cata logne , 3 7 3- 7 6 , 3 8 2 - 8 6 .
(
74
(
dir hams
( under t he name solidi ar gent i kazimi ) ,
go ld •t�a s
quickly becoming t he main standard of value . B
Some of this money came to c atalonia from mercenary
service .
For example ,
in 1 0 1 0 t he count s of Urge l and
B arcelo na led troops in s upport o f the ca li ph al-Hahd .I
( 1 00 9- 1 0 ) agai nst the re be l ling Berber s .
Hu slim sources ,
Ac cording to
they demanded per diem s alaries in go ld as
we ll as a share of booty . 9
Coin a lso was undoubtedly
proc ured from border raids .
As B a laguer s ugge sted ,
such
raiding activity may have origina l ly provoked al -Man � ur · s
attacks . l o
Fina l l y , t hough it i s sc arcely attested in the
wr itten so urce s ,
some coin pro bably f lowed to Catalonia
through tr ade . 1 1
By whatever mean s the coin arrived ,
Catalan soc iety
quickly became f ami l iar enough wit h the Muslim go ld piec es
to di st ingu is h be tween type s .
The manc us iafari s was a
dinar of al- �akam I I whic h inc luded the name of his
8 For the so lidu s ar gent i kazimi , see appendix A .
9 The acco unt i s from I bn ' Idhar l , who wrote i n the
r
ear ly- fourteenth century .
It is parti a l ly trans lated in
C harles Melvi lle and Ahmad Ubaydl i , Chri stians and Moors in
Spain , vol . 3 , Arabic source s ( 7 1 1 - 1 5 0 1 ) ( Warmin ster ,
1 9 9 2 ) , 6 0 - 6 5 ; see f urther was sers tein , P arty-Kings , 6 3 - 6 5 .
The expedition i s conf irmed by at le ast one Christ ian
source .
See , Jo se Maria L acarra , " Aspec to s econ6mic o s de
la s umi s i6n de los rei no s de t ai f a s ( 1 0 1 0- 1 1 02 ) , " in
Co loni zaci6n , pari as , repoblac i6n y otro s estudios
( Z arago z a , 1 9 8 1 ) , 4 4 - 4 6 .
1 0 Balaguer , " Fari a s , " 5 0 6 - 8 .
1 1 See t he evidenc e reviewed by B o nnas sie , 4 1 7 , cf .
4 2 3 -2 5 . constable , Trade , 47 - 5 1 , over looks t he s udde n
infusion of go ld i nt o the Catalan ec onomy at t hi s early
date .
minister Ja ' f ar in it s legend .
L ikewise , manc u s am uri s
75
referred to coins o f Hi sham I I that c arried a l - Man�ur · s
name ,
· .�ir . l 2
Alongside the se imported piec e s , at le ast
one go ldsmith in Barce lo na was prompted to introduce hi s
own version of the manc u s .
As e ar ly as 1 0 1 8 ,
doc ume nt mentions " manc u so s
. . .
Bo nnom . "
a Barcelo nan
by t he hand of t he Jevv
A s l ightly later doc ument f urt her de scri be s him
as the " Jewi s h go ldsmith named Bo nnom . " 1 3
only three coins s urvive today that are unmi stakably
Bo nnom ' s work .
Al l are gold dinar s .
Eac h i s di st inct f rom
the ot her in des ign and they appear to repre sent dif fere nt
stages o f the smit h ' s work from roughly 1 0 1 8 to
1031 .
They
are not mode led on either t he manc u s i afaris or t he manc us
amuri s , but rather o n sl ight ly later is s ues .
Two are
imit at ions o f dinars of the �ammudid caliph a l- Qas im , who
1 2 For name s on t he coins ,
see Mi le s , Umayyad s ,
59-60 ,
67-69 .
For ' Amir , see f urther Fr anc i sco Codera y z aidi n ,
Ti tulo s y nombre s propio s en l as monedas arabigo -e spafio la s
( Madrid , 1 8 7 8 ) , 5 9 .
1 3 There are seven k nown doc umentary referenc e s to
r
manc usos of Bonnom , dated betwee n 1 0 1 8 and 1 02 9 . I n
addition , there are several docume nt s me nt io ning a man
named B onnom who died before 1 0 3 6 .
Bonnassie , L a
Catalogne , 3 8 0 - 8 1 ; c f . George c . Mi le s , " Bo nnom de
Barce lone , " in E t ude s d ' Orient a l i sme dediee s a la memorie
de Levi-Provencal ( P ar i s , 1 9 62 ) , 6 9 0 - 9 1 .
Botet , Le s
monede s , 4 4 , 5 1 , allude s to a doc ument of 1 0 9 1 t h at refer s
to the mancu s of Bonnom .
Al so , Anna M . Balaguer , " The
Inf l uence of t he Mos lem coinages Upo n the Mo netary systems
of the Medieval I berian K ingdoms , " in PMC I , 3 1 4 , c ites a
Thi s
wi ll of 1 0 6 4 t hat me ntions mancu s o s of Bonnom .
doc ume nt as published i n Josep R iu s , " Cartes ant igue s de
S ant Mart i saco sta , " Ana lec t a Sac r a Tarracone n s i a 4 ( 1 9 2 8 ) :
3 5 9 - 62 no . 7 , however , c ontains no s uc h referenc e .
76
I
ru led sporadic ally in cordoba from 1 0 1 8 - 2 3 .
Their Arabic
lege nds are largely faithf ul t o their prototype s , though
one gives t he mint as " Hadl nat Barshal una " in place of
" al -
Anda lu s , " the tradit io na l s ignature o f the Cordo ba mint .
The third Bo nnom piece appears t o be modeled on dinars
i s s ued in Z ar ago z a by the loc a l Tuj l bid ruler s between
c . 1 0 2 6- 1 032 .
previo us two .
It is le ss ski l l f u l ly exec uted than the
All three coins promi ne nt ly car ry Bonnom • s
name in Latin letters on t he reverse field . l �
Bo nnom • s pur po se in produc ing these coins is somewhat
perplexing for they are not noticeab ly better in weight or
fine ne s s than t he manc us amuri s and i afaris .
They were
pe rhaps struck bec ause the demand for good go ld coinage in
Barc elona had begun to o ut str ip the supply .
By 1 0 1 8 , the
manc u s amuri s and i afaris were o ld is s ues and the Catalan
doc ume nt s are si le nt as to whe ther newer dinar s like tho se
of t he ijarnrnudids were reaching Cataloni a .
Bonnom,
therefore , may have been prompted to melt worn coins or
ot her go ld bul lion to produce fres hly mi nted dinar s .
on t he t hree coins of his that s urvive ,
Ba sed
it appears that he
altered hi s piec es to keep a brea st o f c urrent I s lamic
i ssue s ,
r
but such c hanges have to be di smis sed as co smetic .
1 4 The Bonnom coins and the s ubsequent Barcelo na go ld
is sues are discu s sed in detail in Jame s J. Todesca , " Means
of E xc hange : I s lamic coinage i n christian Spai n , 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 , " in I beria and t he Mediterranean World o f the Midd le
Age s : Studie s i n Honor of Robert I . B ur ns , S . J, vo l . 1 ,
Proceedings From Ka lamazoo , ed . Larry J . Simon ( Leide n ,
1 9 95 ) , 2 38-4 9 .
77
The coins must have t:een intended mainly for the domestic
market s ince their L at in s ignature s could only serve to
make t hem s uspect in trade with I s l arn . l S
Wi th t he dmvnf all of the I;Taromudids c . 1 0 2 6 ,
the
splinter ing of al-Anda lus into t ai f a s tate s proc eeded
rapidly ,
bringing with it a pro l if erat i o n in minting .
Bonnom ' s use o f a Tuj ibid coin from Z ar ago z a as a pro totype
serves a s evidence that Cordoba wa s quickly lo s ing its
preemi nence as the maln mint o f al -Andal us .
Tai fa coins
can be detected in Barcelo na by 1 0 2 9 whe n doc ume nt s
di stingu i s h l:::e twee n " manc u so s vetere s de S pani a " and " auro
novo . "
I n t he 1 0 3 0 s , \vith t he c al iphate abolished , the
mo st commo n taifa coins reac hi ng Barce lo na were named
according to their provenance ; manc usos denescos from
Denia , manc usos saragencianos f rom Zarago z a and mancuso s
ceptis from the North Afric an port o f ceuta ( Sabtah in
1 5 There are other imitation dinar s in L avoix • s
catalo gue that may be c losely co ntemporary to the Bonnom
coins .
Two of these are co pies o f di nar s of Hi s h arn I I with
a cro s s impo sed on one f ie ld and so are c lear ly Chr ist ian
in origi n .
I n addit ion , Lavoix publ i s hed two dinars o f
Hisham I I that he j udged to be f orgeries based o n their
poor execution .
They c arried no L at in markings .
Hi s
c atalogue also contai ns a counter feit dinar of ' Al l ibn
-
-
�amrnud ( 1 0 1 6 - 1 8 ) , al-Qasim ' s bro ther and predece s sor , and
several unreadable s pec imens .
We ca n only s pe culate
see Henri Lavoix ,
whether these are Cata lan in origi n .
catalogue de s monnaies mus ulmane s de la B ibliothegue
Nat iona le , vo l . 2 . , E spagne et Af rique ( 1 8 9 1 ; Re pr int ,
Bo logna, 1 9 7 7 ) , 5 1 4 - 1 7 nos . 1 1 0 7 - 1 4 , 5 2 0 - 2 1 no s . 1 1 2 2 - 2 3 ;
c f . cru safont , Numi smatica, 6 5 , 1 9 4 no s . 9 1 - 9 2 .
r
Ar abic ) . l 6
Thi s last ,
the manc us of Ceut a , would have t he
greatest impac t on t he C atalan eco nomy in the coming
decade s .
-
The last ijammudid to rule i n cordoba had been Ya�ya
ibn Ali who wa s driven from the ci ty in 1 0 2 6 and retur ned
to Ceuta , the ba se of hi s fami ly ' s power .
he also retained Malaga and Algeciras ,
Besides Ceuta ,
giving him contro l
of what had lo ng bee n the mo st important ports linki ng
S pain to North Afric a .
hi s deat h in 1 0 3 5 ,
The di nar s he struck i n ce ut a unti l
t here fore , were mos t like ly commo n on
both side s of t he strait .
They are undo ubtedly the
manc uso s cepti s to whic h the Cata lan docume nt s refer .
hoard fo und in I gualad a,
A
s lightly we st of Barc elona ,
cont ained an aut he nt ic dinar o f Ya�ya alongside ro ughly a
do zen imitat ions of t he s ame coin . l 7
simi lar imitatio ns o f
Ya�ya ' s dinar have s ur f aced repe atedly in Catalan f i nd s .
Un like Bonnom • s c o in s , t he se piece s carry no overt s ign
that t hey were minted out s ide I s l am .
They are generally
1 6 In addit ion to mancuso s s aragenci anos , the term
manc u so s aLrnanzori s may ref er to coins of Z ar ago z a i s s ued
by Mundhir I I al -Man� ur ( c . 1 0 2 9 -c . 1 0 3 8 ) .
see Bonna s sie , La
C at al ogne , 3 7 8 ; Wasser stei n , Party-Kings , 9 4 .
1 7 Felipe Mateu y L lopis , " Dinares de Yah a a l -Mu ' tali
y
de ceuta y manc u s o s barce lonenses ha llados e n Odena
( Igualada , Barc elona ) , " Al-Andal u s 1 1 ( 1 9 4 6 ) : 3 8 9 - 9 4 .
For
Ya�ya ' s career and coi nage in general see wa s ser ste i n ,
Caliphate ,
5 9 - 6 0 , 8 0 - 8 3 ; Codera , Tit ulo s , 1 8 .
See a ls o
George c . Mi les , coins o f the spanis h Mul uk al-Tawa • if ( New
York , 1 9 5 4 ) , 1 9 - 2 0 nos . 6 9 - 7 1 .
r
79
c
on ly bet rayed as imitation s by the ir crude style and a l so
by a defic ienc y in we ight . 1 s
These imitatio ns of Ya�ya ' s coin seem to have been
started by a second Barcelo nan artisan named Eneas . l 9
Re ferenc e s t o manc uso s o f E neas appear in 1 0 3 7 ,
-
after Ya�ya ' s de at h .
short ly
A t f ir st the coins \vere probably
struck at c lose to the f u l l weight o f the authentic Muslim
piec e .
A doc ume nt of 1 0 3 9 speak s of
o ne an amuri s and t he other of E nea s ,
\ve ight .
" 2o
over t he next t\vo dec ade s ,
imitat io ns bec ame lighter .
" two manc usos of go ld ,
( both )
legitimate in
hmvever , the
At t he s ame time ,
they bec ame
le ss a s s oc iated with E neas and more identi f ied with the
town o f Barcelona ,
perhaps s ugge st ing that t hey were now
struck by several mi nter s there .
For example ,
co unt of Barce lo na , Ramo n Berenguer I
in 1 0 5 0 , the
( 1 0 3 5- 7 6 ) ,
promi sed
to provide an annual payme nt of " manc u s o s of Barcelona
r
1 8 T he total number of c atalogued Ya�y a imit at ions
see Migue l
varie s s lightly in t he publi shed reports .
cr usaf on t i sabater , Anna M . Balaguer , and Ignasi M . Puig �
Ferrete , " E l s comt at s catalans : Le s seves encunyac ions i
arees d ' i nf luemcia , " in SNB I , 4 1 4- 1 5 ; crus afont ,
Numismatica , 1 8 0 no . 5 1 ; c f . Balaguer , " Primere s
co nc lu sions , " 3 1 1 - 1 3 .
( It i s not c lear whether these
tota l s i ncorporated two examples in t he Amer ic an Numi smatic
Societ y . )
More rece nt ly , Balaguer reported that t he corpus
now inc l udes 4 3 specimens but gave no detai l s .
She added
further that in the 1 9 5 0 s a hoard was di scovered that
reported ly contained 4 0 0 s pec ime ns o f this type .
Balaguer ,
" Faria s , " 5 1 8 - 1 9 . For the di stribution o f these imitat ions
in vario us f inds see Balaguer , " Troba l le s i c irc ulac i6
mo netar i a , " 9 1 , 1 0 7 - 8 .
1 9 see Tode sc a , " Means of Exc hange , " 2 4 4 - 4 5 .
2 0 " ( M ) anc usos duo s de aureo unum amur i et alium de
manu He neas , legitime pensatos . " Botet , Les monede s , 4 5 .
sc
I
go ld " to the co unt o f Urgel . 2 1
By 1 0 5 6 ,
these " mancusos of
Barcelona " are descr ibed in the docume nt s as �veighing 1 0 to
the ounc e . 2 2
Their individual weight at this stage ,
theref ore , was around 2 . 7 2 grams as oppo sed to the origi na l
dinar s o f Ya.Oya '>vhic h \vei ghed c lose to 4 grams .
23
The Ya.Oya imitations dif fer from t he ear lier work o f
Bo nnom in two important re spec ts .
Fir st ,
Bo nnom put his
name o n hi s co ins in Latin and in one in s tance ident if ied
The Ya.Oya imit at ions are devoid of
the mi nt as B arce lona .
such te l l- ta le inscription s .
be true co unterfeits ,
world .
To thi s extent , they seem to
inte nded to c irc u l ate in the I s lamic
second ly , Bo nnom also appear s to have frequent ly
changed the de sign of hi s coins .
The 3 c o in s surviving
with h i s s ignature are all based on di s t i nct prototype s .
The manc us begun by Eneas c . 1 0 3 7 and conti nued for several
decade s thereafter adhered to only o ne prototype , the Ce uta
di nar of Ya.Oya ibn Ali .
This preservat io n o f a single type
suggests t hat the later imitative manc us was s uc ce s sfu lly
fi ll ing a commercial role and that minters in Barcelona
2 1 Lacarr a , " Aspectos , " 4 9 ; Bonnas s ie , La Cata logne ,
3 8 0 ; Botet , Les monede s , 3 9 f f .
See also , Alt uro , " Note s , "
1 2 3- 2 4 .
2 2 " ( Q ) uinque uncias a uri monete B arc hinone . . . ut
decem mancu so s sint in unaquaque unc ia . "
Rosel l , Liber ,
1 : 3 9 6 - 9 7 no . 3 7 8 , 4 4 9 - 5 0 no . 4 3 0 , 2 0 3 - 4 no . 1 9 2 .
see al so
L ac arra , " Aspecto s , " 65 n . 7 7 ; Bonnas sie , L a cata logne ,
3 8 1 - 8 2 ; B ot et , Les monedes , 4 0 - 4 1 .
2 3 The ounce was the Roman ounce o f ro ughly 2 7 . 2 4
(
grams .
2 7 . 24 + 1 0 = 2 . 724 .
For t he system o f weight in
eleventh-cent ury Catalonia and t he other I berian Christian
ki ngdoms , see appendix B .
Rl
I
t.'lere umvi l li ng to j eo pardi ze that succes s by making
unnece s s ary c hange s in style .
The po litical splintering of the c al iphate into
smal ler ki ngdoms natur a lly affec ted the economic balance of
al-Andalus .
The t ai f a s that sprung up a long S pain ' s
eastern seaboard were often litt le more than c ity- states
that re lied on mar it ime trade to s urvive .
Where as s hi pping
under the c a l i ph ate had been restricted to a few mai n
port s ,
now c ommerc ial routes pro li ferated as these taifas
competed t.'lith o ne another . 2 4
Barc elo na ' s use of a
consi stent prototype for its mancus mu st have been linked
to the demands o f this burgeoning trade .
eac h taifa striking it s own coinage ,
Wi th virtual ly
some dinars were sure
to be more wide ly res pected among merc hants than ot her s . 2 5
Ya�ya had co ntro lled the important triangle formed by the
port s of ceuta , Malaga and Algec iras and his coi nage was
cert ainly we ll known .
By immo bi li z ing Ya�ya ' s dinar , E neas
was pre serving a c o i n whose reputat ion was already
establ i s hed .
The co nt inued produc tion o f this type over
the next two decades s hould have f urt her e st abli shed its
r
2 4 Co nstable , Trade , 32 , cf . 1 6 - 2 3 ; Was serstein ,
Party-Kings , 1 0 8 .
2 5 A good example of the variety o f go ld apt to be
fou�d in c ir c u lation i s the hoard de scribed by Miles in
.r-tul uk al-Tawa ' if , ix-x , 5 5 .
see also t he same author ' s
Fatimid Co ins in t he C ollection of t he Uni vers ity Muse um ,
Philade lphi a , and t he American Numi smatic soc iety , ( New
York , 1 9 5 1 ) , 3 .
It i s of unknown prove nance , but datable
to c . 1 0 5 3 .
Among the identif iable coins were fractional
dinars from the taif as o f Valenc ia , Almeri a , Z arago z a , and
Toledo a s we l l a s 5 4 F at imid piece s , po s s ibly from s ic i ly .
82
'
fami li ar ity along Spain ' s Mediterranean coast and thus
provided Catalan merch ant s wit h an acceptable coin to use
ln trade with ne ighboring Mu slim ports .
The existence o f t he Barce lona manc us , t he n ,
indic ates
that C atalan merc hants were seeking to partic i pate in the
trade of the western Med iterranean ear lier than i s
ge neral ly recogni zed . 2 6
The Barce lonan coins are i n f ac t
co ntemporary t o simi lar imit at ive is sues minted by the
Italian towns of Ama lf i and Sa lerno , who se merc hants \vere
a l so L at in pio neer s in t he trade o f the medieval
Mediterranea n . 2 7
r
Nonethele s s , the gradual loss in we ight
2 6 Two recent books de aling with t he I berian eco nomy
in t he e levent h cent ury do not adequately acco unt for the
manc u s of Barce lona .
Co nstable in discu s s ing ear l y c o nt ac t
between the Christian s tate s and al-Andal us i n Trade , 4 7 5 1 , not only f ai ls t o acco unt for the arrival o f go ld in
Catalonia be fore t he o nset of formal tri bute payme nt s but
also doe s not give any weight to the f ac t that B arce lo na
wa s produc ing an imitative gold piece .
In general , her treatment of the i s s ue i s conf used .
She at one point c onc l udes t hat the " norther n Chri stian
r u lers did not mint their own gold unt i l the t hi rteent h
centur y . "
Thi s i s not o nl y contradicted by the existence
of t he B arce lona mancu s but al so by the go ld piece s
produced by the inde pendent ki ngdoms of Leon and casti le in
the late-twe lfth century , whic h she mentions sever al pages
later .
At other time s , s he does a l l ude to an imitative
dirham of Barce lona by whi c h she seems to mean t he
imit ative dinar .
Stephen P . Be nsch i n B arc elona and Its Ruler s , 1 0 9 6 1 2 9 1 ( Cambridge , 1 9 9 5 ) , 1 0 0 - 1 0 2 , see s the manc u s only as
f i lling a demand in Barc elona ' s dome stic eco nomy .
He does
not see the gr adual lighte ning of the coin as c aused by the
c o ntrac t ion of go ld s u pp li e s , rather he conc l ude s that t he
l ighter coins were meant to faci late " mi nor transac t io ns . "
2 7 Imitat ive t ari were struck in Salerno po s s ibly a s
early as 1 0 1 2 and i n Ama lf i perhaps ear l ier .
See L uc i a
Travaini , " I tarl d i Sa lerno e di Ama lfi , " Ra s s egna de l
Centro di Cultura e storia Amal fitana 1 0 ( 1 9 9 0 ) : 7 - 7 1 .
83
of the Barce lonan manc us , from the early , full -weight
is sues of Bonnom to the ce uta imitations which i n 1 0 5 6
we ighed about 2 . 7 2 gram , indicates that Cata loni a ' s
pros perity was beginning to show signs o f strain .
The Fir st
Fari as
It is not po s s ible to pinpoint whe n formal tribute
payments began between the taifa pri nces and the Catalan
magnates , but charters o f count Ramo n Berenguer
I
( 1 0 3 5- 76 )
and count Ermengo l I I I o f Urge l ( 1 0 3 8 - 6 5 ) show that by 1 0 4 8
both men expected tribute from Zaragoza and by 1 0 5 6 Ramo n
Berenguer was also co llec ting from the taif a of Lerida . 28
In the meantime , however , the taif a lords could not
maintain the sphere of inf luence in the Maghre b that the
Umayyads had achieved .
The Ghana gold trade , much of whic h
the umayyads had managed to channe l thro ugh Sidj ilmasa and
on to cordoba , was now diverted along several ot her routes ,
the most prominent running to the z ir id capital of
Qayrawan , near Tuni s . 2 9
r
With shrinking go ld re so urces , the
2 8 Char les Julian Bi shko , " Fernando I and the origins
of the Leone se-Casti lian Alliance with C luny , " in his
Studies in Medieval Spani sh Frontier Hi story ( Lo ndon ,
1 9 8 0 ) , 4 3 ; Lac arra , "Aspecto s , " 4 9 - 5 2 .
2 9 C laudette Vanacker , " Geographie economique de
l ' Afrique du Nord selon les auteurs arabe s , du Ixe siec le
au mi lieu du x r re siec le , " Annale s Economie s , societe s ,
Civilisat ions 2 8 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 6 6 0 - 6 1 , 6 6 7 ; Spuf ford , Money , 1 6 4 6 5 ; E . W . Bovi ll , The Golden Trade of the Moors , 2d ed .
( Oxford , 1 9 6 8 ) , 5 9 . As evidence of sidj ilmasa ' s dec line ,
see the poor quality din ar s published in J . D . Brethe s ,
Contribution a l ' histoire du Maroc par les rec herc he s
numismatigues ( C as ablanc a , 1 9 3 9 ) , 1 0 3 - 4 . For Zir id
84
taif a prince s mo st likely began to debase their go ld i s s ue s
to meet the growi ng demand for tribute . 3 0
The subsequent
drop in the weight of the Barc elonan mancus wo uld seem to
be a consequence of this contrac tion .
Gold coming to
Barc e lona from the taifas must have been me lted and re fined
to produce a lighter but sti ll relat ively pure coin .
Around 1 0 6 7 , an even lighter weight manc us appeared
whic h weighed only 1 . 9 5 grams or o ne-fourteenth of an
ounc e .
It was sti ll modeled after the Ceuta dinar , but the
reverse margin now bore the Latin lege nd RAIMVNDVS COME S ln
retrograde letters . 3 1
The early mancusos , as soc iated as
they were with the individual arti sans Bonnom and Eneas ,
may have bee n private init iative s , tolerated or ignored by
the state .
As the ceuta imitation bec ame more succe s s f u l ,
however , the count seems to have been drawn to take a more
active i nterest .
A charter drawn up sometime after 1 0 6 9 ,
recorded the oath of two minters , Gera ldo and Esteban who
(
mint i ng , see Harry w . Haz ard, The Numi smatic History o f
L ate Medieval North Afric a ( New York , 1 9 52 ) , 5 4- 5 5 , 8 9 - 9 1 .
3 0 There i s as yet no overall study of the finenes s of
the taif a gold issues . We do know that by the 1 0 7 0 s many
of t he kingdoms were i s s ui ng fractio nal dinars that had
dropped to about eight c ar at s , i . e . , 3 3 % f ine . ( See the
It is reasonable to
di sc us sion of Valenc ian go ld be low ) .
as sume t hat this debasement started gradually some years
earlier .
The calc ulations o f Ramo n Berenguer ' s expendit ures in
Lacarra , "Aspectos , " 6 4 , remain a he lpf u l gauge as to how
much wea lth the Catalan count was extracting from the
taif as .
His figures assume , however , that ten mancuso s
always equaled an ounce of gold, a rate only acc urate for
one stage of the mancus .
3 1 see appendix B .
85
I
swore that neither they nor any man in their c harge wo uld
"make anot her gold coin in t he mint of lord Ramo n, count o f
Barc elona, exce pt that which he shall order done there . " 3 2
If Ramon Berenguer attempted to obtain exc lusive
rights to strike go ld in Barce lo na c . 1 0 6 7 , the venture was
short lived .
Re ferences to the manc us o f Barcelona become
sc arce in the so urces after hi s deat h in 1 0 7 6 .
The piece
was succeeded by what Catalan docume nt s refer to as
" Valenc ian gold . "
The term wa s used collect ively to
indicate the debased quarter-dinar s whic h valenc ia , De ni a
and other taif a mint s were now i s s ui ng 1 n place of full
dinar s .
These smaller coins were only about 33 percent
fine or les s . 3 3
For nearly sixty year s , B arcelona had been able to
maintain a gold coinage in t he wake of the caliphate ' s
r
3 2 " Juro ego Gerallus ( sic ) et Stefanu s , quod nee ego
nee ullus homo , me sciente , non fecerit aliud aurum in i st a
mo net a de domno Raimundo Barchinonensi comite , nisi qualem
i pse mandaverit ibi facere . " Botet , Les monedes , 2 0 2 no .
7.
The charter is not dated but i s wit ne ssed by Bisho p
Umberto ( 1 06 9 - 8 5 ) .
It might , then , be lo ng to the brief
reign of Ramon Berenguer I I ( 1 0 7 6- 82 ) .
See Crusafont ,
Numismatica , 52 .
3 3 There are several f inds o f these fractional piece s .
See P . Ripolle s and J . Lopez Gasco , " Un te sori llo de
fracc iones de dinar hal lado e n Benicas s im , " cuaderno s de
Prehi storia y Argueo logia Castel lonense 4 ( 1 9 7 7 ) : 2 0 3 - 4 1 ;
A . Bofar ul I Comenge , " Tre soret de frac c io ns de dinar de ls
regne s de taife s ( segle X I ) , " AN 2 0 . ( 1 9 9 0 ) : 1 1 1 - 2 2 .
See
al so the hoard reported by Miles , cited in n . 2 5 above .
Examples of Valenc ian go ld are publi shed with weight s and
colored plates in Raf ae l Petit , Nuestras moneda : las cec a s
valencianas , ( Valencia, 1 9 8 1 ) , 1 4 5 f f . Regarding the
f i ne ne s s of the coins , see f ur ther James J . Tode sc a , " Mo ney
of Account and circulati ng Coins i n Castile-Leon c . 1 0 8 51 3 0 0 , " in PMC I I I , 2 7 5 .
see a l so appendix B be low .
86
co llapse .
How extensively the eco nomy also re lied on
si lver-based coin as a supplement to gold in thi s period is
not c lear .
Surviving denarii that c an be as signed to
eleventh-century Barce lona are very rare and t he c hronology
is f ar les s e stablished than c urrent c atalogue s pretend .
Docume nt s do indic ate , however , that t here were native
denari i circ ulating in Barce lo na by the 1 0 2 0 s and certainly
by the 1 0 4 0 s . 34
As the minting o f gold in Barcelona became more
dif f ic ult toward mid-century and f inal ly stopped
altogether , the demand for silver denarii pro bably
increased .
It is perhaps not coinc idenc e , the n , that in
1 0 5 6 ( the year the light weight manc us o f 1 0 to the ounce
first appears in the sources ) Ramon Berenguer lice nsed two
men to strike an uns pecified number of denarii over a twoyear period .
In 1 0 5 8 , thi s privilege was renewed for
another year .
A third contrac t s urvives dated 1 0 6 6 in
v;hic h the count provided for denarii to be struck over a
five year period . 3 s
Nevertheles s , go ld remained the
standard of value in and around B arcelona toward the c lose
of t he century .
Wit h the di sappearanc e of the B arcelona
manc us , prices continued to be quoted mainly 1n manc usos of
r
3 4 Bonnas sie , L a catalogne , 3 8 7 .
3 5 The three document s are publi s hed in Botet , Le s
monedes , 2 0 0- 2 0 2 no s . 4 - 6 ; cf . Maria de los Dolores Mateu
Ibar s , " Relaci6n crono l6gica de doc ume ntos monetales desde
1 0 6 6 a 1 2 6 0 , de l Archive de la coro na de Arag6n , " in SNB
I I , 2 05 .
see also , crusafont , Numismatica, 4 8 - 5 0 , 5 3- 5 6 .
87
(
Valenc ian go ld with the proviso that they could be paid
ln
si lver or in kind . 36
The Town o f Leon
ln the E ar ly E levent h cent ury
Barcelona ' s succe s s in mai nt aining a gold c urrency
from roughly 1 0 1 8 to 1 0 7 6 can in part be explained by
a
lack of competition from t he western Christian kingdoms .
Internec ine strugg le s preocc upied the rulers o f Leon ,
cast ile , Navarre and Arago n i n the f ir st half o f the
century and they were slower than their Catalan
contemporaries to exploit the taifa states .
Throughout
these ki ngdoms , the go ld dinar is wholly absent from
charters in the first half of the eleventh century s ave for
occasional me nt io n in pe na lty c lauses . 3 7
St i l l , there are signs o f economic growt h in the west
at thi s time particularly in the town of Leo n .
With the
co lo ni zation o f the Duero valley in the tenth century, Leon
had gradua lly begun to replace the more northern town of
r
3 6 see t he c itat ions in Alturo , " Notes , " 1 2 1 -2 4 .
3 7 see , for examp le , the archaic use of t a� en t a s in
the pe nalty c l ause of a charter is sued in 1 0 1 9 by Alfonso
V. Agapito Fernandez , " Docume ntos reales de l monaster io de
S ant Maria de otero de las Duenas , " pt . 1 , Archives
Leone ses 5 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 1 5 7 - 8 , no 8 0 ; c f . a similar use o f
t al en ta s in B lanc o , Fernando I , 6 4 - 6 6 , no . 1 1 .
For an overview of t he doc uments in Leon-C asti le , see
Gaut ier Dalc he , " Histoire moneta ire " 4 3- 9 5 and
Departamento , " C irculacion , " 2 42 - 4 8 . For Aragon-Navarre ,
see Ange l J . Martin Duque , " Doc umentos para el e st udio de
la numi smatic a navarro-ar agone s a medieval , " pt . 5 , P SANA
1 1 - 1 2 ( 1 9 5 8 ) : 9 5 - 9 9 no s . 5 7- 6 4
•
88
(
a l-Man� ur
Oviedo as the favored royal re sidence .
devastation brought by
Despite the
at the turn o f the
mi llenni um, Leon , like B arce lo na , was quickly re- settled in
the ear ly decades of t he e leventh century and continued to
thrive .
I f Barcelona e n j o yed the advantage of being o n the
Mediterranean coast , Leo n was located direct ly on the ro ute
to santiago and open to an inc reasing flow of pi lgrim
traffic . 3 8
The decrees known col lectively as the Fuero o f Leon
were promulgated by Alf o nso v ( 9 9 9 - 1 0 2 8 ) between 1 0 1 7 and
1020 .
Roughly half of t he forty-eight laws addres sed the
ki ngdom as a who le , but the remainder were intended to
r
3 8 An indication o f t he growing flow of pilgrims a lo ng
the c amino de santi ago c an be seen in the to ll erected at
the mo untain pas s of Valcarce , west of Leo n . Upon
rec laiming the throne of Leon in 1 0 7 2 , Alfonso VI abo l i s hed
this unpopular post , whi c h he said had existed s ince t he
time o f hi s grandparents ( " temporibus auorum et parent um " ) .
Mo st likely it was establis hed by hi s maternal grandfat her ,
Alfonso v, who ruled to 1 0 2 8 . Alfonso VI ' s paternal
grandf ather , Sancho the Great , brief ly occ upied the town o f
Leon , but hi s rule may not have extended to Va lc arce .
( Sancho is , however , c redited in the twe lfth century
chronic les in taking an intere st in the road to Sant iago .
He i s said to have est ablished a more so uthern route
through Navarre . )
While the extent o f t he traf f ic to santiago had
probably grown by Alfonso VI ' s day , we can nonethe le s s
safe ly infer that i n t he day s of Alfonso ' s grandfather s ,
pilgrims were alre ady pa s s ing through Valcarce in enough
numbers to prompt the e st ablishment of thi s strategic to ll .
For Alfonso VI ' s c harter , see ACL , 4 : 4 2 5 - 2 7 no . 1 1 8 2 .
For
t he pas s of Valcarce , see Melc zer , The Pilgrim ' s Guide , 8 6 8 9 , 2 7 6 , 3 0 1 - 3 0 2 . For S ancho the Great and the road t o
santiago , see Vazquez d e Parga , e t al . Las peregrinacione s ,
2 : 12- 1 9 .
For the growth o f pi lgrim traf fic to s antiago in
the eleventh century i n general see in the same work , 1 : 4 7 52 .
(
-
regulate life in the town of Leo n as it worked to re bu i ld
in the aftermath of al-Man�ur · s attac k .
These laws , as we
have them today , portray an urban popu lation that inc luded
cooper s , weavers , butc hers , bakers and wine dealers , but
the ear liest surviving manuscript of the f uero dates to the
twelfth century and port io ns of it s how c lear signs of
interpolatio n . 3 9
Nevertheles s , c harters pre served in the
archives of the cathedral of Leo n and the mo nastery of
Sahagun provide additional glimpse s of a growing art isan
population in the town during the time o f Alfonso v .
Tiendas o r stores are mentioned in charters as early a s
and a market by 9 9 7 .
950
By the 1 0 3 0 ' s , t hi s marketplace had
deve loped into a well-def ined sectio n of town , with ho uses
and stores and a zone called the " ki ng • s market " where the
produc ts o f t he royal domains were like ly sold . � 0
While the surviving charters from Leon do not provide
an abundance o f detail concerning daily life in the town ,
they do atte st to a steady rhythm of buying and trading
(
39 Luis Garcia de Valdeavel lano et al . , El Fuero de
Leon : commentar io s ( Leon , 1 9 8 3 ) , 9 - 1 6 ; Gautier Dalc he ,
Historia Ur bana , 5 1 - 5 2 .
4 0 See t he transac tion dated 1 0 3 7 invo lving " kasas
no stras proprias que abemus hie in Legione , in Mercato . "
Also the sale two year s later of " te nda mea propria quem
abeo in civi s Legionis , foris murum, per loc is et terminus
suis : pr ima parte tenda de Sancti Pe lagi i , de secunda
terminu karr aria qui discurrit ad Merc ato , de tercia parte
aff iget in Merkato de rege . " ACL , 4 : 6 9 - 7 0 no . 9 4 8 , 1 2 8 - 2 9
no . 9 8 2 .
See further the di sc us sion i n carlos E stepa Diez ,
Estructura soc ial de la ciudad de Leon ( siglos X I-XI I I )
( Leo n, 1 9 7 7 ) , 1 2 1 - 2 3 , 3 7 3- 78 , though he doe s not account
for the above sale of 1 0 3 7 .
9 ()
property .
In de scribing suc h sale s , the se early e leventh-
century charters a lso employ a new termino lo gy ; they at
time s refer to payme nt s made not simply in solidi arge nti
but in so lidi argent i rendered by weight .
one of the
earlie st reference s to thi s manner of transaction is a sale
dated 1 0 1 0 , where five people so ld a mil l and related
property for the " pr ice of 5 solidi of silver whic h �.;ere
wei ghed on a sc ale ( pondere pensa to ) in t he presence of
many peo ple .
.
,u
In 1 02 2 , the monks o f Sahagun sold
property for 4 5 solidi argenti pondere pensato, though
their transaction was not said to be public ly witne ssed . �2
(
4 1 " ( I ) n pretio V ar gentei s solido s et f uerunt in
pondere pe sato s coram multitudine . " The doc ument survives
( Sanchez
in the Turnbo of Leo n .
see ACL , 3 : 2 3 4 - 5 no . 6 8 8 .
Albornoz , " Prirnitiva organiz ac ion , " 3 1 0 n . 3 5 , read the
price as 1 0 so lidi . ) There is an ear lier s ale in the Turnbo
dated 9 5 8 whic h speaks of " argento pondere pensa ( to ) , " but
this i s so far removed chronologic al ly from the ot her
charters using the phrase that the date should be suspect .
If not a forgery , it was perhaps i nterpo lated by a later
copyi st . See ACL , 2 : 7 9 - 8 0 no . 3 0 8 .
It is hel pf ul to note that pondere i s not an
i nf initive but rather the ablative of the noun pondus .
Pondus could be trans lated as pound so that pondere pensato
wo uld mean " weighed by the pound . " Given the context ,
however , it seems more likely that pondus signified a
balance or scale . Thi s is evident in a document from the
Rio j a region dated 1 0 7 1 where an annual cen s us was set at
"LXX solidos argenti de po ndere Alavensi " whic h can only
mean the solidi were to be reckoned on the public scales of
Alava . see Angel J . Martin Duque ed . Do c ument ac ion
medieval de Leire ( siglos IX-X I I ) ( Pamplona , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 4 1 -4 3
no . 4 3 .
See also Niermeyer , Lexicon Minus , s . v . " pondus . "
4 2 Sahagun, 2 : 5 7 - 5 8 no . 4 1 0 . Though it does not
mention weighi ng s ilver , a charter of 1 0 02 confirms that
purc hases were sometimes witnesssed public ly . Bisho p
Froi lan of Leo n , in listing properties he was donati ng to
hi s churc h , inc luded " in Val le de Aliere hereditatem quo s
erni de fratre s de E ll anes precio publico emto . " ACL , 3 : 1 6 2 6 5 no . 6 2 9 .
91
By the 1 0 3 0 s , refere nces to payment made in si lver
qualif ied a s pondere pen sa to become fair ly commo n in
charters from in and aro und Leon for roughly the next
thirty year s . 43
TO
pro perly understand the se transac t ion s , it is
import ant to realize that at some point , perhaps in the
co ur se of the tenth cent ury, a s o l idus o f weight had
deve lo ped in the Lat in I berian state s , both in the Catalan
lands and in the more we stern kingdoms .
Thi s so lidus of
weight should not be confused with the solidus of acco unt
of 1 2 denarii .
Because the proce s s of minting invo lved
taking bulk we ights of metal and producing a certain number
of coins , unit s of weight and unit s of account often s hared
the same names .
Under t he Caro lingi an system, for
instance , the account po und of 2 4 0 denarii bore no
practical re lation to the unit o f weight c al led a pound .
By t he mid-e leve nt h cent ury in L at i n S pain , it is c lear
that t he so lidus of we ight was a measure of ro ughly
r
1 5 . 56
4 3 There are var iant s of t he phrase, e . g . , " argenti
pondo pe ns ante " or " adce pimus de vobis pondere pensai
pensat us solidos VI I II de ar ie nto s . " The latest use of the
formul a t hat I have found i s a sale o f 1 0 6 3 .
See ACL , 4 : 3 4 no . 8 9 6 , 1 7 9 - 1 8 0 no . 1 0 1 3 , 3 5- 6 no . 9 2 2 , 3 4 1 - 2 no . 1 1 2 5
and pas s im .
Pondere pensato i s also used in a s ale between the
Counte s s Teresa and Bi shop Miro of P alencia dated 1 0 5 6 .
The phr a se , however , does not seem to have been employed
see Tere sa Abajo Marti n ,
wide ly t hroughout the kingdom .
ed . , Document ac i6n de la catedral d e Pale nc ia ( 1 0 3 5 - 1 2 4 7 )
( B urgo s , 1 9 8 6 ) , 2 1 -3 no . 8 . Cf . t he doc uments col lected by
Ubieto Arteta in San Mil lan , pas s im , whic h often cite the
so lidus argenti but do not specify t hat it was weighed .
grams , subdivided into 8 argenti o f ro ughly 1 . 9 5 grams .
This argentus was strict ly a unit of weight .
There was no
Chri stian or I s lamic silver coin c irculati ng in the
peni nsula t hat corresponded to 1 . 9 5 grams . 44
In testament s and pious bequests of the late-tenth and
eleventh centuries , the so lidus of weight was frequent ly
used to desc ribe s undry artifact s , suc h as the wi ll of
1 04 2
whic h inc luded a " si lver cruc i fix we ighi ng 4 0 0 so lidi ( and )
a si lver c andelabra o f 5 0 so lidi .
II
o� s
It i s po s si ble ,
then , that the purchases from Leon that were conducted by
we ight of si lver invo lved plate and not coin .
None of the
documents using the pondere pensato formula , however ,
on
me nt ion such misce llaneo us art ifacts changing hands .
the contrary , one of t he se c harter s implie s that the silver
in que stio n was co in .
In 1 0 4 4 , Vel lite E ilaniz settled a debt with sancha ,
de scribed as a countes s and nun of Christ .
Ve llite had
stood surety for her s i ster who had been an oblate at
Sanc ha ' s convent .
Now that the si ster had f led with
a
married man , Vel lite was required to pay the surety
specified as " numero argent i pondo pensante
4 4 See appendix B be low .
r
xxxa
so lidos .
II
For the general weight
standard of Umayyad dirhams , see appendix A be low .
4 5 see the wil l of dona Fronilde Pelae z dated 1 0 42 :
" Item mini steria de ecc le s ia crux argentea una pe sante ecce
so lido s , kande labr um argenteum de d so lido s , c orona
argente a de solidos c XX , c apsa argentea c L a solido s ,
c alicem argenteum de so lidos Lxa at alio kalice argenteo de
XX so lido s . "
ACL , 4 : 1 6 1 - 6 4 no . 1 0 0 3 .
93
She co uld not raise this s um , however , and so bequeathed
land .
Nonetheless , the phrase " numero argenti " impl ie s
that sancha had expected Ve l lite to pay " a number of s i lver
.
( c oins ) weighed on the sca le to 3 0 so lidi . 4 5
It seems
like ly , therefore , that the sales that were said to be
conducted pondere pen sa to i nvo lved at least some coin .
But , what mo ney was it and why was it we ighed out?
At thi s time , sanc ho the Great ( 1 0 0 4 - 3 5 ) of NavarreAragon dominated the po l itic al stage of we ster n Spai n .
Toward the end o f hi s life , he annexed the county of
castile and briefly occupied the town of Leo n .
He has
often been considered a like ly author of some of the
anonymous imperial coins that survive today, espec ially a
(
4 6 The document survive s not only in the Turnbo of the
cathedral of Leon but al so in a parc hment in Visigothic
scr ipt that Ruiz Ascenc io , in ACL , 4 : 1 7 9- 8 0 no . 1 0 1 3 , took
to be an original . The u se of n umero implies coin , i . e . ,
si lver that co uld be counted , even tho ugh the sum was
ultimate ly s uppo se to be weighed . Since c lassic al times
n umerare was as soci ated wit h coins , so much so that
n umerat um became synonymo us with cash or money and the
See Lewis and Short ' s Latin
n umm us was an individual c oi n .
Dictionary, s . v . , " numerat urn , " " nummus " ; c f . Niemeyer ,
Lexicon Minus , s . v . " nurnmata , " " numrnus . " See also Bisson ,
conservation, 1 7 5 n . 1 and 2 .
In the Catalan doc umentation the mancu s was
See , " XL
occ a sional ly referred to i n a similar fashio n .
uncias auri Barc hinone si de manc usis nurnerat is " ( Rose l l ,
L iber , 1 : 1 8 0- 8 1 no . 1 7 1 ) ; " mo nete Barchinone ad nurnerurn "
and " a nurnero rnonete Barchinone qui penset unumquemque
mancuso uno argenti " ( Botet , Les monedes , 4 0 , cf . 5 6 . ) .
In
Leon-castile , see the later agreement of 1 0 9 0 where Pedro
Muni z stood surety for the actions of xabe VEHaz ; " par iem
ego iam dictus xxxa so lido s nurnero regis pac atos . "
( ACL ,
4 : 5 3 8 no . 1 2 4 9 . ) Nummo or n umm u s also appear s occasional ly
in Leone se c harter s of the twe lfth century .
see chapter 4
be low .
94
I
unique type that reads IMPERATOR /NAJERA in place o f the
more usual al lusion to Lmpera tor Leonis . 4 7
Without
re liab le documentary evide nc e , however , there is no way to
be certain that sancho minted . 4 8
If denarii were struck ln
Leon , either by sanc ho or Vermudo I I I ( 1 02 8- 3 7 ) , whom
Sanc ho temporari ly dethroned , we c an expect that it was on
a limited basi s .
Probably any minting under these ruler s
4 7 The type survives i n 1 spec imen in the co l lection
of the �ffiN .
I have not seen t he coi n , but its reported
weight is 1 . 5 9 grams , whic h wo uld argue in favor of it
being an ear ly i s s ue . Charlemagne ' s reformed de narius
weighed 1 . 7 grams but typica lly we ight s dropped in the
tenth and eleve nth cent ur y .
( See spufford , Noney , 1 0 1 - 1 0 5 )
By the l ate eleventh century , Alfonso VI ' s coins were about
1 gram . ( See c ha pter 3 below . )
on the IMPERATOR /NAJERA piec e , see Migue l crusaf o nt i
Sabater and Anna M . B alaguer , "La numismatica navarro ­
aragone sa alto medieval : Nueva hi pote si s , " GN 8 1 ( 1 9 8 6 ) :
3 5 - 6 6 ; Beltran , " Fernando I , " 5 8 6- 88 ; cf . octavio Gi l
Farres , " Consideraciones acerc a de las primitivas cec as
navarras y aragonesas , " NH 4 ( 19 5 5 ) : 5-36 and octavio Gi l
Farre s , Historia de la moneda e spano l a , 2 d ed . ( Madrid ,
1 9 7 6 ) , 2 5 7- 6 0 .
4 8 There i s no reliable contemporary evidence that
sanc ho used the imperial t it le . There is a document i n the
archives of san Mi llan de Cogo lla de scribing the
translat ion of the body of san Mil lan , in whic h sanc ho
purportedly uses t he tit le " gr at ia Dei I spaniarum rex . "
But , the san Mi l lan arc hives are notorious for their
forgerie s and the ear lie st copy of t hi s partic ular doc ument
is mid-twe lfth ce nt ury .
See Ubieto , san Millan , 1 9 3- 9 4
no . 1 9 3 .
( Be ltran , " Fernando I , " 5 8 8 , accepted t he
docume nt . )
Ne ither is t here any direct documentary evidence t hat
Sanc ho struc k co in . There is a docume nt pre served in t he
cathedral arc hives o f Pale nc ia that claims to be Sancho ' s
I n it , he grants the
restoratio n of t he see c . 1 0 3 4 .
c athedral the right to a tent h of moneta . The document is
almo st certainly a forgery as are the separate
conf irmations of the act by Fernando I in 1 0 5 9 and Alf o n so
VI in 1 0 9 0 .
see t he discussion under Palenc ia in c hapter 7
be low .
r
was farmed out to arti sans on an ad hoc bas i s as Ramon
Berenguer I did in B arce lona .
Furt hermore , it seems safe to as sume that , if they
minted , neither Vermudo or s ancho po ssessed the machinery
necessary to prohibit the circ ulat io n of foreign currenc y
in t he realm .
The amo unt of denar ii e nter ing Leon-casti le
from the Catalan lands and Europe beyo nd t he Pyrenee s had
probably increased over the cour se o f the te nth century as
the popu larity of the c ult o f st . James gre\v . -1 9
Still ,
there is no obvious reason why foreign denar ii would be
we ighed out rather than counted .
In a l l likel ihood, the
purc hase s by weight in the Leo nese doc uments ref lect an
inf lux of dirhams from al-Anda lus .
I n the I s lamic wor ld ,
the weight o f individual coins norma lly was not strictly
controlled at the mi nt which probably made transactions by
weight rather than tale more common . s o
The bulk of the Mu slim coin that f lowed to catalonia
in the ear ly eleve nth cent ury as a res ult of the dec line of
the caliphate was c learly in gold dinar s .
Nonethele ss , the
Catalan so urce s in tho se years also refer to a solidi
argenti kazimi from spani a or al-Andal us , whic h co uld only
4 9 See t he f inds discussed i n c hapter 1 n . 5 8 and n .
I n genera l , the quantity of denar i i struck in western
E uro pe i ncreased in the late-tenth and ear ly-e leventh
cent urie s . This growt h was fue led i n part by the di scovery
See Spufford ' s
of the Gos lar si lver mines in the 9 6 0 s .
c hapter " Saxon Silver and the Expansio n of Minting , " in
Money , 7 4 - 1 0 5 .
5 0 see appendix B , below .
78 .
{
96
(
be a solidi compri sed of dir hams rather than denarii .
An
examination of the Cat al an doc uments demonstrate s that thi s
so lidus argenti of dirhams mos t like ly was not reckoned
weight . S l
by
While the c harters from Leo n whic h record
transactions pondere pensato do not use the term solidi
arge nti kazirni , it seems l ikely that t hey invo lved
dirhams . s 2
In the course of t he e levent h cent ury , the gold di nar
became an integral part o f t he Cat al an eco nomy .
It was
used domestically and seemingly also for foreign trade .
When the taifa issues be gan to fai l , the town of Barce lona
attempted to maintai n it s own go ld c urrenc y .
Like
Barcelona , the Italian towns o f Amal f i and Salerno also
struck imitations of I s l amic gold, demonstrating that go ld
was the preferred species in western Mediterranean trade . 53
r
5 1 see appendix A f or t he origin of t he term kazimi
see
and its appearance in the Latin document s in general .
appe ndix B for how the dirham was rec koned in Catalan
purc hase s .
5 2 While the Leone se and Casti lians did not establish
the same leve l of commerce with al-Andalus that Barcelona
was able to ac hieve in t he ear ly-e leve nth century, there
was still contact betwee n Leon-casti le and the south . For
example , when Ibn ' Idhar l te l l s of t he Catalan mercenaries
who c ame to Cordo ba in 1 0 1 0 to as s i st t he c aliph al-Mahdl ,
he also informs us that several mo nths ear lier the co unt of
cast i le had led an expedition to Cordo ba in support of t he
The Cast i lian demand ,
Berbers rebel ling against al-Mahd l .
however , was not for gold but for the return o f fortre s se s
taken by al-Man�ur . See above , n 8 .
5 3 Finds of Fatimid go ld i n S pain emphasize the
internat ional character of t hi s We stern Mediterranean
market . See the hoard reported by Miles c ited in n . 2 5
above ; c f . t he hoard o f dinars interred c . l 0 42 which
cont ai ned Fatimid and "Moroccan" go ld, reported by Joaquin
97
(
I n contrast to the use o f go ld in the Mediterranean , dinar s
were c lear ly exc luded from contemporary trade between alAndalus and northern E urope .
Hoards f rom Germany and
Sc andi navia and England plainly show t hat large amount s of
si lver d irhams f lowed nort hward from a l-��da lus in the late
tent h and early eleventh centuries , mo st likely in exc hange
for s l aves and fur s , but gold dinars are ent irely absent
from these f inds . 54
The northern E uropean monetary economy was based on
si lver .
As a re sult , go ld at this j uncture wa s perhaps
underval ued there in compari so n to it strength in the
Mediterranean .
If thi s was tr ue , Anda lusian merchant s
wo uld naturally have been inc lined to use si lver in trade
with t he northern Euro pe and reserve gold for use in the
Mediterranean .
Likewi se , in Leo n-Cast ile , which was shut
off from the Mediterranean , go ld may have been underva lued .
Co nseque nt ly , what coin Leon-Casti le did attract from alAnda lus in the ear ly e levent h century may have been mainly
in s ilver dirhams .
It i s po ssible that some of the
commerce between al-Andalus and northern Europe in fac t ,
(
Maria d e Navascues , " Te soro arabe de l a calle de cruz
conde , cordoba , " NH 1 0 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 1 7 0 - 7 3 . F atimid s ilver also
surf ace s in I berian find s .
See Joaquin Maria de Navascue s ,
" Tesor i l lo de monedas de plata del c al i f ato cordobes y
f atimie s , " NH 7 ( 1 9 5 8 ) : 2 0 7 - 1 0 . Al so see " Hallaz gos
monetarios , " pt . 4 , 2 5 3 and the Menorc a hoard in " Hallaz go s
monetarios , " pt . 1 2 , 1 3 5 -3 6 , no . 7 7 7 .
5 4 For t he hoard evidenc e , see appendix A, n . 2 1
below .
For the importation of s lave s and fur s to Anda lusia
from the nort h , see constablle , Trade , 1 9 8- 9 9 , 2 0 3 -2 0 8 .
98
I
pa ssed through Leon-castile .
Nighti ngale pointed out that
-
the anonymous geographer who composed the Qudud al - ' al am
around 9 8 2 referred " tantalizingly to Britain as an
empori um or bridge between Chr istian E urope and Muslim
Spain . .. s s
Whi le al-Andalus merc hants co uld have sai led
directly to Engl and , an alternative ro ute may have involved
Leonese merc hant s as middlemen .
certainly by the opening
of the twe lfth century , commercial t ie s between Leon and
England were wel l establi shed . s6
Si lver coin, however , wa s st i l l not abundant in Leon
in the se decade s .
I n the above agreement betwee n Ve llite
and the nun Sanc ha , the surety was s uppo sed to be paid in
si lver but Sancha in the end accepted land in recompen se .
r
5 5 P amela Nighti ngale , " The London Pepperers ' Guild
and Some Twe lfth-Century E ngli sh Trading Links wit h Spai n , "
Bulletin of the I nstitute of Hi storic al Reserac h 5 5 ( 1 9 8 5 ) :
1 2 8 -2 9 ; Eiudu d al- ' a l am : " The Regions o f the World , " A
Per sian Geography , trans . v . Minorsky ( London , 1 9 7 0 ) , 1 5 8 ;
c f . Const able , Trade , 42 .
5 6 The trade between northern E urope and a l-Andalus is
in need of f urther study . constable , Trade , 4 1 , ignore s
that there were two chrono logical period s in which dirhams
from Andalusia reached northern Euro pe . During the late­
eighth and early-ninth centuries , Andalusian dirhams were
drawn to t he near East and upward through the Ukraine to
central and northern E urope . For the late-tenth century ,
hoard evidence shows t he emergence o f a seco nd route . As
Noo nan pointed o ut , hoard find s indicate thi s later
commerce was by a " very different ro ute . "
( Noonan ,
" D irhams , " 8 4- 8 6 ) Whi le part of this later trade may have
been through central E urope , it is c lear that there was
al so a route along the Atlantic seaboard . There are
several report s of Vikings reaching Asturias in the
eleventh century , whic h may be another s ide of the same
maritime link .
( Fletc her , catapult , 2 3 . ) For later
commercial contact s between the kingdom of Leo n , England
and northern E urope , see chapter 4 be low .
aa
a
Likewi se , in
1 03 3 ,
two brother s gave the monastery of San
Salvador de Mata llana a piece of pro perty to ame nd a wro ng
committed agai nst the house .
They were originally supposed
to pay the house 1 0 0 so lidi in silver . s 7
dated
1 037 ,
In a simi lar act
Fe le s Te udemir iz trans ferred to Juan Pepiz the
ho uses he owned near the marketplace bec ause he could not
raise the 2 6 so lidi pondere pensato . s a
st il l , wh ile the se
examples show that payme nt in- ki nd was not uncommo n , they
also indic ate that silver wa s becomi ng a preferred if not
expected means o f payment .
By mid-c entury , the so lidus arge nt i wa s the main
standard of va lue in Le6 n by which a lmost al l other
transactions were as sessed .
The agr arian values of the
modius and ox, whi le sti ll used in other parts of the
ki ngdom as st andard s , were no lo nger employed here . s 9
While Le6n i n these decades did not share in the gold boom
of Barce lona , it had wit hout doubt been prope lled toward a
r
5 7 " ( I ) n precio de centum so lido s que non abuimus unde
dare . " ACL , 4 : 2 3 -4 no . 9 1 2 .
5 8 " Damus tibi i psas kasas pro argento que abuimus
tibi a dare so lido s xx vi , pondere pe nsato s , et non
potuimus invenire ipso argento , et pro id damus tibi
kasas . " ACL , 4 : 6 9 - 7 0 no . 9 4 8 . outside Leon , in Burgo s , an
act of 1 0 2 7 records that Countes s Urraca received land " pro
illo s de solidos aur ie nzos ( sic ) que a buimus ad pariare . "
Jose Manuel Garrido Garrido , ed . , Docume nt ac i6n de la
c atedral de B urgo s ( 8 0 4 - 1 2 2 2 ) ( Burgos , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 : 3 3 no . 1 3 .
5 9 The modi us was u sed into the twe lfth century .
In
the 1 1 2 0 s , the monks o f santa Maria de l Puerto i n Santona
sti l l as se s sed the value of a cow at between four and six
modii . Pastor de Togneri , " Ganaderia , " 4 3 . For the
co nt inued use of the ox, see Departame nto , " Circ ulac i6 n , "
2 4 6 , t able 6 .
'
more moneti zed economy .
Under the rule o f Fernando
I
( 1 0 3 5 - 6 5 ) , t hi s proce s s acce lerated .
The Faria s and the Western K ingdoms
Fernando I of Leon-Casti le was t he son of the
Navarre se ruler Sanc ho the Great , who had instal led him as
ki ng in cast i le .
Upon s ancho ' s deat h , Vermudo I I I
recl aimed the thro ne o f Leon and sought to take cast i le
from Fernando .
The is sue was decided at t he battle of
Tarnaro n in 1 0 3 7 .
Vermudo was ki lled and Fer nando became
ki ng of a re united Leo n-cast ile .
By t he 1 0 6 0 s , after two
and a half dec ades on the throne , Fernando emerged as one
the stro ngest of the Christian ruler s in t he peninsula and
began a series o f successful campaigns against the tai fas .
According to later c hronic le s , at the time of hi s
death Fernando was due annual tribute from To ledo , Seville ,
Zarago za and Badaj oz , yet how cons iste nt ly he or his son
Alfonso VI ( 1 0 6 5 - 1 1 0 9 ) proc ured these payments c annot be
determined . 6 0
Granada .
r
We do know that Alfonso added tribute from
The ruler o f that kingdom ,
' Abd Allah ( 1 0 7 3 - 9 0 ) ,
6 0 The anonymous His cori a si lense, composed during the
reign of Alfonso VI , reports t hat To ledo and Sevi lle paid
Fernando I tribute as a re sult of hi s campaigns in the
1 0 6 0 s . see Perez de Urbe l , Silense , 1 9 7- 9 8 . The brief
Chronicon composcel lanum, apparent ly compo sed in the ear ly
year s of Alfonso VI I ( 1 1 2 6 - 5 7 ) , adds B adaj o z and Z arago z a
t o the list of Fernando ' s client s and c l aims that al l fo ur
taif as rendered tribute annually .
See F l6re z , " Chronicon
compo stel lanum, " 6 0 9 .
see also , Bernard F . Rei lly, The
Kingdom of Le6n-cast i l la Under K ing Alfonso VI , 1 0 6 5 - 1 1 0 9
( Princeton , 1 9 8 8 ) , xv , 7 - 1 3 .
10 1
provides in hi s memo ir s one of the few explic it indications
of the amount s invo lved in these pari a s .
According t o hi s
te stimony , he wa s forced to pay Al fonso 3 0 , 0 0 0 dinar s to
co nc lude peace c . l 0 7 5 and promised 1 0 , 0 0 0 more per ann um . 6 1
A measur e of Leon ' s new wealth c an be seen i n
Fernando ' s pledge o f 1 , 0 0 0 dinar s annual ly t o Cluny , a sum
later do ubled by Alfo nso . 6 2
Yet , despite the collection of
these paria s , there is little evidence of gold c irculating
within Leo n-cast ile it se lf .
No docume nt of Fernando
survives whic h shows him using dinar s in domestic gi fts or
purc hase s and the same seems to be true for Alfonso ' s
reign . 6 3
r
To
an extent , we can attribute this to the scant
6 1 ' Abd Allah , The Tibyan , 9 1 - 9 2 .
Bi shko ' s conc lusio n
that Fer nando could expect " some 3 0 , 0 0 0 or more dinars a
year " is little more than a gues s , tho ugh not an
unreasonable o ne .
It is apparently based on t he 1 0 , 0 0 0
_
dinar s per annum figure o f ' Abd Allah and t he 1 2 , 0 0 0 per
annum later promised to Sanc ho of Navarre ( see discussio n
below ) . B i s hko must have conc luded that if Fernando
received at least t hree o f the four parias ass igned to him
in the chronic le s , at 1 0 , 000 eac h , he wo uld receive 30 , 0 0 0
annually .
See Bishko , "Fer nando I , " 4 2 - 5 3 . MacKay , Spain
in the Middle Age s , 2 5 , raised t he amo unt to 4 0 , 0 0 0 . More
recently, Bernard F . Rei l ly in The Co ntest of Christian and
Mus lim Spain , 1 0 3 1 - 1 1 5 7 ( Cambridge , 1 9 9 2 ) , 5 8 - 5 9 , s ugge sted
that Alfonso V I may have received 7 0 , 0 0 0 to 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 dinars
annual ly , whic h is almost certainly too high an estimate .
see the more c autious treatment by Gras sotti , " Botin , " 5 1 5 5 . Balaguer i n "Farias, " 5 1 4 -2 4 , 5 3 1 - 3 3 , also attempted
to quantify the total amount f lowi ng to all the Chri stian
prince s , but admitted the re sult s were tenuous .
6 2 Alfonso doubled the Cluny cen s us i n 1 0 7 7 , shortly
after hi s agreement with Granada . Whi le payment lapsed
temporarily , he was able to send 1 0 , 0 0 0 dinars of arrear s
c . 1 0 8 8 . B i s hko , " Fernando I , " 2 7 - 3 9 , 4 6 - 4 8 ; see also
chapter 3 .
6 3 Fernando ' s docume nt s are collected in B lanco ,
Fernando I . The documents o f Alfonso VI have not been
102
preservation of Leo nese royal docume nt s .
( Our knowledge o f
events i n Barcelona, b y contrast , owes muc h to t he
exi stence of the roya l cart ulary called the Liber
Feodor urn . 64 )
The c hronic le known as the Hi storia si lense ,
however , c laims that Fernando genero us ly e ndowed the
churche s and monasteries o f hi s ki ngdom with Mus lim booty
and pre s umably the lay ari stocracy also shared i n this
wealth . 6 5
Yet , there is no lack of private charter s
recording mo nastic and ari stocratic land acqui sitions in
this period and these , l ike the royal document s , reveal
almo st no sign of the dinar in act ive circ ulat io n .
Only
later in Alfonso VI ' s re ign does go ld begin to s ur face
sporadic ally in wi lls or rel igio us bequest s that list
" aurum " among the do nor ' s wealth , though usual ly wit hout
specifying whether the go ld was in coin . 6 6
occasio nally ,
however , these doc umen t s do refer to mencale s , t he term
r
simi lar ly edited , but to my knowledge there is no ac t of
hi s invo lving gold c o i n ot her than his payme nt s to C luny .
6 4 Ramon Berenguer had used his gold income to
purc hase c astles and r ight s that helped build hi s hegemo ny
in catalo ni a . The Liber Feudorum, compiled by Alfo nso I I
( 1 1 6 2 - 9 6 ) o f Arago n-catalo nia in the late twelfth century
caref ully preserved the docume nt s that proved these right s .
our records of the act s of Fernando I and Alfonso VI , on
the other hand , tend t o be limited to donations and
confirmations of right s that they made to their subj ects
whic h were subsequently preserved by the rec ipient s .
Charters recording pur c hases by the crown would l ike ly be
saved by no other party but the crown . on the Liber
Feodorum, see Bisso n , Crown of Aragon , 5 0 - 5 1 ; c f . B lanc o ,
Fernando I , 1 5 - 1 8 .
6 5 Pere z de Urbel , silense , 2 0 5- 6 , cf . 1 9 0 .
6 6 See Sahagfrn, 3 : 2 0 -2 1 no . 7 4 4 , 7 5- 7 6 no . 7 8 5 , 8 5 - 8 6
no . 7 9 4 , 3 8 9 - 9 3 no . 1 0 4 9 , 2 0 3- 4 no . 8 8 8 , 4 4 3 - 4 5 no . 1 0 9 3 .
103
used in Leon for the dinar which derived from the Arabic
mi thqa l . 6 7
If the kings of Leon-casti le were the recipients of so
much tri bute , why was go ld scarcely used in the dome stic
economy ? 6 8
Two treatie s between S ancho IV of Navarre
( 1 0 5 4- 7 6 ) and al-Huqtadir of Z aragoza ( c . 1 0 4 9 -c . l 0 8 3 ) he lp
shed li ght on the paradox .
Besides ' Abd Al l ah ' s testimony ,
these treaties are the only direct record we have of a
r
6 7 Two exceptional doc uments that ment ion the menc al
are the wi lls of Count Gonzalo s alvadorez and Count Pedro
Go nzalo ' s bequest to the monastery of ona in 1 0 8 2
Ansure z .
survives only in a copy , probably of the twe lfth century .
It was publis hed by Juan de l Alamo , Co lecc i6 n diplomat ic a
de san sa lvador de ona ( 8 2 2 - 1 2 8 4 ) ( Hadrid , 1 9 5 0 ) , 1 : 1 1 3 - 1 4
no . 7 7 , with reference to a sum of 1 6 0 0 "morabetinos . " The
morabe t i no or the Almoravid di nar , however , wo uld not have
been common in I beria in 1 0 82 . Ramon Henende z Pidal , in La
E span a de l Cid , 5th ed . ( Madrid , 1 9 5 6 ) , 1 : 7 3 9 , was surely
correct in suggesting that the original wi ll had read
" mtis " as an abbreviation f or metcali s not morabetinos . A
fer.'! year s later , Pedro Anslirez left 3 0 0 "metkale s de auro "
See ACL , 4 : 5 5 7 - 5 9 no . 1 2 6 2 . on
to the c hurch of Leon .
this doc ument , see further c hapter 9 , n . 7 6 .
�'lo examples of the menc al used in actual transact ions
can be found in the docume nt s from Sahagun . A transfer of
land dated 1 0 76 required " ad conf irmanda kart ula ista xxx0
emetka le s de oro . " A bequest of 1 1 0 3 inc luded " una mula
comparet de D metkale s . " S ahagun , 3 : 2 1 - 2 2 no . 7 4 5 , 4 5 2 - 5 3
no . 1 0 9 9 .
6 8 The discrepancy has engendered only vague
explanatio ns . Lac arra advanced the idea that the gold
stayed mainly in the hands of the ar istocrac y who used it
for expenses in war and to purchase luxury items from
Anda lusia .
(Lac arra , " Aspecto s , " 7 4 - 7 5 . ) B ut war
inve stment and trade with al-Andal us both imply that the
coins s hould have trickled into local c irc ulat io n . De spite
this , P a stor de Togneri in " Ganaderia y prec io s , " 5 3 - 5 5 ,
adopted a similar conc l us ion . Cf . Glic k , I s lamic and
Chr istian Spain , 1 2 7 - 2 8 . Hore recent l y , Richard A .
Fletc her i n The Que st for E l cid ( New York , 1 9 9 0 ) , 7 0- 7 1 ,
simply assumed that go ld freely circulated des pite its
absence in the documentation .
104
I
tr ibute accord between a chr istian lord and hi s r-ru slim
clie nt in this era .
I n the firs t , dated 1 0 6 9 , al-Muqtadir
agreed to pay Sanc ho 1 2 , 0 0 0 di nars per annum , a sum
comparable to what ' Abd All ah paid Alfonso .
The alliance ,
however , soo n broke down and had to be renewed in a seco nd
doc ument of 1 0 7 3 .
on this occ as io n , the same annual
tribute in dinar s was agreed upo n , but Sancho now added a
protective measure .
He re served the right to refuse the
gold o ffered him if the qua l ity did not please him and
demand payment in s ilver at a spec if ied rate per dinar . 69
Sanc ho ' s suspicion regardi ng payment in gold was not
unfounded .
By mid-century , t he taifas were mo st likely
already beginning to debase their co inage to compensate for
the steady los s of go ld to c at alonia .
The added demands o f
the we stern ki ngdoms for tri bute in the second half o f the
cent ury now must have rapidly depleted a l-Anda lus ' go ld
reso urce s .
The failure of t he B arce lonan manc us after 1 0 7 6
is a c lear indic at ion o f t hi s crisis .
Wit h the increased
compe t it io n , the town could no longer proc ure enough good
gold to make minting pro fitable .
r
Like the " Va lenc ian"
69 " Convenit Almuctadir . . . per singulos annos dare
regi domino Sanc io duodecim mi lia manc usos aur i obtirni , ita
ut si regi placuerit acc ipere aurum accipi at , si e nim plus
sibi placuerit acc ipere arge ntum pro unoquoque mancuso aur i
acc i piat rex VI I solidos argenti de mo neta de
Ce saraugusta . " Both texts were published by Jose Maria
Lacarra , " Do s tratados de paz y alianza entre sanc ho el de
Pefialen y Moctadir de Zarago z a ( 1 0 69 y 1 0 7 3 ) , " in
Coloniz aci6n, par ia s , repoblaci6n y otros e st udio s , 92 - 9 4 .
The second treaty is discussed f urther in appendix B .
105
I
pieces that replaced the Barce lo nan manc us , the go ld s truc k
by many of the t ai fas in t he last quarter of t he e leve nth
cent ury was unmistakably poor and sc arce . 7 o
' Abd Allah had
been so worried about de plet ing hi s go ld stock that he
attempted to pay Alfonso VI part ially in " mattre sses ,
garments and ves se l s . .. 7 1
By stipulating in advance t hat he
required si lver if s uitable gold was not found , Sanc ho of
Navarre was depr iving al-Muqtadir of the opportunity to
offer similar tribute . 7 2
The mo st important aspect of Sancho ' s second treaty is
that the tribute was sti ll conceived of as 1 2 , 0 0 0 dinars
even though it may be paid in si lver dirhams .
Here lies
the source of conf usion in evaluating the impact of the
parias in the we stern kingdoms ; the dinar was serving as a
(
7 0 According to Do zy , there are two accounts i n Arabic
sources of al-Mu ' tamid of Sevi lle making payment to the
I n the first , t he king
Chri stians in dinar s o f poor a l loy .
was said to pay Ramon Bere nguer II 3 0 , 0 0 0 de based dinars as
ransom for his son c . 1 0 7 8 .
In the second , a court poet
reported that Castilian envoys dared to complain about the
poor alloy of the dinars offered t hem c . 1 0 82 . Reinhar t
Doz y , Histoire des Mus ulmans d ' E spagne j usqu ' a la conguete
de l ' Andalo usie par les Almoravides ( 7 1 1 - 1 1 1 0 ) ( 1 8 6 1 ;
Repr int , ed . , Evar iste Levi-Provenqal , Leiden , 1 9 3 2 ) ,
3 : oook 4 , 1 0 7 , 1 1 9 .
See also , Lac arra , "Aspec to s , " 5 5 ;
Balaguer , " Faria s , " 5 2 1 ; Gras sotti , " Botin, " 5 7 - 5 8 ; c f .
Rei lly, Alfonso VI , 1 6 3- 6 4 .
7 1 'Abd All a h , The Tibyan , 9 1 . For other example s of
parias paid in-kind , see Balaguer , " Farias , " 5 2 4 .
7 2 A similar c oncern with the quality of tribute might
be seen in Alfonso VI ' s negotiations with al-Qadir between
1 0 7 5 and 1 0 8 5 . Acc ording to ' Abd All ah , one of Alfonso ' s
conditions for reinstat ing al-Q adir in To ledo , was that the
Muslim prince purc hase a fortre s s near To ledo from Alfonso
' Abd Al lah, The
f or 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 " mL thqa l s of good al loy . "
Tibyan, 93 .
106
I
unit of account for silver .
When
' Abd
Al lah spoke of the
sums of mencales or dinars that he paid Alfonso of Leo n , he
did not nece ssar ily mean that they were always rendered
go ld .
in
I n referring to a large payment of arrears he was
forced to pay Al fo nso c . l 0 8 9 , the Granadan king explai ned
that he dared not ask his subj ect s for he lp, so he sent the
3 0 , 0 0 0 dinar s " \vithout c ausing anyone to lose a sing le
dirham .
u 73
The real ity then behind the tribute payments of
the seco nd half of the century i s that they were at be st
paid in debased go ld .
More freque nt ly , they were probably
made up of a mixture of poor dinar s , si lver dirhams and at
time s other goods .
Therefore , whi le the kings of Leon-
Ca stile , and to a le sser extent Aragon and Navarre ,
pros pered in the late eleventh century , their real intake
in go ld was not as large as ha s often been assumed .
They
had in f act mi ssed the go ld boom that Barcelona and the
other Catalan counties ear lier e nj oyed .
The Leonese Dome st ic Economy
Under Fernando I
What go ld the mo narc hs o f Leon-castile , Aragon and
Navarre did receive in the e leve nt h century probably was
used s paringly .
{
Fernando had promised 1 , 0 0 0 dinar s
7 3 ' Abd All ah refers direct ly t o dinars of dirhams in
di sc us sing the revenue s of Guadix . Later , he employs the
concept again in discuss ing the siege of the same town . He
reports that the effort required 6 treasure chests of
dirhams , eac h chest being the equivale nt o f 1 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0
dinar s .
I bid . , 6 1 , 7 6 - 7 7 , 1 3 2 .
107
annual ly to Cluny .
From what we know of these payme nt s
during the reign of hi s so n, t hey do seem to have been
re ndered in gold when actual ly paid . 7 �
Go ld was not only
more conve nient for internatio nal payments ( it was les s
bulky and so easier to trans port saf e l y ) , but it pro bably
added to the pre st ige of the S pani sh kingdoms as they
formed c lo ser ties with Christ ian Euro pe .
It is apparent
from doc umentary sources that sanc ho Ramirez of AragonNavarre ( 1 0 6 3- 9 4 ) minted his own gold pieces for the
expres sed purpose of paying an annua l tribute of 5 0 0
manc usos t o Rome . 7 5
Gold that trickled down from these
rulers to their native c hurc h and ari stocracy was probably
hoarded , and hence s urface s mainly in wi lls and pious
donations , or was used for ornamental purpose s . 7 6
Bi sho p
Pe layo o f Leon ( 1 0 6 3 -c . 1 0 8 7 ) , i n compo sing a detailed list
of items that he was leaving to the c h urch in 1 0 7 3 ,
rec al led that he had received gold from the Infan ta urrac a
with which he adorned one wooden c ro s s and made another of
gold . 7 7
{
7 4 B ishko , " Fernando I , " 3 6- 3 7 .
7 5 Balaguer , " Inf luence , " 3 2 3 - 2 4 .
7 6 Gold at thi s leve l was al so pro ne to be drawn o ut
of the kingdom . The monastery of ana , f or example , was
See de l
required to pay 1 ounce of gold per annum to Rome .
Alamo , Ofia , 1 : 1 3 1 no . 1 0 4 .
see al so L ac arra • s discussion
of pious donat ions paid in gold to Rome and monastic hou se s
i n Franc e i n " Aspectos , " 6 7- 6 8 .
7 7 ACL , 4 : 4 39 - 4 7 no . 1 1 9 0 . Pelayo also mentions a
c loak and shawl both adorned wit h go ld .
S imilar c loak s
appear as gift s i n a t least two c harters of Fernando and
one of Alfo nso VI . see , B lanco , Fernando I , 64-66 no . 1 1 ,
1 2 4- 2 6 , no . 4 1 , 1 2 9 - 3 2 , no s . 4 3 and 4 4 ; Eduardo de
10 8
Fernando ' s contemporarie s freque nt ly c ho se to endmv
their bi shoprics with shares from Mus l im tri bute .
For
example , in 1 0 4 8 , Ermengo l of Urge l granted the see of
Urge l a tenth of all the parias he rece ived " from parts of
Spai n " .
The same year , Ramo n Berenguer assigned the c hurc h
of san Pedro o f vich a tenth o f the tribute paid to him
from Z arago z a .
I n 1 0 5 2 , Fernando ' s brot her , Garc ia of
Navarre ( 1 0 3 5- 1 0 5 4 ) gave the abbey of santa Maria de Naj era
a tenth of the " parias or tribute " he received from the
" land of the Saracens . "
L ikewise , Fer nando ' s other
brother , Ramiro I of Arago n ( 1 0 3 5- 1 0 6 3 ) , promi sed the see
of Jac a a third part of a tenth of his tribute from
Zarago za and Tude la . 7 B
tithe s .
These gif t s were e ssentially
They carried the obvious advantage that the prince
was not bo und to guarantee his c hurc h a fixed amount .
If
he f ai led t o c o l lect payment s from a Mus lim lord , the
churc h ' s inc ome wo uld suffer proport ionate ly .
Thi s type o f
endowment also did not guarantee the kind o f payment the
church would receive .
It could be go l d , si lver or items
in-kind .
The only example we have of Fernando providing a see
with an annual endowment is di stinct from these
r
Hino j os a , Docume ntos para la historia de las instituciones
de Leon y de Ca st i l la ( siglos X-X I I I ) ( Madrid , 1 9 1 9 ) , 2 8
no . 1 7 .
see a lso the chasuble woven i n go ld sent by
Santiago to Rome in 1 12 0 , disc ussed i n F letc her , Catapult ,
205 .
7 8 Lac arra , " Aspecto s , " 4 8 - 5 1 ; B i s hko , " Fernando , " 4 2 45 .
109
(
arrangements .
After Fer nando ' s de ath,
Bi sho p Pelayo of
Leon drew up a c harter in 1 0 7 4 in whic h he provided 30
so lidi argenti per annum for the pur po se o f keeping the
altars o f hi s churc h l it .
He explai ned that t hi s was to be
funded from the bi shop ' s port ion of " 5 0 0 so l idi of
exce llent s i lver " that Fernando had assigned to hi s see
from a cens us paid by the Jewi sh community of the c ity . 79
Pe layo explained that this donat ion took place dur ing the
episcopacy o f hi s predecessor Alvito ( 1 0 5 7 - 1 0 6 3 ) , or
re lative ly late in Fernando ' s reig n , and that 3 0 0 of the
so lidi were for the bi shop ' s use and 2 0 0 for the c lergy of
the see .
Whether the 5 0 0 so lidi repre sented t he ent ire
Jewish cen s us or j ust a portion of a larger payme nt to the
crown i s not c lear . s o
7 9 " ( Q ) uingente s ( sic ) so lido s argenti probat issimi de
censu I udeorum . " The doc ument survives in the Turnbo of the
( ACL , 4 : 4 5 0 - 52 no . 1 1 9 3 . ) Thi s c harter is
cat hedral .
dated exactly one year later t he n Pe layo ' s i nventory of
goods c ited above i n n . 74 . I f one of the doc uments i s not
misdated and the two act s were actually done a year to the
day apart , they support the theory that the medieval f iscal
year generally came to an end on Martinmas , November 1 1 .
( See chapter 8 , n . - be low . ) Pelayo ' s charter does not
specify that the cen s us was from the j uderia of the city,
but a later charter o f 1 1 2 0 makes this c lear .
See below ,
n. 8 1 .
8 0 Fernando ' s or iginal grant o f 5 0 0 so lidi to the
bi shop doe s not survive . The earlie st refere nce to the
gift seems to be i n a private charter dated 1 0 6 5 .
It i s
also mentioned twice by Pe layo ' s s ucce ssor s , i n document s
o f 1 0 92 and 1 1 2 0 . Blanco , Fernando I , 1 9 7 no . 8 3 ; ACL ,
4 : 5 6 3 - 5 no . 1 2 6 5 ; ACL , 5 : 90-9 3 no . 1 3 6 8 .
See a lso , E stepa ,
E struct ur a , 1 6 6 . Bishko in " Fernando , " 2 8 , inexplic ably
conc luded that the king • s original grant was done in 1 0 4 9 ,
a date i nconsi stent with Pelayo ' s te st imony .
(
110
'
Rather tha n granting a perce ntage of tri bute payment
from al-Anda lus , Fernando had guaranteed the see of Leon
5 0 0 so lidi of " excel le nt " si lver annua lly from a domestic
source .
Thi s mi ght imply that Fernando was co nsciously
directing si lver into the local economy and al lowing the
crown the option of retaining whatever go ld came in by way
of paria payme nt s .
More important ly , however , the
arrangement s hed s light , fai nt tho ugh it may be , on the
vitality of the loc al economy .
The see ' s income of 5 0 0 so lidi based o n the Jewi sh
census was evide nt ly rel iable .
Almo st ten years after
Fernando ' s death , Pe layo sti ll considered the income steady
enough to budget around .
Therefore , we have tes timony that
every year t he Jewis h community pros pered enough to pay the
crown at least 5 0 0 solidi arge nti .
These 5 0 0 so lidi were
in tur n given to the c at hedral and divided between bisho p
and clergy .
From the bi shop ' s portion , Pe layo was able to
earmark smal ler port io ns however he saw fit .
The 3 0 solidi
al lotted for keeping the altar s lit obviously wa s used to
purc hase supplie s and perhaps even pay someone to see to
the task .
I t i s hard to accept that t hi s who le chai n of
payment was feas ible without t he aid o f some form of
regulated currenc y ,
i . e . , a native coinage .
We c an o nly note f urther that the c ustom of weighing
si lver for purchases in Leon appears to have become le ss
frequent in the second half of the century .
(
The use of the
pondere pen sato f ormula in charters die s out after ro ughly
111
1 0 4 0 which may indic ate that the silver coin found in
circ ulat ion was becoming more homogenous and more like ly to
be accepted by tale .
�'lhi le the crown under Fernando I
probably still could not effec tively prevent forei gn coin
from c irculating in the realm , the king at least may have
been able to establi sh his own coin as the predomi nant one
within the environs of Leo n .
st ill , there i s no reliable
evidence which c an confirm t hat Fernando had coins struc k .
The Solitary Denar ius of Fernando I
In terms of numi smat ic evidence pertaini ng to mi nt ing
under Fernando I , we are c onfronted with the exi stence of a
single coin type that is perhaps more troublesome than it
is he lpf ul .
The obverse o f the coin displays a plai n ,
equi lateral cros s surrounded by the legend FERNAND REX .
The reverse portrays an uncrowned bust fac ing front with
the lege nd SPANIA .
The type is known from a s i ngle
spec imen that was first brought to light by Jo se Lui s Lo s
Arco s E lio .
It was the coin ' s reference to " Rex S pani a "
that convi nced Los Arcos , Be ltran and others t hat the coin
was an is sue of Fernando
r
r . a1
8 1 The piece was pre sented at an international
numi smatic exposition held in Madrid around 1 9 5 0 . see Los
Arco s E l io , " Una moneda atribuida a Fernando I , " 2 2 8 - 2 9 .
octavio Gi l Farres added no f urther details about the coin
i n hi s review of Lo s Arco s E lio in NH 1 ( 1 9 5 2 ) , 3 2 7 , nor
did Be ltran in " Fernando I , " 5 9 0 . I have been unable to
determine what ultimately became of the coin . The original
sketch that Los Arcos E lio published o f it remains the
basis for il lustrations used i n current catalo gues . See ,
for example , Fernando Alvare z Burgos , Vicente Ramon
112
It would not be surpri sing to find Fer nando I cl aiming
hegemo ny in the peni nsula since he was one o f the more
powerf ul of the Chri stian prince s .
Yet , as with his fathe r
Sanc ho t he Great , there is n o c lear evidence t hat Fernando
ever made such c laims in his diplomatic .
He is li sted as
"of the spai ns " in the o bit commemoratio ns of Cluny as
described in the consuet udines of Bernard of Cluny .
Bishko , however , argued that the Con s uet udines date to
after 1 0 7 7 and the inc lusion o f the Leonese mo narc hs in
t hem is t he res ult of Alfonso VI having doubled the cens us
in 1 0 7 7 in an attempt to enlist Cluny ' s support agai nst
Gregory VI I . a 2
Reilly pointed out that at prec isely the
same time , 1 0 7 7 , Alfonso VI began to inc lude the title
" imperator tot ius hi spaniae " i n hi s diplomat ic which may
also have been a response to Gregory ' s effro ntery .
r
Benedito and Vicente Ramon Pere z , Catalogo general de la
moneda medieval hispano-crist iana desde el siglo IX al XVI .
( Madrid , 1 9 8 0 ) , 7 no . 1 .
Rei lly in Alfonso VI , 3 7 4 n . 8 , wrote that Alvarez
Burgo s , c at alogo genera l , " s hows a coin attr ibuted to
Fernando I and minted at Palencia , " but the catlogue makes
no c laim t hat this coin was from Palenc i a .
I n describing
some coins , the authors of this catalogue often place the
letter P after a coin ' s de scri ptio n , indicating it i s known
in " co llec io ne s particulares . " While they did not place a
P after the entry for the Fernando I coin, thi s was likely
the source of Re illy ' s confusion .
It is an important
matter to c l arify because there are spurious doc uments
whic h c l aim that Palencia had mint right s dating back to
Sancho the Great . See the general discussio n of minti ng at
Palenc ia in c hapter 7 .
8 2 Charles Julian Bishko , "Liturgical I nterces sion at
Cluny f or the King-Emperors of Leon , " in Spanish and
Portuguese Mo nastic History, 6 0 0- 1 3 0 0 . ( Londo n , 1 9 8 4 ) , 5 7 65 .
113
( Gregory had written c o ndescendingly to " t he kings , counts
and other prince s of S pa in , " informing t hem of papal
suzerainty . )
Re illy , therefore ,
believing that it was
primarily Gregory ' s c l aim that prompted Alfonso VI to use
the imperial tit le , conc luded that it wa s " safe to say that
there is absolutely no evidence that his f athe r , Fernando
I,
. . . had ever employed ( the title )
.
" 83
Two points , howe ver , need to be c l ar if ied .
First , two
charters o f Alfo nso VI dated between 1 0 6 7 and 1 0 6 8 whe n he
was king o f independent Leon refer to him as son of the
emperor Fernando .
s ince the se c harter s survive only as
co pies , Re i l ly dismi s sed the references to the emperor
Fernando as interpo lations . B 4
true , but it is not certai n .
This explanat ion may
be
We therefore cannot safe ly
say that there i s no e vidence that Fernando used the title .
Secondly , Re i l ly seemed unaware that a s early as November
of 1 1 7 2 , in one of his f ir st act s as king of a reunited
Leon-Casti le , Alfonso de scribed himself as " at the pre sent
time prince and king of spain
(
..
as
It i s c ertainly within
8 3 Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 1 0 2 - 4 .
8 4 Bernard F . Rei l ly , " The Chancery of Alfonso VI of
Leon-cast ile ( 1 0 6 5- 1 1 0 9 ) , " in santiago , saint-Deni s and
saint Peter : The Reception of the Roman Liturgy in Leon­
castile in 1 0 8 0 , ed . Bernard F . Rei lly ( New York , 1 9 8 5 ) 3 4 ; cf . Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 1 0 4 .
8 5 " ( E ) go Adefon su s , pre senti tempore pr inceps et rex
spanie . " ACL , 4 : 42 5- 2 7 no . 1 1 8 2 . The c harter appears to
be original . Reilly accepted the authenticity of this
c harter both in Alfonso VI , 69 , and in " Chancery of Alfonso
VI , " 9 , 26 n . 5 4 .
In both cases , however , he was only
aware o f the copy in the Turnbo and not t he original
114
the re alm of reaso n , the n , that hi s father Fernando had
mi nted a coin with the legend FERNAND REX SPANIA . B6
A seco nd argument for assigning the Lo s Arco s co in to
Fernando I c an be made on stylistic grounds .
The coin
resemble s another rare denar ius , thi s one in the name of
Al fonso , which is known in at least two spec imens .
on t he
obverse , thi s type has a crowned bust facing front and a
legend reading AL_
EX ( pres umably meant to read ALF RE X . )
The reverse has an equilateral cro s s and the legend IN
SPAN IA .
I f one accept t hat the Lo s Arco s co in , reading
FERNAND REX SPANIA , belo nged to Fernando I , the Alfo ns ine
type mig ht then be reasonably assigned to Alfonso VI . a 7
These attr ibutio ns are perhaps s upported f urther by the
fact t hat Alfonso ' s daughter urrac a ( 1 1 0 9- 2 6 ) mi nted a coin
simi lar in style , with a forward f ac ing bust on the obverse
and a plain cro s s on the rever se .
I n the end , however ,
this c hrono logy is far from unas sai lable
r
sa
docume nt and so perhaps did not give it the full weight it
deserve s .
8 6 Iro nically , Rei l ly el sewhere accepted t he
as signme nt o f the Lo s Arco s coin , whic h reads FERNAND RE X
SPANIA , to Fernando I . See above , n . 7 8 .
8 7 Thi s piece had previo u s ly been assigned to Alfo nso
I of Ara gon ( 1 1 0 4- 3 4 ) on t he basis that he had c laim to
hegemo ny in the peninsula thro ugh hi s marriage to Urraca of
Leon-castile .
see the unsigned article , pro bably by Art uro
Pedral s y Mo line and Alvaro campaner y Fuertes , " Serie
Caste l l ana : lAlfonso I de Aragon , el Batallador ? " Memorial
Numismatico E spafiol 4 : 2 2 -2 4 .
See also Arturo Pedral s y
Moline , ed . , catalogo de la coleccion de monedas y medallas
de Manuel Vidal ouadras y Ramon de Barcelona , vo l . 2
( Barcelo na , 1 8 92 ) , no . 5 2 9 7 .
8 8 For the urrac a type , see cata logue 3 , no . 1 be l ow .
115
The mo st ser ious o bj ection to as signing the Lo s Arcos
coin to Fernando I is the existe nce of another coin in the
name o f Fernando who se s ignificance has gone unnot iced 1n
the numi smat ic literat ure .
simi lar to the Los Arcos piece ,
this second coin carries a cro s s and the legend FERNANDVS
REX on the o bverse .
B ased on two known specimens , the
reverse legend on this coin can be made out as SPAN
SPANIA , again paralleling the Lo s Arco s coin .
or
The rever se
type on this second co in , however , is without question a
motif used by Fernando I I of Leo n ( 1 1 5 7- 1 1 8 8 ) . 8 9
Though
this king ruled only Leon and not cast ile , for roughly the
first ten year s of his reign he acted as regent in the
later ki ngdom for hi s yo ung nephew and pro bably hoped to
reunite the two realms under his own rule .
SPANIA o n a coin ref lect s that ambit io n .
Hi s use of REX
It i s po s s ible
that Fer nando I I mode led thi s coin on the Lo s Arco s coin
struck by hi s name s ake , Fernando I , but the more
co nservative interpretat ion wo uld dictate that bot h types
in fac t belonged to Fernando I I . 9 o
{
8 9 See c atalogue 6 1 no . 1 be low .
9 0 The late Antonio orol Pernas had an unpubli shed
denarius in hi s co llection in the name of Fernando that
invoked To ledo in the legend . He spec ul ated t hat it might
belong to Fernando I , tho ugh Toledo was not actual ly
conquered until the reign of his son Alfonso VI . Agai n ,
Fernando I I occupied To ledo from 1 1 6 2 unt i l at least 1 1 6 3
if not s li ghtly longer . Thi s co in , if authe nt ic , i s almost
certai nly hi s . Denarii o f Fernando I I are i n general very
scarce today . see f urther , chapter 9 .
116
In some ways , the issue of the attribution of the Lo s
Arco s coin c an
be
It seems inconce ivable that
set as ide .
t here was not some coinage str uck during Fer nando r · s
re ign .
The document s as a who le repeatedly hint that the
pace of mo neti zation was quickening .
Fletcher pointed to
the case of count G6me z Diaz who was a generous patron o f
t he monastery of San Zoilo de carr io n .
one o f his
c harters , preserved by t he monastery , li st s fort y- seven
di st inct propert ie s that the c ount had acquired mainly by
purc hase . 9 1
similarly , citi Meme z and his wife asked K ing
Fernando to conf irm in 1 0 6 4 the diverse properties they had
" bought or acquired" to fac i litate their donation of the se
lands to the mo nastery of San Pedro de Cardena . 9 2
As
Fletc her commented , the amount " of commerc ial transactio n s
wi ll sur prise anybody who thinks that the economy o f the
eleventh century was s luggish or in some way
. primitive . . n 9 3
Leon-casti le a s we ll as t he re st of Christian Spain
wa s expo sed to two tremendous and interrelated economic
forces in the eleventh century , the dec line of the umayyad
c a li phate and the simultaneous commerc ial re-awake ni ng o f
We stern Europe . 9 4
(
There c a n
be
litt le doubt that the
9 1 Perez ce lada , San zoilo , 6 - 1 0 no . 3 ; Fletcher , E l
C id , 7 1 .
9 2 " ( Q ) uas conparasti ve l adquisti ex tuo prec io . "
B lanc o , Fernando I , 1 8 2 - 8 3 no . 7 1 .
9 3 F letcher , E l Cid , 7 1 .
9 4 As spuf ford wrote , " the last year s of the tenth
cent ury and the first half of the eleventh century were in
117
we alth drained from al-Andal us dramatica l ly af fected the
ec onomie s of the Chr istian north .
The go ld co inage of
Barcelona is o nly the mo st o bvious manifestation of thi s
growt h .
I n Leon-cast i le , t he wea lth o f t he parias allowed
Fernando to e stablish c loser tie s with Lat in E urope ,
pr imari ly thro ugh hi s endowment of C luny .
I ndeed, in the
C l uny o bits he is inc luded in t he ma gn um anni versari um
alongs ide the German emperor s He nry I I and Henry I I I .
Wit hi n hi s re a lm , Fer nando ' s revenue from parias pro bably
he lped fue l t he growth of the economy and increased the use
of coin .
Leon-Casti le was l e s s and le ss reliant on a
system o f c umber some barter .
The strength o f the kingdom
at his death was arguably what a l lowed his son Alfonso to
succe s sf ul ly annex the t ai f a o f To ledo .
To Alfonso wo uld
also f a l l the task of expanding and re fining the crown ' s
co inage so t hat it truly bec ame a money of the rea lm .
many ways the mo st significa nt period for the ear ly growth
of the use o f co in in we ster n Europe . One might almost
think of thi s century as wit ne s s ing the real start of a
monetary economy in western E urope . " s pufford , Money , 7 7
[
PART TWO
ESTABL I SHING A COIN OF THE REALM , 1 0 6 5 - 1 1 2 6
r
THREE
ALFONSO VI ( 1 0 6 5 - 1 1 0 9 )
AND
THE EXPANS ION OF MINTING
The ye ar s of Alfonso VI ' s re ign saw dramat ic changes
1n western s pain .
His conquest of the t aifa kingdom of
To ledo in 1 0 8 5 made Leon-Casti le by far the largest of the
Chri stian states and brought within hi s domain the city
that had bee n the tr aditional seat o f vi sigothic power .
At
the same time , the pace of the kingdom ' s integration with
the re st of Europe quickened .
Alfonso continued and
strengthened his father ' s al liance with Cluny by paying the
cen s us o f go ld when he could afford to and placing a number
of monasteries under the Frenc h ho use ' s rule .
His good
re lations with Abbot Hugh of C luny helped bring about hi s
first two marriage s , both to Fre nc h pr ince sses .
Furthermore , he successfully enlisted the aid of a Frenc h
army to he lp counter the Almoravid threat in Andalusia and
married three of his daughters to French nobleme n , two of
whom were later endowed handsome ly wit h territory in his
ki ngdom . 1
In many re spects , however , t he i nc reasing "Frankis h "
presence i n Leon-Castile was not so much the result of
Alfonso ' s personal inc lination as it was inevitable .
(
1 see Rei l ly , Alf onso VI , 1 9 1 - 9 5 .
119
120
c
Cluniac expans io n , the Gregorian reform , the Norman
invasions of E ngland and sic ily and t he First crusade were
a l l facets of the same restles s and expans ive spirit that
engulfed western E urope in the late e l eventh century .
Fueled by advancements in agriculture and po pulation
growt h , this commerc ial and inte llec tual renai ssance had
be gun to permeate Spain before Alfon so ' s time and wo uld
have continued whether he \'lelcomed it or not . 2
Alfonso VI ,
therefore , s ho uld not be viewed as an ear ly forerunner of
Russia ' s Peter t he Great , eager to force " modern " ways on a
backward and i so lated country .
This c aveat is important to keep i n mi nd when turning
to Alfonso VI ' monetary policy .
The sources for the reign
reveal that by his death in 1 1 0 9 a smal l network of at
least three mi nt s had been e st abli shed wit hi n the kingdom
whic h were c apable of produc ing coins impressive in their
uniformity and det ai l .
Today , the " c hri stogram " coin,
whic h was almo st certainly an is sue o f Alfonso VI , stands
out even to the untrained eye as one o f the more caref ully
struck denarii of twelfth-century E uro pe . 3
Whi le thi s
2
I bid . , 9 3 - 1 1 5 , 3 7 5 - 7 9 ; Jo seph F . o · ca l l aghan, " The
Inte gration of Chr i stian spain into E uro pe : The Role of
Alfonso VI of Leon-Castile , " in santiago , saint-Deni s and
saint Peter : T he Reception of the Roman L iturgy in Leon­
casti le in 1 0 8 0 , ed . Bernard F . Rei l l y ( New Yor k , 1 9 8 5 ) ,
10 1-20 .
See f urther the col lected studies in Robert L .
Benson and Gi les Constable , eds . , Rena i s sance and Renewal
in the Twe l ft h Century ( Cambr idge ,
3 I n theory , the piece co uld
r
1982 ) .
have been i s s ued by
Alfonso VI ' s gr andson, Alfonso VII , but this s eems
unlike ly .
See the discussio n be low.
12 1
accomplishme nt may have owed a debt to Alfonso VI ' s
init iative and to French inf luence , increased minting , in
the long run , co uld only be succes sf ul i n so far as there
was a demand for coin in soc iety .
Monetary deve lopments
under Alfonso , the n , are best seen as the next logic al step
in a proce ss t hat had been going on sinc e the first denarii
tric kled into the kingdom from Charlemagne ' s empire .
The Early Year s of t he Reign
on his death in 1 0 6 5 , Fernando I divided his domains
among hi s three sons .
The eldest , s anc ho II ( 1 0 6 5 - 1 0 7 2 ) ,
received casti le , Alfonso VI received Leo n and the
younge st , Garc ia ( 1 0 6 5 - 1 0 7 2 ) , was made king in Gal ic ia .
After hi s father ' s deat h , Sanc ho set about conso lidating
what he cons idered his proper inheritanc e .
He soo n de posed
Garc ia , who f led to seville, and by 1 0 7 2 had defeated
Alfo nso , who took refuge with the king o f To ledo .
sanc ho
had himself crowned ki ng of Leon but s hort ly thereafter was
murdered out side the wal ls of Zamora , probably in october
of 1 0 7 2 .
Alfonso , not as far removed as his brother Garcia
in the south , moved quickly to regain hi s kingdom and also
lay c l aim to c asti le and Galicia .
The story that Alfonso VI was compe l led to take an
oath in Burgos before the cid and other Cast ilian magnates
stat ing that he had no part in Sancho ' s death is at be st
apocryphal .
(
Nonethe le ss , the basic premise underlying the
tale i s va lid .
Just a s He nry I of E ngland ( 1 1 0 0 - 3 5 ) was
122
natur a l ly suspec ted when his brother wil liam I I
( 1 0 8 7- 1 1 00 )
died in a hunting accide nt , we c an be sure there was
suspic io n regarding Alfonso ' s ro le 1n hi s brother ' s
demise . 4
Henry I he lped secure his s ucces sion a s king by
is suing a coronation c harter that promised to right the
many abuses of his brother ' s reign .
Alfonso l ikewise fe lt
the same pre ssure and took similar steps .
Before
j o ur neying to castile , he appear s to have proceeded
direct ly to Leon where within a few weeks of sancho ' s death
he assembled a c ur ia that inc luded magnate s and pre l ates
from all three rea lms .
Two charters survive from this meeting bot h of which
were c lear ly aimed at winning support for the ki ng by
addres s i ng popular grievances . s
Not surpri singl y , the se
grievances were fi nanc ial in nat ure and thus the c harter s
al low a slight glimpse o f the economy at the o pe ni ng of the
re ign .
The first docume nt , dated November
17,
1 072 ,
co ntai ns Alfonso ' s abo lition of the to ll at the castle of
santa Maria de Autares which commanded the mountai n pass of
Valc arce on the road to santiago .
Alfonso announc ed that
4 For sanc ho ' s assas sination , see Rei l ly , Alfonso VI ,
65-71 ; cf . Fletcher, C id, 117 -19 .
F or the deat h of Wil liam
o f England , see Frank B ar low, Wil li am Ruf us ( Berkeley ,
19 8 3 ) ,
4 20 - 3 2 .
5 Typical o f doc ume nt s o f thi s era ,
(
neither c harter
records that it was drawn up in Le6n . Both, however , are
preserved in the c athedral arc hive s there . The f irst
survives in what may be t he origina l copy and i n the Turnbo
of the c athedral . The second is pre served o nly in t he
Turnbo .
It seems s afe to i nfer , therefore, that the c uri a
was held in Leo n . ( See ACL , 4 : 4 2 5 - 2 9 nos . 1 1 8 2 - 8 3 . )
123
I
he was doing away with t he toll not j u st for the benef it of
the people o f Spai n , but for tho se of Italy, France and
Germany as wel l . 6
Whi le the main purpose of the c harter
was to accommodate a growing number of international
pi lgrims along the road to Santiago , Alfonso also used the
occasion to make more swee ping promi se s .
He dec lared that
there should no\v be pe ac e and quiet througho ut the land no
matter what road o ne took and spec if ic a l ly added that no
one should dare to trouble merc hant s on the highways . 7
The growth o f commercial and non-commerc ial traf fic
tr aver sing Spain by the late-e leventh cent ury is evident
not only in this c harter o f Alfonso but also in act s o f hi s
contemporaries .
In
1 0 69 ,
in the f ir st o f the two surviving
treaties between S anc ho Garc ia IV of Navarre and alMuqtadir o f Zarago za , the two rulers dec lared that " the
roads whic h run between the two ( kingdoms ) s hould be sec ure
and safe , so that no impediment or harm come s to tho se who
6 " ( A ) d salutem anime nostre et ceter is po pu li s non
so lum Spanie , set etiam Italie , Francie et Alemandie . "
I bid .
7
" Set sit pacif ica et quieta omnis i l la terre
( deambulatio ex omni par ) te , nee s it qui pre sumat ali um
inquietare vel perturbare ad suo itinere nee inmodico ad
nullo omine qui negotiator f uerit . " I bid .
E stepa , E struct ur a , 4 1 7 , s ugge sted that since Alfo nso
in the be ginning of the charter referred to the people o f
Italy , Franc e and Germany , thi s provision regarding
merc hant s was for the bene f it of forei gn merchants .
It
seems be st to assume , however , that when Alfonso spoke o f
people from ot her land s , h e had in mind the " pilgrims and
poor " going to Santiago .
(
124
I
travel t hem.
"8
Likewi se , the c ustomary laws knmvn as the
usa tges of Barcelona , which date in part to the mideleventh century , pledged safe travel by land as well as by
sea for al l men , inc luding mercerii and negoci atores . 9
Promi ses of this nature were more than empty gesture s .
Indeed , Sanc ho Garcia was forced to abide by t he spirit of
these ideals whe n border dispute s erupted be tween him and
Alfonso VI in the Rio j a region c . 1 0 7 3 - 7 4 .
The Navarre se
king explained in a c harter to San Mil lan de la cogo l l a
that h e had al lowed Castilian pi lgrims to be sei zed as t hey
traveled to visit the relics housed at t hat mo nastery until
the Cast ilian co unt Go nz alo Salvad6rez o f Lara s hamed him
into abandoning the prac tice and freeing the c aptive s along
with t he ir goods . l 0
Likewise , Alfonso VI a lso may have
fe lt pre s s ure to take hi s pledge at the c uria of 1 0 7 2
8
{
L ac arra , " Dos tratado s , " 92-9 3 no . 1 ; Const able ,
Trade , 4 5 - 4 6 . on po pulat ion gro\vth combined with the
agricu lt ur al advances that forced people off land ho ldings ,
see the s ynopsis in Rei lly, Alfonso VI , 3 6 7- 6 8 .
9 see usatge 6 2 , " Camini et Strate , " in Ferran Val ls
Taberner , Los usatges de Barcelona : E st udio s , comentar ios y
edici6n bilinglie de l texto ( Malaga , 1 9 8 4 ) , 8 8 . The usa t ges
were a c o l lect ion of c ustomary l aw t hat had t heir root s in
the eleventh century . A codif ied ver s io n was promulgated
by Ramon Berenguer IV probably between 1 1 4 9 and 1 1 5 1 .
See
Bensc h , Barce lona , 7 8 , 8 0 ; c f . E stepa , E struc t ur a , 7 7 - 8 .
Fo r similar appear ance s in contempor ary English customary
law , see Frederic W . Mait land , The Constitutional History
of England ( 1 9 0 8 ; re pr int , Cambridge , 1 9 6 8 ) , 1 0 8 - 9 .
1 0 Ubieto Arteta , san Mil lan, 3 8 4 no . 4 0 8 .
The
charter i s undated . Ubieto assigned it to 1 0 7 3 , whi le
I am inc li ned to
Serrano previo usly dated it to 1 0 7 4 .
accept 1 0 7 4 on t he bas i s of the witne s se s appear ing in a
seco nd c harter of sanc ho ' s dated March 1 0 7 4 . ( See 3 8 8 no .
414 . )
see further , Rei lly, Alfonso VI , 7 0 - 7 1 , 8 2 .
12 5
serious ly .
The author of the Cronica Najerense writing in
the later twelfth century report ed that during Alfonso VI ' s
reign the peac e was so res pected that a woman co uld travel
alone c arrying gold and si lver a nd meet no tro uble and
merc hant s and pi lgrims " feared nothing for themselve s or
for their goods .
"11
Alfonso · s c ontemporary , Bishop Pe layo
of oviedo , added that the king kept " all the bridges from
Logrofio to santiago " in good repair . 1 2
The seco nd document generated from the c uria of
1 0 72
is dated two days later than the fir st and i s concerned
with j udic ial fines in c ases of unso lved homic ide .
Acc ording to this charter , when the king • s sayones co uld
not e stablish proof against an i ndividual , they had adopted
the reco ur se of levying a double fine against all vi llages
in t he district ( apparently on t he premi se that someone wa s
protecting the gui lty party ) .
Alfonso now denounced thi s
practice and ruled that his men should o nly exact the
normal f ine and only against o ne town .
In term of its
ref lection on monetary matters , the charter is most
notewort hy for its inc lusion in the witnes s list of four
men listed as solidarii .
s uc h a title would seem to
1 1 Antonio Ubieto Arteta , ed . , Cr6nica Naj erense .
( Va lenc i a , 1 9 6 6 ) , 1 1 8 . The chronicle was probably composed
between 1 1 5 2 and 1 1 5 7 and it s author ' s account of the peac e
under Alfonso VI is likely exagger ated .
(
After the long
year s of violent civil strife in the kingdom fol lowing
Alfonso VI ' s death , his re ign tended to be remembered as a
" golden period . " see chapter 6 , n . 1 .
1 2 Benito s anchez Alo nso , Cr6nic a de l obispo don
Pelayo ( Madrid , 1 9 2 4 ) , 8 4 ; Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 3 7 4 .
126
indicate men o n cash retainer to the crown , i . e . , men who
received so lidi for their service . l3
Combined , the two charters that Alfo nso is sued upon
rec laiming the t hrone of Leo n speak of a tol l that was
co llected from a l l who pas sed , protection to merchants o n
the roads , salar ied attendee s at court , and complaint s
about the price of f ines , al l whic h point to a growing
re liance on coin .
Nonet he le s s , minting in Leo n-castile was
probably sti l l very limited .
There is no evidence , for
example , that Alfo nso ' s brother , S ancho I I , struck coins in
hi s own name as ki ng of Cast i le or during hi s br ie f tenure
as king of Leo n .
The Alphonsine type that reads ALF REX IN
SPANIA might po s s i bly be lo ng to the period after 1 0 7 2 , whe n
Alfonso VI had s ucce ssful ly re- united the three realms
fo llowing Sanc ho ' s death .
At his c uria of November 1 0 72 ,
Alfonso did de sc ribe himse lf as " at present prince and king
in spain , " and by 1 0 7 7 he had be gun to use the title
13
see ACL , 4 : 428 -29 no . 118 3 . Pedro Munoz , so n of
count Muno Alfonse z , i s one of tho se listed as a
solidari us . These solidarii , then , were perhaps part of
the group of young ,
untitled sons of e st ablished f ami l ie s
that Rei lly sees s urrounding Alfonso ear ly in the reign .
( Reilly , Alfonso VI , 54- 5 6 . )
on the origins o f money stipends i n Leon , see Claudio
Sanc he z Alborno z , " Notas para e l estudio de l ' petitum, • " in
E studios sobre las instituciones medievale s e spano las
( Mexico , 1 9 65 ) , 4 92 - 9 3 . Hi s use of the f uero o f
castro j eriz to date the custom t o the tenth century ,
however , is problemat ic . see f urther F letc her , E l Cid , 6 1 6 2 . For the pro blems s urrounding the ear lier f ueros in
general , see Bernard F . Rei l ly , The Kingdom of Leo n-Castile
Under Queen urrac a 1 1 0 9 - 1 1 2 6 ( Princeto n , 1 9 8 2 ) 3 1 5- 1 6 .
r
12 7
I
" emperor in all of Spai n .
"H
In thi s light , r.ve might also
tentatively assign to this period a seco nd obsc ure type ,
whic h is reported to read ANFONS
X on the obverse and
INPERATOR o n the reverse . 1 5
Beyond thi s , t here is litt le to say of monetary
c irc ulation in the f ir st two dec ades of the reign .
We c an
surmise that t he royal treasury prospered at f ir st wit h the
income it garnered from paria s .
Alfonso , after al l ,
doubled the cen s us to Cl uny in 1 0 7 7.
The gold that
fi ltered down to the native c lergy and aristoc racy was , as
we have seen , large ly hoarded .
But this may have had the
complimentary ef fect of freeing up silver plate or coin
previo usly retained as treasure .
suc h may have been t he
case when Muno B lasco so ld land to the monastery o f san
Mi llan in 1 0 7 7 and received 16 solidi argenti " de
te sauro .
" 16
Perhaps a more direc t indication that a native
currency was s lowly establis hing itself is found in a
letter o f Gregory VI I .
(
I n 1 0 8 3 , the C luniac monk Bernardo ,
1 4 see the discuss io n under "The solitary Denari us o f
Fernando I , " i n chapter 2 .
1 5 The o nly known example of thi s type i s a plaster
cast of an o bo l , or half denar iu s . According to Beltr an
Martinez , the cast was f rom the co llection of Antonio
Vive s .
see Anto nio Be ltran Martinez , " Notas de arqueo logia
y numismatica almeriense , " in cr6nic a de l I congreso
nacional de argueo logia y de l V congre so argueo l6gico de l
sudeste ( Almeria, 1 9 4 9 ) ( Cartagena , 1 9 5 0 ) , 2 2 5 . He
prefered to assign t he type to Alfosno VII .
1 6 Mari a Luisa Ledesma Rubio , ed . , Cartulario de san
Mil lan de la cogo lla ( 1076-1200) ( Zaragoza , 19 8 9 ) , 1 4 no .
7.
128
then abbot of Sahagun and soon to be arc hbishop of To ledo ,
j o urneyed to Rome .
As a result of thi s visit , Gregory
granted Sahagun papal protectio n , freeing it from loc al
episco pa l j urisdiction .
pay yearly to Rome
"2
I n ret ur n , the mo nastery was to
solidi o f the mo ney of the land .
" 17
s i nc e Bernardo had been in Rome to negotiate the bargain ,
this reference to mo ney of the l and can hardly be di smi s sed
as an erroneous as sumption o n the part of the Roman c uria
that there was a native currency in the kingdom .
sti l l , coin was far from a bundant in everyday
tr ansactio ns .
Charter s from t he lower ranks of society
co nt inue to show a system of barter with the solidus as a
standard of value .
A sale o f land between two private
partie s dated 1 0 74 reads muc h the same as docume nts one
hundred year s earlier :
And we accept from you thi s price whic h is we ll
pleasing to us , a mule , ye l low in co lor , worth 6 0
so lidi argenti ; and a Moroc c an ass , worth 2 0 solidi
argenti ; and two good catt le , ye llow in color , worth 3 0
so lidi argenti ; and a cow, worth 1 0 so lidi argenti ; and
a c ape with a vermi lion lining ( un a kapa vermeli a per
colore tazezale ) wor th 1 5 so lidi argenti . 1 8
1 7 " ( P ) ensio duorum so lidorum illius terre monete
annuatim reddatur . " Sahagun , 3 : 1 0 2 - 1 0 5 no . 8 0 9 . The
pr ivilege was conf irmed by Urban II in 1096 . See 32 5 -27
no . 9 9 1 . Cf . Rei lly , Alfonso VI , 1 4 8 .
1 8 Sahagun , 3 : 7 - 9 no . 7 3 2 .
Pastor de Togneri in
" Ganaderia y precios , " 5 0- 5 5 , s u ggested that the economy o f
Leon-cast i le suf fered from inf lation in the early-eleventh
cent ury and that price s then stabi li zed . Any such analy s i s
is highly tenuous ,
(
however ,
sinc e pr ice s i n si lver were
often mere gho st val ue s assigned to in-kind payments whose
worth o bviously fluc tuated with qual ity . Fo r example , f ive
char ters from Sahagun dated between 1 0 7 1 and 1 0 7 3 show
129
Shortly after Bernardo made hi s j o urney to Rome ,
Alfonso VI ac hieved hi s greate st triumph , the annexation o f
the kingdom o f Toledo .
It must have been an impre s s ive
ho st the king as sembled before t he wal l s of To ledo in the
spring of
1085 .
When aid was not forthcoming from other
taif a rulers , the city c apitulated and the entire kingdom
such a victory at so little
wa s ceded to Leon-castile .
co st placed Alfonso at the height of his power both
po litically and financ ia l ly .
Any expense he had inc urred
to mount the campaign was easi ly o f f set by the resources
now at hi s disposal . l9
Alfo nso at thi s point in his rule had probably paid
sc ant attention to minting .
His experience was like ly
limited to contracting loc al art i s an s in Leo n to produce
coin on an ad hoc basis -- the method employed by Ramon
Berenguer I in Barce lona .
After t he conquest of Toledo ,
the Muslim mint in that c ity apparently continued to
produce coin .
There are a number of s urviving dir hams from
To ledo that bear dates corre sponding to the year s A . D .
to
1 08 7 . 20
1 08 5
since the king had granted favorable terms to
ho rses valued from s ixty to three hundred so lidi .
( S ahagun , 2 : 4 2 6- 2 7 no . 7 0 3 ; 4 3 5 - 3 8 nos . 7 1 1 and 7 1 3 ; 4 4 3 - 4 4
no . 7 1 9 ; 4 4 7 - 4 8 no . 7 2 3 ; 4 5 0 - 5 1 no . 7 2 5 . )
F urthermo re , in
1 0 5 7 , Sanc ho of
5 0 0 so lidi .
Navarre accepted i n payment a horse valued
( Sainz Ri pa , Colecc ion de Albe lda, 2 7 no .
5 ; cf . Pere z Celada , San Zoilo , 1 3 - 1 4 no 5 ; Blanco ,
Fernando I , 8 2 - 8 4 no 2 2 , 1 4 3 - 1 4 4 no . 5 1 . )
1 9 See Reilly ' s account in Alf onso VI , 1 6 7- 7 4 .
2 0 Antonio Prieto y Vives in Lo s reyes de taifas :
Estudio hi st6rico- numi smatico de los mus ulmane s espafio le s
en el s iglo V de la hegira ( X I de J . C . ) ( Madr id , 1 9 2 6 ) ,
at
(
130
the inhabitant s of the city who wi shed to remain , some o f
the mo neyers must have stayed at least temporarily . 2 1
Whet her authorities eventual ly halted the production o f
dirhams o r whether these art i s an s simply drifted away is
impo s s ible to te ll .
Sti ll , the existence of these post-
conque st dirhams stands as a f urther indic at ion that the
crown had no c lear monetary po licy as yet .
By the end o f
Alfonso ' s reign , however , this lai ssez - f aire attit ude
toward minting had been abando ned .
In
1 10 7 ,
after protracted negotiations , Al fonso agreed
to a l low the bisho p of Santiago complete right s to the
royal mint in compo stela . 2 2
In the grant , Alfo nso went so
far as to guarantee the bi shop and his c anons a minimum
r
14 5 , 2 4 1 , pr o po sed that the lege nd s on the se " Christ ia n "
dirhams de liberate ly omitted the refer ence to the prophe t
Mutamma d .
The one spec imen I have seen , however , is bare ly
legible and it seems hazardo us to conc lude that such an
see Todesca , "Means of
omi s sion �vas intentional .
Exchange , " 2 4 0 no . 5 , 2 5 4 .
2 1 Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 1 7 1 .
2 2 The ear liest copy o f the charter granting the se
rig ht s is pre served in Turnbo A o f the c athedra l archives o f
santiago which was redacted between 1 1 2 9 and 1 1 3 1 .
It
bear s an abbreviated but corrupted date reading "Era . I . c . X
' I . " Part o f the dating c lause al so informs us that it was
done at the time the king and ho st were at Bur gos prepar ing
for an expedition against Ar agon . Based on thi s , and that
a later copy o f the document lists the king • s son sanc ho a s
" regnum e lectus patri f actum , " Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 3 2 4 - 2 5 ,
argued convinc ingly that it sho u ld be dated to 1 1 0 7 .
Sanc he z Albornoz , in " Primitiva organi zaci6n , " 3 4 3 ,
proposed the date should be 1 1 0 5 based on the pertinent
pas sage s in the His tori a compostelana . Lopez Ferreiro ,
howeve r , had origi nally assigned it to 1 1 0 7 and , in my
opinion , dealt effectively with the chrono logy of the
His t ori a .
See hi s public ation of t he c harter in Santiago ,
3 : appendix, 7 0 - 7 1 no . 2 3 , see a l so 2 8 0- 8 3 . For Tumbo A ,
see f urther F letc her , C atapult , 30 3 .
131
profit .
He explained that if they sho uld have trouble ,
he
wo uld order the provost or director of a l l his other mints
( preposi t us omni um mearum mone tarum) to take custody of the
santiago o peration and render the bi shop as good a pro fit
as the king wo uld get from the best of his mints .
Multiple
mint s , a director to s upervise them and a sureness of
prof it s ugge st that Alfonso had lear ned a lot about
mo netary matters in the two decade s s i nc e the fall of
To ledo .
Expansion and Reform ,
1 0 85- 1 1 0 9
Hei s s as signed two coin types to Alfonso VI . 2 3
The
first of the se carries a s imple cro s s on the obver se
surrounded by the legend ANFVS REX .
The reverse has two
star s and two annulets in the center f ie ld enc ircled by the
legend TOLETVM . 2 4
The coin ' s de sign somewhat resemble s the
popu lar co inage of Mel guei l in lower L anguedoc , whic h was
sure ly knot� be low the Pyrenee s to some extent by Alfonso
VI ' s reign . 2 s
The second coin He iss gave to Alfonso has
the same o bverse as the first , a cro s s with the legend
r
2 3 Heis s , Las rnonedas , plate 1 , nos . 1 - 5 .
2 4 see c atalogue 2 , no s . 1 -2 be low .
2 5 The Melgorian denier c arried a cro s s on one side
and a c l uster of annulet s on t he reverse .
It served as a
mode l for a coin of Gerona perhaps struck during the reign
of Rarn6n Berenguer r .
see Arturo Pedrals y Mo line ,
"Monedas acuiiadas en Gerona en lo s siglos X y XI , " Memor ial
Nurnismatico E spafiol 2 ( 1 8 6 8 ) : 2 6 4 - 6 8 and plate 7 , no . 1 3 .
For the Me lgorian denier , see also Mirielle castaing­
sic ar d , Monnaies feodales et c irculation monetaire en
Languedoc t X�-XI II� siec le s ) ( To ulouse , 1 9 6 1 ) , 2 9- 3 1 .
132
I
ANFVS RE X , but the reverse displays a christogram instead
of the stars and annu lets . 2 6
This same chr i stogram can be
seen on coins from Urge l usual ly attributed to E rrnengo l VI
( 1 1 0 2 - 1 1 5 4 ) and o n some French denarii . 2 7
Furt hermore ,
whereas the reverse legend of the first Alphonsine coin
always reads TOLETVM , the reverse legend o n the chri stogram
type reads either TOLETVO ( o n some rare spec imens it
remained TOLETVM ) , LEO C IVITAS or, 1n a few c a se s ,
s
IACOB I .
Today , both coins survive in relatively high numbers
and more variant s are known than Hei s s originally
catalogued .
The f ir st , the star-annulet type , was struck
in at least nine varieties , whic h are distinguished by a
system of small dot s on the reverse .
In one var iety , a dot
appear s in the center o f the fie ld , among the annulets and
star s .
In other s it appears ins ide one of the annulet s ,
inside both annu let s o r inside both annulets and i n the
center of the field .
The simplest explanation f or the se
privy marks is that they were used for quality c ontro l .
They may designate i ndividual mint s , workers withi n a mint ,
or some combination thereof . 2 B
26
(
Whatever the case , the
cat alogue 2 , no s . 3- 1 2 .
2 7 crusaf ont , Nurni srnatica , 1 9 9 - 9 8 no . 1 0 0 ; cf .
Pedral s , " Moneda e n Gerona , " 2 65 and plate 7 , no . 1 4 .
Heiss saw the chri stogram as an inf luence of t he coinage of
See Hei s s ,
Aquitaine , the horne of Alfonso ' s f ir st wife .
Las monedas , 4 .
2 8 Alternative ly , the secret marks may not have been
to identify mint s or workers therein . They may have been
133
'
number o f combinatio ns employed in thi s co inage indicate s
that it was a substant ial is sue .
The sec o nd coin , the c hristogram type , c an be divided
into 3 sub-types based on the reverse legends TOLETVO , LEO
CIVITAS and S IACOB I .
Of the
3,
the
1
reading TOLETVO
survives in greater numbers and shows an extensive system
of markings .
These marks are general l y dots placed in the
legend itse l f , suc h as TOLE . TVO : .
appear in a quadrant of the field .
At other time s a dot may
There are at least
16
varieties of t he s ub-type based on t he placement of these
dots . 2 9
Metc a l f in a study of 1 8 0 of the TOLETVO
chri stogram c o ins e stimated that thi s sub-type alone was
" struck from hundreds o f dies .
u 3Q
There is nothing immediate ly apparent about either the
star-annulet or the chri stogram type t hat shows they were
issues of Alfo nso VI .
since both type s allude to To ledo ,
however , we c an as sume that they were not issued before hi s
reign .
secondly , since neither type i s known in hoards
from the thirteenth century , we can f urther assume that
they were twe lfth-cent ury issue s .
Within this time- frame ,
the star-annulet coin , who se legend reads ANFVS REX
TOLETVM, could have been struc k by Alfonso VI , Alfonso VI I ,
Alfonso VI I I ( 1 1 5 8 - 1 2 1 4 ) or even Alfonso I of Aragon ( 1 1 0 4 -
r
intended t o aid official s , e it her of t he crown or
ot herwise, in detect ing counterfeit coins in c irculation .
2 9 See c atalogue 2 , no s . 3- 10 .
3 0 D . M . Metcalf , " A Parcel of coins of Alfonso VI of
Leon ( 1073- 1109 ) , " in FMC I I I , 2 8 8 , 30 1-3 .
134
a
34 ) .
The Chri stogram type , however , which a l l udes not only
to Toledo but Leon and S antiago as we l l , c o u ld o nly have
been struck by Alfonso VI or his grandson Alfo nso VI I .
No
other Alfonso in the twe lfth century had a c laim to all
three c ities .
To
help determine whether the chri stogram coin likely
be longed to Alfonso VI , r.ve c an turn to the most detailed
document of hi s re ign on coinage
hi s grant of 1 1 0 7
turning over contro l o f the mint at composte la to the
town ' s bishop and canons .
I n the charter , Alfonso reveals
that he was having tro uble with counterfeiters and seems to
say that the forgers most often attempted to copy the coins
of compo stel a .
He therefore allows the episcopa l community
the freedom to " c hange t he letters of their dies " 1n an
ef fort to frustrate this crime . 3 1
It make s se nse that
Composte la was tro ubled by f alse money .
we know that by
3 1 " ( E ) t qui a omne s falsific atores monetar um mee
patr ie crimen f a l s it at is super conpo stel le monet ar io s
semper solent obicere ; s i episcopo eiusdem loc i c um
placuerit et profectum maiusque luc rum
sue ecc lesie in hoc esse cognoverint , vo lo ut mutent
cuneorum suorum litteras et de il lo unde magis
impetraverint faciant sue monete prepo situm et semper
hereditario iure ad usus s upra scripte ecc le sie po s sideant .
" Si vero non tantum lucrum sibi in commutione ( sic )
litterature cuneorunt cognoverint quantum in omnium mearum
mo netarum communitate timendo communis monete fals itatem
mando ut prepositus omnium mearum monetarum de iure ve stro
teneat et legitime c ustodiat et tam magnum vobis l ucrum
tribuat de vestra sicut michi dederit de una ex me lioribus
monetis mee parie : et sic vobi s de vestra : sicut mic hi ex
una de mei s me lioribus conplaceat , et in omnibus
satisfac i at . "
S anti ago , 3 : appendix , 7 0 -7 1 no . 2 3 .
The
complete text is also reproduced in Sanc he z Alborno z ,
co ns i l io c anicorum
(
" P r irnitiva organizac i6n , "
342-44 .
135
I
the early twelfth centur y , money c hangers thrived in
sant iago accommodating the inc oming pilgrims . 3 2
What
better way was there to pas s bad money than to pawn it off
on unknowing foreigner s ?
The king ' s c harge , however , also
impl ie s that by the time o f hi s grant there was already a
recogniz able coin of compo stel a for forger s to imitate suc h
a s a coin whic h bore the legend s IACOB I .
The chri stogram coin , therefore , with its reverse
legend reading either TOLETVO , LEO C IVITAS or S IACOB I
wo uld seem a likely candidate for the coinage current in
1 1 07 .
The name of the towns o n the coin most likely refer s
to mint site s .
As suming that this was the coin in
circ ulat io n at the time of Alfonso VI ' s grant to santiago
al so align s we ll with the king ' s instruc tions to the
episco pa l community there .
strict ly inter preted , the terms
of hi s grant al lowed the chapter to c hange the let ters of
their dies .
While they co uld alter the spel ling or
markings in their mint s ignature as a device against
co unterfeiters , it seems the king envi sioned that they
wo uld retain the main de sign t hat hi s other mint s were
using, i . e . , the christogram .
(
3 2 The Histori a Compostelana inc ludes decree s
promulgated by the canons and concejo o f Santiago in 1 1 3 3 ,
whic h stipulated that " t he innkeepers , moneyer s and money
changers , as well as the c it i z en s , s hould not use false
marks , po unds or any false we ight s . " HC , book 3 , c hap . 3 3 .
The Liber Sancti Jacobi affirms that in Santiago " one f inds
mo ney c hangers , innkee pers and merchants of all sort s . "
Melc zer , Pilgrim ' s Guide , 1 2 2 - 2 3 .
136
'
Now this system of variable legend s was not used on
the star -annulet coin .
read ANFVS REX TOLETVM .
As far as we know, thi s coin always
There
lS
evidence , however , that
the star -ann ulet and c hristogram coins were ro ughly
contemporary .
A hoard from the province of Palenc ia was
reported to contain 5 5 0 examples o f the star-annulet type
alongside 6 0 0 of the chri stogram type . 3 3
This is the only
known hoard that contains these two type s , but it
no nethele s s indicate s that they were most like ly succe s s ive
issue s . 3 4
I f we acc ept the christogram type as the coin
3 3 In 1 9 5 8 , Mate u y Llopis reported that a j ug h ad
been f ound in Santibanez de la Pena in the province of
Palenc ia containing 1 , 2 0 0 coins al l supposedly o f the
c hristogram type , though he did not see the hoard . ( See
" Hallazgos monetario s " pt . 1 6 , 1 8 1 no . 9 8 1 . ) Two year s
later , Mateu reported that he had received additional
information . The hoard actual ly contained 2 , 5 0 0 coins of
Al fo nso VI and had been given to the Museo Arqueol6gico
Nacional in Madr id . ( " Hallazgo s monetarios , " pt . 1 8 , 1 9 1
no . 1 0 6 7 . ) Mercedes Rueda Sabater , howe ver , e st abli shed
that the se were actually two dif fere nt hoards . The 2 , 5 0 0
coins given to t he MAN were coins from a later period .
[ See her Primeras ac ufiacione s , 8 1 . ] The first hoard Mate u
reported mus t be the o ne that now be longs to the Museo
Provincial de Palenc ia . contr adictory to Mateu ' s original
information , it is said to contain both the star -annulet
type and the c hr i stogr am type . ( See Mercede s Rueda S abater
and Immaculada saez saiz , "Hallazgos medieva le s de moneda
c aste l l ana y leones a , " forthcoming ; c f . Rueda , Primer as
ac unaciones , 9 0 . )
3 4 I n 1 9 66 , D . M . Metcalf purchased a lot of 1 8 0 coins
of the c hr istogram type which he s uspected repre sented part
of a hoard .
( See hi s " P arcel of coins , " 2 7 1 . ) .
In 1 9 6 3 ,
Juan Cabal lero Alc araz published " Dinero s de Alfonso VI :
Una correc i6n de He i ss , " Numisma 1 3 ( 1 9 6 3 ) : 9- 1 6 , where he
di sc us sed 2 6 0 coins of both type s but never c laimed they
co nsidering the date ot t he Sant ibanez
were f rom a ho ar d
find ( 1 9 5 8 ) , the se two lot s may have actually been part of
The hoard was at some point sto len and later
that hoard .
recovered, at least in part , by the muse um .
.
(
137
I
current in 1 1 0 7 , only two year s before Alfonso VI ' s deat h,
then t he star-annulet type most likely preceded it . 3 S
I n t urning over the mint at compostela to the bi shop
and c hapter there , Alfonso referred twice to " al l my other
mint s . "
Thi s vague reference may imply that there were at
this po i nt more mint s than j ust santiago , Leon , and To ledo .
other evidence tends to point to toward that conclus io n .
A
later c harter of Fernando I I c laims that a mint existed in
Lugo in Galicia in the days of Alfonso VI .
Though there i s
no direct evidence from Alfonso VI ' s reign indic ating that
a mint o perated in L ugo in his time , there is no obvio us
reason to dismi ss the later monarc h ' s testimony . 3 6
In
additio n , there is some reason to believe that a mint also
existed at Palenc i a .
The first indi sputable evidence for minting in
Palenc ia comes in the reign of Alfonso VI ' s daughter ,
urraca .
I n conf irming the see o f Palenc ia ' s right s in
1 1 40 , however, urrac a ' s son , Alfonso VI I , spoke of gif ts
that hi s predece s sors ( mei antecessores ) were acc ustomed to
3 5 I n excavations at the c astle of santa E ulalia near
were found that were " c lassif ic adas
como sendo de Af fonso VI de Leao , c unhadas depo i s da tornada
de Toledo . " Undoubtedly , these were e it her examples of the
star-annulet coin or the c hristogram coi n . After the reign
of Alfonso VI , Portugal began to emerge as an independent
kingdom , wit h it s own coinage . Finds of these coin type s
in Portuguese territory , therefore , very tentatively
suggest that they did in f ac t be long to Alfonso VI .
See
Pedro A . de Azevedo , "0 c aste llo de santa Eulalia , " Q
Arc heologo Port ugue s 1 3 ( 1 9 0 8 ) : 7 0 .
3 6 see the section o n Lugo in chapter 7 .
Co imbr a , three coins
{
138
I
give the bis ho ps o f Palenc ia o n those occasions when the
mint c hanged over to a new coin type .
Whi le Alfonso VI I
possibly was mistaken or mis led about the hi story of the
mi nt i n this town , his c harter implies that it predated hi s
mother · s reign . 3 7
Re i l ly pointed o ut that before t he conquest of Toledo ,
Palenc ia was strategic ally important in Alfonso VI ' s plan
to repopulate the trans-Duero .
The doc umentary record
shows that B isho p Bernardo of Pa lenc ia ( c . l 0 62 - 1 0 8 5 ) was
present in the royal c uria " more tha n any other single
per so n , inc luding the royal infan ta s . "
Despite the
re servat ions of Rome , Alfonso apparent ly allowed Bernardo
to assume the title of Arc hbishop of Palenc ia in the f inal
year s be fore hi s deat h . 38
It is wit hin reaso n , then, that
Palenc ia may have been the site of an early mint , even
though t he plan to raise the see to metropo litan status was
ultimate ly abandoned wit h the re storation of the
archbi shopric of To ledo after 1 0 8 5 .
If t here were more than three mi nt s in operatio n , then
some of the privy marks used on the chri stograrn co in must
have indic ated les ser mint s .
Tentatively, we can propose
the fo llowing sequence o f events .
somet ime after the fall
of Toledo , Alfonso VI issued the star- annulet coin
37
{
see the sections on Palenc i a in c hapter 7 .
see al so
3 8 see Reilly , Alf onso VI , 5 3 - 5 4 , 1 4 0 - 4 1 .
Bishko , " Fernando , " 1 6 - 1 7 , who s ugge st s that Bernardo was a
Catalan .
139
I
proc laiming him ANFVS
RE X
TOLETVM in recognition that he
now reigned in the seat o f the o ld visigothic imperi um . 3 9
This coin may have bee n struck in several locations , wit h
the privy marks on the reverse identifying the mints .
on
hi s next issue , the chri stogram type , the legend read
either ANFVS
REX s
REX
IACOBI .
TOLETVO , ANFVS
REX
LEO C IVITAS or ANFVS
Of these three variants , the subtype re ading
TOLETVO seems to have been f ar more wide ly struck than the
ot her two .
It also shows signif ic ant use of privy marks .
Therefore , we might conc lude that the chri stogram type , as
the succes sor to the star- annu let type , wa s initially
is sued wit h only TOLETVO on the reverse and with the
various mint still ident if ied by privy marks .
It may mot
have been unti l later in the reign that the mint s at Leo n
and Sant iago were al lowed to s ign their coins , while les ser
mint s such as Lugo and Palencia co ntinued to operate under
the TOLETVO legend . 4 0
39
I nt o the last dec ade of his lif e , Alf onso still
invoked the Toledan ideo logy in hi s diplomatic . The grant
to Santiago opens with "Ego Adef onsus dei gratia toletani
r
imperi i rex et magnificus triumphator . " For the same
formula , see also Franc isco J . Hernande z , ed . , Lo s
c artularies de To ledo : catalogo doc umental ( Madrid , 1 9 8 5 ) ,
1 3 - 1 4 no . 9 .
RE X may appear o n the se co ins instead o f
IMPERATOR simply bec ause o f space constraint . Consider the
trunc ated ANFVS for Adefons us .
4 0 C f . Metcalf , " P arcel of coins , " 3 02 . Rei lly ,
Alfonso VI , 3 7 4 , s ugge sted that Alfonso VI also operated
mint s at Z amora and oviedo . There i s no real evidence ,
however , to support a mint at Zamora this early and the
For minting at
evidence for Oviedo is very suspec t .
zamora , see chapter 7 , for oviedo , see c hapter 9 .
Ment ion should also be made of a coin orol Pernas
brought to light which c lo se ly paralle l s the c hristo gr am
140
a
Accordi ng to the Histori a Compostelana , when Bishop
Diego Ge lmirez received lordship of the mint at composte la
from the Alfonso VI , he ca lled on the be st of the moneyers
ln santiago to become its mint master . � !
The appointment
of s uch an o f f ic er seems to have been inte nded to take the
place of the king · s own provos t or supervi sor of mints who
was now to be c al led in only i f necessary . � 2
(
The combined
is sue .
Its complete legend re ad s ALFONSVS REX COLIMB ,
leading Gomes �Iarques de Abreu and Gomes Harques to suggest
that it represents a mint at Coimbra under Alfonso VI . The
coin ' s execution , however, is f ar from the quality of the
other chri stogram coins . As oro l sugges ted , it almo st
certainly represents an is sue of Afonso I Henriques ( 1 1 2 8 85 ) of Portuga l , a grandson of Alfonso VI .
see Anto nio
orol Pernas , " Interpretacion historica de las ac uiiac io ne s
con inf luenc i a hispano-potugue s a , " i n Primera reunio n
hispano-portuguesa ( Aviles , 1 9 8 3 ) 2 9 - 3 3 ; c f . Teresa Gome s
Marque s de Abreu and Mario Gomes Marques , " From county to
Ki ngdom : some Economic Signs of Evolution in the
Terri tori um Port ugalensi s , " in PMC I I I , 3 2 0 - 2 2 .
4 1 " Recepat ergo , sicuti pat ula cordis aure superius
audi stis , omnino libere mo neta , eiusdem pres ul i s s umma
so llerta omnibus s ui s nummular i i s Randul f um maiori ingenio
predit um c um magna c aute la pre po suit , cuius c ustodie omne
monete domini um , ne f as if icaretur , attribuit . " HC , book 1 ,
chap . 2 8 . Bef ore Diego ' s deat h , the mint occupied a
permanent po sition out side the northern portal o f the
c athedral .
see Book 2 , chap . 2 5 .
4 2 A provos t or preposi t us o f mint s i s not heard of in
any ot her charter of Alfonso VI or of hi s succe s sor s . The
royal grant to compostela, however , uses the term twice .
In t he f ir st instance , t he me a ning of the text is not
entirely c lear , but it seem to s ay that the c hapter at
Compo stela sho u ld appoint its own prepo si t u s to supervise
the now independent mint : " fac iant sue monete prepositum . "
Hence , the His tori a compostelana tells u s that the bisho p
put Randulf in charge ( prepos ui t ) o f the mint .
( See n . 4 2
above . )
I n the second reference to preposi t us , the royal
charter speaks o f " prepo situs omni um mearum monetarum . " At
this point in the text , the syntax of the Latin is better .
The king seems c learly to be referring to a person that he
would di sc harge to Compo stela in t he event o f trouble . The
141
I
evidence of the Hi stori a and Alfonso ' s actual charter
indi c ate s that the king • s coinage at thi s stage was not
farmed o ut .
Rather , it wa s supervised by the crown or , in
the unique c ase of compostel a , by the bi shop .
A glance at either the c hr istogram or star-annulet
co ins shows plainly that they were t he product of a
care f u lly co ntro lled and supervised mint ing operatio n .
Their re lief i s high and they are noticeably more legi ble
than many contemporary i ssue s of western Europe .
they are handsome coins .
In short ,
Met c al f in his study of the
TOLETVO chri stogram type , remarked that the die cutting
invo lved was remarkably uniform in style .
He noted the
attention to detai ls s uc h as t he consi stent alignment of
the be gi nning of the legend with t he top of the
chri stogram .
More important f rom an economic standpoint ,
he added t hat " t he weights o f i ndividual f lans were
.
cont ro l led with quite impres sive acc uracy . 43
A large group of the star-annulet coin is not
avai lable for st udy , making it more diffic ult to j udge its
co nsi s tency in style or weight .
Nonethe less , one
notewort hy aspec t of thi s earl ier type was that a good
number o f obols or hal f - pieces were struck .
The obo l , for
two reasons , was a more troublesome and co st ly denominatio n
(
complete relevant passage from the c harter i s reproduced in
n . 3 1 above .
4 3 The term flan refer s to the c ut piece o f metal
before it is struc k with the d ie s and turned into a co in .
Mete alf 1 " Parcel of coins 1 2 9 3 - 9 9 .
"
142
to produce .
First , the dies for an obol were smal ler than
for a de nar i us , making e ngraving more diffic ult .
Second ,
to produce the smaller o bo l from a given amo unt of metal
rather than the denarius , the minter s had to c ut and strike
twice as many f lans .
Co nsequently , the denomi nation was
often struck in smal l number s by medieva l mint s and
sometime s not at all .
Yet , with the star- annulet type ,
there are obols known for 6 of the 9 varieties c atalogued ,
whic h suggests that this was , in general , a care fullyproduced issue . H
on balance , the two coin types that Heis s original ly
as signed to Alfo nso VI a l i gn well with the evidence from
the later half of the reign .
There seems no reaso n to
doubt that the star-annulet and christogram coin were
is sues of this king .
But accepting these attributio ns
raises more questions than it immediately sett les .
We are
left wondering why and how the crown o f Leon-Casti le
suddenly c hanged from having a lmost no visible coinage to
produc ing what Metcalf c al led " t he f ir st large-scale bil lo n
coinage o f Chr istian Spa i n - - at least a generat io n earlier
than the f ir st really plentiful co inages of Aragon or
Barcelona? " 4 5
r
An examinat ion of the po litic al events of
4 4 Predictably , the number of obols struck may have
dropped off in the c hristogr am issue . The hoard from
Pale nc ia , for example , is reported to c o ntain obols of t he
See
st ar-annulet type but none o f the chri stogram coin .
Rueda Sabater and saez sai z , " Ha llazgo s , " fort hcoming .
4 5 Metcalf , "Parce l of Coins , " 2 8 8 .
143
I
the relgn af ter
1085
hel p plac e this coinage in it s
hi storic al context .
The Impetus For Reform
While the conque st o f To ledo added to Alfonso ' s
prestige and inc reased his resources , it immediate ly set
off a political reaction in al-Andalus that pl ac ed his
realm in
j eopardy .
The remaining taif a kings now appealed
to the leader of the Almoravids , Yu suf ibn Ta shuf i n , who
had
j ust recently completed hi s consolidation of power in
the Maghreb .
An Almoravid army landed i n Anda lusia in the
summer of
1086
and in Oc tober defeated Alfonso ' s army at
Zalaca . 4 6
Although the Leonese f led the f ield in disarray ,
Y u suf did not pre ss his advantage and soo n departed the
peninsula .
The next summe r Alfonso attempted to recoup some o f
hi s lo ss by laying s iege to Tude la .
Even with the help of
recruits from France , however , the c ampaign was
un successful . 4 7
In
1 08 9 ,
Y u s uf appeared agai n in Andalusia
though retreated before Leonese forces could e ngage him .
In addition to the expense o f campaigning agai nst the
Almoravids , Alfonso now f aced dwindl ing tribute payments
(
46 ' Abd All ah , who partic ipated in the battle doe s not
give the date , but other contempor ary sources give it as 1 2
Raj ab 4 7 9 or 2 3 October 1 0 8 6 .
( Was serstein mistake nly
gives thi s as 2 3 se ptember . ) see ' Abd Al l ah , The T ibya n,
1 1 6 - 1 7 n. 3 6 9 ; Wasser stei n , Party-Kings , 2 8 9 ; Rei l l y ,
Alf on s o VI , 1 8 9 .
4 7 Reil ly , Alfonso VI , 1 9 0 - 9 1 .
144
from the tai f a lords , embo ldened a s they were by the
Almoravid intervention .
' Abd All ah rec alled that it was
not until Alfonso sent Pedro Ans lirez to Granada c . l 0 8 9 that
he was forced to render tribute three year s in arrears
whic h totaled 3 0 , 0 0 0 dinars . �e
With the se f inanc ial constraints , it i s not surpri sing
that the crown ' s pledge to Cluny o f 2 , 0 0 0 dinars a year had
ceased .
Alfonso ' s suc ce s s in collecting lapsed payment
from ' Abd All ah , however , apparently inspired the king to
show good fait h toward the French ho use .
Sometime prior to
Easter of 1 0 9 0 , Alfonso wrote to Hugh of C luny , apo logiz ing
for hi s lapse and informed him he was sending 1 0 , 0 0 0
talenta or go ld dinar s .
Presumably thi s represented five
year s of payment which indic ates t hat the go ld to Cluny had
stopped around the time o f Zalaca or perhaps earlier . � 9
By
April of 1 0 9 0 , Hugh himself was in Spain , and Alfonso
formally reaf firmed his promi se of the annual cen s us at
Burgos on Easter . so
If Alfonso had been hopeful of a renewed f low of
parias to furni sh the C l uny census , the return of the
Almoravid armie s for a third time in the summe r of 1 0 9 0 cut
short the se pro spects .
(
Y u s uf at first aimed to take back
4 8 ' Abd All a h , The Tibyan , 1 3 2 .
4 9 Alexandre Brue l , ed . , Rec ueil de s charte s de
l ' abbaye de Cluny ( 1 8 7 6 - 1 9 0 3 ; reprint , Frankf urt , 1 9 7 4 ) ,
4 : 6 9 7 - 9 8 no . 3 5 6 2 ; Bishko , " Fernando I , " 4 7- 9 .
5 0 Brue l , chartes de Cluny, 4 : 8 0 9- 8 1 0 no . 3 6 3 8 ; cf .
Perez celada , san zoilo , 2 8- 3 0 no . 1 4 ; Rei lly , Alfonso VI ,
2 1 9- 2 0 .
145
'
To ledo , but , receiving little he lp from the Andalusian
princes , he abandoned the siege and instead set about
s ubj ugating the taifas themselves .
' Abd Al lah of Granada
was depo sed and taken pr i soner , as was his brother who
ruled in Malaga . s l
That fall , Yusuf returned to North
Africa as usual , but hi s lieutenant s i r ibn Abi Bakr was
back in the peni nsula perhaps as ear ly as December
attempting to complete the conquest of al-Anda lus .
Alfonso
co uld hardly have been unaware of this c ampaign .
on February 7 , 1 0 9 1 , with s ir ibn Abi Bakr perhaps
already laying siege to Cordoba , Alfonso addre ssed a
charter to the le sser nobility ( infanzones ) and vi llagers
( vil lano s ) of the territory of Leon .
A second version of
the same act dated March 3 1 was addressed spec if ically to
Bi shop Peter of Leon , count Martin Lainez as we l l as the
inhabitant s of the region . s 2
The document was largely
concerned with regulating litigation between Christians and
Jews .
I n the final passage of bot h versions , however , the
king revealed that in return for t he grant he wa s entit led
to collect 2 sol idi from every hou seho ld , noble as well as
common , for the war against the Almoravid s . s 3
r
By the time
5 1 see chapter 1 1 in ' Abd Al lah, The Tibya n , 1 5 0- 6 2 .
5 2 The February ver sion i s cont ai ned in the Becerra
g6tico of Sahagun . The ver sion d ated March i s preserved in
the Turnbo of the cathedral o f Leon .
see Sahagun , 3 : 1 6 4 - 6 6
no . 8 5 8 ; ACL , 4 : 5 4 7- 4 9 no . 1 2 5 6 .
For count Mart in Laine z ,
see Rei lly, Alfonso VI , 2 2 9 - 3 0 .
5 3 " ( U ) t reddati s mihi de unaque corte populat a , tam
de inf anzone s quam etiam de vi l l anos , ii solidos in isto
anno . " This quote follows the l ater text from March
146
I
the seco nd ver sion of the charter was drafted in Marc h ,
Cordoba may have already fal le n . s 4
Alfo nso ' s request for
an extraordinary levy at thi s j unc ture demonstrate s that he
did not take events in the sout h lightly . ss
The king ' s charter of 1 0 9 1 c al ling for a levy of 2
so lidi per household in Leon i s the first direct evidence
we have of the crown impo sing such an encompassing tax . 56
As o ne might expect , the king appear s to have gained
co nsent for this extraordinary tax in a we ll-attended
meeting of his curia .
{
In both ver sions of the charter , the
pre served at Leo n . The vers io n from S ahagun varie s
s li ghtl y .
corte i n this sense i s equivalent to ho use .
see
the sale of a "corte cum s uo solare que est in Legione ,
i nt us c ivitas murum, " ACL , 4 : 4 9 0 - 9 1 no . 1 2 1 9 .
The February ver sion o f the text preserved at Sahagun
is act ua l ly dated 1 0 9 0 . Rather than s ugge sting that the
tax was co llected in two s uc ce s s ive year s , it seems obvious
that the two documents were drawn up a l ittle over a month
apar t .
In the spring of 1 0 9 0 , Alfonso was confident eno ugh
in his f inance s to renew payment to Cluny and it would
therefore seem unlikely that he wo uld have sought an
emergenc y levy to fight the Almoravids at this time . The
two ver s ions of this charter are discussed further in
chapter 4 .
5 4 Amin Tibi in his notes to ' Abd All ah ' s memoirs
ar gues that Cordoba probably did not f a l l unti l late July ,
as o pposed to Marc h , the date Rei l ly accepts . see ' Abd
All a h , The Tibya n , 1 6 7 , 2 6 5 - 6 6 n . 5 9 5 and n . 59 6 ; c f .
Rei lly, Alfonso VI , 2 2 2 - 2 3 .
5 5 Rei lly accused Alfonso of taking no significant
action in the face of the mo unti ng threat in the winter O f
1 0 9 0 - 9 1 . He sees the king a s preocc upied with the rebe ll io n
of a t least one o f his Casti l i an noble s and further with
dis sensio n among his bishops .
See Reil ly , Alfonso VI , 2 2 325 .
5 6 By Fernando ' s reign , the king was entitled to a
cen s us from the j uderia o f Leon .
( See chapter 2 . ) Alfonso
VI may have been entit led to c o l lect an annual head tax
from the Jewish and Muslim po pu l at ions that remained in
Toledo .
See Julio Gonz alez , Repoblac i6n de Castilla la
Nueva ( Madrid , 1 9 7 5- 7 6 ) , 1 : 7 7 - 7 9 .
147
I
bi shops and magnates of the realm are we ll-repre sented in
the list of those said to have confirmed it .
Furt hermore ,
the two versions of the charter , since they are dated more
than a month apart , suggest that after t he initial dec ision
was reac hed , the crown had copie s of t he proclamatio n drawn
up and distr ibuted , a practice which wou ld become
charac teri st ic of later royal as semblies in the kingdom. s 7
The exaction was certainly viewed as a n except ional measure
made nec es sary by dangerous time s . se
A pas sage in the
Hi stori a Compostelana seems to indicate that in addit ion to
the tax in Leon a simi lar levy was imposed in Galicia
around the same time .
The long narrative known as the His tori a compostelana
was the work of several author s .
The f irst book was
largely compiled by Mufio Alfonso , who served as treasurer
at s antiago and seems to have completed hi s portion of the
work before becoming bishop of Mondo fiedo in c . 1 1 1 2 .
The
other ma j or contributor was Geraldo , a c anon and teacher at
the cathedral who probably began his continuation of the
hi story c . 1 1 2 0 and worked on it until roughly 1 1 4 0 .
Geraldo attempted to give the His tori a a unified sense and
5 7 The wit ne ss lists vary j ust s li ghtly between the
two document s , perhaps ref lecting the change in the
attendance at court in the time that had e lapsed . For the
l ater practice of distributing c uadernos , see Jo se ph F .
o · callaghan , The cortes of casti le-Leo n , ( Phi lade lphia ,
1 9 8 9 ) , 6 , cf . 7 2 - 7 7 .
5 8 Cf . sanchez Alborno z , " Notas , " 4 8 5- 8 6 .
(
148
c
so reworked ear lier portio ns o f the text and in some c ases
inserted additio nal chapter s . 59
Chapter 33 of the first book i s an o bvio us example of
one of Geraldo ' s addit ions for it be gins wit h , " we also
insert the fol lowing . "
The chapter concerns •vork that \vas
conducted on the fortif icat ion c a lled the TOrres del Oeste
located at the mouth of the Ulla r iver and protecting
composte la from attack .
Acc ording to Geraldo , the castle
had suffered frequent devastatio n at the hands of the
" I smae lite s " and was const antly be ing repaired by the
inhabitant s of the region .
Fina lly , the king , who Geraldo
does not name , s aw that the cast le was in such disrepair
that he conc luded it sho uld be strongly rebui lt .
Taking
counse l , he ordered that eac h househo ld of the bisho pric
pay 1 so lidi o f " t he money o f the king " to acc omplish the
construc tion .
After thi s , the people of the district were
to be freed from further labor o n the cast le .
Geraldo goe s
on to note , however, that when the levy was co llected it
was fo und insuff ic ient becau se " the money at that time \vas
base and weak both in weight and in fineness .
n 60
The king
was therefore forced to cover the rema ining co st s himself
r
59 For the compi lation of the His tori a , see Rei l ly ,
" His tori a Compos telana , " 7 8- 8 5 . For t he careers o f Mufio
Alfonso and Geraldo , see also F letc her , Epi scopate , 6 1 - 6 2 ,
91-92 .
6 0 " Quoniam mo neta tam pondere quam lege tum tempori s
erat attentuat et debilis . " HC , book 1 , chap . 3 3 . The
ruins of the fortress stand today .
See Carlos Sarthou
c arrere s , castillos de Espana ( Madrid , 1 9 9 0 ) , 2 9 7 .
149
'
and in thi s way the cast le was strengthened so that " t he
Almoravids as we ll as the I smael ites " co uld not approach
it . 61
Geraldo ' s reference to the Almoravid threat seems to
place the event he descri be s sometime in the rei gn of
Alfonso VI .
This is confirmed when he returns to the
subj ect in a later pas sage of book 2 .
Here Gera ldo credit s
Bi shop Diego Gelrnirez of compo stel a with having petitioned
Alfonso VI and Alfonso ' s son-i n- law Count Raymond as we l l
a s the c anons o f santiago and the magnates of Galicia to
aid in the pro j ect of rebuildi ng the castle .
With Diego ' s
determinat io n , we are to ld , the pro j ec t was completed and
the people o f the area were re lieved o f the burden o f
cast le- bui lding . 62
If Geraldo is correct , these detai ls
place the event sometime before Raymond ' s deat h in 1 1 0 7 .
Co uld this levy of 1 solidi per household in the
diocese of Compostela have been imposed as ear ly a s 1 0 9 1 ,
at the same time that the tax of 2 solidi per ho useho ld wa s
decreed in Leon?
Diego Gelmirez did not become bi shop of
santiago unt i l 1 1 0 0 , but he had been integrally invo lved
with the administration of the see f or ten years previous
when there was no appointed bi shop .
(
I n a royal document of
61 HC , book 1 , chap . 3 3 .
6 2 Geraldo relates the eve nt s a second time as a
prelude to describing how Archbi shop Diego ( hi s see was
raised to metropolitan status in 1 1 2 0 ) event ually improved
f urther on t he castle . Probably around 1 1 2 2 , Diego
undertook adding a strong keep inside the wal l s .
see He ,
book 2 , c hap. 2 3 and 2 4 . Cf . F letcher , Catalpu lt , 2 4 6- 4 7 .
150
a
January 2 8 , 1 0 9 0 done in Santiago , Diego c onfirmed as
"maj orinus et dominator Composte lle honori s " alongside
Raymond " imperans Gal licia .
n63
The case for placing the
levy in Galicia as early as 1 0 9 1 is more compe lling if we
consider Geraldo ' s comment that at the time the coinage wa s
so poor , " roth in weight and in finene s s , " that the tax
failed to cover the building costs .
It i s very unlikely that Geraldo could be referring to
either the star-annulet or c hristogram coin .
Both coins
had inte nded weights of close to 1 gram , if not slight ly
more , whic h was respectable for denarii of the period . 64
No satisfac tory analysis has been conducted to determine
the si lver c ontent of these two type s , but doc umentary
evidence s uggests that 1n the final year s of Alfonso VI ' s
reign the de narius was 5 0 percent si lver , whic h again was
not like ly to be considered a base coinage by co ntemporary
standards . 6 s
(
Unles s we are willing to completely
6 3 S antiago , 3 : appendix , 3 1 - 3 4 no . S ; cf . Reilly ,
Alfonso VI , 2 1 6 , 2 4 4- 4 5 ; Fletcher , catapult , 1 0 4- 1 0 .
6 4 Metca lf , " P arce l of coins , " 2 9 8 - 9 9 , concluded that
the inte nded weight of the Christogram TOLETVO serie s was
between 1 . 0 7 and 1 . 0 9 grams . The few weight s avaibale for
the Leon and Santiago chri stogram co ins support that they
were struck on a similar standard .
( See c at alogue 2 , no s
1 1 - 1 2 . ) For the star- annulet series , there are 30 suc h
coins i n the combined trays of the AN S and MAN . O f these
3 0 , 1 6 fell in the i nterval between . 8 5 grams and 1 . 0 4
grams . For weight s of contemporary European deniers see
the table i n Spuf ford , Money, 1 0 2 - 3 , tho ugh the figure s
presented here o n f ineness should be u sed c a ut iously .
6 5 Medieval mint s defined the finene s s o f alloy in
terms of denarii . Pure si lver was 1 2 denari i fine . A coin
6 denari i f i ne , then , was 5 0 % si lver and a coin 4 denarii
fine was roughly 3 3 % silver .
151
I
di sregard Geraldo ' s remark , the mo st logic al conc lus io n is
that the levy in Galic ia was imposed before the starannu let and chri stograrn type s were struc k .
The star -annulet coi n , which probably preceded the
chri stograrn coi n , was almo st certainly minted sometime
after the fall of To ledo ln 1 0 8 5 , sinc e it invokes To ledo
in the legend .
The mint at Toledo , however , continued to
strike dir hams until c . 1 0 8 7 , so the star-annulet denarius
was perhaps not introduced until after that date .
I ndeed ,
it may not have been introduced unt i l the 1 0 9 0 s .
There is
a singular c harter from the territory of Portugal , dated
1 0 9 0 , that lists payment of a mule and its saddle apprai sed
(
Metcalf in " A Parcel of Coin s , " 3 0 0 , 3 0 4 , reported the
re sults of e lectro n- probe micro-an alys is of 4 examples o f
the chri stograrn type which showed the coins to be ro ughly
3 3 % si lver or 4 d . fine . This type of analysi s , however ,
invo lved mount ing the coins on the ir s ide and sc anning four
points alo ng the edge . One has to consider that the s ilver
in eac h individual coin is unlikely to be uniformly
( See
di stributed , making readings o f this type haphazard .
Gi le s F . carte r , " E nriched Silver Coat ings on Some
Portuguese Dinheiros and Casti lian cornados, " in PMC I I I ,
5 5 7 and the i l lustration on 5 6 3 .
See also J . N . Barrandon
et al . , " Chemic al compo sitions of Portuguese Dinheiros , " in
PMC III , 3 4 7 and the illustration o f an e lectro n- probe
micro- analysis scan on 3 6 7 . )
Unti l more reliable chemic al analysis is available for
these coins , we should trust the doc umentary evidence whic h
points to a stronger standard . A c harter dated 1 1 0 3
preserved a t Sahagun ment ions 6 0 0 solidi de medi etate, an
allusion to de narii that were half- si lver or 6 d . fine .
( Sahagun , 3 : 4 52 - 5 3 ; c f . chapter 5 , n . 9 3 below . ) I ndeed ,
6 d . appears to have been the accepted standard in Leo n ,
Aragon and B arcelona u p unti l the 1 1 2 0 s . I n that decade ,
the coinage of Melguei l in southern France dropped from 6
d . to 4 d . and may have influenced t he abandonment o f the
medietate s tandard in Latin Spain .
See the discussio n in
chapter 6 under "Rates of Exchange . "
152
at 2 0 0 solidi o f " brown denari i . n 6 6
To
the extent that
this reference c an be trusted , it indicate s that there was
base coin c urrent around 1 0 9 1 when Alfonso cal led for the
extraordinary t ax i n Leon . 6 7
It seems pro bable that the
levy which Geraldo remembered as unsuc ce s s f u l because of
poor coin was at the same time . 68
Alfonso in the ear ly part of his reign paid litt le
attention to developing a mo netary po l ic y .
He perhaps
al lowed older , worn coins to c irculate and o nly added to
this supply intermittent ly as the need aro se .
Debased
dirhams that he received from hi s taif a c l ient s as tribute
may al so have been pre ssed into servic e .
I f there was no
uniform and ample c urrency in the early 1 0 9 0 s , however ,
[
6 6 " ( U ) no mulo c um s ua sel et cum s uo prec io pretiato
in cc so lidos de denarios bruno s . " Port ugal iae Honumenta
Historica : Diplomata et Chartae ( Li sbon , 1 8 6 7 ) , 1 : 4 42 ;
Sanc hez Alborno z , "Moneda de c ambio , " 2 0 2 n . 1 02 ; cf . Gome s
Marque s de Abreu and Gomes Marques , " From co unty to
Kingdom, " 3 2 0- 2 1 , who found only thi s one re fere nce in
their survey of the documentatio n .
6 7 The c o i ns that we have tentatively attr ibuted to
the early year s of Alfonso ' s reign are extreme ly scarce and
there is no way to ascertain whether t hey were particularly
base . There are not even reported wei ghts for t he few
catalogued s pec imens .
6 8 I n the case o f the tax in Santiago , Alfonso was
content to let the revenue go to strengthening loc al
defenses .
If the revenue from the levy in Leo n was used in
a simi lar manner , it wou ld explain why i n the summer o f
1 0 9 1 we hear o f no maj or campaign led by the king . The
defe at at Z alaca in 1 0 8 6 had left Leon-Casti le perilously
open to attack and Alfonso may have thought twice about
risking another dec i sive battle with Y u s uf ' s f orce s . There
are report s in Mus lim sources of minor engagements at Jaen ,
Palma and Almodovar de l Rio . See Tibi ' s notes to ' Abd
All ah , The Tibya n , 1 6 7 , 2 6 5 n . 5 9 4 ; cf . Rei l ly , Alfonso vi ,
22 3 .
153
I
co llecting a fixed sum from every ho usehold in Leo n and
Santiago would have proved dif ficult .
Payment s in kind , ln
plate or in different type s of coin would have engendered
constant quarrel s as the king ' s agents attempted to co llect
from every househo ld , noble as we ll as commo n , and then in
turn render that back to the crown .
It may have bee n this
upheaval that Geraldo remembered whe n he wrote years later
that the effort in santiago had not yielded suffic ient
revenue .
The attempt may also have served as a cataly st
for reform of the co inage .
The only practic al course of act io n after co llecting
such a s undry array of coin and bu llion was to remint it .
Alfonso wi sely doe s not seem to have i ssued worse mo ney
than he had j ust called in .
His star- annulet and
christogram coins were surely an improvement over the
II
brown
II
de nar ii that seem to have come before . 6 9
The
uniformity evident in both types i s testimony to a
carefully produced coinage , with die s perhaps centrally
contro lled .
Alfo nso ' s struggle with the Almoravids continued
through the remainder of his reign c ulminating in the
Leonese defeat at Uc le s only a year before his death .
r
6 9 By analogy , there are some grounds for conc ludi ng
that Wil liam the Conqueror , faced with an unre liable and
scarce coinage in Normandy , introduced a reformed coin of 6
d . around 1 0 8 0 so as to better exploit his resources there .
see Bisso n , conservat io n , 2 3 -2 4 ; Nightingale , "Weight
standard s , " 2 0 0- 2 0 1 .
154
During this t ime , he was dec i sive ly stripped of all income
from parias .
By the c lose of 1 0 9 1 , only the taifa of
Badajoz and the north-eastern ki ngdoms of Zarago za and
Valenc ia remai ned independent of Almoravid rule .
Badajoz ,
ostens ibly a paying c lient of the Leonese crown , fel l
c . 1 0 9 5 and Valenc ia succ umbed by 1 1 0 2 de spite Alfonso VI ' s
attempt to save it .
Zaragoz a was not annexed direct ly by
the Almoravids unti l 1 1 1 0 , but it s king , al-Musta • I n
( c . l 0 8 3- 1 1 1 0 ) , had perhaps begun to negotiate with the
Almoravids as early as 1 1 0 2 .
co nsequent ly , any tribute
that al-Musta • I n had been accustomed to pay Alfonso VI may
have sto pped at t hi s time . 7 0
In his charter announc ing the
general tax of 1 0 9 1 in Leo n , the king had promised it wo uld
be the only one of its kind and the source s give no
indication that he attempted to impose it agai n .
Deprived
of the income in paria s , Alfonso had to f ind ot her
ef fective ways to tap the re source s of his s ubj ect s .
Despite hi s removal of the toll at Valcarce in the
first year s of his reign , Alfonso VI could hardly have been
expected to permanently forgo this manner of rai sing money .
{
7 0 Alfonso ' s be st - paying tributaries may have been
sevi lle and Malaga , whic h both fell to the Almoravid s in
the winter of 1 0 9 0 - 9 1 . The source s te l l s us not hi ng
directly about tribute from B adaj oz , but the Chronicon
Compostel lanum doe s insi st that Fernando I enjoyed annual
tribute from t hi s kingdom . ( See c hapter 2 above . ) For
event s in Z arago z a and Valenc ia see Rei lly , Alfonso VI ,
2 8 2 - 8 3 , 3 0 1 - 2 , 3 1 0 - 1 1 . The fall o f the individual taifas
can be conveniently traced in the dynastic table s as sembled
by wasserstei n , P arty-Kings , 8 3 - 9 8 , c f . 2 8 9- 9 0 .
155
I
Traf fic to santiago appear s to have been luc rative enough
in 1 0 9 0 , that Sanc ho Ramirez of Aragon was prompted to ask
the mo nks of San Juan de la Pena to repopu late the o ld
sett lement o f L i z z ara so that the pilgrim route could be
diverted through the new town . 7 1
By the re ign of Al fonso
VI ' s daughter Urraca toll stations are evide nt in Leoncastile at Logro no , Burgos , ca stro jeriz , Leo n , Astorga , and
perhaps another in the vic inity of the o ld station at
Valcarce . 7 2
The Hi storia compostelana tells of an
additional to l l at Pue nte Sampayo in Pontevedra that was
hated by trave lers not only because of the money they lo st
there , but a l so because they were apparent ly subjected to
strip searche s . 73
The impo s ition known as fos satari a , a c a sh payment in
lieu of military service , may also have arisen in these
later year s . 7 4
(
Likewi se , as in the case of the Tbrres del
7 1 The new town would become E stella whi c h , as Sancho
Ramire z must have hoped , f lo urished in the fol lowing
century . Vazquez de Parga, et al . , Las pereqri naciones ,
3 : 1 4- 1 5 no . 2 ; cf . Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 2 1 5 ; Me lc zer , The
Pilgrim ' s Guide , 2 8 1 - 8 2 .
7 2 See Re i l ly , urrac a, 2 7 0 .
7 3 ( N ) on solum propter sue pec unie ami sionem , verum
etiam propter magnum s ui cor pori s dedecus nudato exuuiis
sepius corpore . " HC , book 1 , chap . 2 4 .
7 4 Rei l ly assumed that Alfonso levied a fossataria
before his c ampaign against Toledo , but I know o f no
explic it reference to the tax this ear ly .
( Cf . Reilly ,
Alfonso VI , 1 6 8 , 2 2 0 and 3 0 1 ) A donat ion of 1 0 9 0 to Le6n
was de pendent on whether the donor came back a live from the
fossa to , but reference s to fossatari a before 1 1 0 0 all come
from the context of fueros which were subj ect to later
emendation . One o f the more reliable early c i tations to
the payment i s perhaps Count Raymond ' s c onfirmat ion the
fueros o f Santiago in 1 1 0 5 , though thi s too exist only in
156
Oeste i n Santiago , the obligation o f castle-bui lding may
have been co nverted more frequently to a payment in cash .
For le s s than vital fortre sses , such revenue could be
funneled elsewhere .
No matter how t he crown cho se to raise
mo ney , however , it is obvious that the maintenance of an
ample coinage was a crucial e lement .
The age o f pari as ,
whic h in Leo n-castile appears to have reac hed it s peak at
the end of Fernando I ' s reign and lasted into the first
half o f Alfo nso VI ' s rule , may have di scouraged the crown
from developing an ample , native c urre nc y .
By the 1 0 9 0 s ,
however , accomplishing that task was a matter of s urviva l .
As Alfonso VI ' s general levy o f 1 0 9 1 demonstrate s , proper
defense of the realm required co in
The expansion to three mints or perhaps even more
great ly enhanced the crown ' s abi lity to accompli sh the task
of bui lding a substantial coinage and at the same time
al lowed a further opportunity for pro f it .
The mint at
Santiago in partic ular was wel l placed to receive a steady
flow o f foreign denarii from the hands o f pi lgrims and
r
Turnbo A of the cathedral of Santiago which was compiled
betwee n 1 1 2 9 and 1 1 3 1 . A pr ivate charter from Sahagun ,
howeve r , also dated 1 1 0 5 and s urviving i n what may be the
original copy , mentions exemptio n from " fossadera . " See
santi ago , 3 : appendix, 6 1 - 6 3 no . 1 9 ; S ahagun , 3 : 4 8 5- 8 6 no .
1 12 5 .
For the donation of 1 0 9 0 , see , ACL , 4 : 5 3 9 - 5 4 0 no .
1250 .
See f urther James F . Powers , " The origins and
Deve lo pment of Munic ipal Mil it ary Service in the Leo ne se
and Casti lian Reconquest , 8 0 0 - 1 2 5 0 . " Traditio 2 9 ( 1 9 7 0 ) :
94 , 97 n . 2 5 .
By contrast , shie ld money or scutage is not known to
have been co llected in E ngland unt i l 1 1 5 9 . see Mait land ,
Const itut ional Hi story, 1 3 .
157
exchange them, at a discount , for coin of the realm . 7 5
This s ite was obviously thriving by the opening o f the
twelfth cent ury and Alfonso parted with it reluctant ly .
Diego Gelmirez seems to have pressured Alfonso for two to
three year s before the king finally gave him the c harter
endowing his see with full right s to the mint . 7 6
With at least three mint s in operation in the ki ngdom,
the po pulace could more readily turn plate into coin and
the sphere o f mo netary c irc ulation increased .
I n the last
two decade s of the reign , references to purc hase s in s i lver
are no longer re stricted to centers like Leo n and Burgo s
but spread north to more iso lated regions such as Asturi as .
Indeed bot h an example of the star-annulet coin and the
chri stogram co in were found in excavations under st .
7 5 The mint at s antiago was open by 1 0 9 9 .
I n that
year , Alfonso VI ' s si ster , the infan ta E lvir a , made a final
beques t to the c hurc h of compo ste la in which s he referred
to a corte and houses in Santiago that she had purchased
See S antiago , 3 : appe ndix , 5 0 - 5 1
from the mo neyer Adhemar .
no . 1 5 . The document i s dated November 1 3 , 1 1 0 0 , but
Rei lly, Alfonso VI , 2 7 4 n . 5 5 , argue s convinci ng ly that the
year should be 1 0 9 9 . The doc ument i s also alluded to in
HC , book 1 , chap . 2 5 .
7 6 The Hi s tori a c laims that it took three years until
the c harter co ncerning the mint of compo stela was actual ly
handed to Diego Ge lmirez . Lopez Ferreiro , taking into
account the pas sage in the His tori a and the actual charter ,
suggested the fo llowing chain of event s . Diego obtained the
verbal consent of the king as early as 1 1 0 5 . By 1 1 0 7 , the
bishop dispatc hed two of his c anons to Alfonso ' s court
where they witnessed the drawing up of the charter . The
king , however , retained po sses sion of the diploma and did
not de liver it into Diego ' s hands unti l after the defeat at
Uc les in 1 1 0 8 .
see santiago , 3 : 2 82 - 8 3 ; c f . HC , book 1 ,
chaps . 2 8- 2 9 .
(
158
Peter ' s in Rome . 7 7
Thro ugh a combination of reform o f the
coinage and expansion in minting Alfonso was able to muster
the funds nece ssary to s uccessfully defend his expanded
domain against the Almoravids and at the same time provide
Leon-Castile with it s first plentiful and popularly
accepted coi n .
77
Departamento , " Circ ulac i6 n , " 2 4 7 ; For the st .
Peter ' s find , see " Hallazgos monetar io s , " pt . 9 , 2 9 2 - 3 no .
676 .
(
'
FOUR
THE !-!ARK
AND THE DENAR IUS :
NEW MONETARY
AND NarARIAL LINKS
WITH LATIN Et.i'ROPE
c . 1 10 0
Before cro s s ing to al-Andalus in the 1 0 8 0 s , the
Almoravids restored stability to the Maghreb and re­
established contro l of the trans- S ahara gold routes .
In
keeping with the ir vision of reforming I s lam in the We st ,
they produced dinars of outstanding quality whic h were
c lose to pure go ld and weighed s lightly more than the
dinars of the old C6rdoban cali phate . l
1 The Almoravids probably meant to return the dinar l n
the We st to i t s traditional or orthodox weight of around
4 . 2 5 grams .
I n reality, their piece s tended to weigh a
litt le les s . Hazard assembled 4 0 0 recorded we ight s and
found t heir average to be 4 . 0 5 grams .
See Hazard , North
See f urther Hanna E . Kassis , " Observations
Afric a , 4 8 , 6 1 .
on the F ir st Three Decades of the Almoravid Dynasty ( A . H .
450-480
A . D . 1 0 5 8 - 1 0 8 8 ) : A Numi smat ic Study , " Der I s lam
62 ( 1 9 8 5 ) : 3 1 1 -2 5 .
R . A . He s s ier , in "The Almoravids , West African Go ld
and the Go ld currency of the Mediterranean Basin, " Jo urnal
of Economic and social Hi story of the orient 1 7 ( 1 9 7 4 ) : 3 1 4 7 , propo sed , on the basis of radio-chemic al analysis , that
the morabetino was slightly le ss pure than other
contemporary dinar s . The mean standard of f ineness of the
morabetino s he examined was 92 . 2 % pure , while the mean
standard of fineness of dinars from E gypt was 9 7 . 4 % pure
If these res ults
and 9 6 . 5 % pure for dinars of the z ir ids .
are acc urate , the slight weaknes s of the morabetino hardly
hurt its extrinsic strengt h . As Hes sier point s out , the
text ual evidence testifies that the morabetino ' s prestige
was very high in Hediterranean trade .
=
(
These di nar s were
159
160
I
soon struck in several mints i n al-Andalus as the
Almoravids conso lidated their contro l there at the c lo se of
the eleventh century .
I n reference to the name Almoravid
( al-Murabit ) , the new go ld piece was called the murabi t un
in a l-Andalus and wo uld come to be called the morabetino by
the Chri stians to the north . 2
With the exception of the
Catalans , however , the Christians were large ly denied
acce s s to thi s go ld during the fir st decades of the
Almoravid presence in Spai n .
The morabetino l s not cited
with any regularity in t he sources from the we stern
Chr i st ian states unti l the 1 1 3 0 s . 3
{
2 Hazard , North Afr ic a , 6 1 , conc luded that the bulk of
Almoravid go ld was event ually struck in Spani s h mint s .
3 The morabetino is c ited in Barcelonan doc uments in
the last decade of the twelfth century . See Botet , Le s
See also the
monedes , 5 6 ; cf . Alturo , " Notes , " 1 2 8 -2 9 .
quantitative data compiled in Miguel crusafont i Sabater ,
" Del morabatin almoravide al f lorin : continuidad o ruptura
en la catalunya medieva l , " in Jarigue I , 1 9 8- 9 9 , though his
fai l ure to distingui sh between references to mancus and
morabetino is unfortunat e .
For we stern Spai n , two doc uments are at times cited to
support the notion t hat the morabetino f lowed north soon
after the Almoravids c ro s sed to Spai n . Duples sey in
" Monnassie , " 1 3 7 no . 1 6 , c ited a cartulary charter from
Portugal dated 1 0 8 4 whic h spoke of "marabetino s menequi s . "
The charter is c lear ly either mi sdated or interpolated .
The adj ective menequi s refer s to one of the later is sues o f
the Almoravid taifas , probably from Almeria or Malaga,
whic h c irculated c . 1 1 3 0 o nward .
See , for example , the sale
from Z aragoza in 1 1 4 1 " per xxx morabitis , medios marinis
medic s me liki s " in Jo se Maria L ac arra , ed . , Documentos para
el e st udio de la reconguista y repoblaci6n del val le del
E bro ( Zarago z a , 1 9 8 2 - 8 5 ) , 1 : 3 0 0 - 3 0 1 no . 3 0 7 ; c f . c hapter 6 ,
n . 3 7 below .
See also t he comments in Los a , " Mo ney Among
the Mo zarabs , " 2 9 1 n . 42 . The second document is the wi ll
o f count Gonz alo Salvad6rez dated 1 0 82 whic h Alamo , ofia ,
1 : 1 1 3- 1 4 no . 7 7 , publi shed with a reference to 1 6 0 0
morabetinos . The text , however , almost certainly referred
161
I
To compensate for the c e ssation of tri bute from alAnda lu s , Alfonso VI had expanded product io n of the
denar i us .
His contemporary , s ancho Ramire z , who after 1 0 7 6
ruled the united rea lms of Aragon-Navarre , may have
undertaken a s imilar course , str iking de narii in two mints
if not more . 4
The bitter wars that erupted between the
he ir s o f the se two kings in the early decade s of the
twelfth century only increased the need of both government s
for ample coin .
The root of thi s conf lict can be traced
back to the realignment of the Latin state s that occ urred
in 1 0 7 6 .
I n t hat year , the king o f Navarre , Sancho IV , met hi s
deat h by being thrown from a c li f f .
Alfonso VI moved
quickly to occ upy the Rio j a region whi le sancho Ramire z of
Aragon l aid c l aim to the rest of Navarre .
r
During the
See chapter 2 , n . 6 7
to mencales and not morabetino s .
above .
4 s ancho Ramirez ' s monetary po licy remains to be
studied in det ai l . Though t here are references in the
source s to his gold manc us s tr uc k at Jac a , a limited
coina ge i ntended mainly for f ulfillment of a cen s us owed
Rome , there is no clear diplomat ic evidence conf irming that
he minted denarii . There i s a doc ument that c laims to be
hi s conf irmation of Cluny ' s rights at Leire that refer s to
" solidos de mea moneta " but the c harter is suspect o n other
grounds . ( See Martin Duque , Leire , 1 8 9- 9 2 no . 1 3 1 . )
There are , however , surviving denarii in the name of
sanc ho t hat can be reasonably assigned to this ruler .
some
read IACCA and MONSON whic h may indicate mints in Jaca and
the recently c aptured fortre s s o f Monzon . Other coins
attributable to him read ARAGON and there are sti l l other
type s that read NAVARRA . Thes e last , of c ourse could
see Crusafont and
be lo ng to Sanc ho IV of Navarre .
Balaguer , "La numi smatic a navarro- aragonesa, " 3 5 - 6 6 .
See
also Octavio Gil Farre s , " Co ns iderac io ne s acerca de las
primitiva s cecas navarras y arago ne sas , " NH 4 ( 19 5 5 ) : 5 - 3 6 .
162
I
remaining year s of Alfonso VI ' s life , re lation s betwee n
Leon-casti le and the newly united Aragon-Navarre proved
relatively tranqui l as the monarchs of both kingdoms were
more concerned with the Almoravid threat to t he sout h . s
Therefore , when a cr isis of succes sion arose i n the final
year s of Alfonso VI ' s reign, the agi ng king looked towards
Aragon-Navarre for a solutio n .
Alfo nso VI ' s young son and heir , Sancho , had been
ki lled in the aftermath of the Almoravid victory over the
Leones e at Uc les in 1 1 0 8 .
The next logical c hoice for a
succes sor to the throne was Alfo nso VI ' s eldest- surviving
daughter , urraca , whose husband , Raymond of Burgundy , had
died unexpectedly in 1 1 0 7 .
With an eye to strengtheni ng
her abi l ity to succeed him , Alfo nso VI pro po sed marriage
betwee n urraca and the c urrent king of Aragon- Navarre ,
Alfonso I ( 1 1 0 4- 3 4 ) , t he son of sanc ho Ramirez .
Despite
oppo sition from several fact ions , the co uple was married in
1 1 0 9 , a few mo nths after the pas si ng of Alfo nso VI .
The
marr1age , however , quickly proved unworkable and set off a
period o f prolonged war betwee n the two crowns that did not
completely s ubside unt i l Alfonso I o f Aragon ' s death in
1 1 34 .
The long conflict di stracted both kingdoms from more
ac tive ly pur suing the of fensive against the Almoravids ,
{
5 There was some tension betwee n the two c rowns over
c laims to the kingdom o f Z arago z a .
see Rei lly , Alfonso VI ,
282-83 .
whose contro l of al-Anda lus had begun to falter .
Alfonso
I
of Arago n did take the c ity of Zaragoza in 1 1 1 8 , an
accompli shment on par with Alfonso VI ' s conquest of Toledo ,
and he event ually died from wo unds received fighti ng o n the
Mus l im front ier in 1 1 3 4 .
st i l l , the often fierc e ,
internec ine struggle between Alfonso of Aragon , Urraca and
Urrac a ' s succe ssor , Alfonso VI I , probably contributed to
the de lay of the two kingdoms in procuring Almoravid go ld .
The campai gns these rulers waged against eac h other were
financ ed almost so le ly by the bi llon denarius .
since the fighting took place mainly in Leon-castile ,
with the Aragonese intermittently occupying the eastern
sectio ns of the realm, it was Leon-casti le that was mo st
vi sibly affected by the strugg le .
The result in monetary
terms was a proliferat ion of new mints and probably an
increase in the amount of denari i actively in circ ulatio n .
At t he same time , however , lar ge ly independent o f the
political turmoi l , the expanding commerce of Western E urope
served to introduce new c ustoms to the developing Leonese
economy .
Before turning to the complex political events o f
the anarchy that fol lowed the death o f Alf onso VI , indeed
before we can fully understand them, it is therefore
nece ssary to examine two c ommerc ial innovations evident in
the sources of Leon in the e ar ly decades of the twelfth
cent ury .
Both can be seen in a charter from the monastery
of S ahagun drawn up in t he year 1 1 0 0 .
{
164
I
I n t he s umme r o f that year , a man named Muno Perez ,
inspired by the success of the F ir st crusade , prepared to
depart f or Jerusalem .
Like many o f hi s contemporaries
througho ut Western Europe , Mufio needed cash for hi s journey
east and used hi s landed pro perty to raise it .
He
mortgaged three vi llages to the monastery of Sahagun in
return f or 1 , 0 0 0 solidi of si lver . 6
According to the
charter recording the mortgage he was paid " 5 0 0 so lidi of
pure silver ( rendered ) by the mark o f st . Peter of cologne
and another 5 0 0 so lidi of denarii . " 7
over half the silver
then was c le ar ly in some form of bul lion equivalent to 5 0 0
so lidi o f weight .
The other half was in coin reckoned by
so lidi o f acco unt .
6 S ah agun , 3 : 3 9 6- 9 7 no . 1 0 5 3 ; c f . 3 8 9 - 9 3 no . 1 0 4 9 .
Muno ' s i ntention to go to Jerusalem in itself testif ie s to
the increasing contact between Leon and the re st o f Euro pe
at the turn of t he century . Leone se pre late s had heard
Urban I I preac h the First crusade at C lermont . The
re sulting enthus iasm i n Leon-castile was substantial enough
that late in 1 1 0 0 Pasc hal II was compe lled to write to
Alfonso VI forbidding hi s subj ec ts from undertaking the
expedition to Jerusalem since hi s own kingdom was in
imminent danger from the Almoravid s .
For Leonese
i nvo lvement with the First crusade , see Rei lly, Alfonso VI ,
2 62-63 , 3 0 1 , 3 0 5 .
The custom o f mortgaging land for cash was not new in
Leon i n 1 1 0 0 .
I n 1 0 92 , dona Mayor gave as sorted properties
to the monastery of Ar lanza in the event that her sons did
not come back from the wars against the Saracens .
I f they
did survive , however , they could redeem the land for 1 0 0
solidi argent i . Luciano Serrano , ed . , cart ulario de san
Pedro de Ar lanza ( Madrid , 1 9 2 5 ) , 1 62 - 6 4 no . 8 5 .
7 " quingentos solidos de mera plata per e l marc u de
sanc ti Petri de co loni a , et alio s quinge ntos solidos de
linero s ( s ic ) ; pro quo accepimus de eo tre s vi llas i n
pignus . " S ah agun, 3 : 3 9 6- 9 7 no . 1 05 3 .
{
165
a
The document i s unusual in a number of respects .
Transactions by weight of si lver i n Leon in the eleventh
cent ury had been conducted in so lid i ( of 8 argenti eac h ) . e
In t hi s mortgage of 1 1 0 0 , we sti ll see the solidus of
weight but it is now recko ned by the mark of Cologne , a
unit o f weight that emerged in northern E urope in the
eleventh century and was somewhat lighter than the Roman
More surprising than the reference to the mark ,
po und .
howeve r , is the overal l c larity in whi c h the sum given to
Mufio was recorded .
For almo st two centuries , scribe s in Leo n-Castile had
been content to list prices simply in terms of the solidus
argenti compri sed of argenti .
s uc h a practice normally
made it impo s s ible for anyone later examining the charter
to te l l whether the sum was paid in bullion by weight or 1n
coin .
B ut the monks of Sahagun ho ped to see Mufio again
within f ive year s and it was important to make c lear what
he owed .
Thus , we are f urther told that the second sum of
solidi given him was in denarii .
Thi s i n fact i s one of
the earl ie st c itations of the term denar i u s in the Leonese
source s , but it would be increas ingly employed in the
records of the twe lfth century .
Together , the use of the
mark a nd the c itat ion of the denarius in thi s transactio n
are indicative of a growing so phisticat io n in Le6n
8 See appendix B below .
(
166
(
regarding how busine s s was to be conducted i n the expanding
E uro pean economy of the twelfth cent ury .
The I ntroduction of the Mark
The prec ise origin o f the unit o f weight c al led the
mark , whic h wo uld become so common in Europe by the late
twelfth cent ur y , i s obsc ure .
References to it begin to
appear in the so urces of Northern E urope in the mideleventh century .
According to Nightingale , by the end of
that century " E ngland , Normandy , F lander s , Scandinavia , and
the Rhineland " all used a common mark of 2 1 6 grams .
Thi s
was the weight that came t o be cal led the mark o f co logne .
The slightly heavier mark of Troye s , which seems to have
arisen out of the Champagne fair s , may also have exi sted
before 1 1 0 0 , tho ugh there is no spec ific reference to a
mark by that name unt i l 1 1 4 7 . 9
The ear l ie st c it ation of the mark in Leo n-Castile may
be in a charter of Alfonso VI dated 1 0 8 9 where the penalty
for infringing on the terms of the doc ument was "mi l le
marc has argenti . "
Thi s diploma , however , survives only in
a twe lfth-cent ury copy and might po s sibly have been
interpolated , though otherwise there i s nothing suspect
about it . l 0
(
The next citation of the mark in Leon, to my
9 According to Nighti ngale , " Weight standards , " 2 0 0 2 0 7 , the heavier Cologne mark o f 2 3 3 grams was not ado pted
unt i l c . 1 1 7 0 .
see also B i s so n , conservat io n , 1 9 1 n . 1 .
1 0 ACL , 4 : 52 9- 3 1 no . 1 2 4 4 ; c f . Rei lly, " Chancery o f
Alfonso VI , " 1 3 .
167
I
knowledge , i s in the mortgage agreement of Muno , which
refers s pec ifically to the mark of Cologne .
dated
1 1 00
Thi s document ,
exi st s in what may be the original version and
was also copied into the Becerra g6tico o f Sahagu n ,
compiled not lo ng after
1 1 10 . 11
I t therefore provide s
fair ly sec ure corroborat ion that the mark was fami liar i n
the ki ngdom before the death of Alfonso VI in
1 1 09 .
In the opening years of urraca • s reign , the use of the
mark as a me ans of weighing si lver plate or bullion bec ame
we ll-e st abli shed .
In
1111,
in the early stage s of the war
with the Arago ne se , the queen gave land to the monastery of
Ona in exc hange for , amo ng other items , a si lver ves sel
( copam ) , a serving di sh ( mensori um) and seven large spoons
( coclearia ) that were said to total
51
marks .
Preparing
for the c ampaigning season the fol lowi ng spring , she
acquired more si lver reckoned in marks from the bi shops of
oviedo , santiago , and Lugo as we ll as from the Galic ian
I n the case of Lugo , we are told that
mo nastery of Samos .
the si lver was compr ised of " sac red or nament s of the
altar .
" 12
Later in the reign , in an accord reached with
Bi shop Diego of Leon , she compensated the bi shop for a
11
S ahagun , 3 : 3 9 6 - 9 7 no . 1 0 5 3 . on the Becerra and its
author , see Barbara A . Shailor , " The Scriptorium of San
Sahagun : A Period of Transition , " in santiago , saint-Denis
and saint Peter : The Reception of the Roman Liturgy in
Leon-castile in 1 0 8 0 , ed . Bernard F . Rei lly ( New York,
1 9 85 ) , 4 2 , 5 5 , 5 8 .
1 2 The documents
r
bullio n in
5.
1 111
and
attesting to urrac a • s searc h for
are discussed in detail in chapter
1 1 12
168
I
table o f s ilver taken from the altar o f the cathedral that
equaled 9 7 marks . 1 3
Whi le these acquisitions of Urraca were except iona l
measures , the mark was also used in more mundane
transac t io ns .
I n 1 1 1 3 , the queen so ld l and to vermudo
Perez for the combined price of 3 , 0 0 0 so li di o f denarii and
1 2 marks o f silver . l4
As in Mufio Perez ' mortgage , it is
c lear from thi s sale that the mark was bul lion treated by
weight a s opposed to coin reckoned by tale . l s
{
In 1 1 1 7 ,
1 3 ACL , 5 : 9 5 - 1 0 1 nos . 1 3 7 0 - 7 1 Thi s and several of
Urrac a ' s ear lier acqui sitions also inc luded some gold
The weight of go ld i s consistent ly given i n ounces
items .
whic h co uld simply be a division o f the mark . When Geraldo
of compo stela was sent to the papal c uria in 1 1 1 9 , one of
the items he c arried with him was a go ld reliquary , which
weighed nine marks .
( HC , book 2 , chap . 1 0 ; c f . n . 3 3
l:::e low . )
on the other hand , there is some indic at ion that the
pound was retained as a measure for go ld , though it is
normal ly o nly cited in penalty c lauses .
See , for example ,
the f uero o f Castil de Peones , said to a have l:::ee n granted
by Alfonso I of Aragon in 1 1 1 6 . It dec l ared that anyone
infringing o n the terms of the charter s ho uld pay 1 2 pounds
in Arab go ld : " X I I libras arabic i auri pectet . " Jose
Manue l L i zo ai n Garrido , ed . , Document ac ion de l monasterio
de Las Huelgas de Burgo s ( 1 1 1 6- 1 2 8 3 ) ( Burgos , 1 9 8 5 - 8 7 ) ,
1 : 3- 5 no . 1 . Municipal legislation promulgated at santiago
in 1 1 3 3 warned the i nnkeeper , minter s and money-changers as
well as all citi zens not to use false marks , pounds or any
other f a lse wei ght ( " non habeant marchas f alsas et libra s
f alsas ve l pe sa s " ) . HC , oook 3 , c hap . 3 3 .
1 4 ACL , 5 : 32 - 3 3 no . 1 3 4 0 ; cf . chapter 5 n . 9 5 l:::e low .
see al so t he sale between urraca and the bisho p of Leo n in
1 1 1 8 ( ACL , 5 : 7 2 - 7 3 no . 1 3 6 1 ) and the infan ta E lvira ' s sale
of property in 1 1 2 0 for " duo s marcos de argento , et
trigenta solidos de bo na moneta , et una te lla tota i ntegra
de f ustan . " ( 9 4 - 9 5 no . 1 36 9 ) .
1 5 Rei lly identifies vermudo Perez a s the son of the
Galic ian count , Pedro Froilaz .
( See Rei l ly , Urrac a , 9 2 ,
69-70 . )
I t is not c le ar i f Mufio Perez i s re lated to him ,
though a witne s s named Vermudo appears i n a n ear lier grant
169
I
Bi shop Diego o f Le6n purchased property us ing 7 si lver
marks and in 1 1 2 9 used an additional 6 marks , de scribed as
" puris simi , " to acquire more e states . l 6
E lsewhere , the
bishop of Orense purchased land in 1 1 2 7 for 6 marks of
si lver from a man who , like Muno Perez , aspired to go to
Jerusa lem . 1 7
Leonese soc iety , therefore , was to some
extent still conduct ing purc hase s by weight of bul lion as
it had ear lier in the eleventh century .
The o ld solid us of
we ight , however , was quickly growing o bsolete .
Although some of Urrac a ' s acquis itions from her c lergy
clear ly invo lved silver artifact s that were to be me lted
and struck for coin , it seems very probable that o n other
occasions references to the mark indic ated ingot s of
refined silver . l B
In 1 1 2 3 , a decade after he purc hased
land from urraca , Vermudo Pere z drew up a te stament
revealing that he was acc u stomed to send eac h year either a
mark of si lver or an o unce o f gold to the Ho spita l lers in
Jerusalem .
The mo st pract ic al method of sending that
made by Muno to S ahagun .
( See ACL , 5 : 3 8 9- 9 3 no . 1 0 4 9 . ) In
addition , Bi shop Diego ' s purchase of 1 1 2 9 ( see n . 1 8 be low )
was from two brother s Pedro Perez and Cipriano Perez .
1 6 ACL , 5 : 6 7 - 6 8 no . 1 3 5 7 ; 1 3 9 no . 1 3 9 1 .
1 7 Documentos del arc hive de la c atedral de orense
( Ore nse , 1 92 3 ) , 1 : 1 5 -2 7 .
1 8 spuf ford in Money, 2 0 9 , conc l udes that , " The use of
ingots for large payment s was by no means new in t he
twelfth cent ury . " The evidence for the first half o f the
twelfth century, however , is not as c lear cut as s pufford
implie s . He tends to ignore the po s si bi lity that
references to mark s of s i l ver also c an indicate plate , as
the Leonese evidence demonstrate s .
r
170
c
si lver would have been i n ingot form . l 9
Geraldo tells us
in the Histori a Compos telana that in Diego Ge lrnirez ' fina l
negotiations with the papacy t o have his see rai sed to
metropolitan status in 1 1 2 0 , his envoy at the papa l curia
sent urgent word for a n additional 2 60 marks of silver to
he lp the cause .
Among t he items used to rai se the sum was
a serving table weighing nearly 40 marks .
Again , it would
seem likely that items l ike this were me lted down for
easier trans port . 2 o
The 6 marks used by B i shop Diego o f Leon i n 1 1 2 9 which
were described as " puri s simi " likewi se may have been bar s
(
1 9 ACL , 5 : 1 1 3- 1 8 no . 1 3 7 8 .
In the accord of 1 1 2 2
between Urraca and B i s ho p Diego of Leon , we are to ld that
Diego ' s predece s sor, Pedro ( c . l 0 8 7 - 1 1 1 1 ) had been
accustomed to di stribute money to " pauperibu s et c leric i s ,
( ACL , 5 : 9 5 - 9 8 no . 1 3 70 . )
t am i n I s pania quam utra portos . "
This perhaps means that the bishop gave alms to pi lgrims
and cleric who passed through hi s diocese from other l ands ,
though it co uld indicate he was sending funds abroad ,
perhaps to the Holy Land .
By the time that P aschal I I conf irmed the Order of the
Ho spital of St . John o f Jerusalem in 1 1 1 3 , the brethren of
that order had apparently already establi s hed a ho spice at
saint-Gi lles near Marsei l les on the route to Compo stel a as
we l l as an number of house s in Italy whic h pro bably served
as departure po i nt s to t he Holy land . They quickly
deve loped a re putation f or their effic ienc y in c hannel ing
funds to the East .
see Jonathan Ri ley- smith , The Knight s
o f st . John o f Jerusalem and cypres s , c . 1 0 5 0 - 1 3 1 0 ,
( Londo n , 1 9 6 7 ) , 4 0 . For the order ' s ear ly pre sence in the
we stern regions of s pa i n , see Santos A . Garc ia Larragueta,
El gran priorado de Navarra de la Orden de s an Juan de
Jerusalem siglo s XI I-XI I I ( Pamplona , 1 9 5 7 ) , 1 : 4 0 - 5 1 .
2 0 " ( M ) ensa rotunda argentea , que vulgo intremis sa
vocabatur , que f uerat Almo stani regi s sarracenor um ,
continens XL marc has argent i . " HC , book 2 , chap . 1 6 . On
the meaning of intremi s s a , c f . Manuel s uare z Lorenzo and
Jose Campe lo , trans . , Hi storia Composte l ana o sea hechos de
don Diego Gelmire z , primer arzobispo de Santiago ( Sant iago
de Compo stel a , 1 9 5 0 ) , 2 7 3 , n . 1 .
171
I
of s ilver .
Finally , the 5 0 0 solidi of weight that Muno
received from Sahagun was perhaps rendered in ingots , each
repre senting a mark .
The s ilver was said to be pure ( mera
pla ta ) , tho ugh this may have been used loosely to describe
the quality of plate given him .
Five hundred so lidi o f
weight should have given him 3 6 marks of s ilver , if o ur
calc ulations are correc t . 2 1
How much of thi s in addition
to the 5 0 0 solidi in denarii , he intended to take with him
we do not know .
still , if the bullion was not in bars whe n
Sahagun gave it to him , it i s hard to imagine that Muno did
not have some made into ingots for suc h a j o urne y .
Whi le
ingots of high grade silver were obvious ly more convenient
than c arrying sundry bul lion , they were also more compact
than alloyed denarii and one could exc hange them directly
for loc al currency in the course of trave 1 . 22
The use of ingots of ref ined silver is corro borated by
contemporary evidence from Barce lona .
A document of 1 0 9 7
refers to " 5 0 0 solidi of silver of which eac h so lidus has
only 1 / 2 an argentus that is bad . " 2 3
(
According to thi s
2 1 The solidus of we ight corresponded to roughly 1 5 . 5 6
grams .
( See appendix B be low. ) Therefore , 5 0 0 so lidi
equaled 7 , 7 8 0 grams .
If Nightingale is correct that the
mark o f Co logne original ly weighed 2 1 6 grams , Muno wou ld
have received almo st exactly 3 6 marks of silver .
Indeed ,
that thi s equation results i n an even number of marks wo uld
tend to support the acc uracy of Nightingale ' s estimate .
2 2 See t he example of the Bishop Wolfger of Pas s au • s
travel to Rome i n 1 2 0 4 discussed in Peter spufford ,
Handbook of Medieval Exchange ( London, 1 9 8 6 ) , xxvi-xxvi i ;
S pufford, Money , 2 0 9- 1 0 .
2 3 " ( Q ) uingentos solidos de plata qui no n teneat unus
quinque ( sic ) so lido s ni si medium argent um de mallo . " I
1 72
I
prescription , each sol idus of weight of 8 argenti was to
contain no more than l f 2 an argentus of al loy .
This
formula wo uld re sult i n si lver that was 9 3 . 7 5 percent pure ,
a fineness s light ly better than English sterling . 2 4
such a
hi gh standard , however , may have proved diffic ult to
obtain .
Botet c ited several later doc ument s , dated between
1 1 0 1 and 1 1 2 8 , that referred to " pounds of silver , ( With )
an alloy of 1 argentus per solidus .
.
zs
This more lenient
to lerance wo uld re sult in si lver that was 87 . 5 0 percent
fine .
I n both cases , these prescriptions make it c lear
that the silver in que st io n was not mi scel laneous bul lion
nor even denar ii .
It co uld only have been ref ined s i lver
in ingot form .
one important dif f erence stands out between the
Barcelona documentation and the contemporary Leonese
source s .
At Barce lona i n the opening decade s of the
twelfth century, silver was still reckoned by the pound .
There is no s ign of the mark i n the sources . 2 6
Also ,
cast aing , in her study o f mo netary circulation in
Languedoc , found that , as at Barcelona , the po und cont inued
(
agree with Botet that quinque must read qui sque . See
Botet , Les monedes , 56 and 1 9 1 - 9 4 .
2 4 The pre script io n called for the solidus of f i ne
si lver to be o nly one- sixteent h alloy, which trans late s to
9 3 . 7 5 % pure si lver . E nglish sterling was 92 . 5 0 % pure .
2 5 " ( L ) liures plat a , ab l l iga d ' un argenq per sou . "
B otet , Les monedes , 5 5 .
2 6 Bensch , Barce lona , 1 0 7- 1 0 8 , corroborate s that
references to pounds o f s ilver begin in the Barcelona
documentation c . 1 0 8 0 and last until 1 1 4 0 .
173
I
to be used i n the early decade s o f the twe lfth century to
reckon silver .
She found no evidence of the mark unti l
1 1 37 .
In c ontrast to the records from so uthern France and
cataloni a , the mark is c ited po s si bly as early as 1 0 8 9 in
Leon .
I t appear s in another Leone se doc ument of 1 1 0 0 ,
where it i s s pec ifical ly called the mark o f co logne , and
then becomes common in doc uments dated after 1 1 1 0 .
The
logical conc lusion to be drawn from this evidence is that
the early appearance of the mark in Leon stands as
additional testimony to trade between the cantabrian coast
and Northern E urope .
As we have seen, the exi stence of
this maritime commerce i s hinted at by ear lier evide nce ,
partic ular ly the hoards from E ngland and the Baltic that
contained dirhams of the late caliphate .
By the ear ly twe lfth century , the sources no longer
leave any doubt of the exi stence of this trade .
The
Histori a Compos telana twice refers to English landings in
Galici a .
According to its account , Englishmen bound for
the Ho ly Land c . 1 1 1 1 stopped to plunder the Galician coast .
The second inc ident in the His tori a tells s pecifically of
English and Lotharingian merchants arr iving in Compo stela
probably around 1 1 30 .
After disembarking at the port of
Padron and making their way along the road to composte la ,
they were robbed of their merchandise . 2 7
(
Fletcher, drawing
2 7 HC , book 1 , chap . 7 6 , book 3 , chap . 1 8 .
174
from the ano nymo us , eye-witne s s acco unt of the Anglo­
Flemish expedition that a s s i sted in the siege of Lisbon in
1 1 4 7 ( the so-c alled De expugnatione Lyxbonensi ) , pointed
out that " skippers on both s ides of the narrow sea s were
evidently co nver sant with the lanes that led acros s Bisc ay
to northern Spain . 2 a
��
In addition , the r.lus lim geographer
Idr l s i. , writing in the middle of the t'tvelfth cent ury,
de scribed the B ay of Bisc ay as the
II
sea of the English .
II
29
Finally, Night ingale pointed to the existence , by
1 1 1 9 , of a c hurc h in London called St . Antoninus which
appear s to have been owned by a prominent merc hant and
moneyer .
Nighti ngale ' s argument that this c hurc h was
dedicated to st . Antoninus of Apamea and t hat this
dedication was inf luenced by the popular it y of that saint ' s
cult in Spain is convinc ing .
To
accept the validity of her
argument one need look no f urther than the coins which
Urraca i nitiated at Palenc ia c . 1 1 1 4- 1 6 which bore the
lege nd S B ANTONINI . 3 0
Nighti ngale suggested f urt her that it was perhaps the
increasi ng pre sence of Lombard merchants in the market s of
northwes t E urope at the end of the elevent h cent ury that
2 8 Fletcher , catapult , 1 8 4 ; Char le s w . David , ed . , De
see furt her ,
Expugnatione Lyxbonensi ( New York , 1 9 3 6 ) .
Gi le s Constable , " The Second Crusade as Seen by
Contemporarie s , " Traditio 9 ( 1 9 5 3 ) : 2 1 4 , 2 2 1 .
2 9 Nightingale , " Pepperer s ' Guild ,
1 29 .
3 0 I bid . , 1 2 5- 3 0 . Night ingale ' s sugge stio n , however ,
that foreign merchants were drawn spec if ic al ly to the city
See chapter 6 , n . 2 8 be low.
of Palencia is unj ustified .
II
(
175
enco uraged E ngli sh merchants to " look el sewhere for the
high pro fits they expected from Mediterranean trade . " 3 1
The appearance o f the mark in Leon at the opening of the
twelfth cent ury indeed s upport s Nighti ngale ' s suggestion .
Although trade may have existed for sometime previous
between Northern E urope and cantabria , contact probably
intensif ied at thi s time .
It was a commercial link that
would maintain itse lf into the later Middle Ages . 3 2
This is not to imply that trade was not at the same
time continuing to develop between Leo n-Castile and
so uthern E urope .
When Diego Ge lmire z sent Geraldo to meet
with t he pope in France in 1 1 1 9 , the treasure he bro ught
along inc luded 2 1 1 solidi in denarii of Po itou , 60 solidi
in denarii of Mi lan and 2 0 solidi in denarii of To ulouse , a
c lear indication of the money f lowing over land to
composte la at thi s time . 3 3
(
By 1 0 9 2 , the town of Leon
3 1 I n the records of London for the first decade of
the twelfth cent ury , Nightingale found " at least three
different me n with the s urname ' Lumbardus • " See
Nightingale , " Pepperer s • Gui ld , " 1 2 4 -2 5 .
see also ouby ,
Ear ly Growth , 1 5 3- 5 4 .
3 2 see Teo f i lo F . Ruiz , " Casti lian Merchants in
E ngland , 1 2 4 8 - 1 3 5 0 , " in Order and Innovation in the �fiddle
Age s : E ss ays in Honor of Joseph R , strayer ed . w . c . Jordan
et al . ( Princ eton , 1 9 7 6 ) , 1 7 1 - 8 5 ; Wendy R . Childs , Anglo­
Castilian Trade in the Later Middle Age s ( Manc he ster ,
1 9 78 ) .
3 3 " Commisimus autem pec uniam huic negotio
nece s sarium, sci licet archam auream novem marc harum , c entum
morabetino s , cc at X I so lido s Pictaviensis , sexaginta
solido s Mediol anensi s , XX solido s de Tolosanis et cetera . "
HC , book 2 , c ha p . 1 0 ; c f . Fletc her , Catapult , 2 0 5 . Geraldo
actual ly entrusted the treasure to two other c leric s , who
traveled separately from him . Their arrival in France was
delayed, bec ause they feared to cro s s Ar agonese territory .
176
I
already had a neighborhood referred to as "of the
Franks . " 3 4
Likewi se , a c harter attributed to Alfonso VI ,
dated 1 0 9 1 refer s to " men of Bur go s ,
( inc luding ) Franks or
Cast ilians " and another of c . 1 1 0 3 adds " men of Burgo s ,
Franks , Castilians or from whatever province they may
be .
n35
As the last phrase indicates , Frank was used more
in the general sense of foreigner .
These communitie s
undoubtedly inc luded merchants and artisans , some from the
Mediterranean and some from nort hern E urope .
A smal l glimpse of the mixed makeup of one suc h
community o f foreign bus ines smen c an be gleaned from the
source s of compo stela .
In her deathbed bequest to santiago
in 1 0 9 9 , Alfonso VI ' s si ster , E lvira , referred to property
in compo stela whic h she had purc hased from the moneyer
Adhemar .
(
Adhemar is not a name of S pani sh origin .
The year before , the Aragonese had robbed Diego Gelmirez • s
envoys . To the extent that we c an trust Geraldo ' s memory ,
this i s one of the earlier references to morabetinos i n the
Leonese source s .
3 4 Bisho p Pedro of Leon in 1 0 9 2 was due as part of his
rent s 1 pound of incense from the c hurch loc ated " in Vico
Francor um . " ACL , 4 : 5 6 3 - 6 5 no . 1 2 6 5 ; E stepa , E structura,
1 7 6- 7 7 . The nearby monastery of S ahagun owned pro perty in
a "villa que voc if ant Gal leque llos , " which also may denote
a predominate ly Frenc h sett lement .
See Sahagun , 3 : 1 5 4- 5 6
no s . 8 4 9 - 5 0 , 1 6 8 - 6 9 no . 8 6 1 .
3 5 The two grant s of Alfonso VI to Burgo s survive in
conf irmations made by Alfonso X ( 1 2 5 2- 8 4 ) and should be
treated somewhat c autiously .
See F . Javier Pefia Perez ,
ed . , Documentac i6n de l monasterio de san Juan de Burgos
( 1 0 9 1 - 1 4 0 0 ) ( Burgos , 1 9 8 3 ) , 3 - 5 no . 1 , c f . 1 1 8- 1 9 no . 8 2 ;
Emiliano Gonz alez Diez , ed . , co lecc i6n diplomatic a de
c oncejo de Burgos ( 88 4- 1 3 69 ) ( Burgo s , 1 9 84 ) , 5 7- 5 9 no . 4 ,
cf . 8 9 - 9 2 no . 2 5 . see f urther the discussion in E stepa ,
E structura, 7 9 - 8 4 , tho ugh he accepts the evidence from
the se and other fueros uncritically .
177
c
Fletcher haz arded the guess that he may have come from
southern France . 3 6
The other moneyer we meet by name at
Composte la i s Randulf , whom Diego Ge lmirez selected to run
the mint after he was awarded full lordshi p of it by
Alfonso VI .
Randulf ' s name also indic ates that he was not
a native of Galic i a .
Be side s identifying him a s mint
master , the His tori a compos telana tel l s us that Randulf was
se lected to plead a di spute before the king between two
brothers , Jo hn and Godfrey , from Lombardy . 3 7
since he
represented these two Lombards , Randulf was perhaps
Ital ian- speaking himse lf .
Judging from hi s name , however ,
he may j ust as e as ily have arrived in spain from Normandy
or England . 38
(
3 6 Santiago , 3 : appendix, 5 0- 5 1 no . 1 5 ; HC , book 1 ,
chap . 2 5 . Two example s of men named Adhemar from Languedoc
are Bishop Adhemar of Le P uy , the leader of the First
Cr usade and the eleventh-century c hronic ler Adhemar of
Chabannes , a monk at Limognes . See F letc her , catapult ,
1 8 4 , 9 3 . on the date o f E lvira ' s deat h , see Rei lly,
Alfonso VI , 2 7 4 n . 5 5 .
We sho uld keep in mind that minting at thi s time was
probably not a f ul l-time occ upatio n . Nightingale ,
" Pepperers • Guild , " 1 2 6- 2 7 , shows that moneyer s were like ly
to be invo lved in trade as wel l .
See also her " some London
Moneyers and Ref lect io ns on the organi z ation of English
Mints in the 1 2 th and 1 3t h Centurie s , " Numi smat ic Chronic le
1 42 ( 1 982 ) : 34-5 0 .
3 7 Fletc her , cat apult , 1 8 4 , s ugge sted that John the
Lombard was a minter , but the text doe s not support thi s .
He is described a s reposit ari us to the king ' s daughter
whic h inducate s that he was her chamberlai n or treasurer .
His brother , Godfrey , was in the service o f a man named
Pedro , de scribed as con s ul indic ating perhaps that he was
member of the town counc i l . see HC , book 1 , chap . 2 8 .
3 8 curious ly , Randulf is the name of one of four
moneyers known i n Normandy under Wil li am I . His son Osbern
appear s to have succeeded him in Normandy before 1 0 66 .
Another so n , Waleran , became an important moneyer in
178
While trade with northern Europe was probably
re sponsible for the early adoption of the mark in Leoncast ile , merchants arriving from France and Italy sure ly
contributed as wel l to the growing bus ines s acumen of
Leonese society .
Duby ' s sketc h of the c haracter of the
early Italian trader s can perhaps be applied in general to
the foreign merc hants arriving in Spain in the ear ly
twelfth century :
They . . . brought techniques which , in t he rustic
economic system over the mountains wou ld confer on them
that superiority to whic h the Jews had long held a
preferential right : practical experience o f writing ,
figure s and those contracts of j oint c apital
as sociat io n which were in use along the who le
Mediterranean coastline . . . They a lso brought another
economic o ut look , an attitude towards s pec ie , value and
pro f it that was very dif ferent from that of peasants
and lords . 39
It was probably this new eco nomic outlook that helped
prompt Leonese scribes in this period to be gin uslng more
spec if ic voc abulary with regard to money and price s in
their doc ume nt s .
The Appearance of the So lidus Denariorum
England . Co uld Randulf of s antiago , descri bed by the
His tori a as one on the most knowledgeable minter s at
compostela ( " nummulariis Randulfum maiori inge nio " ) , be a
member o f this s ame Norman f amily? In 1 1 2 1 , a moneyer
named Randulf witnes sed an act o f Alfonso I of Aragon in
Z arago z a . Had the Aragonese king recruited the same man to
organi ze his mint in the recently reconquered city? See
David c . Douglas , William the Conqueror ( Berkeley , 1 9 6 4 ) ,
1 3 5 - 3 6 , 3 0 4 ; Lacarr a , E bro , 1 : 9 0 - 9 1 no . 7 5 .
3 9 Duby , E ar ly Growth, 2 6 3 .
[
179
I
A charter of sale dated 1 0 8 6 from San Mi llan de la
Cogo lla provides o ne of the earliest example s of the use of
the term denar ius in Chr i stian Spain o ut side o f Catalo ni a .
The pr ice paid for the land is recorded a s " 1 4 solidi
argent i and in rai sce 1 4 denarii .
" "0
The phrase in rai sce
is c learly syno nymo us with in albaroc which appears in
other charters .
Both denote a tip or a small sum added to
the original price , ostensibly as a ge sture of goodwil l to
he lp cement the transac tion . 4 1
A series of purchase s made
between 1 0 8 9 and 1 0 9 5 by a man describing himself as the
custodian of the ho spice ( albergueria ) at s an Mi llan, a lso
employs a very s imil ar formula , expressing the main price
in solidi ar ge nti and adding a number of denarii as the
4 0 " XI I I I so lido s argenti et in raisce X I I I I dineros . "
Ledesma Rubio , san Mil lan, 1 0 4- 5 no . 1 4 8 . There is an
earlier docume nt from san Mi llan dated 1 0 5 8 in which dona
Sancha donates three monasteries which s he bought from t he
king f or " II I denariorum solidos argenti , " but thi s
See Ubieto
survives o nly i n a s ixteenth-cent ury copy .
Arteta , San Mil lan, 2 9 3 - 9 4 no . 3 0 3 . See also the
co nf irmation by sanc ho Ramirez and his son Pedro dated 1 0 8 5
in Martin Duque , Leire , 1 7 2 - 7 3 no . 1 1 6 , cf . 2 3 4- 3 7 no . 1 6 4 .
The f uero granted to the ho spice in Bur go s by Alfonso VI
and dated 1 0 8 5 a lso ment ions denarii . Again , however , the
text i s not original and almost certainly interpolated in
places .
see Go nz alo Martinez Die z , ed . , Fueros loc ales en
el territorio de la provinc ia de Burgos ( Burgo s , 1 9 82 ) ,
1 2 4-2 5 no . 3 . Cf . Rei l ly ' s remarks o n the f ueros of
Alfonso VI in " Chancery of Alfosno VI , " 1 0 .
4 1 The phrase in raisce appears in the San Mi llan
doc uments as ear ly as 1 0 3 7 ( See Ledesma Rubio , san Mi l lan,
208 no . 2 1 0 ) and i s used frequently thereafter .
see
Alonso , Diccionar io , s . v . " albaroc . " The term alboroque
survives today in modern spani sh .
(
180
(
payment in rai sce . � 2
Not long afterward , simil ar
refere nces to the denarius emerge in the doc ument s o f
Sahagun .
one charter from Sahagun , for example , recorded a
sale o f land in 1 1 02 for the price of 2 " solidi argenti and
in albarac 6 denarii .
.
43
At f ir st glance , the sudden use of the term denarius
might suggest that the se coins had j ust recent ly c ome into
circ ulat ion in Leon-castile .
While this inter pretat io n may
fit we ll wit h the long-accepted theory that Alfonso VI was
the first king of Leon to mint suc h coin s , it would mean
that a l l the c itatio ns of argenti and so lidi argenti that
appear in the source s for two hundred years previo us to
1 1 0 0 referred to eit her si lver plate or perhaps Mus l im
dirhams .
It i s far more plausible that it was not the coln
that was new to Leon-Casti le , rather it was the
terminology .
Denarius was a Frankish term for a coin whic h
ln Leo n had lo ng been called simply an argentus
4 2 Lede sma Rubio , san Mil lan , 1 3 1 no . 1 8 8 , 1 4 4 - 4 5 no .
2 1 0 , 1 4 6 - 4 7 no . 2 1 3 , 1 5 6 no . 2 2 7 , 1 5 8-9 no s . 2 3 1 - 3 2 , 1 6 4
no . 2 4 3 . There are a few later purc hase s by Sancho , but
those c ited here suf fice to illustrate the pattern . His
purc hase s are all entered c lose together in the so-c a l led
Becerra gal icana and do not seem to have been inc l uded in
the other main cartulary of the monastery , the Becerra
g6tica .
sancho is c lear ly not abbot , see no . 2 1 0 that
list s B l asius in thi s po sition .
4 3 Sahagun , 3 : 4 2 9- 3 0 no . 1 08 2 . Thi s s urvive s in a
non-cart ulary versio n , perhaps an original . A s li ghtly
earlier charter from Sahagun , dated 1 1 0 1 , cite s the
denariu s , but this survives o nly in the Becerra g6tica o f
that arc hive . See 4 1 0- 1 1 no . 1 0 6 6 .
(
181
That argentus and denarius were interc hangeable terms
for the same coin is implied in the doc umentation from san
Millan .
Contemporary to the sales that expre ss the rai sce
payment in denarii , a charter of 1 0 8 5 recorded a purc hase
where the abbot of the monastery was said to pay " 2 0
so lidi , in raisce 1 0 argent i . .. 4 4
Likewise , in 1 0 8 8 , the
monastery purchased an orchard ( h uerto ) for " 2 0 so lidi and
in rai sce 1 0 argent i . u 4 5
The gradual u se of the term
denarius instead of argent us at the close of the eleventh
cent ury become s clearer if we compare different versio ns of
the same doc ument .
Alfonso ' s charter anno uncing his levy of an
extraordinary tax to hel p fight the Almoravids in the
spring o f 1 0 9 1 survive s in two copie s .
One version, dated
February 7 , is preserved in the Becerro g6tico of Sahagun .
The second version dated Marc h 3 1 is fo und in the Turnbo of
the cathedral of Leon . 4 6
similar .
The texts are in substance very
Perhaps the mo st noticeable difference is that
the fir st is addres sed only to the people of the terra of
Leon, infanzones as wel l as vil lano s .
The second , which
survives in the cathedral archive of Leo n , was addre s sed to
(
4 4 " XX so lido s , rac e X argentos . " Ledesma Rubio , San
Mil lan , 7 4 - 5 no . 9 7 .
4 5 " XX solidos et in rai sce X argentos . " I bid . , 1 2 7- 2 8
no . 1 8 3 .
4 6 Sahagun , 3 : 1 6 4 - 6 6 no . 8 5 8 ; ACL , 4 : 5 4 7-4 9 no . 1 2 5 6 .
The February version pre served at Sahagun is dated 1 0 9 0 .
It i s evident , however , that both text s are from the same
year and 1 0 9 1 is the more logical choice .
see above
chapter 3 , n . 5 3 .
182
I
the current bi shop o f Leon , Pedro , and count Martin Lainez
and then the people of the regio n .
The later document also
is s igned as a confirmatio n whereas the earlier versio n is
not . -17
Now, as Reilly noted , the February ver sion from
Sahagun seems " improved " upo n . 4 8
compared to the Marc h
version , it is more detailed and the L at in i s somewhat
better .
We can perhaps assume then that the se improvement s
were the work of the scribe that copied the document o f
February into the Becerro g6tico o f Sahagun, sometime soon
after 1 1 1 0 . 4 9
The March ver sion from Leon, while also a
cartulary copy , may be truer to the original text .
In the
text of Marc h from Leon, where the king stipulates that no
one should seek to be excu sed from the payment of the tax ,
the text reads " nemo vestr um veniat mihi petere ipsum
debitum . "
The Sahagun ver sion attempt s to make this
c learer with , " nullus ex vobis veniat me rogare pro ipso s
denarios . "
(
Again, where the L eon version states simply
4 7 The February version conc lude s simply " facta carta "
followed by the date and the n " E go Adefonsus . . . hoc meum
factum quod ego facere elegi , c um propria manu meum signum
imprimo . " The March ver sion r eads " Facta cart ula
conf irmationis " fo llowed by the date and " Ego Ad.efonsus
hoc factum meum quod f acere e legi libenter confirmo . "
4 8 Reilly, " Chancery o f Alfonso VI , " 1 3 .
4 9 For the composition o f the Becerro g6tico, see
Shai lor , " Scriptorium, " 5 5 - 5 8 .
shai lor conc luded that t he
scribe Monnio was solely responsible for the Becerro and
that he " copied the document s acc urate ly and wit h di ligent
attention to detail . " The int erpo lations in the royal
charter of 1 0 9 1 , then, may have already occurred before he
incorporated it in the cartulary .
183
I
that the king wi ll not demand the payment again ( " et
amplius non demandem ( sic ) eos vobis a ltera vice " ) , the
Sahagun copy adds a more elaborate line saying that neither
Alfonso nor any of his successors \<Ti l l require " illos
denarios in nu l lo anno nee in nullo tempore . "
On the basis o f these two co pies , it seems that the
or iginal ver sion o f the royal charter c a l l ing for the levy
of 2 solidi per ho usehold did not employ the term denarius .
By the time the text was copied into the Becerra of
Sahagu n , sometime after 1 1 1 0 , the use of denarius had
probably become more commo n .
Theref ore , when the copyist
at Sahagun attempted to make the royal t ext more
comprehens ible , he incorporated the term into hi s
revi sions .
A s imilar infiltration of the denar ius is
The t uera of
hinted at i n other charters of the period .
Sepulveda wa s granted by Alfonso VI in 1 0 7 6 .
In monetary
terms , it employs the customary termino logy o f solidi and
individual argenti .
For example , a woman who abandons her
husband is to be fined 3 0 0 solidi while a husband
abando ning his wife pays only 1 argent i . s o
By contrast the
fuera granted t o the co lonizers o f the land s of Sahagun in
1 0 8 5 never s peaks o f individual argenti but o f denar ii . S l
(
5 0 Emil io s ae z , ed . , Lo s fueros de Sepu lveda : Edici6n
critica y ap§ndice documental ( Se govi a , 1 9 5 3 ) , 4 7 ; Heath
Dil lard , " Women in Reconque st Castile : The Fueras of
sepulveda and c uenc a , " in women in Medieval soc iety , ed .
susan Mo sher Stuard ( Phi lade lphia , 1 9 7 6 ) , 7 2 .
5 1 The ear lie st s urviving version o f the Sahagun tuera
i s again found in t he Becerra g6tica .
Justini ano Rodr iguez
184
'
Final ly , the f uero o f Lara revea ls a confusing blend o f
both o ld and new terms .
I n 1 1 3 5 , Alfonso VI I repromulgated the f uero o f Lara .
In the preamble of his diploma , the king noted that the
people were original ly granted the se laws in the t ime of
hi s grandfather , Alfonso VI , but he was now " improving
them .
n 52
The fuero as granted by Alfonso VI doe s not
survive , but in Alfonso VI I ' s revi sed versio n , when the
laws need to expre ss sums of less than a solidus both
argentus and denarius are employed , seemingly
interc hangeably . s 3
For each day a man did not show up for
mi litary service he was to pay 1 argentus with a maximum
fine of 5 so lidi ( " pec tet . . . i arenzo usque inpleat v
solidos " ) .
B ut , anyone who put up a fence ( palos ) where it
did not be long and f ai led to take it down within eight days
was to pay 6 denarii for eac h stake erected with the
maximum fine set at 5 so lidi ( " pec tet vi denario s . . . usque
compleat v solido s " ) . s 4
{
The impre ssion the text gives is
Fernandez , ed . , Los f uero s de l reino de Leon ( Leon , 1 9 8 1 ) ,
2 : 3 5- 4 1 no . 6 ; cf . Sahagun , 3 : 1 2 1 - 2 5 no . 8 2 3 .
5 2 " Facio vobi s barone s civitatis Larensis c artam de
vestros foro s , de illo s quos habuistis ex parte aviorum
rneorum et ego do vobis in illo s me lioranza . " Gonzalez Diez ,
B urgo s , 6 1 - 6 6 no . 7 .
5 3 There i s another ver sion o f the fuero o f Lara that
c l aims to have been issued by count Fernan Gonzale z in 9 2 2 .
It s urvive s only in a conf irmation o f sanc ho IV ( 1 2 8 4- 9 5 )
and is c lear ly a forgery , probably intended to e stabli sh
the exte nt o f the town ' s territory . See Martinez Die z ,
Fuero s locale s , 2 1 , 2 1 7 no . 4 9 .
5 4 see also the passage , " Hominem qui in defesa de
rege ligna abc iderit et fuerit preso , unde fuero habuit
illa defesa o el face , i denario por la cargadur a , i
185
I
that argentus i s a remnant from the older laws whi le the
denarius was used in the revised sections .
The term denarius , in it s medieval context , was a
caro lingian innovation .
When Gregory of Tours referred to
the si lver coins o f the ear ly Merovingian king s , he called
them simply argent i .
In the reign o f Char lemagne , the o ld
Roman term denarius was re surrected and applied to the
si lver coins that had begun to be issued by the last
Merovingian kings and whic h were then subsequently reformed
under Char lemagne .
since cataloni a was part of the
caro lingian empire , the term was known and used there .
But
j ust as the we stern I berian kingdoms had never adopted the
Caro lingian term manc us for the dinar ( using mi thcal
instead ) , so they did not employ denarius unti l the late
eleventh or early twe lfth centur y .
There are simi lar examples o f French voc abulary
introduced into Latin Spain in thi s time frame .
The
Carolingians had normal ly u sed hoste or in hoste to signify
the duty to take part in military expeditions of the king .
While the kings of Leon impo sed a parallel obligation on
their subj ect s , they c alled it �n fos sato or fondsado . s s .
Powers noted , however , that by the late eleventh century
(
arienzo pectet por c arrada , vi denario s de pastura , arie nzo
a iuga bouum , a la bestia iii denarios . " Gonzalez Die z ,
B urgo s , 6 1 - 6 6 no . 7 .
5 5 The term derived from the Latin fos sa t um, used
probably in the sense of an entrenched or fortif ied camp .
see Niermeyer , Lexicon Minus , s . v . " fo ssatum . "
186
(
the term haste began to appear in Aragonese fueras and
eventual ly made its way into Leone se usage . s 6
conversely ,
Valdeavel lano pointed o ut that the French burges never
s uc c e s s f ully overtook the Spani sh vecina as the common term
for townsme n . 57
The appearance of new French terms in the wr itten
record s of Le6 n at the opening of the twelfth century can
in part be attributed to the gradual s ubstitut ion of
Caro li ngian minusc ule for the Vi sigothic script .
In her
study of the scriptori um of Sahagu n , Shailor conc luded that
" a who le new generatio n of scribes trained in caro lingian
{
5 6 Trac ing the use of has te and tassa ta in eleventh
and twe l ft h-century spain is extreme ly difficult in that
the terms tend to appear mainly in f ueras, almo st all o f
whic h s urvive only in later co pies that were frequently
revised .
see , however , the c harter of 1 0 90 in ACL , 4 : 5 3 9 8 6 t hat refer s to serving i n fassata . For the ear liest use
o f in haste in Leon , see James F . Power s , " The origin s and
Deve lopment of Munic ipal Military Service in the Leone se
and Castilian Reconques t , 8 0 0 - 1 2 5 0 , " Traditio 2 9 ( 1 9 7 0 ) : 9 0
n. 2 1 .
see also his discussio n i n " Frontier competition
and Lega l Creativity : A Cast ilian-Aragonese case Study
B ased o n Twelfth-Century Municipal Military Law . " spec ulum
52 ( 1 9 7 7 ) : 4 6 9 - 7 5 .
I n hi s A society organi zed For war : The I berian
Municipal Militias in the central Middle Ages , 1 0 0 0- 1 2 8 4
( Berke ley , 1 9 8 8 ) , chap . 1 , 1 3- 3 9 , Powers doe s not re­
addres s the que stion of when in haste began to replace in
fassa t a . Overal l , he often doe s not give suffic ient weight
t o t he problems inherent with t he f ueras. To contend , for
example , that cash payment in lieu o f mi litary service
( fassa tari a ) was already establ i s hed c . 1 0 1 7 based on it s
a ppearance in the Fuera o f Le6n , ignore s the fact that the
e arlie st text of that document dates to the early twelfth
cent ur y and shows obvious sign s of interpo lation . ( See
Garcia de Valdeavellano et al . , E l Fuero de Le6n, 1 3 - 1 6 . )
5 7 Luis Garcia de Valde avel lano , origenes de la
burgues i a en la E spana medieval ( Madr id , 1 9 69 ) , 1 3 4 - 3 8 ;
Powers , " Fro nt ier competitio n , " 4 6 8 .
187
I
begins to appear around 1 1 1 0 . " s s
Some o f the scribes us ing
the new script may have been Frenc h native s , suc h as the
Bernardo or Barto lomeo that Shai lor finds at Sahagun .
These men wo uld have been naturally inc lined to li st price s
in terms o f denarii .
other scribes at S ahagun using the
new script , such a s Ordofio , probably were native Spaniards .
In endeavoring to learn the new caro lingian hand , they may
we ll have as simil ated new vocabulary at the same time . s 9
Indeed , the term denarius seems to have been unf ami liar
enough in the early twelfth century that it baff led some
scribes working at Sahagun .
Twice in those document s the
vernac ular form dinero is rendered as linero . 6 o
5 8 S hailor , " Sc i ptorium, " 4 4 .
5 9 See , for example , the doc uments in Jo se Maria
Fernande z Cato n , ed . , " Doc umento s leoneses en escritura
visigotica : Fondo M. Bravo del archivo hist6rico dioce sano
de Leon . " Arc hivo s Leoneses 2 7 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 9 9 - 1 4 6 . one o f the
texts records a purc hase of land in 1 0 9 7 by Count Froila
and hi s wife in whic h the price is given simply as 4 0 0
" solido s " ( 1 40 - 4 1 no . 1 7 ) . Fernande z j udged t he scr ipt to
only show some Carolingian inf luence . Another purchase by
the same party , howeve r , he de scribed as showing strong
caro lingian inf l uence . This time the scribe was c aref ul to
note that the price was " 5 0 so lido s of denar ii " ( 1 3 7 - 8 no .
15 ) .
6 0 one c ase i s t he document recording Mufio Perez ' s
mortgage agreeme nt . The second is a s ale of 1 1 0 9 for the
price of " una mula aprec iata in septemcentos ( sic ) solidos
et trec ento s so lido s in liteira et I I I I 0r centos so lido s in
lineiro s . "
( Sahagun , 3 : 3 9 6 - 9 7 no . 1 0 5 3 , 5 4 7 - 4 8 no . 1 1 6 8 . )
The confusion may have stemme d from t he s imil ar forms of 1
and d then in u se at Sahagun .
see Shai lor , " scriptorium ,
5 3 - 5 4 . Liteira i n the above price I suspect means a
measure o f c loth ( from linteari us ) whic h occasional ly
appear s in other price s as lenzos . See , for example , " in
precio una lor ic a & uno mulo & XXX lenzo s . " Angel
Rodriguez Gonzale z , ed . , E l tumbo del monasterio de san
Martin de Castaneda ( Leon , 1 9 7 3 ) , 2 1 1 no . 1 6 0 ; cf Alonso ,
Diccionar io , s . v .
lenzal . "
II
{
II
188
on the other hand , the use of a more s pecialized
vocabu lary in commercial transac tions probably ref lec t s
more t han j ust the inf luence o f caro lingian sc ript .
Be side s the appearance o f denarius , charters o f this period
also begin to employ the more general term monet a , whic h
surprising ly does not s ur face in earlier Leone se source s . 6 1
A charter from Portugal dated 1 0 9 1 , for example , refer s to
" so lidos argenteis ab mo neta domno Adefonsi regi s . "
A
charter of 1 1 0 4 from Sahagun , wr itten in Carolingian
scri pt , refers to " solitus ( sic ) quale moneta corrueri t "
and the forged fuero of Salas speaks of " mo nete terre . " 6 2
We also f ind s poradic mention o f moneta publica and moneta
regi s . 6 3
(
The use of suc h phrases might ref lect a growing
6 1 Le s s frequently, the term n umm u s also appe ar s in
s ubstitut io n for either denar ius or moneta .
See " so li do s
numorum " in a n agreement o f 1 1 2 0 in Martin Duque , Leire ,
See a l so
3 56 - 5 7 no . 2 6 5 ; cf . Sahagun , 3 : 5 3 5- 3 7 no . 1 1 6 0 .
the j udicial sentence of 1 0 9 0 that spoke o f 3 0 " so lido s
numero regi s . " ACL , 4 : 5 3 8 no . 1 2 4 9 . The price decree s past
at compostela in 1 1 33 also use n umm u s .
see HC , book 3 ,
chap . 3 3 .
6 2 Gomes Marques de Abre u and Gome s Marque s , " From
County to K ingdom , " 3 2 0 -2 1 ; S ahagun , 3 : 4 5 9 - 6 0 no . 1 1 0 4 .
The f uero o f Salas probably dates to the twelfth cent ur y .
see Martine z Diez , Fuero s loc a le s , 2 1 - 2 2 , 2 1 9 - 2 1 no . 5 1 ;
c f . Serrano , Arlanza, 1 8 1 - 8 5 no . 9 6 .
6 3 See t he purchase in 1 1 1 3 for 3 0 0 so lido s " publice
monete " in S ahagun , 4 : 3 7 - 3 9 no . 1 1 9 0 . See also the pe na lty
clau se in a royal charter of 1 1 2 8 , which c al led for payment
of " mi l le so lido s publice monete . " Enrique cal Pardo , ed . ,
E l monasterio de San salvador de Pedro so en Tierra de
Trasanc o s : Coleccion docume nt al ( La Corufi a , 1 9 8 4 ) , 2 3 9 no .
4.
See a l so the cit at io n from B arce lona dated 1 1 1 8 in
Botet , Les monedes , 5 5 , " mancusada de monete publice
Barchinone . " Finally, see the later sale of 1 1 7 7 for 1 2
" so l idos publice monete " i n Augusto Quintana Prieto , ed . ,
Turnbo viejo de san Pedro de Monte s ( Leon , 19 7 1 ) , 3 1 8 - 1 9 no .
189
(
sense within the kingdom that there was now an ident if iable
coinage of the realm .
Whi le Alfonso VI mo st likely was not
the first mo narc h in Leo n to strike co in s , he did make
money more c ommonly avai lable by striking at least two
sizable issue s , the star- annulet and c hri stogram coins . 6�
overal l , however , the le ss-ambiguous terminology of
the twelfth-cent ury document s is pro bably in large part a
re sult o f Leon ' s increased c ommerc ial contac t with Latin
Europe at this time .
As more foreign merc hant s and
traveler s came to Leon-Cast i le , it became inevitable that
such voc abulary wo uld emerge .
As with the adopt ion of the
mark , using more " modern " notarial practices a llowed Leoncastile to participate more easily in the expanding economy
of Europe .
Of the se two c hange s , the adoption o f the mark was
clearly the more substantive .
It ref lec ted a re al c hange
in how transac tions were conducted .
The use of ingots
weighed by the mar k , in partic ular , he lped f ac ilitate
(
217.
" Solidos monete regi s " appears in a sale o f 1 1 0 6 ,
( Sahagun , 3 : 5 1 5 - 1 6 no . 1 1 4 5 ) and again in a penalty c lause
of 1 1 1 1 . ( Cal Pardo , s an S alvador , 2 3 5- 3 6 no 1 . ) The
phrase becomes more common at the close of the century .
6 4 A piece of land was sold in B urgo s in 1 0 9 8 for 1 5 0
It
" so lido s bone monete " ( Garrido , B urgo s , 1 : 1 0 8 no . 5 1 ) .
is tempting to interpret t hi s as a reference to Alfonso ' s
reform coinage that we have suggested was introduced in the
1 0 9 0 s . Older document s , however , also u se s imil ar
language , i . e . , " solidos . . . argenteis boni s , quos magnus et
placibi le s " in a sale o f 1 0 5 0 ( ACL , 4 : 2 5 8- 5 9 no . 1 0 7 3 ) or
" so lidi s argenti obtimi " in one of 1 0 6 7 ( Sahagun , 3 : 3 7 3 - 7 4
no . 66 1 ) . C f . the s ale of 1 1 1 1 whic h evaluated payment in­
kind as worth 2 0 0 solidos " mo nedam obtimam . " ( Sahagun ,
4 : 2 7 -2 9 no . 1 1 8 3 . )
190
c
exchange with foreign market s using that weight standard .
( I f Leon was the f ir st of the Latin I berian kingdoms to use
the mark , neighboring Christ ian states soo n followed its
lead . ) 6 s
The adoption of terms like denarius and moneta by
Leonese scri :be s did not corres pond to a " real " change , but
this i s prec isely the point that must :be held in mind .
The
appearance o f these terms at the beginni ng of the twelfth
century shou ld not be mistaken as signaling the
introduc tion of the denarius in Leon-casti le .
marked an updating of notarial practice .
Rather , it
Leonese document s
i n the twe lfth century frequently would continue t o li st
prices in terms of solidi argenti with no furt her
modification .
Yet , when the compo nent parts of the so lidus
were described , the use of t he idiosyncratic term argent us
vanished in f avor of denarius and moneta . 66
65 Ramiro II ( 1 1 3 4 - 3 7 ) o f Aragon twice received silver
bullio n weighed in marks from the monastery of San Juan de
La Peiia .
See Ubieto , " Doc umento s , " pt . 1 , 1 1 6- 1 8 no s . 4 - 5 .
Likewise , King Garcia IV Ramirez o f Navarre ( 1 1 3 4- 5 0 )
received bul lion weighing 1 7 0 marks from the monastery of
Leire i n 1 1 4 1 . Martin Duque , Leire , 4 1 2 - 1 3 no . 3 1 4 .
6 6 The solidus a s a unit of weight comprised o f 8
argenti likewi se seems to have all but disappeared in the
twelfth cent ury .
See , however , the art ic le by Jose M .
Correia Nora , " A Note o n the Arenc;o as a Unit of Weight , "
in PMC I I I , 4 0 7- 1 0 , whic h shows the arge nt us used as
subdivis ion of the mark as late as 1 2 8 2 in Portugal .
(
I
FIVE
THE SINEWS OF
�� ,
1 1 0 9- 1 1 2 6
War begun without good prov1s1on o f money . . . i s but as
a breathing of strength and blast that wil l quickly
pas s away . Coin i s the sinews o f war .
-Rabelai s , Gargantua and Pantagruel
Alfonso VI ' s dec ision to betroth his daughter Urraca
to Alfonso I of Aragon provoked oppo sition from the out set ,
partic ular ly in the western regions of Galic ia and
Raymond o f Burgundy , Urraca ' s f ir st hus band and
Portugal .
count of Galic ia , had once held realistic ho pe s of
succeeding Alfonso VI unt i l the king ' s son sancho was born
late in the reign .
When Raymond died unexpectedly in 1 1 0 7
and Sanc ho was kil led the following year at the batt le o f
Uc le s , the crisis of succe ssio n was born which led Alfonso
VI to propose the marriage of hi s daughter to Alfonso I of
Aragon .
The Galic ian fact ion , however , clung to hope s o f
an independent kingdom under Alfonso Raimundez , the yo ung
so n of Raymo nd and Urrac a .
At t he s ame time , Henry of
Burgundy and his wife the infan t a Teres a began to foster
their own ambition to rule independently in the Port ugue se
territory .
Even before the old king ' s death in June o f 1 1 0 9 ,
[
ef fort s may have been made to have the pro spec tive marri age
191
192
(
o f his daughter co ndemned by Rome on the grounds of
consanguinity .
( Urraca and Alfonso I of Aragon shared a
common great -grandfather in sanc ho the Great of Navarre . )
Neverthe le s s , after her father ' s pas s i ng , urraca determined
to go ahead with the plan and married Alfonso of Aragon by
early Oc tober .
Alfonso I , for h i s par t , also seemed eager
to make the marriage work.
A nuptial agreement drawn up
shortly after the wedding demo ns tr ates his wil li ngness to
compromi se by al lowing f avorable terms o f inheritance to
the Leonese queen . l
Private document s from the s prlng of 1 1 1 0 regularly
cite the two as ruling in unison and several royal charter s
survive that were exec uted either j o intly or with one
sovereign conf irming the act of t he other . 2
The couple ,
however , did not issue a new coin proc laiming the union of
their realms as some numismati st s and hi storians have
propo sed . 3
{
Whether urraca struck coin in this f ir st year
1 Reilly , Urrac a , 5 4 - 6 4 .
2 see for example the j oi nt donations to santa Maria
de Valbanera in Jose Ange l Lema P ueyo , co leccion
diplomatic a de Alfonso I de Arag6n y P amplona ( 1 1 0 4- 1 1 3 4 )
( San sebastian , 1 9 9 0 ) , 4 7- 5 2 nos . 3 8 - 3 9 , c f . 6 7 no . 4 8 .
See also Reilly , Urrac a , 6 5 - 6 6 .
3 There are three coins that have been suggested as
joint i s sues . Fir st is a type whi c h portrays two prof iles ,
evidently of a man and woman , f ac i ng eac h other on the
obverse . The reverse bear s the lege nd IMPERATOR or , in
some c ases , LEONI CIVI . Alvaro campaner y Fuertes in
" Restituci6n a d . Alfonso , e l Bat a l l ador , rey de Arag6n, de
una moneda con el titulo Imperato r , " Memorial Numismatico
E spanol 2 ( 1 8 6 8 ) : 1 55 - 6 2 , pro po se d that t he prof i le s
represented urraca and Alfonso I . His argument was
intrigui ng in that the motif i s s triki ngly similar to that
used on the gold excel lente of I sabel la and Ferdinand , the
193
'
of her reign i s uncert ain .
When s he did mint , however , the
coins wo uld be in her name alo ne .
The Opening Conf lict , 1 1 1 0 - 1 1 1 1
urraca and Alfonso ' s honeymoon , both maritally and
po litically speaking , was brief .
I n the spring of 1 1 1 0 ,
revo lt broke o ut in Galici a led by count Pedro Froilaz , the
guardian of the yo ung Alfonso Raimundez . 4
Alfo nso of
Aragon , known to history as the Batt ler , did not take this
chal lenge lightly .
By the s umme r , he was 1n the provinc e
attempting t o put down the rebe llion .
While urrac a
probably accompanied her husband , they seem to have quickly
quarre led and by June parted way s .
Without the queen ,
Alfonso had slim c hances of so lidi fying support in Galic ia .
(
next Leone se queen to marry an Arago ne se kin g .
Nevert he le s s , a hoard find in t h i s century demonstrate s
that the piece almost certainly be lo ng s to the later reign
of Alfonso VII .
see c hapter 8 , n . 4 1 be low .
second ly , sanc he z Albornoz i n " Primitiva
organi zaci6n , " 3 2 9 - 3 0 n . 6 5 , mis interpreted a coin in the
name of Alfonso that displays two cro s se s and two alphas on
the reverse field .
( For the coin see catalogue 3 , no . 1 1 . )
De spite the repeated appearence of the letter alpha on
Leonese coins of thi s era , Sanchez Alborno z saw the letters
as t\V'O Vs and conc luded they stood for urrac a , thus seeing
it as a j oint i s sue . The suppo s ition make s it s way into
Rei lly , Urrac a , 2 7 1 n . 6 3 .
Finall y , L ui s Domingo Figuerola in " Una moneda de
Urrac a y Alfonso , " Numisma 2 2 ( 1 9 8 2 ) : 2 9 3- 3 0 0 , pre se nted a
singular example of a coin t hat reads URRACA REGI on one
side and ANFVS RE on t he reverse as a j o int is sue of the
prince s . The coin , however , i s better treated as an
inadvertent mule of two dies perhaps from the mint at
Segovia , a town whic h was alternat ively occupied by the
Leonese and Aragonese during the anarc hy of Urraca • s reign .
4 Alfonso R aimundez was probably born March 1 , 1 1 0 5 .
In 1 1 1 0 , then, he was only about f ive year s o ld . Re i l ly ,
Urraca , 4 5 n . 2 .
194
(
Ironical ly , some of the Galician nobility had origina l ly
dec lared for the royal couple inc l uding, it seem s , Bisho p
Diego Gelmirez o f santiago .
B ut the campaigns of the
Aragonese king heightened the unre st and drove the bis ho p
towards the separatist camp . s
Having achieved nothing, t he B attler was forced to
abandon hi s objective .
The Almoravids had f inal ly taken
t he taifa of Zarago za and Alfonso I rushed back to deal
with the aff airs of hi s native Arago n .
Meanwhile
co ndemnation of his marriage arrived that summer from Rome
and Urraca , meeting with the leading pre late s of the realm ,
agreed to separate from him .
The two were brief ly reunited
at Christmas , but after that any pretense of ruling as
j oint sovereigns was abandoned .
Though there wo uld be more
uneasy accords , the two were now open rivals . 6
In the s pring of 1 1 1 1 , Alfonso I occ upied the c ity o f
To ledo , the prize posses sion of the Leonese crown .
quickly led to open war with Urrac a .
This
Anticipating the
conf lict , count Henry of Portugal left for France to rai se
auxi liary forces .
(
Urrac a astutely seized the opportunity
5 Diego Gelmirez ' loyalty to Urraca and Alfonso had
from the out set been tenuo us .
I f there was an appeal to
Rome before Alfonso VI ' s death to have the pro spec tive
marriage condemned , Diego was probably involved . ( Reilly ,
Urrac a , 5 4 - 5 5 ) . Nonethe le s s , i n the opening year o f the
reign , he appears to have s ided with the hermandad that
f avored the couple . His s ubsequent al liance with Pedro
Froi laz was hi s first open breac h with the crown . See
F letc her , cat apult , 1 3 1 - 32 .
6 For the event s of the s umme r of 1 1 1 0 see Reil ly ,
urrac a , 6 1 - 7 1 ; cf . Fletcher , catapult , 1 3 1 - 3 2 .
195
I
to make peac e with Bisho p Diego Ge lmirez and the party
supporting her son , undermining any hope s Henry had of
co unting on the aid of the Raimundist factio n .
In
recognitio n of the reconciliat ion between mother and son ,
the young Alfonso was crowned king by Bi sho p Diego at
santiago in September of 1 1 1 1 and in t heory now ruled with
urrac a . 7
urraca had not remained in s antiago for the coronation
but moved eastward to confront t he Arago ne se .
By
September , s he was in Burgos where s he i s s ued several
charter s , one being a donation to the monastery of Ofia o f
the vi llage of Altable along with addit io nal property . 8
In
return for the gift , she was given a gold c u p valued at
5 , 0 0 0 so lidi jaccensi s , 9 a silver cup weighing 14 marks , a
(
7 Rei l ly , Urraca , 72-7 3 ; f or t he c oronation of Alfonso
see He , book 1 , chap . 6 6 .
8 Thi s document survive s in two distinct versions .
one is issued in the name of Urrac a , " totius Hispanie
regina " while the other claims to be i s s ued j ointly by
Alfonso " tot ius Hi spanie rex " with his wife Urraca
" regi na . "
( See I sabe l ocej a Gonzalo , Documentac i6n del
monasterio de san Salvador de ofia ( 1 0 32 - 1 2 8 4 ) ( Burgos ,
1 98 3 ) , 32 - 3 4 no s . 3 9- 4 0 ; also Lema P ueyo , Alfonso I , 6 8 - 7 1
no . 5 0 ; Alamo , Ofia , 1 : 1 6 7 no . 1 3 7 . ] Rei lly pointed out
that reconci li ation between the two at t hi s j uncture was
impo s sible . The two ver sions likely represent a c lever
design " to legitimize the ho ldings regardless of the
eventual victor . " { Reilly , Urraca , 7 3 - 7 4 n . 9 9 . ) That t he
grant was originally Urrac a • s i s s upported by the fact that
it was drawn up by a canon from Compos te la o ften seen in
her charters after this and who later served in the
c hancery o f Alfonso VI I . Another version of the document ,
in both sovereigns ' name s and with a s lightly different
date , survives in a later copy from San Mi llan . See
Ledesma Rubio , s an Millan, 2 2 0 - 2 2 no . 3 32 .
9 The c opy from san Mil lan give s 2 , 0 0 0 so lidi
j accensis as the value of the c up instead of 5 , 0 0 0 . The
196
(
s ilver dish ( mensori um ) weighing 3 0 marks and seven large
spoons ( coclearia ) each weighing a mark a s we ll as other
unnamed items . 10
These as sorted artifac t s f rom the monastery were more
than token gifts pre se nted to urraca in apprec iation for
her grant of land . 1 1
De spite t he act being couched in
terms of a royal donat io n , the Ofia c harter repre sent s an
exchange of property for a s ubstantial amount of bullion
whic h was sure ly meant to be t urned into coin to help cover
the co st s of the impending war with Arago n . 1 2
we can be
certai n , the n , that if Urrac a had not minted before this
point , she was now forced to f ormulate some form o f
monetary po l ic y .
jaccensis was the royal denari us o f Aragon .
Its c itation
by name in thi s charter may indicate that the Ar agonese
coin was becoming fami liar in the eastern part s of the
Leonese realm . Cf . the sale of 1 1 0 1 pre served at san
Millan for " CCCC solidos de dinero s de I ak a . " Ledesma
Rubio , san Mil lan , 1 8 9- 9 0 , no . 2 8 3 . By the 1 1 2 0 s , the
See n .
j accensis i s c ited in doc uments from central Leon .
1 0 3 be low .
1 0 After the seven s poons , t he doc ument reads "et
cetera " implying that there was more bul lion .
1 1 For an example of token gifts , see the bi shop o f
Palenc ia giving the queen two s i lver bridles in 1 1 1 4 for
privi lege s he received . Abaj o Martin , Palenci a , 5 8 - 6 0 no .
2 3 . See also the dog and hunting spear presented to
Alfonso Raimundez for a grant he made j o intly with his
mother in July 1 1 1 8 in Antonio c . F loriano Curnbrefio , curso
general de paleografia y diplomatica espano la ( Oviedo ,
1946 ) , 2 : 34 .
1 2 The gold Urraca received here and in f uture
transactions was presumably used to purc hase more si lver .
There i s no indication that she or any o f the Christian
princes in spain were minting go ld at this t ime .
{
197
c
The Evidence o f the coins
In total , there are five basic coin type s that bear
the name urrac a . l 3
since there i s no other monarch by that
name in I ber ian hi story , all t he se c an be assigned
unhe sita nt ly to the daughter o f Alfonso VI .
All five types
are rare and not a single spec imen i s known in the context
of a hoard .
Thi s is odd in that urr ac a ' s reign was one of
almo st const ant civil war which would normal ly encourage
the interment of coins .
As with the ofia grant above ,
document s througho ut the reign s how the queen ac quiring
bullio n .
There i s little reason to suppose , then , that
mint o ut put was exceptionally smal l .
More than like ly , the
sc arc ity of her coins today is due to subsequent recoinage s
carried out by her succe ssor s .
whic h we wil l return .
But this i s a topic to
For now , we must realize that a lac k
o f hoards prevents the e stabli shment o f a firm c hronology
of type s .
Nonethe less , the coins themse lves when examined
in light of key po litical deve lo pments in the reign al low
us to form a rough chronology .
Of t he f ive type s , the o ne be st represented today in
the maj or museum collections i s a coin showing the head of
r
1 3 TWo coins are published in Rei lly, Urraca ,
following 2 0 4 .
Only one of these belo ng s t o Urrac a . The
one to t he right reads ANFVS REX and i s a coin that later
hoard evidence demonstrates circulated widely in the ear ly
thirteenth c entury .
It i s more than l ikely the so-c al led
pepi6n o f Alfonso VI I I .
See t he discuss io n in c hapter 9 .
See a l so c at alogue 5 , no s . 1 8- 1 9 .
198
(
a woman , fac ing front and wearing a crown ( hereafter called
ty:pe 1 ) .
The legend reads VRRACA RE .
The rever se has a
plain cross surro unded by the legend TOLETVO . l 4
It i s the
only co1n in urrac a ' s name to invoke that city .
Type 2 employs a more elaborate cro s s on the obverse
surrounded by the legend VRRACA REGI whi le t he rever se
di splays a c hr istogram identic al to that used by her
father .
The rever se legend on a l l known example s of thi s
ty:pe i s LEO CIVITAs . I s
A third, rarer type ( hereafter type
3 ) shows a pro f i le of the queen , crowned and f ac ing left .
The legend reads VRRACA REXA .
The rever se has a cro s s ,
with smaller cro sses in each quadrant .
Unlike type 2 , the
1 4 The trays of the ANS contain only 2 s amples of type
see catalogue 3 1 no . 1 .
1 . The MAN has 7 .
I n addition to
the MAN collec tion , Mercedes Rueda Sabater , " Cronologia de l
vel l6n caste l lano : Un c aso de sconcertante , " i n Araueo logia
medieval espano l a , I I congresso ( Madrid , 1 9 8 7 ) , 6 64 ,
examined the c abinets of Spani sh provinc ial museums as wel l
several Brit i s h collections ( primarily t he Fitzwilliam at
Cambridge ) . S he loc ated only 3 more example s of thi s type .
While no systematic search of auction catalo gues has been
undertaken , a cursory glance through the most-recent one s
amply demonstrates that urraca ' s coins are also rare in
See , for example , the periodic sale
private co llec tions .
catalogues publi shed by the Asoc iaci6n Numismatica E s panola
of B arce lona .
1 5 Catalogue 3 , no . 2 . The piece was unknown to
Hei s s , but Jose Luis Monteverde in " Notas sobre algunas
monedas no conocidas por Heis s , " part 2 , B IF G 8 ( 1 9 48 - 9 ) :
2 5 1 , expre ssed s ur prise that Hei s s had not c ome acro ss it,
for he had seen " various example s , " mo st likely in private
collections . The ANS has 1 spec imen and the MAN 2 . Rueda ,
"Crono logia, " 6 6 3 - 6 4 , fo und an additional 2 in other
muse ums .
{
199
(
reverse legend here doe s not specifically invoke the c ity
of Leo n .
Rather , it reads LEGIONEN S I S . l6
The fourth type i s divided i nto two di stinct
variet ie s .
Type 4a has a cro s s on the obverse and the
legend reads VRRACA RQ G .
omega . )
( The symbo l is usually read as an
The reverse motif i s made up of two alphas and two
omegas and i s vaguely remi ni sce nt of Alfonso ' s star-an nulet
type .
The reverse legend reads LEO CIVITAS . l 7
Type 4b i s
identical to type 4 a with one important difference .
I n the
reverse lege nd , LEO CIVITAS is replaced with s B ANTONINI
or at time s BEATI ANTONN .
Thi s is a c lear reference to the
see of P alencia , which was dedicated to st . Antoninus of
Apamea or San Antoli n , as he was popul arly cal led in
I ber ia .
we know from a bull o f Pasc hal I I that by 1 1 1 6
there was a mint i n Palenc ia to whic h the cathedral chapter
had partial c laim . l B
(
1 6 The ANS has 1 s pecime n , the MAN none .
see
c atalogue 3 , no . 3 . Cf . Alvare z Burgos et al . , cata logo
general , no . 1 4 . The a uthors imply that they s aw several
examples s ince they give a range of weight s for the type ,
but Hei s s is the only so urce c ited .
1 7 Cat alogue 3 , no . 4a . Neither t he ANS nor the MAN
have this coin . Heis s , Las monedas , 5 no . 2 , gave his
source a s the Real Academia de l a Historia . There i s also
o ne s pec imen recorded i n Pedral s y Mo l i ne , Catalogo de
Vidal ouadr as , no . 52 8 9 .
1 8 The ANS has 1 s pecimen of thi s type and the MAN
another .
( See c atalogue 3 , no . 4b . ) For Pasc ha l ' s bull
see Aba j o Marti n , Palen c i a , 62 - 6 3 no . 2 5 . Manue l Gi l y
Flores , " Marcas de tal ler 6 zeca de lo s monedas hi spano­
cri stianas , " RABM 1 ( 1 8 9 7 ) : 3 8 5 , mi stakenly assigned this
coin to the monastery of San Antolin del E sla, loc ated j ust
sout h of the c ity of Le6 n . Thi s attribution was reiterated
by , among others , Jaime L lui s Navas in " Aspectos de la
organi zaci6n legal de la amonedaci6n en la Edad Media
200
(
Finally , t here i s type 5 .
obverse with t he legend
VRRACA
It has a cro s s on the
REGI .
The reverse reads
CIVITAS and c arrie s an unusual central motif .
LE O
Thi s is
comprised of a cro s s , a star and what appear to be two
letter Es , tho ugh some have interpreted the last as small
cast le turrets .
The coin is known from a single specimen
in the Bibliotheque National of Paris . l9
In estab li shing a chrono logy for the f ive coins , we
can take as a po int o f departure Urrac a ' s claim to Toledo .
When her marriage to Alfonso I of Aragon began to unrave l ,
control of Toledo became a n immediate point o f c ontention
between the two monarc hs .
Alfonso occ upied the city ln
1 1 1 1 but urrac a appear s to have re-gained contro l by 1 1 1 3
mainly through t he loyalty of count Alvar Fafie z .
Alvar
Fanez , however , i s reported to have been kil led in 1 1 1 4 in
( or near ) Segovi a .
{
The documentary source s are vague as to
C aste llana , " Numisma 9 ( 19 5 9 ) : 3 5- 3 6 . The monastery to
which Gi l y F lores referred did claim to house relic s o f
t he s aint . ( See t he f oundation charters o f 1 0 3 8 in ACL ,
4 : 1 0 5 - 1 6 nos . 9 7 0 and 9 7 1 . ) . Neverthe less , there are no
grounds for as signing it thi s coinage . The church of
Palenc ia in Urrac a ' s day was c learly known as San Anto lin ' s
and al so probably c laimed some of the saint ' s remains . For
the po pular spread o f the cult of san Anto lin in Leon in
the early-eleventh century , see Bishko , " Fernando , " 1 0 - 1 4
( tho ugh he s li ghtly mi sinterpret s one of the foundat ion
charters to san Anto lin de l E s la--Rodrigo appear s to be
Sanc ha ' s c urre nt husband not her vas sa l ) . see a lso ,
Nightingale , " Pe pperer s • Gui ld , " 1 2 6 -2 7 .
1 9 catalogue 3 , no . 5 . ; c f . Alvare z Burgos et al . ,
c at alogo genera l , 1 9 . Rueda i n Primeras ac ufiac ione s , 3 3 3 4 , provides an exce l lent photo of thi s piece a s s he doe s
with many of t he coins o f this era . Neither s he nor
Alvare z Burgo s , however , have transcribed the legend
correctly in t he ir text s .
20 1
(
what fol lowed , but both the towns of segovia and Toledo
seemed to have t hen transferred their al legiance to the
Aragonese . 2 o
In the meant ime , the Raimundist party had not been
complete ly satisfied by the peace made between urrac a and
her so n in 1 1 1 1 .
They continued to demand that Alfonso
Raimunde z be granted independent rule in Galic ia .
By
oc tober of 1 1 1 6 , however , urraca achieved a bril liant
so lution to the problem .
Though we have no royal document
recording the terms of t he accord , it i s c lear from later
evidence that the queen at thi s time agreed to let Alfonso
have tit le to hi s own kingdom .
This was not Galic ia , as
hi s supporters had ho ped , but the kingdom of TO ledo . 2 1
By
this maneuver , Urrac a so ught to both separate the boy from
hi s Galician entourage and at the same time hope f ully
reas sert Leone se aut hority in TO ledo .
B y November 1 1 1 6 ,
Alfonso Raimunde z had moved south to the Duero in the
company of the arc hbis ho p of Toledo where he granted his
first known charter , styling himse lf " Hi ldefonsus Raymundi ,
2 0 For Alfonso I ' s entry into TO ledo in April 1 1 1 1 and
the assass inat io n of Alvar Fanez in 1 1 1 4 s ee E nr ique
F l6re z , ed . , "Anales to ledanos I , " in E S , 2 3 : 3 8 8 . For
Urraca and Alvar Fafiez ruling in Toledo in 1 1 1 3 , see the
charter in Jo se Antonio Garcia Luj an , ed . , Privileqio s
reale s de la catedral de To ledo ( 1 0 8 6 - 1 4 6 2 ) ( TO ledo , 1982 )
2 : 2 5 -2 7 no 4 . C f . Rei lly, Urraca , 8 9 - 9 0 , 9 7 .
2 1 The peace of 1 1 1 6 i s known primarily through the
see a l s o Rei l ly , Urrac a ,
account in HC , book 1 , c hap. 1 1 3 .
1 1 4 - 1 7 ; F letc her , c atapult , 1 42 - 4 3 .
(
202
(
Dei gratia rex . 2 2
I
I
He probably did not gain entrance to
the city of To ledo it se lf , however , for another year . 2 3
The reality o f thi s j oint division of power between
mother and son after 1 1 1 6 is ref lected several years later
in private donations to Sahagu n .
A grant of 1 1 2 0 note s ,
ll regnante Adefonsus in To leto . . . regina Vrrac a in
Legione .
II
A grant of 1 1 2 2 , drawn up by another scribe ,
make s it even clearer , " regnum imperii regina domna urraca
in Legione et filio eius Adefo nso in To leto . 11 2 4
Alfonso
Raimunde z wo uld in time strike his own coin in Toledo ,
declaring himsel f king there . z s
Returning to the f ive coin types o f urraca , it seems
c lear that type 1 , picturing t he queen facing front and
2 2 The charter , dated November 2 7 , was done " in vi lla
Doneqe ll which is pre sumably t he town o f Villabafi.ez j us t
east o f Valladolid . See Migue l c . Vivancos G6me z , ed . ,
Docume ntos del monasterio de s anto Domingo de si lo s ( 9 5 4 1 2 5 4 ) ( Burgo s , 1 98 8 ) , 3 8 - 3 9 no . 3 1 . Rei lly, Urrac a , 1 1 61 7 , writes it was granted f ar to the south of Villabafi.e z ,
but I be lieve this is an oversight . Alfonso had previously
been cited in charters of hi s mother , but this i s the first
known to be exec uted by hi s own authority . He was
approximately eleven years o ld at the time . See Lui s
sanchez Belda , Docume nt o s reale s de l a edad media
referentes a Galicia : Catalogo de lo s conservado s en l a
secci6n de c lero de l Archivo Hi st6rico Nacional ( Madrid ,
1 9 5 3 ) , 9 2 no . 1 8 7 ; Bernard F . Reilly , " The Chancery of
Alfonso VI I of Le6n-casti l la : The Period 1 1 1 6- 1 1 3 5
Reconsidered , " speculum 5 1 ( 1 9 7 6 ) : 2 4 5 .
2 3 According to t he Anales toledanos, Alfonso
Raimunde z entered Toledo o n November 1 6 , 1 1 1 7 , though some
modern historians have argued for 1 1 1 8 . see F lorez ,
" Anales toledanos I , " 3 8 8 . Rei l ly , urrac a, 1 2 6 n . 2 7 ,
agrees with 1 1 1 7 .
2 4 Sahagun , 4 : 6 3 - 6 4 no . 1 2 0 4 , 6 6- 6 7 no . 1 2 06 , see also
6 4 - 6 5 no 1 2 0 5 .
2 5 See catalogue 3 , no . 9 .
II
(
I
I
203
(
reading VRRACA RE TOLETVO must date to t he ear ly part of
her reign .
When her husband occ upied To ledo between c . 1 1 1 4
and 1 1 1 7 , it i s po s s ib le that urraca c ontinued to strike
coins from another mint location that invoRed Toledo in the
legend for s he had by no means given up c l aim to that c ity
or kingdom .
B ut after a llowing her son title to Toledo in
1 1 1 6 , her c laims sho uld have stopped .
The year 1 1 1 6 then
can serve a s a termin us an te quem for t he productio n of
coin type 1 .
Another reason for placing type 1 ear ly in urrac a ' s
reign is that it has features in common with the last
coinage of her f ather .
struck two i ss ue s .
Alfonso in his later reign had
The first of the se , the star-annulet
coin , used the s pe l l ing TOLETVM and employed a serie s of
pellet s in the rever se f ield as privy mark s .
On his second
coin , the chri stogram type , TOLETVM was changed to the
idio syncratic TOLETVO and the privy mark s were moved from
the field to the legend .
Type 1 o f urraca retains thi s
same rendering of TOLETVO and also use s a similar system of
pellets in the legend .
These characteri stic s suggest that
type 1 c lo se ly succeeded her f ather ' s last i s s ue .
By the
same reaso ning , type 2 of Urraca , with its christogram
motif , also owes an o bvious debt to the c hri stogram coin of
her father and is be st regarded as another o f her early
issues .
(
Alfonso VI had achieved a fairly control led system of
minting, seemingly under the central s upervi sion of an
204
(
offic ia l called a preposi t u s .
His l a s t coin , the
chri stogram piec e , was struck in t hree main mint s that
adhered to the same basic de sign with the reverse
s
signat ure s a lternating between TOLETVO , LEO C IVITAS and
IACOBI .
Neither type 1 or type 2 o f Urrac a employed thi s
system o f alternating legends .
Type 1 a lways read TOLETVO
and Type 2 a lways LEO CIVITAS .
It i s po ss ible that they
were struc k simultaneously at the mint s of Toledo and Leon .
In the confusion of the opening year s of the reign , the
crown may have cared little for seeing that these two mint s
issued coins of the same design .
Only t ype 4 of urrac a approaches t he system of
alternate mint s ignature s seen o n her f ather ' s last issue .
It s urvive s with two basic signature s , LEO C IV ITAS and
ANTONINI for P alencia .
s
B
While this coin imitates the system
of her f at her , it also demonstrate s that by the time it was
struck t here had been a clear shift in terms o f mints .
The
signat ure s o f two of Alfonso VI ' s main mint s , To ledo and
Santiago , have dropped off the c oinage and been replaced by
Palenc ia .
I t therefore makes most sense to place this type
later in the reign .
While the disappear ance o f the To ledo
signat ure on type 4 is under standable from what we have
reviewed o f the reign so f ar , we are left wondering why
there i s no type 4 with a Compostela s ignature ?
I n fact ,
none o f the 5 coin types of Urraca c arry any reference to
(
Santiago de Compostela .
205
(
It i s c lear that under Urrac a not all mint s overtly
identified themselve s on the coins .
For example , we know
from a surviving c harter that the queen established a mint
at Sahagun in 1 1 1 6 , but there is no coin t hat is readily
identifi able as an is s ue of that mint . 2 6
Nonethe less , the
absence of a santiago signature is conspic uous s ince that
mint had signed under Alfonso
VI .
Indeed , dur ing that
reign, t he mint at compo stela appeared pro sperous .
Diego
Gelmirez fought hard to gain control o f it , and the
His tori a Compostelana treat s his succ e s s in t hi s regard as
a maj or achievement .
Within a year of Alfonso VI ' s deat h ,
the bi shop was c aref ul to obtain a bul l from P aschal I I
whic h co nf irmed hi s see ' s posses sions and inc l uded
prominent mention o f hi s mint ri ght . 2 7
From the start o f
Urraca ' s reign , however , t here was almost constant friction
between the queen and bi shop .
The lac k of a coin that
as soc iates her wit h compostela is sure ly t he res ult of this
conf lict .
civi l war continued, 1 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 4
At the beginning o f the struggle with Aragon in 1 1 1 1 ,
Urraca quickly made peac e with Diego Gelmire z and the
r
2 6 S ahagun , 4 : 4 7 - 4 9 no . 1 1 9 5 .
2 7 Paschal emphasi zed that t he mint was one of the
po s ses sions the c hurc h held by virtue of a legit imate grant
( " chirographis seu testamentis legitimis o bl at a sunt " ) , an
intere sting ref lection o n the importance o f the written
act . The bull , dated April 2 1 , 1 1 1 0 , is known by its
inc lusion in EC , book 1 , c hap. 3 6 ; c f . Santiago 3 : appendix,
7 7-7 9 no . 2 6
•
206
(
Galician party .
As the bishop crowned Alfonso Raimundez at
sant iago that September , she hastened eastward .
But i f the
queen hoped to bring the conte st wit h her hu sband to a
Count Henry had ret urned to
quick c lose she was mi staken .
the peninsula and , finding the queen ' s posit io n too strong ,
al lied with Alfonso of Arago n .
Their combined force s
defeated Urr ac a ' s army at the batt le o f candes pina in late
October .
A re lief army led by Bisho p Diego , with the
newly-crowned Alfonso Raimunde z accompanying him , was
subsequent ly ambus hed by the Aragone se at Viadangos near
Leon and the boy king narrowly esc aped capture . 2 a
Urrac a
had litt le c ho ic e but to retreat northwards to regroup for
the next seaso n .
The mo st conspic uous part of her preparations the
following spring was a continued effort to procure more
bullion to f inance the war .
Urraca repeatedly turned .
It was to the c le rgy that
As they attracted precious metal
in the form of donatio ns , churches and monasteries were a
favorite , almo st natural , target for monarchs in need of
cash .
The paria s of the eleventh century , moreover , had
probably helped make t he religious house s of Chr istian
Spain particularly ric h in gold and s ilver . 2 9
r
28 Reil ly , urraca , 7 4 -7 8 .
29 some c hurches had perhaps become unj ust ly ric h .
The bishop o f Le6n was acc used during urraca • s reign of
embe zz ling gold and si lver that Alfonso VI had donated to
be used for a�s .
See ACL , 5 : 9 5 - 1 0 1 nos . 1 3 7 0 - 7 1 . A
charter of Fernando I corroborates the practice of the
207
(
On March 2 7 , 1 1 1 2 , we find Urrac a at oviedo with
Bishop Pelayo , her f at her ' s staunc h ally and biographer .
Fo llowing her practice o f the previo us spring at Burgo s ,
she granted property to the see and conf irmed it s
privileges in exchange for bul lion .
The document recording
this transaction survive s only in copies which s how obvious
signs of interpo lation , so the s ums given must be treated
cautious ly .
According to the text , she received 1 , 0 4 0
solidi of silver and an additional 9 , 2 8 0 mencales " of pure
go ld . "
This gold may have been actual dinar s or possibly
represented go ld plate reckoned by t he weight of the
menc al . 3 o
(
Two days later , the queen made a donatio n to an
crown donating sums earmarked for the poor . see B lanco ,
Fernando I , 1 0 7- 1 0 9 no . 3 2 .
3 0 " ( A ) ccepimus de eiusdem ecc lesia the sauro novem
milia et duc enta et octuaginta aur i puri ssimi metkalia et
decem mi lia et quadrigento s so lido s de purissimo argento
magno po ndere maurisco ( sic ) . " The bi shop also gave the
quee n an additonal 3 0 0 solidi " de plata laborata , " for
see S anto s A . Garcia
corroboration of t he c harter .
Larragueta , ed . , Co lecc i6n de doc umento s de la catedral de
oviedo ( Oviedo , 1 9 62 ) , 3 4 5 -4 7 no . 1 3 1 ; c f . sanchez
Albornoz , " Notas , " 4 8 7 , who give s the date as 1 1 1 4 and the
sum o f go ld as 9 , 2 7 0 menc al s .
see a l so Rei lly, Urrac a , 7 9
n . 1 0 7 ; c f . 3 4 1 - 4 3 , though here Rei l ly inadvertent ly dates
the c harter to March 1 2 .
The reference to weighing the si lver by a Moorish
weight ( pondere ma uri sco ) is almost certainly an error
introduced by a copyist .
It i s f ar more likely that t he
original text read that the si lver was weighed by weight o f
t he marca . The s um , therefore , i s similar to t hat given
Mufio Perez by Sahagun in 1 1 0 0 in that the silver was sti ll
conceived of in so lidi of weight ( 1 5 . 5 6 grams ) but tho se
solidi were now reckoned by the mark .
( For Mufio Perez '
mortgage , see c hapter 4 above . ) . I f we assume the mark was
2 1 6 grams , 1 , 0 4 0 solidi of wei ght equaled almo st exact ly 7 5
marks , a s um comparable to what the queen acquired
el sewhere .
208
(
individual c anon at oviedo in return for a s ilver cup
weighing 1 5 0 solidi whic h was probably also destined for
the melting pot . 3 1
At some point after thi s , she vi sited santiago .
According to the His tori a compostelana , Urraca implored the
apostle ' s he lp in restoring peace to her kingdom and made
several donations to t he c at hedral .
In return , according
to the Histori a , the c hapter of santiago contributed to the
queen ' s cause . 3 2
The author may have exaggerated , but
according to his account , Urraca had already spent almost
all her father ' s treas ury on the war again st the Aragonese
and was in des perate need of additional funds to renew the
effort .
The c hapter gave her 1 0 0 ounces o f go ld and 2 0 0
marks of si lver from t heir treasury . 33
r
The s um of 9 , 2 8 0 mencales of go ld , howe ve r , i s more
s us pect . I n the Latin-Hi spanic state s , the mencal or
manc us was usual ly recko ned at 7 to the Roman ounce . ( see
appendix B ) . Henc e , t he s um listed here would equal a lmost
1 , 32 6 ounces .
I n comparison with the gold taken from other
c athedrals , this sum is very large .
3 1 " ( U ) na copa argentea et deaurata cent um
quinquaginta solidos po nderata puris simo argento et opere
o bt imo fabricat a . " Larragueta , Doc umento s de oviedo , 3 4 8 4 9 no . 1 32 .
3 2 The His tori a Compostelana • s account i s supported by
a c harter of Urraca pre served in Turnbo A of s antiago dated
May 1 4 . Thi s act , which granted land to S antiago between
the Tambre and Ulla rivers , was actual ly a confirmation of
an ear lier act of urraca done in 1 1 0 7 at t he t ime of her
husband Raymond ' s death . The Histori a Compo s telana ,
however , c laims that in her vi sit of 1 1 1 2 s he also
bequeathed additional properties . The c harter doe s not
S antiago ,
refer to any bullion given the queen .
3 : appendix, 7 5- 7 6 no . 2 5 , 7 9- 8 0 no . 2 7 ; He , book 1 , chaps .
69-7 1 .
3 3 This part o f t he His tori a Compostel ana appears to
be t he work of Geraldo and not Muno Alfonso , who had served
209
(
on May 1 8 , 1 1 1 2 , Urrac a donated property to the
episcopa l see of L ugo in exc hange for 1 0 0 marks of
si lver . 3 4
Le s s than two weeks later , s he donated a vil lage
to t he monks at samo s and conf irmed other ho ldings for them
in exc hange for 3 6 more marks o f s ilver and two saddled
horses ( perhaps also for the war effort ) . 3 5
In t he charter
to L ugo we are told that the s il ver came from the church ' s
(
as treasurer f or the c athedral .
Geraldo probably began
working on his portion of the h istory c . l l 2 0 .
( See Reilly ,
" Hi storia Compostel ana , " 7 8- 8 5 . )
It i s hard to j udge ,
therefore , how acc urate the sums he report s are .
3 4 sanchez Alborno z , " Notas , " 4 8 7 n . 1 0 , reproduce s
t he grant a s it is preserved in t he Turnbo viejo o f Lugo ,
dated December ( kalendas ian uari a s ) . Another copy ,
however , give s the month as May ( kalenda s i uni i ) whic h is
more consist ent with urrac a • s itinerar y .
see sanc hez
Belda , Doc umento s reales , 9 3 no . 1 9 0 .
Typica l o f many c harters f rom this period , the grant
to L ugo on May 1 8 does not say t hat it was drawn up in
Lugo . The queen • s preci se whereabouts in these months i s
dif f ic ult t o track . Reilly as sumed she was in santiago
over E as ter sunday ( April 2 1 ) .
While this i s reasonable ,
the Hi s tori a Compostelana gives no indication o f the date
of her visit . Her c harter to Sant iago c oncerning the land
betwee n the Tambre and Ulla is d ated May 1 4 , but like the
grant o f May 1 8 to L ugo , it doe s not say where it was
exec uted . we know s he was at Tuy on Apr i l 2 8 . Reilly
f urt he r credit s evidence that she was at Astorga by May 1
and s u ggests that she returned to Santiago brief ly after
t hat .
( Rei lly, Urrac a , 8 0- 8 1 ; F letcher , c at apult , 1 3 5 ,
fo llows hi s chrono logy ) .
If t he c harter o f May 1 4 was
actual ly drawn up in Santiago , t he queen ' s party still had
enough t ime , it would seem , to arrive in L ugo by May 1 8 .
Another c harter of urrac a to Pedro Fro il az i s dated
simply May and to j udge by the c lerics pre sent was done at
compo ste la . The bis ho p of Lugo i s among t he witne sses .
( See s antiago , 3 : appendix, 8 1 - 8 3 no 2 8 . ) This last
docume nt , then , raises the po s s i bi lity t hat urraca held a
prolonged co urt in compo stela in e ar ly May where s he made
the exchange with Lugo . see f ur t her Sanchez Belda ,
Doc umentos reales , 9 2 - 9 4 nos . 1 8 7 - 9 0 .
3 5 Sanc he z Be lda , Doc umento s reales , 9 3 no 1 8 9 ;
Rei lly, Urrac a , 2 6 4 .
210
(
treasure ( gazaphi lacio) and was comprised of " sacred
ornament s of the altar . "
Urraca added t hat she needed t hi s
to pay dona ti va to her kni ghts . 3 6
By dona ti va , the queen
sure ly did not mean she intended to make gift s of the
actual c hurc h artifact s to her men .
The bul lion collected
here and elsewhere in the nort h during the s pring of 1 1 1 2
was meant to be turned into co in , j ust as the metal she
received from Ofia t he previous fall had been . 37
When Urrac a purc hased bul lion at B urgo s the previo us
September , she may have sent it back to Leon to be
coined . 3 8
It seems unlike ly , however , t hat the plate s he
acc umulated in Asturias and Galicia wo uld be sent all the
way to Leon to be minted .
dangerous option .
Thi s was both a c umbersome and
Though Alfonso of Aragon ' s whereabo ut s
are uncertain in t he se months , he seems to have moved
free ly t hrough the kingdom o ut side Galic ia and i s reported
to have expe lled the bis ho p of Leo n , amongst other s , from
his see . 3 9
Any movement of treasure therefore ran the risk
of conf i sc at ion .
(
Moreover , the queen • s grant to Lugo
3 6 " Et acc ipio de gazaphilac io beate Marie marchas
argenti ern de sacratis ornament i s altaris eiusdem Virgin i s
ut reddam donativa militibus mei s . " sanchez Alborno z ,
" Notas , " 4 8 7 n . 1 0 .
3 7 It i s worth noting t hat donati vum in the c las sical
sense represented a payment that t he emperor made to his
See Lewis and short , Latin
soldiers on s pecial occasio n .
D ictionary, s . v . " do nativum . "
3 8 Alternatively, she may po s sibly have struck t he
coin in Burgos . The ear liest evidence f or a mint in t hi s
town i s from a c harter o f 1 1 2 8 , two year s after her deat h ,
see the section o n Burgo s i n c hapter 7 be low .
3 9 Reilly , urraca , 8 0 - 8 1 .
211
c
implies that s he was pre ssed to pay her army soo n .
The
mo st expedient cour s e , if not the only one , was to strike
the bullio n in Galicia .
For this purpose , a mint existed
at Compo stela and po ss ibly another operated at nearby Lugo .
Neither of the se s ites were attractive c hoices from the
crown ' s point of v�ew .
According to l ater testimo ny , Alfonso VI had given t he
bi shop of Lugo t he r ight to a third of the mint pro f it s at
Lugo . 4 0
Although Urraca had managed to obtain bull io n from
Bishop Pedro I I ( c . 1 0 9 8- 1 1 1 3 ) of Lugo , the two were c learly
at odds .
The His tori a compostelana signals t he town of
Lugo out as having f avored Alfonso of Aragon dur ing hi s
campaigns of 1 1 1 0 .
E ither for t hi s or some other reason ,
Urraca had Pedro depo sed in 1 1 1 3 , at the counc i l o f
Palenc ia , and replaced with her own chaplain . 4 1
Given this
animo s ity, Urrac a may have been re luctant to hand over a
large mint seigniorage to him in the spring of 1 1 1 2 .
The option o f minting at compo stela, however , where
the cathedral c hapter was entitled to all prof it s , was even
les s in urraca ' s int erest .
How the queen ultimately
handled this dilemma we cannot s ay .
She might have
commandeered either mint , ignoring the respective episcopa l
(
4 0 For t he evidence re lating t o a possible mint at
Lugo , see chapter 7 be low.
4 1 The bis ho p o f Mondofiedo may also have been depo sed
around thi s time f or his s upport of Alfonso of Arago n .
Mufio Alfonso , the cano n o f Compo stela , was se lected t o f i l l
the see . See Rei ll y , Urrac a , 2 2 9- 32 . For Pedro I I of
L uge , see also Fletcher , Epi scopate , 6 5 - 6 6 .
212
(
c l aims , or s he may have e stabl i s hed a temporar y , emergency
mint . 4 2
Whic hever the c ase , of t he two type s that we have
as signed to the early year s of t he reign , type 1 , with her
portrait and t he legend VRRACA RE TOLETVO , i s perhaps the
be st c andidate for the coin she struck dur ing these
campaigns .
Thi s type survives today i n more numbers t han
type 2 and in more distinc t varietie s , s ugge st ing, albeit
very tentatively , that it was a more extensive coinage and
one minted in several location s . 4 3
certainly Urraca would
have had sound politic al reaso ns for c hoosing a coin t hat
emphasized her c laim to To ledo at a time when that c it y was
leaning toward t he c ause of her h usband .
In the end , Urraca • s c ampaigns in the summer of 1 1 1 2
were limited .
Henry of Portugal was kil led and an uneasy
truc e was reac hed with t he Aragone se .
Her experience in
Galicia that s pring , however , s urely under scored for her
the strength and independence t hat Diego Gelmire z had
ski l lf ul ly bui lt up in the northwest and the potential
(
42 Assuming that she had die s , t he actual proce s s of
striking the c oins was not that elaborate .
In the
t hirteent h cent ury, Alfonso X ' s so-c a l led moneda de l a
guerra appears t o have be e n struck i n many new mints , mo st
of which were sure ly temporary . The l ate Antonio Oro l
Pernas had i n h i s collectio n a s e t of die s for the moneda
de la guerra t hat were found together with blanks and
fini shed coins , suggestive o f a " trave li ng " mint .
4 3 From the combination of pe l lets in the obverse and
reverse legend , I have c atalogued 5 varietie s of type 1 .
One out of t he 3 samples o f type 2 employed pe llet s .
see
c atalo gue 3 , nos . 1 and 2 .
In excavations at composte la ,
only 1 coin of urrac a • s has been reported ; it was type 1 .
( An Aragones o bo l probably be longing to Alfonso I was a l so
found . ) see de Navasc ue s , " Ha l l az go s de compo stela , " 1 9 5 .
213
(
danger he posed especial ly as a champion of her son ' s
cause .
It did not take long for tension to rise between
them again .
The bis hop partic ipated in her c ampaigns the
following year , but he fai led to appear at the general
c uria and church counc i l held at Palenci a in the fall of
1 1 13 .
By the summer of 1 1 1 4 , Urraca was again in Galicia,
where , according to t he His tori a compos telana , she plotted
to take the bi shop pri soner but failed when he got wind of
the plan . 44
We are never told what was at the heart of the quarrel
between them in 1 1 1 4 or what the queen hoped to ac hieve by
taking Diego pr isoner .
The His tori a doe s say that before
she attempted to seize him, the queen laid c harges against
the bi shop which he successfully answered .
When she failed
to imprison him, urrac a was compelled to swear that she
wo uld refrain in t he f uture from doing harm to his person
or his honor, i . e . , hi s property and privi leges . 4 5
r
4 4 HC , book 1 , c hap . 1 0 2 and 1 0 4 . To corroborate the
trouble in Galic ia , both Reilly and Fletcher rely on an
o lder citation in L ui z Gonz aga de Azevado , Hi st6ria de
Portugal vol . 3 ( Li s bo n , 1 94 0 ) , 2 1 2 , to a charter dated
July 2 6 , 1 1 1 4 from the c athedral of Leon that refers to
discordia between the queen and Alfonso Raimunde z . This
document , however , is not included in the current
collection of the c at hedr al ' s doc ument s .
( See , ACL , 5 :
passim . ) Urraca ' s c harter of July 2 3 to the see of
Mondofiedo nonet he le ss seems to support the Bistoria • s
account of the conspiracy against Diego Ge lmirez .
See
Rei lly, Urrac a , 9 8- 9 9 ; Fletcher , Catapult , 1 3 7 .
4 5 HC , book 1 , chap . 1 02 . Reilly c oncl uded that
Urrac a meant to str ip Diego Gelmire z of his ent ire honor,
i . e . , all hi s land and right s , but thi s seems too
ambitious . While Urraca had succe s sf ully managed the
depo sition of Bishop Pedro of Lugo t he year be fore , Diego
214
(
It is likely that the is sue of the mint formed part of
Urraca • s quarrel with Diego Gelmirez .
Alfonso VI ' s
original grant to the bishop and c anons at compo stela
al lowing them all the profits from t he mint there had
c learly been exceptional and was done re luctantly .
We know
that after urrac a ' s deat h , her son and s uccessor , Alfonso
Raimunde z , attempted and eventually succeeded in rec laiming
half the mint revenue s . 4 6
Urraca perhaps had been
initially frustrated by Diego Gelmirez • contro l of the mint
when preparing for her c ampaign of 1 1 1 2 .
Now, by the
summer of 1 1 1 4 she had suf fered the de fection of Toledo
whic h translated to the lo ss of another mint and she may
we ll have argued with Diego at thi s j uncture that she could
no longer al low him to retain the entire profit at
composte la .
Legal ly s he had no case , but that would
explain her ultimate frustration and rash attempt to
imprison him .
The lack o f coinage from Santiago in the queen ' s name
seems to point to Urrac a ' s inabi lity to re so lve the is sue .
What compo stel a struck if not the c urrent coin of the
queen , however , remains largely unanswerable .
Bishop Diego
simply may have continued to strike the old chri stogram
coin of Alfonso VI .
(
By continuing a c oin with the legend
Gelmire z was f ar more powerful and wel l- co nnected in Rome .
It seems more likely that there were s pec ific is sues at
stake .
see Rei lly , Urrac a , 98- 9 9 .
4 6 See the section on composte la in c hapter 7 below .
215
(
ANFVS REX s IACOBI , Diego wo uld have at once avoided the
contested claim of urraca and al so conveniently recognized
the young Alfonso Raimunde z whom he himself had crowned .
Indeed , a parallel c an be seen in the ro ughly co ntemporary
civil war in England .
Here some magnate s , uns ure of their
allegiance to Stephe n , i ssued older immo bili zed type s of
Henry I . 47
While it seems unlikely that Diego wou ld have stopped
striking entirely , his o utput may have been muc h reduced
during the remainder of Urraca ' s reign . 48
(
The sources from
4 7 Evident ly , older type s in t he name of Wil liam were
also resurrected , but the Henry coins are more ple ntif ul .
It would seem to me that t he Henry legend c arried the
advantage of also recognizing the young Henry of Anj ou ,
though B lackburn contends that the se c oins were struck at a
time when he was not yet " a serious contender for the
throne . "
see Mark B lackburn , " Coinage and Currenc y , " in
The Anarc hy of King Stephen ' s Reign , ed . Edmund King
( Oxford , 1 9 9 4 ) , 1 8 8- 9 0 , 1 9 9 .
4 8 I n his de script io n of his j ourney to the papal
c uria i n 1 1 1 9 on behalf of Bi shop Diego , Geraldo re ported
talking with him an as sortment of foreign denarii- - 2 1 1
so lidi o f Poitou , 6 0 solidi of Milan , 2 0 solidi of
Toulo use .
( HC , book . 2 , c hap. 1 0 . ) While i t might be
argued that this coin was we ll suited for a foreign
journe y , at the same time one has to ask what was the
chapter at Santiago doing with this stockpile of foreign
c urrency .
Is it a ref lection that the mint at Compo stela
was not partic ularly active ?
Two coin types attributable to the mint at Santiago
should be noted here . T he f ir st is an anonymous coin with
a depiction of a saint with the accompanying legend of
The reverse type , however ,
IACOBI on the obverse .
re sembles a reverse type used on coins o f Fernando I I and
Alfonso IX which would s uggest it was contemporary to those
reigns .
( See catalogue 1 , no . 4 ; c f . c atalogue 6 , nos .
3 , 4 , 7 . ) Also , there i s a type , known only through Hei s s ,
reported to read IMPERATO BEATI _ACOBI .
( See catalogue 1 ,
no . 8 . ) Heiss assigned the coin to Alfonso VI I , t ho ugh
there is no way to rule out that it was minted as early as
the reign of Urrac a .
216
I
the period agree that the cont inued war s brought
devastation and lawles snes s and the normal f low of trade
and pi lgrims was sure ly curtai led . 4 9
Be sides the threat of
violence , the pi lgrim traf fic to Santiago may have been
furt her reduced by the strong attrac tion of Jerusalem in
these year s after the First crusade .
Last ly , the
prosperity o f the mint at composte la may have been
dimi ni shed as other mints sprang up i n the kingdom . so
The Royal Mint s at Palenc ia and Leon
A mint may have existed in Palenc i a under Alfonso VI ,
though none of his coins carry a s ignature or mark that is
overtly as sociated with that town .
A mint was certainly
operating in the town , however , by 1 1 1 6 .
In that year ,
Pasc hal I I confirmed the bisho p of P alenc ia ' s right " to
r
In addition, there is an ano nymo us coin carrying the
legend SAINCOVE which may be a garbled al lusion to Sanct us
Iacobus .
styli stic ally , however , t he coin re semble other
types from t he mint at Segovia and t he legend may have been
intended as SECOVIA. Examples of this coin were reported
in the collections of Heiss and Vidal Quadras y Ramon, but
subsequent specimens have not been publi shed .
See Hei s s ,
Las monedas , plate 2 , no . 2 6 ; Pedral s y Mo line , catalogo de
Vidal Quadras y Ramon , no . 5 3 0 8 .
See also Alvarez Burgos
et al . , cat alogo genera l , no . 6 6 .
4 9 For t he poverty and oppre ssio n that the war s of
these years brought to Galicia, see HC , book 1 , chaps 9 5
and 9 6 . For t he devastation in the kingdom in general , see
chapter 6 , n . 1 and n . 2 below .
5 0 Again the c ase of England i s instructive .
Winc hester had been a large mint at the opening of
Stephen ' s reign , but then seems to have ceased minting
entire ly , leading Blac kburn in " Coinage , " 1 9 1 , to conc lude
that " for much o f the civil war , Henry o f Bloi s , bishop of
winc hester , may have placed a moratorium on minting . "
217
(
ha lf the mint located there " which he had " acquired from
Queen Urraca .
n Sl
urraca ' s dec ision to grant half the mint profits at
Palencia to its bishop likely date s to c . l l l 4 , a year whic h
had seen her politic al strength ebb to a dangerous ly low
leve l .
The defection of Toledo and segovia that spring was
followed that autumn by the lo s s of Sahagun , B urgo s and
carrion to the Aragone se .
I n addition , she had failed to
reso lve ln her favor the dispute with compostela so her
po sition in Galicia was le ss t han favorable .
In the winter
of 1 1 1 4- 1 5 she appears to have e stablished her headquarter s
in Palencia and here gathered many of the prelates and
magnates stil l loyal to her . S2
That Bi shop Pedro of
Palenc ia was a member of her trusted circle is demonstrated
by t he queen ' s grant to him that October of part of her
income in oc iella and Monzon in recognition of " the good
and faithful service he has done for me and has promised to
do for me all the days of my life .
(
n 53
5 1 " ( E ) t monete parte mediam que ibidem sit , quam ab
Vrracha regina t ua strenuitas adquisivit . " Aba j o Marti n ,
" Tua strenuitas " must refer to the
Palencia, 62 - 6 3 no 2 5 .
bis ho p or t he bishop ' s see . Cf . Niermeyer , Lexicon Minus ,
s . v . " strenuitas . "
5 2 Reilly , urrac a, 1 0 1 - 3 . Although there is no record
that Diego Gelmirez was in P alencia that winter , relatio ns
between Santiago and the queen were not complete ly
di scordant . At Palencia on January 3 , the queen together
See
with her son made a donation of land to Compo ste la .
Santiago , 3 : appendix , 9 5 - 9 6 no 3 2 .
5 3 Abaj o Martin , Palenc i a , 5 8 - 6 0 no . 2 3 . Two years
later urraca still considered Pedro a faithf ul ally .
see
6 0 - 6 1 no . 2 4 .
218
(
Sometime during 1 1 1 4 - 1 1 1 5 , t he n , production of coin
type 4 , wit h its alternative signature s s B ANTONINI and
LEO C IVITAS probably got under way .
P alencia in
conj unction with Leon provided urraca with two mints
located c lo se together , whic h perhaps made t hem more easily
managed .
The fact that both struck the same type ref lects ,
at least in some measure , a return to the tighter royal
supervisio n of her father .
Perhaps it was s imply because
the bi shop of Palenc ia now held half the mint that his
patron sai nt ' s name began to appear on the c oin rather than
the name of the town .
Yet , the signat ure s B ANTONINI also
seems a de liberate substitution for the s IACOBI legend on
her father ' s coins .
The new legend may have been an
attempt to promote the prestige of s t . Antoninus in hopes
of diverting pi lgrim traffic bound f or s antiago to also
visit P alencia . 54
5 4 Thi s promotion of the c ult o f st . Antoninus may
have been s ucce s sf ul . By 1 1 1 9 , there was a c h urch in
London dedic ated to St . Antoninus that appears to have been
owned by a wealthy merchant . While the c hurc h predate s
1 1 1 9 , it i s not c lear how long it had been dedic ated to
this saint . While Pamela Nightingale po inted out that the
dedication o f this c hurc h like ly ref lect s a link to spain,
her suggestion t hat the town of Pale nc ia was a commerc ial
center where foreign merchants c ame seeking Muslim gold is
( See c hapter 6 , n . 2 8 be low . ) Rather , it seems
unfounded .
more likely that st . Antoninus bec ame fami liar to foreign
merc hant s at this time bec ause his name now appeared on the
coinage .
see Nightingale , " Pepperer s ' Gui ld , " 1 2 5 -2 6 , 1 2 9 30 .
(
Analogously, Bishop Pelayo o f Oviedo worked to promote
his city as a center of pi lgrimage t o rival Composte la .
( See Reilly , urrac a , 3 4 1 . ) There i s , however , no evidence
to suggest a mint in oviedo until later in t he century .
Al so , sanc ho Ramirez of Arag6n appears to have encouraged
219
I
New Mints at Sahagun and Salamanca
By the late summer of 1 1 1 6 , Urraca had regained
contro l of Sahagun , whose townspeo ple had shown themse lves
dangerously vo latile .
E ar lier that year , Sahagun ' s abbot ,
Domingo , had trave led to Rome to seek condemnation of the
burghers for the devastation they had inflicted on the
monastery ' s property with the he lp o f Aragone se troo ps . ss
In october , urraca opened a mint in Sahagun under the
supervision of the abbot .
In the charter establishing the
mint , she granted the abbot a third of the profits and at
the same time recognized his general immunity from royal
and episcopal intervention in governing the town .
A second
third of the revenue s was to go to the nearby nunnery of
San Pedro de las Duefias . S 6
Urraca explained that the mint at Sahagun was
nece ssary on account of t he war , testimony that her
campaigns required a supply of coin not met by the mints
{
coloni zation of the town of Estella to better take
advantage of the pilgrim traffic to composte la .
See
Vazquez de Parga et al . , Las peregrinaciones , 3 : 1 4 - 1 5 no .
2.
5 5 see Paschal I I ' s letter of Marc h 2 1 , 1 1 1 6 in whic h
he gives Domingo the power to either forgive or condemn the
burghers ( " ligandi ac so lvendi poste statem super eosdem
burgenses . . . concedimus " ) . Paschal , presumably drawing
from Domingo ' s testimony , speaks graphic ally of the
devastation brought by f ire and sword to the monastic
Sahagun 4 : 4 3 - 4 4 no . 1 1 9 3 .
propert y .
The insurrection in
Sahagun is also chronic led in the first of the so-called
see Antonio Ubieto
anonymous chronicles of Sahagun .
Artet a , ed. cr6nicas an6nirnos de Sahagun ( Zaragoza , 1 9 8 7 ) .
C f . Rei lly, Urrac a, 1 0 1 - 1 1 4 .
5 6 Sahagun , 4 : 4 7 - 4 9 no . 1 1 9 5 .
220
(
then under her control .
B ut the choice of Sahagun , a
monastic town whose resident s had proven themselves capable
of violent rebel lion seems odd .
The mint privilege was
probably in part aimed at quelling t hi s unre st .
Urrac a
instructed the abbot that he could c hoose the minter s from
the town or bring them in from other locations if he so
de sired .
Either way , a working mint was liable to boo st
the local economy , espec ially since two-thirds of the
profits were retained by the monastery and the nunnery of
las Duenas .
B ut , the deci sion to open a mint at thi s time
and place al so appears tied to yet another confrontation
between Urraca and Diego Gelmire z ; t he confrontation that
would end in Urrac a granting Alf onso Raimundez his appanage
1n Toledo , away from the bisho p ' s inf l uence .
In the spring of 1 1 1 6 , according to the Hi storia
compostel ana , Urraca made another attempt to sei ze the
bi shop . s 7
Though an uneasy peace was reac hed after t hi s ,
Diego Ge lmirez was soon persuaded by the separatist faction
to formally proc laim Alfonso Raimundez king in Galicia .
Urraca marched back to compo stela, put down the rebe llion
and , if t he His tori a is to be be lieved , some how enco uraged
unre st that was then brewing among the townspeople of
Santiago before taking her leave .
Dis sati sfaction
intensif ied in the town during the summe r and by the fall
Diego was de sperate for he lp .
(
5 7 HC , book 1 , chap . 1 0 7 .
He traveled to Sahagun in
22 1
(
OCto ber of 1 1 1 6 to seek a more lasting alliance with the
queen . s a
Geraldo , the author of this portion of the His tori a ,
hails the agreement reached at Sahagun as the first ho pe
for peac e in the kingdom since the days of Alfonso VI and
credit s it to the initiative o f Diego . s 9
In reality , the
bi shop was not in a strong po s ition to bargain with the
queen and Geraldo was perhaps purposef ully vague in
di sc us sing the actual terms of the agreement .
we are to ld
that the kingdom was divided between mother and son , but he
never spec ifical ly says who was al lotted what .
As we have
seen , however , later doc uments make it c lear that by this
accord Alfonso Raimundez was awarded Toledo and was
entrusted into the care of Arc hbishop Bernardo of that
c ity .
The agreement , then , removed the young Alfonso from
the direct inf luence of Diego Gelrnirez and the Galic ian
factio n .
The only royal document t o survive from the curia at
Sahagun is , in fac t , Urrac a ' s mint grant to the abbot .
The
c harter is witne ssed by mo st o f the c lergy and magnate s
t hat the His tori a Compostel ana re port s were present ,
inc luding Diego hirnself . 6 0
It seems more than coinc idence
that the mint privilege was a product of thi s meeting .
While she successfully had taken her son from Diego
(
5 8 Fletcher , Catapult , 1 3 9 - 4 3 ; Reilly , Urrac a , 1 0 9- 1 6 .
5 9 He , book 1 , chap 1 1 3 .
6 0 Sahagun, 4 : 4 7 - 4 9 no . 1 1 9 5 .
222
I
Ge lmirez ' charge , Urrac a ' s simultaneous dec i sion to
establish a new mint may wel l reflect her continued
inability to rec laim from the bishop a share of the
Composte la mint .
Urraca , however , s howed no inc lination t o over see the
new mint at Sahagun direct ly .
Along with alie nating a
large share of the profit , she gave the abbot f ull
re sponsibility for running the mint and as saying the coin .
She al so gave him the freedom to mint or not mint as he saw
fit .
Thus coin type 4 , whic h was struck in Le6n and
Palenc ia , was not struck i n Sahagun .
Rather , coin type 3 ,
with a profile of the queen on the obver se and a cro ss wit h
crosslet s on the rever se , was probably the i s s ue of the new
mint .
Its f ul l legend reads VRRACA REXA LEGIONE NS I S , a
departure from the more u s ual LEO CIVITAS .
This indeed
seems more appro priate for a mint outside the c ity of Leon
but still within the terra legionensi s . 6 1
The His tori a compostel an a tells u s that the accord
reac hed at Sahagun between Urrac a and Diego Ge lmirez in
1 1 1 6 was to last three years . 6 2
In her mint grant to
Sahagun drawn up at that time , urrac a did not impo se any
(
6 1 Type 3 also s hows t he inf luence of Aragonese
coinage with which the people of Sahagun had doubtless
become acquainted .
sanc ho Ramirez as we ll a s Pedro I and
Alfonso I normally used a profiled bust as t heir obverse
type . Also , by Alfonso I ' s time , de spite the name
j acceni s , the coin ' s rever se legend normal ly read either
ARAGON 1 ARAGONIS 1 or ARAGONENS I S .
See Alvarez B urgo s et
a l . , Cat alogo general , 1 7 9- 82 .
62 HC , book 1 , c hap . 1 1 3 .
223
(
limit on how long the monastery co uld mint .
Nonethe le s s ,
almo st three years to the day after that c harter was
is sued , a second was drawn up renewing the monastery ' s
right to mint .
This was done not by urraca but by Alfonso
Rairnunde z , who modif ied the divi sion of profits and granted
the privilege for only one year . 53
The renewal of
Sahagun ' s mint privi lege , drawn up at the same time the
accord with Santiago was corning to an end , support s the
theory that from the c rown ' s point of view the mint at
Sahagun and the accord wit h cornpostela were c losely linked .
Be side s this second mint privilege , the details of
what transpired between urraca , Ge lrnirez and Alfonso
Rairnunde z in 1 1 1 9 are lo st to us .
One of the re sult s ,
however , c learly seems to have been that Alfonso was now
given lordship over Sahagu n , in addition to hi s title to
To ledo .
Thi s is confirmed in a private donation to the
monastery , dated 1 1 2 0 , which lists " Queen urraca ruling in
all Spain . . . ( and ) King Alfonso and Abbot Ber nard in
Sahagun . "
Thu s , as the new lord , it was Alfonso who
re newed the monastery ' s right to rnint . 54
(
6 3 Sahagun , 4 : 5 8 - 5 9 no . 1 2 0 1 . Alfonso divided the
profit between himse lf and the abbot , abolishing the third
that his mother had awarded the nuns of San Pedro de las
Duenas . Urraca did not witnes s the grant .
6 4 Sahagun , 4 : 6 1 - 6 2 no . 1 2 0 3 . Alfonso ' s lordshi p in
Sahagun is corroborated by a c harter drawn up months after
his mother ' s death .
I n it , he apo logize s to the monastery
for hi s illegal exploitation o f their wealth which he said
was necessary because of t he war .
( See 1 0 3- 1 0 6 no . 1 2 2 6 ;
c f . 1 1 0- 1 1 1 no . 1 2 3 0 . )
224
I
There are three basic coin types that can be
identified as is sues of Alfonso Raimunde z struck while his
mother was still alive .
All bear the legend ANFVS R REX on
the obverse for Alfonso Raimunde z .
on the rever se they
read TOLETO CIVI , SOCOVIA CIV and LEGIONENS IS . 6 5
The two
with the Toledo and segovia signatures under score the
reality of Alfonso ' s rule in the southern regions of the
kingdom after the agreement with his mother in 1 1 1 6 .
The
third coin , reading LEGIONENSI S , is a prec ise imitation of
urrac a ' s type 3 in both it s legend and design .
sinc e he
succeeded hi s mother as lord in Sahagun in 1 1 1 9 , it seems
c lear that thi s coin was the s uccessor to Urrac a ' s type 3
at t he Sahagun mint . 66
Urraca ' s fat her had re lied on three main mints , Leo n ,
To ledo and compo stela .
Hi s deci sion to re linquish c laim to
the Composte la mint shortly before his death c ombined with
Urrac a • s inabi lity to contro l To ledo forced the queen to
invent a new minting strategy during the peak year s of her
war with Arago n , c . 1 1 1 3- 1 1 1 7 .
I f she did not create the
mint at Palenc ia , she cert ainly increased it s importance .
{
Reilly , urrac a , 1 4 0- 4 1 , 3 4 8 , was suspicious of
Alfonso ' s mint grant of 1 1 1 9 , but he does not take into
acco unt the other doc ume nt s attesting to Alfonso ' s rule in
Sahagun .
Furthermore , he fai l s to see that the mint grant
coincide s prec isely with t he expiration of the three-year
truc e .
6 5 There i s a fourth variety from segovia whic h reads
see c atalogue 3 , no s . 6 - 9 . The se coins are
ANFVS RA REX .
disc us sed more fully below .
6 6 The coin reading ANFVS R REX from Segovia also
imit ates Urrac a type 3 .
( See catalogue 3 , no . 7 . )
225
(
Around 1 1 1 4 that mint began signing it s coln s B ANTONINI ,
perhaps in an ef fort to promote that saint ' s c ult and
entice pilgrims on the road to santiago into making a side
trip to the churc h of Palenc ia .
founded the mi nt at Sahagu n .
between Palenc ia and Leo n .
Two years later , urrac a
Sahagun is loc ated mid-way
Like Leo n , i t i s directly on
the pi lgrim road to Santiago .
The mint at Sahagun ,
therefore , continued Urrac a • s po licy of re lying on
locations that were c lose to the center of her realm and
also strategic ally placed to intersect the f low of foreign
si lver to composte la .
A mint at salamanc a does not f it thi s pattern .
No netheles s , it seems probable that coin was stuck there at
some point in the reign , tho ugh it is not c lear if the
operation was begun with Urrac a ' s sanc tion .
We know only
that within a month of urrac a ' s deat h , Alfonso VII
confirmed the bi shop of Salamanc a ' s right to a third of
mint revenue s in the town . 6 7
The city was a logic al c hoice
to serve the south-western frontier of the rea lm , but it s
output at this stage was probably limited .
It did not sign
coins either in Urrac a ' s reign or that of her son . 6 s
(
6 7 See the section on Salamanca in c hapter 7 below .
6 8 According to Rei lly, the Turnbo negro of the
cathedral of Z amora incl udes a grant of Urraca dated 1 1 2 4
whic h endowed the see with , among other revenues , a tent h
of moneta .
I have been unable to obtain a copy o f the text
but suspect that it is c orrupted . A mint mo st likely
opened in Zamora under Alfonso VI I . see the appropriate
section in c hapter 7 .
226
(
The Rebel Mints at Toledo and segovia
The defection of Toledo and segovia to t he Aragone se
between roughly 1 1 1 4 and 1 1 1 7 is scarcely attested in the
document s .
Charters of Alfonso of Aragon in these years
occasional ly describe him as ruling " in To ledo " and some
private documents also ref lect this convictio n . 6 9
For
Segovi a , the only sign of trouble in the written sources
lS
the report in the Anales toledanos t hat Alvar Fafie z , a
supporter of Queen urrac a , was assas sinated in or near the
town in 1 1 1 4 and the His tori a Compos telana • s te stimony that
Urraca f aced an angry crowd there in 1 1 1 8 . 7 0
The surviving
coin s , however , af firm the reality o f both rebel lions as
we ll as illustrate the crown of Leon ' s reaction to them .
The clearest sign of Segovia ' s dis loyalty to urrac a is
a coin which reads ANFVS s REX SVCOVIA C IV , an all usion to
r
6 9 Royal c harters of Alfonso I which lay c laim to
To ledo are not numerous . He may have invoked the title
more in 1 1 1 6 as hi s po sition in the c ity bec ame more
tenuo us .
See Rei lly ' s review of the evidence in urraca ,
1 0 6- 7 , 1 1 2 - 1 1 3 , 1 2 0-2 1 . For private c harter s , see the
donation to oiia in 1 1 1 4 , whic h acknowledge s , " Regnante
Aldefonso in To leto et in omni Caste l la . "
( Alamo , oiia,
1 : 1 6 9- 7 0 no . 1 4 0 . )
See also the private sale made in
To ledo in Marc h 1 1 1 5 c iting , " Regnante rex Adefonsus in
Toleta . " ( Hernandez , Toledo , 2 2 -2 3 no . 1 9 . )
In that same
mont h , urraca donated property in To ledo to Arc hbishop
Bernardo , but this does not mean t hat she contro lled the
c ity at that time .
( Garc ia L uj an , To ledo , 2 : 2 7 -2 9 no . 5 . )
7 0 Fl6rez , " Anale s to ledano s I , " 3 8 8 ; HC , book 1 ,
chap . 1 1 7 .
Segovia was only resettled under Alfonso VI ,
probably in the 1 0 8 0 s , as a step towards sec uring the
kingdom of To ledo . See Rei ll y , Alfonso , 1 2 3 , 2 0 2 , 3 0 7- 8 .
Documentary evidence pertaining to the town i s scarce until
See be low, n . 76 .
c . 1 1 1 9 -2 0 when a bishop was appointed .
227
(
Alfon s us Sancii or Alfonso , son of sanc ho .
In Aragon ,
Sanc ho Ramirez ' sons , Pedro I ( 1 0 9 4- 1 1 0 4 ) and Alfonso I had
occasionally inc luded a form o f this patronymic on their
denarii . 7 1
This coin from segovia , the n , unmistakably
acknowledges Alfonso I of Aragon ' s lordshi p .
There are a variety o f other c o i n type s that c arry a
segovian mint signature is sued simply in the name of
Alfonso , without the patronymic . 7 2
One school of thought
has argued that some of these should be assigned to Alfonso
VI , but the case for t hi s is weak .
During the reign of
Alfonso VI , Segovia was bare ly colonized and without a
bi sho p .
I t i s doubtful that the town would have been
al lowed the privilege of striking and signing coins ,
partic ularly one s di stinct from the other royal mint s in
de sign .
Furthermore , if one accepts the hypothe sis that
Segovia did sign coins as early as the reign of Alfonso VI ,
one then has to explain the absenc e of suc h is sues in the
name o f urraca . 7 3
r
overal l , it makes more sense to assume
7 1 See catalogue 3 , no . 1 0 . For example s of the use
of the patronymic on Aragone se i s s ue s see , Alavrez Burgo s
e t al . , Cataloqo genera l , 1 8 0 - 8 2 .
7 2 See c atalogue 3 , no s . 1 1 - 1 4 . There are 2 more
type s that fit thi s descriptio n whic h I have not inc luded
in t he c atalogue below . They perhaps be long to either t he
See Alvarez B urgo s
reign of Alfonso VII or Alfonso VI I I .
In general ,
et al . , Catalogo genera l , no s . 3 0 , 3 1 and 6 4 .
the attribution of any of the Alphonsine coins of segovia ,
barr ing those signed ANFVS s and ANFVS R , i s uncertain .
7 3 carlos de Lece a y Garc ia , E studio hist6rico acerca
la moneda de segovia desde los celtibero s hasta nuestras
dias ( Se govia, 1 8 9 2 ) , 9 , assumed that since Segovia had a
mint in ancient time s it would have naturally been restored
under Alfonso VI .
Casto Maria de l Rivero in segovia
228
c
that the town only began to mint after its def ec tion from
the queen c . 1 1 1 4 .
one of the Alphonsine coins from Segovia i s a c lose
imitatio n of Urrac a type 4 .
According to our c hrono logy ,
type 4 was the queen ' s coin current after c . l 1 1 4 and so may
have served as a prototype as segovia began to strike . 74
Some o f the ot her Segovian coins , however , have no paral le l
with any Leonese or Aragonese coin . 7 S
With the exception
of the one coin signed ANFVS s REX , the unorthodox design
of the other segovian type s may suggest that the town was
minting largely on its own initiative in the se c haotic
year s , perhaps under the direction of the town counc i l . 76
(
nurnismatic a : E studio general de la cec a y mo ndedas de
Segovia ( Segovia, 1 92 8 ) , 1 4 , ar gued that sinc e Alfonso VI ' s
grant to compostela implied that there were several mints
in the kingdom we should assume that one of these was
Segovia .
No ne of the Segovia coins , however , re semble
either of Alfonso VI ' s maj or types .
7 4 catalogue 3 , no . 1 1 . Another c lo se imitation of
urraca type 4 can be seen in an early Portuguese issue
reading AFONSVS PORTVGAL , presumably be longing to Afonso I
Henrique s .
( J . N . Barrando , " Chemical compositions , " 3 4 8 ,
3 6 5 no . D , report s only one extant spec imen , but J . Ferraro
Vaz and Javier Salgado , Livro das Moedas de Portugal
( Braga , 1 9 8 7 ) , 1 7 do not list the coin as very rare . )
Afonso Henriques , supported by a faction of Portuguese
nobi lity and to a certain extent by Urraca , seems to have
broken with his mother , Teresa , by 1 1 1 8 . Rei lly , urrac a,
146, 241 .
7 5 In the segovian series , one of the more numerous
type s surviving today has a reverse motif almo st haphazard
in its design . The crowded field is divided by what
appear s to be a scepter . To its left and right are two
stars , an annulet and the letter s.
see c at alogue 3 , no .
1 2 ; c f . no . 1 3 , for another unusual reverse type .
7 6 For the existence of the town counc i l or concejo in
Segovia at this early stage , see its grant o f property to
Bishop Pedro of Segovia . The c harter survives i n an
undated copy , but Pedro does not appear to have been
229
(
According to the Anales toledanos , Al fonso Raimunde z
was able to rec laim Toledo in the fall of 1 1 1 7 . 7 7
By the
following year , Leonese rule appears to have been tenuously
restored in Segovia as we ll .
In the His tori a Compostelana ,
Geraldo give s a first- hand account o f Urraca ' s pre sence in
the city in the summer of 1 1 1 8 for the consecration of the
archbi shop of Braga by the arc hbishop of Toledo .
The mood
in the town , however , was still vo latile for Geraldo
report s that after the c eremony revolt broke out against
the queen and her troops . 7 B
De spite the unrest , or perhaps
on account of it , segovia received Pedro of Agen as it s
first bi shop c . 1 1 2 0 .
A protege of Arc hbishop Bernardo of
To ledo and Urrac a, Pedro was c lear ly a Leone se candidate ,
indicating that the crown had maintained its inf luence in
the town . 7 9
The written source s fail to reveal any mention of
Alfonso Raimunde z ' role in rec laiming segovia .
Yet , it was
almo st c ertainly in this time frame , c . 1 1 1 7- 1 1 2 0 , that t he
young king issued the coins whic h read ANFVS R REX SOCOVIA
(
appointed bi shop until c . l 1 1 9- 2 0 .
In 1 1 2 2 , Alfonso I
confirmed the donation of the town council to the see . For
this and s imilar act s of the council , see Luis Migue l
Villar Garc ia , ed . Documentac i6n medieval de la catedral de
Segovia ( 1 1 1 5 - 1 3 0 0 ) ( Salamanc a , 1 9 9 0 ) , 4 6 - 4 8 no s . 2 - 4 , also
5 0- 5 1 no . 7 ; c f . Reilly , Urraca , 32 5- 2 6 .
7 7 F l6re z , " Anales toledanos I , " 3 8 8 .
7 8 Geraldo is careful to relate that he witnes sed
these event personally , though he does not bother to tel l
For
us the result of the upri sing . HC , book 1 , chap . 1 1 7 .
the dat ing of t he epi sode see s uare z Lorenzo , Hi storia
Composte lana , 2 3 7 n . 4 ; Rei lly, Urrac a, 1 2 9 , 2 4 1 .
7 9 Reilly , urrac a , 1 4 1 - 42 , 2 4 6 .
230
(
C IV and ANFVS RA REX SECOVIA C IVI s . s o
The legends '
inc lusion of Alfonso ' s patronymic , Raimundez , was a c lear
reaction to the ANFVS s coin of hi s step-f ather and
c larif ied that he now ruled in the town .
Be sides To ledo ,
then , Alfonso ' s appanage must also have inc luded segovia .
Hi s accord with hi s mother in 1 1 1 6 seems to have awarded
him a substantial portion of the western frontier be low the
Duero to defend against Aragonese encroachment .
Determining whic h coins were minted in To ledo when it
was aligned with Aragon between 1 1 1 4 and 1 1 1 7 is large ly a
matter of gues swork .
There is no known ANFVS s . coin with
the signat ure of Toledo .
At least two Toledan types struc k
i n the name o f Alfonso do , however , show signs of borrowing
styli stic e lement s from the j accensis of Aragon and may be
products of the rebel lious period . s 1
(
In additio n , an
8 0 See c atalogue 3 , no s . 7 and 8 . The ANFVS RA REX
coin was published in del Rivero , segovia numismatic a , 1 5
and plate 1 , no . 1 0 .
He read the lege nd a s ANFVS BA REX .
Whether BA was actually on t he coin is impos sible to te ll
from his photo . Nevertheles s , it wa s almo st certainly
intended to read RA, for Raimunde z .
Del Rivero , however , suggested that BA referred to
Hi s
Alfonso VI I ' s wife Berenguel a , whom he married c . 1 1 2 8 .
reasoning was based on another Segovian coin published in
Hei s s with the garbled legend IANFVS RIC .
( See catalogue
3 , no . 1 4 . ) Del Rivero interpreted R IC as referring to
Ric a of Poland , Alfonso ' s later wife . Though ingenious ,
neither reading make s a great deal of sense . The IANFVS
RIC type also exists as ANFVS REC . Both variant s appear to
be botc hed renderings of REX . Bi zarre mi sspellings are
charac teristic of the Segovian series in general [ For
Alfonso ' s marriage s to Berenguela and Rica see Manue l
Rec uero Astray , Alfonso VI I , emperador : El imperio
hispanico en el siglo X I I ( Leon , 19 7 9 ) , 9 6 , 1 92 . J
8 1 catalogue 3 , no s . 1 5 and 1 6 .
since the time of
sanc ho Ramirez , the royal coins of Aragon often dipl ayed a
231
(
anonymous type reading IPERATOR TOLETI po s sibly referred to
Alfonso of Aragon ' s rule in the c ity .
The legend on the
coin i s unusua l in that the imperial t it le is normal ly
a s sociated o n Hispanic coins wit h the city or kingdom of
Le6n . a 2
Whi le Alfonso I frequent ly c laimed the imperial
dignity in his diplomas , he co uld make no c l aim to Leo n .
I t was for t hi s reason that co ntro l o f Toledo was important
to him .
The c learest evidence for a rebel mint in Toledo ,
however , i s the coin Alfonso Raimundez must have struck
after he rec laimed the city for the crown of Leo n c . 1 1 1 7 .
It reads ANFVS R . REX TOLETO C IVI to distingui sh his
lordship from that of his rival . a 3
(
prof ile of t he king , sometimes f ac ing left and sometimes
right . These two TO ledan coins c arry a simi lar type of
pro f ile . No . 1 5 ( a very rare coin ) al so has a Latin cro ss
simi lar to t hat whic h appe ar s on o ne of Alfonso I ' s is sues .
( Cf . Alvare z Burgos et al . , c at al ogo genera l , 1 7 9- 8 2 . ) At
the same time , both no s . 1 5 and 1 6 retain the alpha and
omega that was u sed on the coins o f Alfonso VI and urrac a .
Argument s o f style suc h a s t he se , however , must be
treated cautio u s ly . There i s no f irm reason why coin no s .
1 5 , 1 6 and 1 7 could not be ear ly i s s ue s of Alfonso VI at
TOledo .
I n addition , there is a t hird coin with a similar
"Arago ne se " prof ile on the o bver se t hat is o ften attributed
to Alfonso the Battler . Hoard evidence today overwhelmngly
demo nstate s that thi s coin c irculated in the early
It was almo st c ertainly t he so-called
thirteenth century .
pepi6n o f Alfonso VI I I . see c ha pter 1 0 be low.
82 Cat logue 3 , no . 2 0 . The only other type where the
imperial tit le is not as soci ated wit h Leon is the IMPERATOR
NAJERA coin , which has been traditionally as signed to
Sanc ho the Great .
See chapter 2 , n . 4 7 above .
Another type that could be s us pected o f be lo nging to
the period o f Aragonese rule in To ledo i s a crude copy of
Alfonso VI ' s o ld c hristogram coin .
See Catalogue 3 , no .
17 .
8 3 Cat alogue 3 , no . 9 .
This coin di splays a cro sier
It i s re lated to 2 other
f lanked by two scepter s .
Alphonsine type s from Toledo , t ho ugh neither has R in the
232
(
I n 1 1 2 2 , Alfonso o f Aragon attempted to reas sert his
rule in the trans-Duero region but thi s re surgence was
brief . B 4
Rei l ly has suggested t hat by January 1 1 2 3 the
Batt ler agreed to re linqui sh c laims in the area .
In
November o f 1 1 2 3 , Alfo nso Raimunde z and Urraca j oint ly
conf irmed the bishop of Segovia ' s right to certain
properties which the Aragonese king had conf irmed the year
before .
They also donated addit ional property to the see .
Le s s than two weeks later , mot her and son made a generou s
grant to the archbishop of Toledo . a s
(
While the se c harters
legend . one has the same motif whi l e the second shows it
reversed , i . e . , a scepter f lanked by two cro sier s .
( Catalogue 3 , no s . 1 8 and 1 9 ) .
One of the Segovian type s
a l so dis pl ays a crosier .
( C at alogue 3 , no . 1 4 ) .
If a l l
these types belo nged t o Alfonso Rairnunde z , perhaps they
were meant to make known t hat he was s upported by the
bi shop in these two towns .
sanc he z Albornoz , " Primi ti va organiz ac i6n, " 3 1 9-2 o ,
s uggested that the use o f the cros ier may have signif ied
the bishop ' s right to a share of t he mint profit s . The see
of Toledo , however , was not entitled to more than a nominal
tenth of mint revenue , which wou ld not allow the arc hbisho p
a great deal o f contro l . The bi shop of Segovia did
eventual ly receive between a third and fourth of the mint
of Segovia but at the same time t he crosier seems to vanish
from the coins . on ecc lesiastic a l mint shares in genera l ,
see c hapter 7 .
8 4 I n a charter of 1 1 2 2 , Alfonso I made a donation to
t he bi shop of segovia and conf irmed land given to the see
by the concejo .
In the charter , o ne of Alfonso ' s
supporters , Jimeno Jimenez , is l is ted as " lord in
Extremadura . " In a second doc ument of the same year Jirneno
appears specif ic al ly as " lord in Segovia and Sepulveda and
a l l Extremadura . " Villar Garc ia , segovia , 5 0 - 5 1 no 7 ;
Rei lly, Urrac a , 1 7 0- 7 1 , 32 3 n . 3 4 .
8 5 urrac a and Alfonso Raimunde z ' s comfiramtion o f
Segovia ' s property survives in two nearly identical
c harters . one i s undated and is i n Alfonso Raimunde z ' s
name . The second is dated November 1 1 2 3 and is an act o f
urrac a .
( See Vil lar Garc ia , segovi a , 5 2 - 5 4 no s 9 and 1 0 . )
These are also two separate grants by Alfonso Raimunde z and
233
(
do not reveal where they were drawn up , urraca and Alfonso
Raimunde z were pro bably attempting to so lidify their hold
over Toledo and segovia in preparation for t he siege of
Muslim siglienza whic h appears to have fallen by the
fo llowing February . 8 6 .
The remaining two year s of Urrac a ' s reign were
re lative ly tranqui l .
While the Aragonese sti l l he ld
portions of castile , inc luding Burgo s , the Bat tler
preocc upied himself with affairs in Aragon proper as we l l
a s with opport unities in Andalusia where Almoravid power
was be ginning to falter . B 7
But the crisis set in motio n by
his marriage to Urraca was not yet resolved and wo uld not
be unt i l his death in 1 1 3 4 .
Upon succeeding his mother in
hi s mother to TO ledo in the same month . Alfonso ' s is dated
November 2 9 and Urrac a ' s is dated November 3 0 , 1 1 2 3 .
( See
Garcia Lujan , Toledo , 2 : 3 5 - 3 7 no . 8 and 2 9 - 3 2 no . 6 . ) I t
wo uld seem that i n both instance s Alfo nso had granted hi s
own charter to Segovia and Toledo as they were part of his
appanage and then the acts were in tur n conf irmed by his
mother .
Reilly s us pects the authenticity o f Alfonso Raimunde z •
charter to Segovia , and suggests that someone at segovia
knew of the two TO ledo documents and c leverly forged a
second charter for segovia.
( See Rei lly, urrac a , 1 7 1 - 7 3 ,
177-78 . )
It seems more reasonable , however , to conc lude
that mother and son acted in tandem on both occasions .
Another donation of Alfonso VI I to Segovia dated May 1 1 2 4
is , however, c learly misdated as evidenced by reference to
Bereng ue la who Alfonso married c . 1 1 2 8 .
( See Vil lar Garc ia ,
segovia , 5 4 - 5 6 no . 1 1 ; cf . Reil ly , "Chancery of Alfonso
VI I , " 2 5 2 - 5 3 n . 6 0 . )
8 6 The date is based on Urraca ' s grant o f February 1 ,
1 1 2 4 to the bis ho p of that city .
see Reilly , Urrac a , 1 7 9 ,
n. 79 .
8 7 See Reilly ' s chapter " The E nd of the Reign , " in
Urraca , 1 8 1 - 2 0 4 .
(
234
(
1 1 2 6 , Alfonso Raimfrnde z would again take up the chal lenge
of driving the Aragonese from Castile .
The Strength o f the coinage
There can be little doubt that the long period of war
during Urrac a ' s reign increased the vo lume of coin stuck in
Leon-castile .
Urrac a cited the needs of war when she
founded a new mint at Sahagun .
The mint at Palenc ia , if it
existed under Alfonso VI , assumed a greater importance as a
re sult of her campaigns .
It also appear s likely that
minting began in Salamanca at some point in the reign .
The
mint at Leon continued to operate , as did that at To ledo ,
though the former was for a time control led by the
Aragonese .
The mint o f segovia was probably also a produc t
of the se years and , like Toledo , was for a period loyal to
Aragon .
It is pos sible that urrac a e stablished a mint at
Burgos in 1 1 1 1 when she purc hased bullion from the
monastery of Ofia and that a mint continued there under
Aragonese occupation .
The f ir st c lear evidence for the
Burgos mint , however , is in a document of 1 1 2 8 , a year
after Alfonso Raimundez regained t he town . a a
Whi le
production at composte la may h ave f altered in this time , it
seems doubtful that the mint t here s hut down completely .
Finally, a mint may have operated in L ugo , though the
evidence is inconc lusive .
(
8 8 See the section on Burgos in chapter 7 be low.
235
(
To supply these mint s , the three main co ntenders ,
urraca , Alfonso I of Aragon and Alfonso Raimunde z , engaged
in a seemingly constant and at times violent searc h for
bullio n . B9
co nt inual warfare and it s demand for money begs
the question what , if anything , happened to the stre ngth of
the crown ' s denarii in t he se year s .
was urrac a forced to
debase the coinage in a ef fort to stretc h her re so urce s ?
Evidence pertaining to t he f inene s s and quality of coinage
in Leon-castile and in t he other c hristian I berian states
during these years is slim .
Royal decrees regarding
coinage are no n-existent and private sales rarely give
spec ific detai ls about coin finene s s or even reveal a
preference for o ne type over another .
I n silver- al loyed coin s , a l l but the mos t drastic
changes in finene s s are hard to detect with the naked eye
and so s light manipulations might pas s unnotic ed to an
(
8 9 The His tori a Compos telana complained that the
people of Galicia were impoverished by the c ontinued demand
to " satisfy the so ldiers with greater payments and more
posses sions . " I n re sponse to this , Diego Ge lmirez
promulgated conc i liar legi slation meant to protect
individual property .
( HC , book 1 , chap . 9 5 and 9 6 )
Church property was an obvio us target in t he searc h
for bullion.
I f Urraca had sometime s maintained the nicety
of exc hanging land for the silver and go ld s he took from
her bi shops and monasterie s , thi s was not always the c ase .
I n 1 1 1 3 , Paschal I I dispatched a bul l to the bisho ps and
princes of s pain , threatening excommunic ation of tho se who
dared plunder church pro pert y . ( The bull is cont ained in
HC , book 1 , c hap 8 9 ; c f . Reilly , Urrac a , 9 1 . ) A few mont hs
after hi s mother ' s death , Alfonso Raimunde z drew up a
c harter whic h apologized to Sahagun for the go ld and s ilver
he wrongf ully took from t hem during the wars .
( Sahag un ,
4 : 1 0 3- 1 0 6 .
See also c hapter 6 , n . 1 and 2 below . )
236
(
unwary public .
Nonetheles s , Urrac a ' s charter establishing
a mint at Sahagun s peaks v ag ue ly of the po ssible scandal or
damage that could arise over the money , and al lows the
abbot to cease striking if t hi s occ urred . 9 0
This is
remini scent of her f ather ' s warning to the c ha pter at
Compostela that changing t he coinage could prove dangero us
if t he new coins were greeted with suspic io n . 9 1
Both
grant s point to the crown ' s awarene s s that minting was a
ri sky enterprise which depended in large part on public
conf idence .
The earliest mention o f a specif ic type of denarius in
the doc ument s of Leo n-Castile appear s to come in the last
year s of Alfonso VI .
In 1 1 0 3 , Ordono sarrac iniz retired to
the mo nastery of Sahagun a nd in a series of three surviving
charters handed over his pro perty to the house .
one of
these acts refer s to l and that he had purc hased for 6 0 0
so lidi de medieta te . 9 2
(
Neither o f hi s other two charters ,
9 0 " Quod s i in f ut ur um longe vel prope aliquod
scandalum ve l damnum monas terio sanc ti Fac undi per
occ asionem monete oboriri vis um fuerit vel abbati
di splicuerit , in ipsius potestate maneat vel voluntate
utr um ibi f iat ve l no n fiat . " S ahagun , 4 : 4 7 - 4 8 no . 1 1 9 5 .
9 1 Rather than s uggesting that they simply cease
produc t ion if this happened , Alfonso was able to offer the
aid o f hi s mint officer ( preposi t us ) and guarantee the
chapter a minimum pro f it , a measure of the strengt h of his
mo netary program compared to that of his daughter .
9 2 The c harter i s perseved i n a copy and may therefore
have been interpolated . I t read s , " recepit Brao l Guterrez
de me DC0 5 so lido s de medietate et levavit de me una mula
comparata de D metkale s de auro xerqui et uno vaso de Lxxxa
soldios de plata . " S ahaglin , 3 : 4 5 2 - 5 3 no . 1 0 9 9 . Be side s
the reference to so lidi de medietate, the mention o f xerqui
go ld i s unusual .
237
(
however , use the term . 9 3
The next reference to this mo ney
in t he Leonese sources , to my knowledge , is in a signed
royal doc ument of Urraca from 1 1 1 3 in whic h she so ld land
to vermudo Perez for the price of 3 , 0 0 0 " solidi of denarii
de medietate " and 12 marks o f si lver . 94
We might guess by the name that the se denarii de
medie tate were obols , that i s smal l c oins worth half a
denarius . 9 5
This is impo s sible , however , if we look at the
sums involved , espec ia lly in t he later c harter of Urraca .
It i s inconc eivable that someone would pay with 3 , 000
so lidi made up exc lusive ly o f obols .
The only tenable
explanation is that the term referred to the fineness of
the co in .
(
It must have indicated that the coin was ha lf
Simi lar terms appear i n later charters . An Aragones e
doc ument o f 1 1 1 8 refer s t o " metkals de auro exerc hin . " .
( Se e Lacarr a , Ebro , 1 : 6 6 - 6 7 , no . 5 3 . ) A document dated
[ See
1 1 2 5 from Siglienza refer s to " rn.enaca le s serquis . "
Toribio Mingliella y Arnedo , Hi storia de la di6cesis de
siglienz a y de sus obi spos ( Madr id , 1 9 1 0 ) , 1 : 3 5 1 no . 4 . J
Finally , a c harter o f 1 1 4 5 f rom Zarago z a mentions menc al s
[ L uis Rubio , ed . Lo s documentos del Pilar
" sarc hins . "
c siglo XI I ) ( Zaragoza , 1 9 7 1 ) , 4 2 no . 4 4 . ] such terms may
refer to dinar s from Z arago z a ( Saraqusta in Arabic ) , one of
the last taifas to pay tribute to the Christians . Whi le it
i s po s s ible that menc als xerqui would be cited in a
doc ument of 1 1 0 3 , it may have been a t erm more common after
Its appearance i n
Z ar ago za fel l to the Christians in 1 1 1 8 .
t h i s c harter , then , might imply that t he text i s corrupt .
9 3 Cf . Sahagun , 3 : 4 4 3 - 4 7 nos . 1 0 9 3 and 1 0 9 4 .
9 4 ACL , 5 : 3 2 - 3 3 no . 1 3 4 0 . The c harter contains
several l ac unae but appears to be hal f donation and half
s ale . Cf . Reilly , Urrac a , 9 2 ; E stepa , E structura, 2 6 0 .
9 5 The usual vernacular for the obol in Leon c ame to
be meaja .
It was not c ommon this ear ly , but meali a doe s
appear i n the price edict s pas sed at compostela in 1 1 3 3 .
HC , book 3 , chap . 3 3 .
238
(
si lver or 6 denarii fine ( 1 2 denarii being t he equivalent
of pure si lver as 2 4 carat s equals pure gold ) . 9 6
The year after Urraca ' s charter of 1 1 1 3 citing denarii
de medietate, a private party so ld land located " in sant a
Engrac ia next to the c ity o f Leo n " for the price o f 6 0
solidi " de moneta de I I Ia " plus bread and wine a s
corroborat io n for the c harter . 9 7
The property was near the
church o f San Esteban and bordered on one side by
Montefrio .
Three year s later , in 1 1 1 7 , a group of brother s
sold a vineyard " in the territory of Leo n , in Mo ntefrio
between san E steban and santa Engracia , for 2 5 solidi of
the mo ney of thirds " pl us bread and wine . 9 B
These are the
only two references I have found to a money of " thirds . "
(
9 6 Louis VI of France c . 1 1 2 0 promi sed the people o f
the mint-town of Compiegne that he would not a lter the
town ' s coinage , but keep it ad medietatem . The accepted
interpretation of this document is that it meant t he coin
was to remain as 5 0 % silver . This is further corroborated
by a reference in the Norman Consuet udines ( 1 0 9 1 ) to a
coinage described as " mediam argenti . " See Bi sson ' s
discussio n in Conservation , 32 -3 3 .
9 7 " Pro precio Lxa so lidorum, de moneta de I I Ia , et
pane et vino ad conroborandum cartam quod nobi s bene
conplac uit . " ALC , 5 : 4 7 - 4 9 no . 1 3 4 9 . The doc ument is a
non-cartular y parc hment and may be origina l .
It doe s not seem viable to read this as a price of 6 0
solidi divided i n thirds , i . e , o ne third paid in coin and
the other two thirds paid in kind . The bread and wine was
not part o f the main price . Rather it was a commo n form of
grat uitous payment , simi lar to what other c harters refer to
as payment i n al baroc .
( For payments divided in thirds
see , for example , t he penalty in the f uero of Lara to pay
75 solidi " i n tertias , unnam in pannem et vinum , a lia in
ganado vivo , alia in denarios . " Gonz alez Die z , Burgo s , 6 1 6 6 no . 7 . )
9 8 "Pro xxi ve so lidi s de moneta de tercia parte , de
quibus nihil remansit ad solve ( n ) dum . S uper hoc panem et
vinum ad conf irmandum kartulam . " ACL , 5 : 6 9 - 7 0 no . 1 3 5 9 .
239
(
Both c harter s invo lve sales of land in t he s ame
neighborhood , but they nonethe le s s were drawn up by
separate scribes and they fo llow c lo se ly upon Urraca ' s
referenc e to a denarius of half si lver in her sale of 1 1 1 2 .
This money o f thirds must al so be a de sign atio n of alloy ,
in t hi s case to a weaker coin of o ne-third silver or 4 d .
fine . 99
combined , the se c itations to money de medi etate and de
The
terci a , as few as they are , point to a debasement .
fir st reference to the denarius de medietate i s in t he
charter dated 1 1 0 3 .
I f the document i s tru stworthy , it
tends to s upport the s uggestion that the last is sues of
Alfonso VI were 6 d. f ine .
Urrac a • s ear lies t is sues
probably maintained the standard of her father ' s last
coins .
B ut according to the Histori a compo s telana, she had
already spent mo st o f her father ' s treasury by the s pring
of 1 1 1 2 and contemporary charter s certainly demo nstrate
that by then she was avidly seeking more bul lion .
I t is
easy to imagine , therefore , that the coin she struck to
fund her c ampaigns from c . 1 1 1 2 - 1 4 had been debased to 4 d .
fine .
These were some o f her mo st hard- pres sed year s .
When she regrouped in the winter of 1 1 1 4 and concentrated
(
9 9 All f our references to coin f inene s s in the se years
appear in document s that concern land in and around Le6n
implying t hat the populace of Le6n was more attuned to the
value of the coinage than other areas of the kingdom . Thi s
come s as no s urpri se . As the doc ume nt ation from the
eleventh century demonstrate s , Le6n had lo ng been the mo st
moneti zed sect ion of the kingdom and almost cert ainly was
the site o f the olde st royal mint .
240
(
her minting at Palencia and Leon , she c hanged her type
de sign and perhaps also returned to her father ' s standard .
I f her debased coin of 4 d . circ ulated for only a few
year s , it would explain the f leeting appearance to " mo ney
of third s " in the written sourc e s .
The year 1 1 2 0 represents a nother period remarkab le f or
the quee n ' s ef fort s to procure bul lion , perhaps in s upport
of an of fensive against Teresa of Portuga1 . 1 oo
Whether
Urraca again resorted to debasement in these years ,
however , i s impossible to te l l .
The denarius of half
si lver was c ited in an exc hange between Urraca and the
bi shop o f Leon in 1 1 2 3 but there are no other citations to
this coin or to money of thirds . 1 o 1
Leonese documents o f
the 1 1 2 0 s occ asional ly note payments received i n denarii
j accensis , but give no hint that this c oin was stro nger
1 00 See the sale dated Apri l 1 1 2 0 to the bishop o f
Astorga in E S , 1 6 : 4 7 7 - 7 9 , t ho ugh the text is probably
interpo l ated .
See also the exchange with the monastery of
S amo s o n August 6 , 1 1 2 0 i n Sanc he z Se lda , Documentos
reale s , 9 7 no . 1 9 9 and the acc o unt in HC book 2 , cha p . 2 2
o f bul lion given the queen i n June o f that yaer in exc hange
f or conce s s io ns ; cf . S antiago , 3 : appendix , 1 1 0- 1 1 2 no . 3 7 .
The fine s Urraca demanded Bi shop Diego and his f amily pay
in 1 1 2 2 may sirni lary have been inspired by a need for
Diego turned over a table from the alter weighing
bullio n .
9 7 marks and a gold c ha lice o f 60 o unce s .
See ACL , 5 : 9 5 1 0 1 , nos . 1 3 7 0 - 7 1 .
I cannot agree , however, with Fletcher
t hat other grants made propter ser vici um in the year 1 1 2 0
see
were neces sari ly " unacknowledged " sales for bullio n .
F letc her , Catapult , 1 4 5 ; cf . Rei l ly , Urrac a , 1 4 2 - 4 8 .
1 0 1 " ( E ) t accepi a vobis in concambio illam vestram
vil lam capelas , et insuper ccccor so lidos de medietate . "
ACL , 5 : 1 0 9 - 1 1 1 no . 1 3 7 6 ; c f . Rei l ley , urrac a , 1 7 4 .
(
241
(
than t he royal Leonese coin . 1 o 2
Alfonso o f Aragon had
recent ly been enriched by the conque st o f Zarago za in 1 1 1 8
and a mint was o perating in that c ity soon thereafter .
The
appearance of the j accensis in Leo n , the n , might ref lect
increased production of hi s coin . l0 3
I n the end , with respect to strength o f the coinage ,
the sources yield only a vague out line f or Urrac a ' s reign .
It seems reasonable to conc l ude that she had inherited a
standard of 6 d . from her father .
Whi le it appear s like ly
that thi s was dropped to 4 d . c . 1 1 1 2 , it
was probably
later re stored for there is simply no evidence of any wide­
scale re sentme nt towards the queen ' s coin .
To
some extent ,
this indif ferenc e of the documents could be read not a s a
sign of a stable coin but as a manifestation of the naivete
of soc iety . l o 4
st il l , Urraca ' s fo unding charter for the
mint at Sahagun in 1 1 1 6 spoke about the possible scandal
that could ari se from minting .
Like her f ather ' s warning
to Compo stel a , thi s seems c lear te stimony that the public
reaction was not to be taken light ly .
r
( Did urraca ' s
1 02 As part o f the sett lement with Bishop Diego and
hi s family in 1 1 2 2 , urraca rec ieved payment of 6 , 000
" so lidorum iaccensis monete . " ACL , 5 : 9 6 -9 8 , 1 37 0 .
See
also the sales of 1 1 2 4 in ACL , 5 : 1 1 9- 1 2 0 no . 1 3 7 9 and Aba j o
Martin, Palenc i a , 6 9 no . 2 9 . For the year 1 1 2 5 , see t he
sales i n Sahagun , 4 : 9 4 - 9 5 no . 1 2 2 1 and Maria concepci6n
Casado Lobato , ed , Co lecc i6n diplomatic a de l monasterio de
carri zo ( Le6n ) , 9 69 - 1 2 9 9 ( Le6n , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 : 2 8- 2 9 no . 2 4 .
1 0 3 F or the mint at zarogo z a , see c hapter 7 below .
1 0 4 Faced with a simi lar indifference to coin in
twe lf th-century Norman text s , B i s so n conservatio n , 2 3 -2 5 ,
assume s that it ref lected a stable c oinage .
242
(
warnlng in 1 1 1 6 come from les sons learned in the debasement
of 1 1 1 2 ? ) Finally, in defense of her coinage , one should
weigh the s i lence o f the Histori a compos telana , a work
de signed to highlight the vi llainy o f the queen .
If her
coin was notoriously bad , the author s of thi s work would
hardly have forgone the chance to condemn her for it . 1 o s
1 0 5 considering t he rarity of Urrac a ' s coins today it
is doubtful that we wi ll gain spec if ic data regarding their
finene s s through c hemical analys i s of a large s ampling of
type s .
(
(
PART THREE
MAINTAINING A STABLE CURRE NCY, 1 1 2 6- 1 1 5 7
(
(
SIX
TOWARDS A B I -METALLIC SYSTEM
UNDER ALFONSO VI I ( 1 1 2 6- 1 1 5 7 )
on August 4th, 1 1 2 6 , a few months after hi s mother ' s
death, Alfonso V I I addre s sed a c harter to the mo nastery of
Sahagun .
In t he preamble of the doc ument , the new king
lamented the hardships t hat had befallen the kingdom of
Leon in the seventeen year s sinc e the passing of his
grandfather , Alfonso VI . l
He c on fe ssed that bec ause of
thi s turmoil he had been forced to s us pend Sah agun ' s
immunities and f orcibly requi s it io n " go ld , silver and other
things " from the monks for himse lf and his knights .
By the
present charter , he therefore c onfirmed the ir privi leges . 2
(
1 Fernande z F lorez in S ahagun , 4 : 1 0 3- 1 0 6 no . 1 2 2 6 ,
ar gues convinc ingly that the c harter should be properly
dated to 1 1 2 6 . Romualdo E sc a lo na , Hi storia del real
monasterio de S ahagun ( Madr id , 1 7 82 ) , 5 2 0 -2 2 , had
interpreted the date as 1 1 2 9 , whic h was fo llowed both by
sanchez Alborno z , " Notas , " 4 8 9 - 9 0 and Rec uero , Alfonso VII ,
1 0 0- 1 0 1 .
Private charters echo Alfonso VI I ' s sentiment by
referring longingly to t he " good o ld day s " of Alfo nso VI .
See the donation to Sahagun of pro:perty purc hased " i n
tempiore boni regis Ade fo ns i " ( Sahagun , 4 : 1 1 8- 1 2 0 no . 1 2 3 6 )
see also the c harter in which Velasco Muno z relinqui shed to
Sahagun a vi llage that he had unlawf ul ly usurped . He was
able to do so because " postquam . . . mortuus est rex
Adefonsus fuit grandis guerra per totam I s paniam et
depopulate s unt multe ville " ( 4 : 1 3 5- 3 7 no . 1 2 4 7 ) .
2 Alfonso a pparently had requistioned more than j ust
movable property . The next year , 1 1 2 7 , he restored to
S ahagun the monastery of Noga l , explaining that " multi s pro
captando regno necesit udinibus c ircumventus
244
245
(
Almo st two dec ades o f consta nt warfare had strai ned
the re so urces of the crown and peace was sti ll not
immediately at hand .
In his f ir st years as king , Alfo nso
would have to suppre ss several rebel lions and drive the
Ar agonese from castile . 3
De spite hi s conciliatory tone
toward Sahagun , then , he continued to seek extraordinary
means to cover the expense o f c ampaigning .
Hi s
conf irmation of the monastery ' s privileges , for instance ,
was not free ; it had cost the ho use 3 , 0 0 0 so lidi .
The
following year , Alfonso was in compo stela demanding money
f or his troops , prompting the a ut hor of the Hi storia
Compostelana to comment that he was j ust like hi s mother in
hi s persec ution of the c hurc h .
Two year s later , he
returned to Santiago looking f or c as h and now attempted to
rec l aim full lords hip over the mint .
He was unsuccessful
in t he l atter , but Diego Gelmirez agreed to pay him 1 0 0
marks o f si lver a year while the wars lasted . 4
The Adoption of a Quaternal Si lver Standard
After the si lence of the doc uments in the last dec ade
of urrac a • s reign , c harters from t he town of Le6n again
t ake note of payment in denarii de medietate with the
(
monasterium . . . quod dic itur Nogare . . . meis illud militibus
dedi . " Sahagun , 4 : 1 1 0- 1 1 no . 1 2 3 0 .
3 See Recuero ' s summary o f the campaigns until 1 1 3 5 in
Alfonso VI I , 8 5 - 1 1 8 .
4 HC , book 2 , chap . 8 6 , book 3 , chaps . 1 2 - 1 3 ;
F letche r , catapult , 2 5 7- 5 9 .
246
(
ascension of Alfonso VII .
ten such transac tions . 5
Between 1 1 2 7 and 1 1 3 3 there are
To attac h muc h signific ance to
this relatively smal l spate of reference s is perhaps
dangerous , yet it seems to support the t heory that urrac a ' s
debasement ear ly in her reign had only been temporary .
In
other words , after c . 1 1 1 4 she re stored t he coinage to it s
former strength of 6 d . and maintained it at that finene ss
until her deat h .
When Alfonso took the throne , he must
have o pted to debase back to a 4 d . standard .
Hence , soon
after 1 1 2 6 some buyers began to note that they had paid in
the good , older coi n , the denarius de medietate.
As under Urrac a , these citations to denarii de
medieta te come from the town of Le6n where the populace was
perhaps more aware o f changes in royal po l ic y .
There are ,
however , some c lues from outside Le6n whic h also point to a
(
5 Five of the se c harters were purchases made by the
Bishop of Leon between March and september of 1 1 2 9 and
drawn up by either the notary Fernando or John .
( See ACL ,
5 : 1 3 1 - 3 3 nos . 1 3 87 and 1 3 8 8 ; 1 37 - 3 8 no . 1 3 9 0 , 1 4 0- 4 3 , no s .
1 3 9 2 and 1 3 9 3 . ) John also appears responsible for drafting
charters of two additional purchases in 1 1 3 0 and 1 1 3 1 not
involving the bisho p but citing denarii de medi et ate . ( ACL ,
5 : 1 4 4- 4 6 no 1 3 9 5 and 1 5 1 - 5 2 no . 1 3 9 9 ) See also the
settlement of 1 1 3 3 in ACL , 5 : 1 6 6- 6 8 no . 1 4 0 8 ; t he charter
of 1 1 2 7 in Sahagun , 4 : 1 1 6- 1 7 no . 1 2 3 4 ; Vicente Vignau y
Balle ster , ed , cartulario del monasterio de E slonza
( Madrid , 1 8 8 5 ) , no 5 8 .
In the se same year s , two Moz ar abic c harters from
Toledo ( dated 1 1 2 9 and 1 1 3 4 ) refer ambiguo usly to dinars
compri sed of the " half piece s . " Thi s may po s s ibly refer to
dinar s paid in denarii de medietate , though it seems more
likely that the phrase " half piece s " referred to fractional
gold denominations . Ange l Gonzalez P alenc i a , Lo s mo zarabe s
de To ledo en lo s siglos XII y X I I I ( Madrid , 1 9 2 6- 3 0 ) , 1 : 1 2 1 3 no . 1 7 , 1 6 no . 2 2 . See also the dic u s s io n i n Todesa ,
"Money o f Account , " 2 7 6 .
247
I
change in the coinage at thi s time .
According to a
document preserved in t he His tori a Compostelana , the c anons
and municipal co unci l of s antiago impo sed ceilings on food
prices in 1 1 3 3 , the ear l ie st known attempt at such
regulations in the kingdom .
The inf lation they were meant
to combat was po ssibly t he re sult of recent debasement . 6
secondly , in 1 1 2 9 , the master arc hitect working on the
cathedra l of Lugo made provi sions in his contract to be
paid mainly in kind because he was wary of a pos sible
devaluatio n of the coinage . 7
Perhaps the stro nges t reason for pos iting a debaseme nt
of the Leone se denarius c . 1 1 2 7 i s that it seems to coinc ide
with a similar c hange in neighboring Aragon .
Before the
late 1 1 2 0 s , Aragonese source s expres s no concern regarding
the strength of the j accensis .
A sale of land from
Zarago za dated 1 1 2 9 , however , noted that the price paid was
1 0 0 so lidi of "moneta j ac censis de medietate .
"6
Thi s
mention o f the jaccensis o f half silver coincide s with
(
6 He , book 3 , chap . 3 3 ; cf . C . E . Dufourcq and Jean
Gautier-Dalche , Hi storia econ6mica y social de la Espana
In
c ristiana en la edad media ( Barcelona , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 0 5 .
theory , Composte la did not have to adhere to the crown ' s
standards , but it made sense to f o llow its lead .
In the second half o f the thirteenth century , the
crown wo uld resort to simi lar free zes repeatedly in an
attempt to stem inf lat io n bo ught o n by debasement .
see
Joseph F . O ' Callaghan , " Paths to R ui n : The Economic and
Financial Polic ie s of Alfonso the Learned , " in The Worlds
of Alfonso the Learned and Jame s the conqueror, ed . Robert
I . B urns ( Princeton, 1 9 8 5 ) , 4 1 - 6 7 .
7 Jean Gimbel , The c at hedral B ui lder s , tran s . Teresa
Waugh ( New York , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 2 0 ; c f . Flet cher , catapult , 4 .
8 Lacarra, E bro , 1 : 1 8 9 no . 1 8 0 .
248
'
other references to a new denarius .
A s ale from Z aragoz a
the year before referred t o so lidi " de dineros moneta nova "
and a third transaction from c al ahorra i n 1 1 2 9 s imilar ly
referred to a new solidus jaccensi s . 9
TOgether , these
docume nt s imply that the denarius of Jac a was original ly on
a 6 d . standard like the Leone se denarius and that in the
late 1 1 2 0 s a new , weaker coin was introduced .
By 1 1 42 ,
Aragonese document s begin to routine ly describe the
II
jaccensi s a s the "money of 4 de narii . 1 o
While the demands of war certainly provided an
incentive for the crowns of Leon and Aragon to reduce their
coinages to a quaternal st andard , such a debasement wo uld
have been more compe lling if it was in keeping with larger
economic trends .
The coinage of Melgueil in southern
France had probably been trickling int o S pain since the
eleventh century . l 1
9 I bid . , 1 7 3- 7 4 no . 1 6 3 , 1 8 9- 9 0 no . 1 8 1 . Cf . Pio
Beltran Vi llagrasa , " E l sueldo j aque s de c uatro dineros de
plat a ,
in Obr a completa, 5 39 and B i s s o n , conservatio n , 7 5 .
1 0 Whi le the c ustom of referring to t he j accensis as
"money o f 4 d . " does not become common until the 1 1 40s , two
c harters preserved in the cartularie s of Z ar ago z a dated
1 1 3 6 and 1 1 3 7 refer to " solidos de moneta de I I I I0r
dinero s . " I f these two document s can be trusted , they are
exc e ptional in thi s regard . The next reference in the
See Lacarra , Ebro ,
Z aragoz a documentation is dated 1 1 4 2 .
1 : 2 6 5- 66 no . 2 6 3 , 2 7 4 no . 2 7 3 , 3 0 5 no . 3 1 1 ; 2 : 1 1 - 8 6 ,
I n Huesca doc uments , the first referenc e to suc h
pas s im :
money � s al so 1 1 4 2 . see Duran Gudio l , Hue sc a , 1 : 1 7 9 no .
1 5 8 , 1 8 0 - 3 0 9 , passim .
1 1 For the infl uence of the mel gori an o n the early
coinage of Gerona and possibly the c oinage o f Alfonso VI of
Le6n see c hapter 3 , n. 2 5 above .
Whi le t he mel gori an is not cited in t he Leone se
so urces for the first three decade s of t he twe lf th century ,
II
r
Between 1 1 2 5 and 1 1 3 0 , it was reduced
249
(
to 4 d . fine , a change which may wel l have contributed to
the adoption of the quaternal standard in Leon and
Aragon . l 2
There is al so reason to believe that the
denarius o f Barcelona fell to 4 d . at approximately this
time . u
(
it i s cited frequent ly from the 1 1 4 0 s to the end o f the
reign of Alfonso VI I in 1 1 5 7 . See the c it ations beginning
in 1 1 4 2 gathered by Jean Gautier Dalche in " Mo nnaies
d ' Outre-Pyrenees dans le nord-ouest de la pe ni ns ule
iberique , X IIe-xi i ie siec le s , " no . 12 in Economie et
soc iete , 8 1 - 8 3 . The same pattern c an be seen in the
document s from the c athedral o f Leon which Gautier Dalche
was not able to fully incorporate .
There the earlie st
c it ation to the mel gorian is c . 1 1 4 5 .
See ACL , 5 : 2 3 2 - 3 3 no .
1 1 4 5 , f f . The cartulary of S an Pedro de Monte s records a
payment in mel gori ans dated 1 1 3 9 .
See Quint an a Prieto , San
Pedro de Montes , 2 5 4- 5 5 no . 1 5 6 ; cf . 2 7 5- 7 6 no . 1 7 4 , 2 8 4 ,
I n the Aragone se and Catalan sources , the
no . 1 8 2 .
mel gori an is not cited with regularity until the later part
o f the cent ury .
See Bisson , conservatio n , 7 4 - 7 4 .
See also
B i s so n , Fiscal Accounts , 2 : 1 1 4 no . 4 7 , 1 6 4- 6 5 no . 7 8 ,
passim .
1 2 The mel gori an appears to have dro pped from 6 d . to
5 d . and then final ly to 4 d . in the cour se o f the 1 1 2 0 s .
see castaing- sicard , Monnaie s feodale s , 3 1 ; Bi s son ,
conservatio n , 64- 7 4 .
1 3 In the mid-eleventh century , Ramon Berenguer I
seems to have struck denarii at 6 d . f ine , as evidenced by
hi s surviving mint contrac t of 1 0 5 6 . This is o ne of the
few pieces o f direct testimony we have regarding the
finene s s of the Barcelona coin in the eleventh and twe lfth
( See appendix B below . )
Spufford , in Money,
centuries .
1 0 3 , lists the Barce lona denarius as 4 d . fine between 1 0 5 0
and 1 0 7 0 , but give s no sourc e . Anna M . Balaguer in
" Statutes Governing coinage in the I berian Kingdoms During
the Middle Ages , " in PMC I , 1 2 5 - 2 7 , suggested that the
denarius was maintained at 5 d . from t he reign o f Ramon
Berenguer I unti l the reign of Alfonso I I ( 1 1 62 - 9 6 ) , who ,
according to Balaguer , reduced it to 4 d . She , as we l l ,
offers no evidence .
Balaguer • s conc lusio n that it was Alfonso I I who
adopted the quaternal standard i s undoubtedly based on an
undated charter of that monarc h in which he ordered a new
barcelones made at 4 d . and f urther swore to maintain the
( See Bisson, Conservation , 2 0 1 no . 3 . )
coinage for life .
250
'
I n t he end , determining prec isely when the ruler s of
Leon , Aragon and Barce lona adopted a quaternal standard for
their denari i remains somewhat conj ectural .
Yet we know
that it certainly occurred at some po i nt during the reign
of Alfonso V I I .
I n 1 1 5 5 , two years be fore that monarch ' s
death , the papal legate Cardinal Hyaci nt h , at a council
he ld in the Castilian town of Vallado lid , promulgated
legi slat io n whic h c learly assumed that 4 d . was the common ,
if not desirable , standard for denar ii in the kingdom.
Months later , he issued the cano n again at a smaller
counci l he ld in Lerid a , along the Catalan fro ntier . l 4
on
balance , it seems mo st likely that t he c hange to a
quat erna l denarius in these kingdoms c ame in t he fir st
decade o f Alfonso VI I ' s reign .
The first decade of Alfonso VI I ' s reign forms the
final c hapter of the conf lict begun with the death of hi s
grandfather Alfonso VI in 1 1 0 9 .
The long struggle between
Leon and Aragon came to an abrupt end in the s ummer of
1 1 3 4 , when Alfonso the Battler died from wounds received
attempting to take the Mus lim fortre s s o f Fraga .
With no
children , Alfonso of Aragon left a biz arre wil l dividing
(
This text , h owever , does not prec l ude that 4 d . had long
been the acc e pted standard . The strength of the barcelones
can in f ac t be shown to have remained fair ly stable during
the year s of Alfonso I I ' s rule .
( See table 1 below . ) A
doc ument cited by Botet , Les monedes , 5 6 , seems to s ugge st
that by 1 1 2 7 the Barce lona denarius was already at 4 d .
See n . 5 8 be low .
1 4 See a ppendix c below.
251
(
hi s kingdom between the Templars , the Ho spital lers and the
canons of the Ho ly sepulcher .
According to E lena Lourie ,
this was intended as a c lever stal l for time , so that hi s
brother Ramiro c ould be re leased from hi s monastic vows and
take the thro ne . l S
I f thi s was indeed the underlying
purpose of the wil l , it was only partially s uc ce ss f ul .
While Alfonso I ' s brother eventual ly did s ucceed to
the throne o f Ar agon as Ramiro I I ( 1 1 3 4 - 3 7 ) , t he Navarrese
nobility dis so lved t heir union with the Aragonese and
elected their own king , Garc ia IV Ramire z ( 1 1 3 4- 5 0 ) .
Alfonso VI I of Leon moved quickly to profit from thi s
divisio n .
According to t he Chr6nica Adefonsi Imperatori s ,
he f ir st trave led t o Navarre where Garcia Ramire z agreed to
become his vas sa l and then continued on to Aragon where he
received the city o f Zarago z a from Ramiro . l 6
A charter of
Alfonso VI I , pre served in the cathedra l of Z ar ago z a ,
te stif ie s to t he quick s uccess o f hi s mane uver s .
Done on
December 2 6 , 1 1 3 4 , its dating protocol lists " King Alfonso
ruling ( imperan te ) in Toledo in Zaragoz a in Leo n and
1 5 E lena Lourie , " The wi ll of Alfonso I , ' El
Batallador , ' K in g of Aragon and Navarre : A Reassessment , "
Speculum 5 0 ( 1 9 7 5 ) : 6 3 5- 5 1 .
1 6 Tho ugh he probably was not an e ye-wit ne ss to the
events he de sc ri be s , t he author of the c hronic le appears to
be contemporary to the reign of Alfonso VI I . Luis sanchez
Belda , ed . , Chronic a Adefonsi Imperatoris ( Madrid , 1 9 5 0 ) ,
4 9 - 5 3 , paragraphs 62 - 6 6 , c f . ix-x.
(
252
(
Navarre , in the year that Alfonso the king of Aragon
died . " 1 7
Thi s Christmas court in Zar ago za was attended by the
leading Catalan magnates as we ll as nobles from southern
France . l B
some of the se men , as Rei lly suggest s , had
perhaps cros sed the Pyrenees to await the reso lution o f the
wi ll of Alfonso the Battler . l 9
others had probably been
drawn south by the opportunities for crusade along the
Spanish frontier rather than in the far-of f Ho ly Land .
At
least part o f this retinue of French nobility wa s present
the following May , when Alfonso VI I had himself crowned
emperor in the c athedral of Le6n . 2 o
With peace more or les s re stored amongst themselve s ,
Alfonso and the other Christian pr ince s , with the aid of
he lp from abroad , were now free to t ur n their attentio n in
earnest toward Andalusia , where Almoravid contro l was
f
1 7 The c harter i s a cart ulary copy , but is consi stent
with other c harter s of Alfonso from this period .
It doe s
not say that it was enacted in Z ar ago z a , though this seems
a safe assumption . see Lacarra , E bro , 1 : 2 4 7- 4 9 no . 2 4 5 ;
cf . Rei l ly , " C hancery of Alfonso VII , " 2 5 8 n . 90 .
1 8 Sanche z Be ld a , Chr6nic a , 5 4 , paragraph 6 8 .
1 9 Reil ly , Conte st , 1 8 5 .
2 0 The c hronic ler ' s specific mention o f "multi f ilii
comitum Franciae " attests that many of the se foreigner s
were young men seeking opportunity .
( Sanc hez Belda,
Chr6nic a , 5 4 - 5 6 paragraphs 6 8- 7 0 . ) The papacy was
be ginning to actively encourage partic ipation in the
Spanish war s . Paschal II had granted indulgence s to t ho se
who participated in the Catalan expedition against Mal lorc a
in 1 1 1 4 ( O ' Callagha n , Medieval Spain , 2 1 9 ) and a t the
councils of Valladolid and Lerida in 1 1 5 5 , Cardinal
Hyac inth extended the same crusading indulgences to those
who fought in Spain as were enj oyed by tho se who fought in
the Ho ly land . ( See appendix c , n . 9 below . )
253
(
be ginning to crumble .
As a re sult , Is lamic go ld would
again be gin to enter the S pa ni sh Christian economy in
signif ic ant quantities as it did when the Cordoban
caliphate had co llapsed .
B ut this gold was now entering a
far more monetized economy .
I n Leon , by 1 1 3 5 , mint s had
been e st abli shed in approximately seven towns . 2 1
Whi le
transactions by barter were stil l not rare , the denarius
was we ll in place as a common c urrency .
The Morabetino
Within the kingdom o f Leon-casti le , the dinar of the
Almoravids seems to have c ir c ulated first in Toledo ; it is
cited in a Moz arabic doc ument from that city dated 1 1 1 3 .
Two year s later , a L atin c harter recorded that the master
of grammar at the cathedral of Toledo purc hased a vineyard
for 3 1 " medcales morabitis . " 2 2
The presence of the
morabetino in To ledo thi s early, however , was except ional
in relation to the rest of t he kingdom and was undoubtedly
a re f lection of the ties t hat city maintained with t he
2 1 There were certainly mint s in Toledo , Leon,
Composte la , Salamanc a , P alenc i a , Segovia , and Burgos at
this t ime .
Sahagun was probably c lo sed and Z arago za was
only brief ly under Leonese c ontrol . A mint at Z amora may
a l so have existed this e ar ly . The status of the mint at
Lugo at this point i s unknown . The evidence for a l l mint
locations in Leon under Alf o ns o VI I is reviewed in c hapter
7.
2 2 Gonzalez Palenci a , L o s mozarabes , 1 : 7 no . 9 ;
Hernandez , Toledo , 2 2 -2 3 no . 1 9 .
{
254
(
I s lamic world through it s Arab , Mo zarab and Jewi sh
conununities . 2 3
some morabetinos no doubt reached the kingdom of LeonCastile proper in the first two decade s of the twe lfth
centur y , but they are not c learly di scernible in the
doc ument s .
At a counc i l held in B urgos in 1 1 1 7 , for
example , the legate Cardinal Boso acknowledged t hat the
church of Palenc ia had been negligent in paying Rome an
annual census in si lver .
He accepted 1 0 0 " aureo s " as
arrears for the debt but it is impos sible to tel l if he was
paid in new Almoravid dinars or perhaps old tai f a gold ,
whic h still circulated sporadically at this point . 2 4
(
In
2 3 The Toledan poet Yehuda Halevi , writing to a
merc hant friend in E gypt , to ld o f plans to ransom a Jew
held captive by urraca for 3 3 and l j 3 menc a le s .
To rai se
the money, the c ommunity of Toledo planned to contribute 1 0
menc ales , the friend i n E gypt 1 , and the bal ance was
ho pefully to come from contact s in Malaga , Luc ena and
Granada . Thi s does not suggest that all , or any , of the se
dinars were morabetino s , but only illustrates the contac t s
To ledo maintai ned . Haim Beinhart , " Yehuda Halevi y s u
tiempo , " i n Encuentros de las tres c ulturas : Primero
congreso internac ional ( To ledo , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 9- 3 6 . As further
evidence of To ledo ' s monetary contacts with the I s lamic
world see the Mo zarabic document of 1 1 1 1 which , according
to Go nz alez Palencia, Los mozarabes , 6 no . 7 . , refers to a
"mizcal oriental almamuni . " see also the case reportedl y
brought before the Almoravid emir as to whether Toledan
merc hant s in cordoba could be he ld for ransom in exc hange
for Mus lims in Christian hands in constable , Trade , 6 5 - 6 6 .
2 4 Likewise , the bis ho p of P alencia, attending Alfonso
VI I ' s imperial coronation in Le6n in 1 1 3 5 , paid 1 , 0 0 0
" aureo s " for royal confirmation o f a grant . B y this later
date , however , it seems more probable that the piece s were
morabetinos . See Abaj o Martin, P alencia, 6 5 - 6 6 no . 2 7 ; 7 6 7 8 no . 3 3 .
The charter recording the bi shop of oviedo ' s exchange
with Urrac a in 1 1 1 2 , c laims that besides a s um i n si lver
the queen received 9 , 2 70 " me nc ales of pure gold . " Whi le
255
(
descr ibing the tr ip he made to the papal c uria in 1 1 1 9 ,
however , Geraldo of compostela did c laim that he carried
1 0 0 morabetino s as part of the treasure intended to he lp
Diego Gelmire z ' c ause . zs
Even i n the document s of the 1 1 2 0 s , the Almoravid
dinar surfaces only on occ as ion .
From coimbra in so uthern
Port ugal , a c artulary copy of a sale dated 1 1 2 2 cite s the
coin . 26
A charter of the bisho p of Leon shows that he
purc hased land in 1 1 2 4 with a combined payment of 9
morabetino s and 5 solidi jaccensi s . 2 7
Two sales from
Palenc ia , one dated August 1 1 2 4 and the other May 1 1 2 8 ,
also record payment in the new dinar . z s
(
ot herwise , in this
this text shows c lear signs of int erpolation , menc ales of
" pure go ld " may po ssibly have re ferred to the new
( Garcia Larragueta , colecci6n oviedo , 3 4 5- 5 7
morabetino .
no . 1 3 1 ; c f . c hapter 5 , n . 3 0 above . ) For the continued
but sporadic c irculation of the old taifa pieces in the
early twelfth century, see Tode sc a , "Money o f Acco unt , "
2 73-79 .
2 5 HC , book . 2 , chap. 1 0 .
2 6 See t hi s and other citations in the cartulary known
as the Li vro preto, di sc us sed in Losa, " The Money Among the
Mo zarabs , " 2 9 1 - 9 3 .
2 7 ACL , 5 : 1 1 9- 2 0 no . 1 3 7 9 .
2 8 Abaj o Martin , Palencia, 6 8 - 7 1 , no . 2 9 ; 7 3 - 7 4 no .
3 1 . The se two sales , combined with the two payments in
gold made by the c hurch of Palenci a mentioned in n . 2 4
above , could be seen a s supporting Nightingale ' s theory
that Palencia was at thi s date a " plac e of resort for
foreign merc hant s who wanted to exchange their own silver
coin for Mus lim Go ld . " ( Nightingale , " Pe pperers ' Gui ld , "
1 3 0 . ) Her s ugge stion, however , re st s on two mistaken
premises .
First , s he believed Palenc ia l ay c lo se to what she
call s " the monetary boundary between t he silver area of the
north and the gold of the sout h . "
( This was based on an
unexplained statement in Mackay , spain in the Middle Age s ,
5 0 . ) The real " mo netary boundar y " lay f urther south
Secondly , she believed Palenc ia would have
towards To ledo .
256
c
decade the morabetino was mainly employed in penalty
c lause s of charter s , giving the impres sion that while the
piece was known in Leo n , few as yet were actually
circ ulat ing . 2 9
In neighboring Arago n , it appear to have
been equal ly scarce in dai ly c irculation despite Alfonso
the Batt ler ' s conquest o f Zarago z a in 1 1 1 8 . 3 0
In 1 1 3 0 , sancha , the sister of Alfonso VI I , donated a
church to Sahagun and received for confirmation of the
grant 2 5 0 "moabitide s aureo s . "
That same year , Sahagun
paid o ut 2 5 additional morabetinos in an exc hange of l and
prospered by attracting foreign merc hant s from Burgo s who
were frustrated by that town ' s lack of a mint . Burgo s ,
( See c hapter 7 below . ) While
however , had a mint by 1 1 2 8 .
Palenc ia may have been a f avored royal residence under
Urraca , there is no evidence to support that it was a
merc antile nexus between t he Christian and Arab world .
2 9 see the two exchanges between Urraca and the bi shop
of Leon in January 1 1 2 3 in ACL , 5 : 1 0 6 - 1 0 9 no . 1 3 7 5 " versio n
B , " and 1 0 9- 1 1 1 no . 1 3 76 , c f . 1 4 6- 4 8 no . 1 3 9 6 . The term
also a ppears in a penalty c l au se in an entry in one of the
cartular ies of san Mil lan de l a cogo l l a . see Lede sma
Rubio , San Mil lan , 2 4 4 no . 3 5 9 . An undated grant from the
concejo of Segovia to B is ho p Pedro published in Vil lar
Garci a , Segovia , 4 7 no . 3 1 probably be longs to the 1 1 2 0 s as
well .
3 0 Whi le the Almoravids had occupied Z argago za from
1 1 1 0 until the Aragone se c onquest in 1 1 1 8 , they may not
have struck gold in the c ity . ( Hazard , North Afric a , 6 2 6 3 . ) stil l , a copy of the fuero granted to Zarago z a by
Alfonso I in 1 1 1 9 invoke s the morabetino in it s genera l
penalty c lause . Likwise , a copy of his fuero to the
Mozarabs freed from Granad a , dated 1 1 2 6 , imposes a f ine of
1 , 00 0 morabetino s on disrupter s of the peace . B ut t he
morabetino is not cited in actual sales in thi s first
decade after the conques t . The earliest reference , to my
knowledge , is a sale from Tude la dated 1 1 2 9 which give s a
price o f 4 5 0 " solidos morabetino s . " Lacarra, E bro , 1 : 1 8 7
no . 1 7 7 ; 7 1 - 73 no . 5 7 ; 1 4 1 - 4 2 no . 1 3 2 .
(
257
(
with a private party . 3 l
By thi s dec ade , the coin c lear ly
became more commo n in Leon-casti le as Almoravid centra l
contro l i n al-Andalus began to yie ld t o a new generation o f
independent tai f a lords 3 2
At the same time , a more
serious chal le nge to Almoravid aut hority arose in North
Africa in the form of a new mi litant sec t , the Almohads .
Around 1 1 3 8 , Ta sh uf in , the son of the Almoravid emir
cros sed to Morocco from Spain with an army to conf ro nt the
threat , leaving al-Andalus an easy target for Christian
aggres sion .
Alfonso VI I made several armed expeditions into
Anda lusia reac hing as f ar as Granada i n 1 1 4 4 .
He occ u pied
Cordoba in 1 1 4 6 and rec eived the homage of the Almoravid
prince I bn Ganiya . 3 3
(
In 1 1 4 7 , the same year the Portugue se
3 1 Sahagun , 4 : 1 2 3- 2 5 no . 1 2 3 9 , 1 3 0 - 3 1 no 1 2 4 3 , c f .
1 4 6- 4 7 no . 1 2 5 4 .
3 2 On the new generation o f taifa lords as manifest on
the coinage , see C asto Maria del Rivero , " Lo s reinos
menore s de tai fas y sus cecas en los s iglo s X I I y X I I I , "
Las Cienc ias 1 6 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 2 - 1 0 ; Hanna E . Kassi s , " Le s taifas
almoravides , " in Jarigue I I , 5 1 - 9 2 .
See also Hanna E .
Kassis , " Notas historico s sobre las monedas de los
Almoravides " in Jarigue I , 5 5 - 6 6 .
3 3 For Alfonso ' s c ampaigns see sanchez Belda ,
Chronic a , 1 3 7 - 5 5 paragraphs 1 7 6- 9 5 . His victories �n these
years are corroborated by several charters . see , for
example , the royal grant to the bi shop of Avila dated 1 1 4 4
whic h notes " in reditu f o s sati quod fecerat eo tempore
predictus imperator in terra Corduve et Granate . "
[ An ge l
Barrios Garci a , ed . , Do c umentac ion medieval de la c atedral
de Avila ( Sa lamanc a , 1 9 8 1 ) , 6- 7 no . 5 . ] See also the grant
to the c hurc h of Toledo in 1 1 4 6 , " anno quo predictus
imperator cordubam acqui sivit et principem moabitarum
( Garcia Lujan, Toledo ,
Abingania s ubi vas s alum fec it . "
2 : 5 6 - 5 8 no . 1 7 , see also 5 8- 60 no . 1 8 .
See further ,
Recuero , Alfonso VI I , 1 6 4- 8 3 . )
258
(
seized santarem and Lisbon , Alfonso took the port of
Almeria on the southeaster n coast of t he peninsula .
The
Catalans soo n followed by taking Torto sa , Lerida , Fraga and
Mequinenza on the Ebro river between 1 1 4 8 and 1 1 4 9 .
The
combined succe ss of all these campaigns could not he lp but
increase the amount o f go ld entering the Latin economies . 34
Of the documents pre served in the archives of the
cathedra l of Leo n , there are s ixteen transactions dated
between 1 1 3 2 and 1 1 5 2 .
Al l but one of the se sales
expressed the price in morabetino s . 3 5
3 4 The c ampaign again s t Almeria as wel l as tho se
against Li sbon and Torto sa a l l s uc ce s s fully attracted
foreign aid , a ref lectio n of t he potential profits that
stood to be won under the guis e of crusade . According to
t he so-called Poema de ALmerLa , the bishops of Leo n and
To ledo promised the part ic ipants in the Almeria campai gn
not only absolution from t he ir sins but also whatever
silver and gold the Moors po ssessed .
See " Poema de
Almer ia , in sanc he z Be lda , Chronic a , 1 6 7 - 6 8 , line s 2 5 - 3 4 .
For a review of these campaigns and the motive s behi nd
them , see Constable , " The Second crusade , " 2 2 1 -2 3 , 2 2 7 - 3 5 .
How much the crown o f Leon profited from the conques t
o f Almeria i s impo ssible to gauge . Neverthe le s s , it i s
hard t o accept sanchez Albor no z contention in , " Notas , "
4 9 6 , that the campaign was i n f act a maj or contributor to
the debt he believed the crown accrued in the course of the
twelfth century . Hi s reasoning was based on the
c hronic le ' s statement that Alfonso paid the Genoese 3 0 , 0 0 0
rnorabetinos for their assistanc e .
( Sanchez Belda , Chronic a
1 6 0- 6 1 , paragraph 2 0 2 . ) S anchez Alborno z he ld that this
amounted to only a f raction of the total cost of the
campaign . Even accepting the c hronic ler ' s f igure , however ,
it seems hard to believe t hat with the s ucce ssful outcome
of the s iege the crown wou ld have lo st money .
3 5 For the tran sactions c it ing rnorabetino s see ACL ,
5 : 1 5 3- 5 6 nos . 1 4 0 1 - 1 4 0 2 , 1 9 8 -2 0 1 nos . 1 4 2 9 - 3 0 , 2 0 5 no .
1 4 3 5 , 2 3 3- 3 4 no . 1 4 4 9 , 2 4 9 - 5 3 no s . 1 4 5 8- 6 1 , 2 5 5- 5 6 no . 1 4 6 3 ,
2 6 0- 6 1 no . 1 4 6 8- 69 , 2 6 4 - 6 5 no . 1 4 72 , 2 69 - 7 1 no . 1 4 76 . The
one sale that does not mention t he morabetino was in
denarii of Melguei l , 2 3 9 - 4 0 no . 1 4 5 3 .
In addition , there
are five documents concerning sums left in testament s whic h
I
I
•
r
Though extant
259
c
c harters are les s numero us out side the env1rons of Leo n ,
they nonethe le ss support the idea that the morabetino was
now starting to enjoy a wider circ ul at ion throughout the
kingdom . 3 6
A similar pattern can be seen in the Arago ne se
documentatio n .
The coin was c lear ly used in Zaragoz a
during the 1 1 3 0 s and by the 1 1 4 0 s was present in the more
northern regions of the kingdom . 3 7
The Chri stian drive into Mus lim territory, however ,
did not go unc hallenged .
Having defeated the Almoravid
forces in North Africa , the Almohads made forays acros s the
strait of Gibraltar as e ar ly as 1 1 4 6 and soo n began to
r
mention the morabetino . see 1 8 7 - 8 8 no . 1 42 1 , 2 1 0 - 1 3 no s .
1 4 3 8 - 3 9 , 2 3 2 - 3 3 no . 1 4 48 .
See also the sale s from the
Leonese monastery of carrizo starting in 1 1 4 5 in Casado
L abat e , Carri zo , 1 : 3 3 - 3 6 no s 2 8 - 3 0 .
3 6 I n Burgos , see the sales dated 1 1 3 9 , 1 1 4 6 and 1 1 4 7
in Pefia Perez , san Juan de Burgo s , 2 1 - 2 2 no . 1 2 , 2 8 - 2 9 no .
1 8 , 3 2 - 3 3 no . 2 1 ; cf . the exchange o f 1 1 5 7 in Garrido ,
I n Z amora , see the sales of 1 1 5 0 and
B urgo s , 2 4 2 no . 1 4 6 .
1 1 5 1 and the beque st of 1 , 0 0 0 morabetino s to the churc h
there in 1 1 5 9 . see Jo se L ui s Martin Martin, ed . ,
Doc umento s zamorano s , vol 1 , Documento s del arc hive
c atedralic io de zamora : Primera parte ( 1 1 2 8- 1 2 6 1 )
( Salmanca , 1 9 8 2 ) , 1 1 - 1 5 no s . 6 - 7 , 1 7 no . 1 2 . For Asturias ,
references to the morabetino begin i n 1 1 3 6 , see
De part amento , " Circulaci6n , " 2 4 9 - 5 0 .
see al so Gautier­
Dalche , " Histoire monetaire , " 6 1 - 6 2 .
3 7 See the charter o f c . 1 1 3 4 in Lac arra , Ebro , 1 : 2 5 2 5 3 no . 2 4 9 . Beginning c . 1 1 3 6 , the Z ar agozan doc uments c ite
morabet inos marinas and malequi s , de signating pieces from
Almeria and Malaga, as we l l as morabetino s merchan tes or
mercatores, perhaps indicating a particular piece preferred
by merc hant s .
See Lacarra , E bro , 1 : 2 8 1 no . 2 8 2 , 2 8 5 no .
2 8 5 , 2 9 5 no . 3 02 , 3 0 0- 3 0 1 no . 3 0 7 , 3 0 5 - 3 0 7 no . 3 1 3 .
(A
sale from Le6n also refers to "morabitinos mercadane s
obtimos . " ACL , 5 : 2 6 1 no . 1 4 69 . ) For the morabetino ' s
general c irc ulation in Arag6n see further the citations
co l lected in Maria I sabe l Ubieto Artur , " Los morabedis
ayadino s , circ ulaci6n y cambio en el reino de Arag6n segun
l a doc ume nt ac i6n coetanea , " Numisma 3 4 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 2 1 5- 2 5 .
260
(
re unite al-Andalus by force .
Alfonso VI I seems to have
lo st control o f cordoba by 1 1 4 8 though he managed to retain
Almeria for ten year s .
Hi s cont inued contro l o f thi s port
was due 1n part to an alliance with I bn Mardanl s h , the most
successful of the Almoravid pr1nce s to defy the Almohads .
I n 1 1 4 7 , Ibn Mardanl s h assumed rule over a kingdom in
eastern Anda lusia centered around Murc ia and so he lped
shie ld Almeria from the Almohads .
After the fall of
Almeria in 1 1 5 7 and Alfonso VI I ' s death that same year , Ibn
Mardanl s h remained independent o f the Almohads by
maintaining an alliance with the chr istians unti l hi s own
death in 1 1 7 2 .
Consequent ly , whi le the Almohads had
introduced a new dinar to the peninsula, str uck on a
radically new weight standard , 3 B I bn Mardan l sh continued to
supply the c hristian state s with his ver sion of the gold
morabetino through tribute payment s ( though these were
sporadic ) and also by hiring Lat in mercenaries and pro bably
by f ostering some trade . 39
(
3 8 The dinar of the Almohads weighed only about 2 . 2 5
grams .
They a lso struck a double dinar piec e , c al led the
dobla by the Latins , whic h weighed approximately 4 . 5 5
grams .
See Hazard, North Afric a , 4 8 .
3 9 I bn Mardan l sh gave his Latin mercenaries a section
of Murcia and , as Kassis point s out , a llowed them to
"construct c hurc hes and to open shops for the sale o f
wine . " See Hanna E . Kassi s , " The coinage of Muhamma d Ibn
Sa ' d ( Ibn Mardanl sh ) of Murs iya : An Attempt at I berian
I slamic Auto nomy , " in PMC I I I , 2 1 1 , 2 1 9 . He agreed to pay
Ram6n Berenguer tribute as early a s 1 1 4 9 , but this appears
See the
to have become erratic in the count ' s later year s .
sectio n on gold in chapter 1 0 be low.
There i s a lso evidence that Ram6 n Berenguer , and
perhaps Alfonso VII , had attempted to c o l lect parias from
261
(
The document s , the n , show that the morabetino was
introduced gradually into Leon and Arago n , with the
greate st inf lux coming after 1 1 3 0 .
Unlike the menca l 1n
the previo us century , this dinar was not reserved for large
transact ions or payments o f state but appear s from the
outset to have been assimi lated into the monetary system
alongside the denarius .
The bis hop of Leon, for instanc e ,
used 9 morabetinos combined with denarii of Jaca to
purc hase land in 1 1 2 4 . 4 0
With an increasingly active
circ ulat io n , t he morabetino became a f ami liar standard of
value which was at times rendered in denarii .
I t s use as
standard c an be seen at a relative ly ear ly date when
Alfonso VI I was asked by Peter the Venerable in 1 1 42 to
reso lve the matter of the cens us owed c l uny . 4 1
(
the other Almoravid taif as before they s uccumbed to the
Almohads .
See the agreement between Ramon Berenguer and
Gerald Alemany to " defendere et guerreiare ips aa parias de
I spania . " Ro se l l , Liber , 1 : 3 1 8- 1 9 no . 2 9 3 ; c f . Anna M .
B alaguer , De l manc us a l a dobl a : Or i paries d ' Hispania
( Barcelona , 1 9 9 3 ) , 1 2 7 nos . 8 9 - 9 1 .
4 0 ACL , 5 : 1 1 9- 2 0 no . 1 3 7 9 .
see a l so the mixed payment
made in 1 1 3 2 : " XLa morabetinos de puro auro et ex i sto
prec io apud vo s nichil remansit indebito , et tre s so lido s ,
pro pane et vino quod nobis et vobi s pl ac uit . " ACL , 5 : 1 5 55 6 no . 1 40 2 .
4 1 Peter had come to spain and met with Alfonso at
Salamanca . By t hi s time , Diego Ge lmirez , who had
controlled the see of compostela for some forty year s , was
dead and the king was attempting to insure the selection of
Berengar o f salamanc a as his s uccessor . Alfonso wanted the
abbot ' s he lp in convincing I nnocent I I that Berengar had
been c anonically elected . Peter apparently agreed to do so
but used the occ asion to remind the king o f the annual go ld
census owed Cluny . See Char le s Julian Bishko , " Peter the
Venerable ' s Journey to Spai n , " in Petrus venerabi li s , ed .
Gile s constable and J . Kritzec k ( Rome , 1 9 5 6 ) , 1 6 9 - 7 1 .
262
(
In his c harter addres s ing the is sue , Alfonso V I I
acknowledged that his great grandfather Fernando I and his
grandf ather Alfonso VI had promi sed 2 , 0 0 0 menc ales annually
to the monastery , though he did not mentio n whether hi s
mother had renewed this pledge . 4 2
Undoubtedly , the long
period of anarchy c ombined with the ces sation of tribute
f rom parias had forced Urrac a and her son to i gnore the
debt . 4 3
Rather than recommit to the sum of 2 , 0 0 0 dinar s
per annum, Alfonso gave C l uny the prestigious mo nastery of
san Pedro de Cardena near Burgos with al l it s appurtenance s
as wel l as other minor propert y .
In additio n , he assigned
the French house a smal ler annual stipend of 2 0 0
morabetinos taken from t he profits of the public bat hs at
B urgo s .
The baths at Bur go s certainly did not generate revenue
in go ld .
The fuero o f Cuenc a , redacted around 1 1 7 9 , set
the entrance price to the baths there for a free man or
woman at only half a denarius . 4 4
Alfonso , then , in
promis in g a rent of 2 0 0 morabetino s , was neces sari ly
r
4 2 Brue l , Rec ueil de Cluny, 5 : 42 3 - 2 6 no . 4 0 7 2 .
Alfonso VII was s light ly confused as to the hi story of the
payment . Fernando I had only promised 1 , 0 0 0 gold piece s
pe r annum whic h was later raised t o 2 , 0 0 0 under Alfonso VI .
See chapter 2 above .
4 3 Cluny , however , had not been completely forgotten .
See the smaller stipends i n marks of s ilver in Brue l ,
Rec ueil de Cluny, 5 : nos . 3 9 9 5 and 4 0 3 8 also 3 2 7 -2 8 ; c f .
Rei lly , Urraca , 1 8 9 .
4 4 Rafael de Urena y smenj aud , ed . , Fuero de cuenc a
( Madr id , 1 9 3 5 ) , 1 5 6 - 5 7 . For the date of the cuenca fuero ,
see Powers , " Frontier Competition, " 4 8 3 - 8 6 .
263
(
employing the value o f the morabetino as means o f acco unt .
I n the end , Cluny may have been sent go ld, but at some
point in the process a number of denarii had to be j udged
equivalent to a morabetino . � s
The integration of the denarius and morabetino in
Leon , as wel l as in the newly united l ands of Aragoncataloni a , � 6 gave rise to a bi-metal lic c urrency system
made practic al by it s simplicity .
Unlike the go ld o f the
eleventh century , the quality of the morabetino appear s to
have remained fair ly consi stent , at least in terms o f
finene s s , even whe n struck by the Almoravid taifa lords �n
the period before the Almohad consolid at io n .
The Chri stian
states importing the se piece s , therefore , did not trouble
(
4 5 Another early example of the morabetino rendered in
s i lver is per haps seen in the infanta S ancha ' s grant to the
bi shop o f Segovia in 1 1 4 0 . According to the charter , she
gave t he vil lage of Alcazaren to the bisho p in exc hange for
" CC morabetinos quos dedit michi in roboratione . . . et c
aurei s quos dedit maiori domus mee Nic ho le Pelaiz . "
( Villar Garcia , segovia , 7 9 - 8 0 no . 3 2 . ) The bishop may
have u sed two type s of gold coin , 2 0 0 morabetinos and 1 0 0
of some other provenace , perhaps o ld t ai fa dinar s , or it
may be t hat the 2 0 0 morabetino s were paid in species other
than gold .
4 6 The death of Alfonso the Batt ler prec ipitated
another realignment of the Christian state s . As we have
seen , with the B attler ' s death , Navarre broke it s alliance
with Arago n .
It remained an independent tho ugh smal l
kingdom whose expansion was blocked by its more ambitious
neighbor s . The Batt ler ' s brother , R amiro , ruled an
indepe ndent Aragon long enough to f ather a daughter . He
then betrothed the chi ld , Petronilla , to Ramon Berenguer IV
( 1 1 3 1 - 62 ) of Barce lona and returned to his c loister in
1 1 3 7 . Aragon and cataloni a were hence united though Ramon
Berenguer never took t he tit le king of Aragon but rather
ruled as pri nce . He and Petroni lla ' s child became Alfonso
I I o f Aragon ( 1 1 62 -9 6 ) , who is somet imes referred to as
Alfonso I of united Aragon-catalonia .
264
(
to remint them a s the Catalans had done with the mancus in
the previous century .
The morabetino was allowed to
c irc ulate as i s , though some attention was paid to
consistency in weight , particularly in large payment s .
This is il lustrated by an accord reached between the
count of Barce lona and the Genoe se in 1 1 5 3 .
After
partic ipating in t he conques t of Almeria , the Ge noese
helped Ramon Berenguer take Tortosa in 1 1 4 8 and he awarded
them the right s to one third o f the city .
I n 1 1 5 3 , they
co nsented to sell their share back to the co unt .
The price
agreed upon was 1 6 , 0 4 0 morabetino s , paid in a mixture of
pieces from Morocc o , Almeria , Malaga , and Murc ia .
The
coins were not c ounted , but " rendered at the weight of the
l upino . "
The l upino was the dinar of I bn Mardanl s h , known
to the Christians as el Rey Lobo . 4 7
The purchase was
completed , the n , by as sembling e no ugh go ld coins unt i l the
theoretical weight of 1 6 , 0 4 0 dinars o f Ibn Mardani s h was
reac hed .
The Murc ian ruler must have already been o ne of
47 " ( T ) erc iam partem Torto se . . . pro precio ,
vide licet , xvi milium et xl morabetinorum Marroc hinorum,
Marinorum, Aiadinorum , L upinorum , Me lechinorum, qui
quotcumque ibi s int mixtim , ad pensum de Lupinis
reddantur . " Ro se l l , Liber , 1 : 4 8 5 - 8 7 no . 4 6 3 . The
morabetino ayadino was the coin of I bn Mar �anish ' s
predecessor in eastern al-Andalus , I bn ' IyaQ . See Ubieto
Artur , " Lo s morabedi s , " 2 1 0 ; c f . K a s si s , " Ibn Sa ' d , " 2 1 0 11.
see also Fe lipe Mateu y L lo pi s , " Morabetino s i n auro y
mazmudinas iucef ias durante Alfonso E l Casto , Pedro E l
Cat6lico y Jaime de Arag6n ( 1 1 6 2 - 1 2 76 ) , " in Jarigue I , 1 8 283 .
(
265
(
the premler suppliers o f gold to the Chri stians . 4 8
smaller
transactions using the morabet ino were perhaps not as
elaborate .
While the provenance of the morabetino s used in
these transactions is occ asional ly noted , 4 9 it is not c lear
whether the trouble was always taken to we igh out the
coins . so
At the death of Alfonso VI I in 1 1 5 7 , the kingdom of
Leon was divided between his two sons .
Fernando I I ( 1 1 5 7-
1 1 8 8 ) received Leon and sanc ho I II ( 1 1 5 7 - 5 8 ) inherited
Castile .
sanc ho ' s untime ly death the fo llowing year
resulted in hi s infant son Alfonso VI I I ( 1 1 5 8- 1 2 1 4 )
inheriting the throne .
Shortly after Alfonso attained his
maj ority in 1 1 6 9 , Ibn Mardanl s h died and gold tribute to
the Chr istian states c ame to a halt as the Almohads
occupied Murcia .
(
Both Alfonso VI I I of Casti le and Fernando
4 8 Lobo ' s morabetino was not necessar i ly t he heaviest
or the best of the coins assembled in the payment to Genoa .
Even in the early year s of his reign , hi s dinars appear s to
have had an average weight c lo se to 3 . 9 0 grams whi le dinars
from contemporary taif a rulers may have been more faithf ul
to the original Almoravid standard of slight ly more than 4
grams . ( See K as si s , " Ibn Sa ' d , " 2 1 8 - 9 ; Haz ard , North
Afric a , 4 8 , 6 1 . ) The Genoese probably chose hi s coin as a
standard because it was the mo st f amiliar .
4 9 see n . 3 7 above .
5 0 The wei ght of the dinar i s often al luded to i n
c harter s such as i n the s ale o f a herededad in 1 1 78 : " in
prec io v morabetinos de pe so , et I I so lido s , et VI I I I
denarios . " I t i s not c lear , however , i f thi s implied that
the coins were actually weighed .
[ Pedro F loriano Llorente ,
Co lecc i6n diplomatic a de l monasterio de San Vicente de
oviedo ( 7 8 1 - 1 2 0 0 ) : Estudio y Transc ripci6n ( Oviedo , 1 9 6 8 ) ,
5 0 3- 5 0 5 no . 3 2 0 . J In at least some c ases , phrases such as
" morabetinos bonos et de pe s o " were c learly becoming
formulai c in the later century .
See Ubieto Artur ,
" Morabedis , " pas slm .
266
(
I I o f Leon res po nded by is suing their own version o f the
morabetino . s l
Even when minting two species o f coi n ,
however , the se kings do not appear to have attempted to
regulate the rate of exchange between the two metals . s2
They seem to have been content to let this be determined on
the open market .
Source s c iting an exchange rate between go ld and
si lver in Leon-castile for the twe lfth century , however ,
are rare .
since most charters t hat me ntion coinage are
records of c ompleted s ales where a price had a lready bee n
agreed to and paid , there was litt le incentive for the
partie s to note the current rate o f exc hange between
denarii and morabetino .
still , by using source s from
Aragon and c atalonia to supplement the Leone se materia l , we
c an arrive at a general out line of the relative strength of
si lver and gold .
Rate s of Exc hange
r
5 1 The kings of Portugal wou ld also eventually str ike
a go ld morabetino . The introduction of these Christian
piece s is di sc u s sed further in c hapter 1 0 below . For the
divi sion of Leon at the death of Alfonso VI I see
O ' Cal laghan , Medieval Spain , 2 3 5- 3 6 .
5 2 The impracticality of attempting to regulate bi­
metallic exchange can be see n in Venice ' s introduction o f
the go ld ducat in 1 2 8 4 . T o contro l production cost s , the
duc at ' s val ue was set at 1 8 silver grossi . The next year
t he market had driven the price o f the ducat to 1 8 . 5 grossi
and it c ontinued to ri se in succeeding year s .
See Frederic
c . Lane , " The Fir st I nf idel it ie s of t he Venetian Lire, " in
The Medieval city , ed . , Harry A . Mi skimin , David Herlihy
and A. L . Udovitch ( New Have n , 1 9 7 7 ) , 5 2 - 5 6 .
267
c
An e ar ly indic ation o f the exchange rate between the
gold morabetino and the bi llon denarius is found in the
Anales toledanos whic h report that in 1 1 1 7 the morabetino
was worth 4 solidi or 4 8 denarii . S3
De narii of Urrac a ' s
era , like the last coins of her father , te nded to weigh
c lose to a gram . S4
If the se were 6 d. f ine , 48 of them
cont ai ned approximately 24 grams o f fine s ilver .
According
to the se calculations , then, the morabetino whic h was 4
grams of almos t pure go ld was worth 2 4 grams of fine silver
or gold was worth 6 time s it s weight in si lver .
Thi s is a
re lative ly low rate of exc hange in comparison to norther n
Euro pe , where go ld at this t ime could command 9 to 1 2 time s
it s weight i n silver . s s
(
Nevertheles s , two documents from
5 3 " Vendi6 se el trigo en Mayo en Toledo la fanega por
XIV so ldos , e era el maravedi IV soldo s . " F lore z , " Anales
to ledano s I I , " 4 0 5 .
5 4 Metcalf in his study of the parcel of Alfonso VI ' s
Chr i stogram coinage fo und the intended weight to be between
1 . 0 7 and 1 . 0 9 grams .
( See Met calf , " Parce l of coins , " 2 9 8 9 9 . ) The coin that I have c atalogued as urrac a ' s earliest
i s sue ( type 1 ) appears to have been struck at a simi lar
standard . By 1 1 1 7 , urraca ' s coins , as wel l as tho se of her
husband and son , may have dropped s light ly in weight ,
though thi s i s difficult to determine given the smal l
number that survive .
See catalogue 2 be low .
5 5 Andrew M . Wat son , in " B ac k to Gold - and Silver , "
The Economic Hi story Review, 2d ser . , 2 0 ( 1 9 6 7 ) , 2 1 -2 9 ,
attempted to c o l late gold- silver ratio s from the Latin ,
Greek and Arab worlds . He est imated that in E urope out side
Spain the go ld- s ilver ratio was between 9 and 1 2 before the
mid-thirteenth century . I n the Arab wor ld from c . 1 1 7 5 to
1 2 5 0 , he found gold- si lver ratios ranging from 4 . 8 to 7 . 0 .
I n s pain , citing material mainly from Portugal , he found a
ratio o f approximate ly 7 in the twe l fth and thirteenth
cent ur ie s . Nonetheles s , his c aveat regarding such f igures
is worth remembering : "the scholar who wishe s to make use
of silver- go ld rat io s wi ll f ind his path strewn with thorns
. . . the calc ulat ions o f such ratio s i s tricky : it has
268
(
Barcelona dated 1 0 9 5 and 1 0 9 7 , giving the price of ref ined
silver in terms of gold , point to an exc hange of 7 to 1 , a
rate comparable to that in the Ana1es . s 6
We have suggested that the t hree main denarii of the
peninsula ( tho se o f Leon , Aragon and B arcelona ) fe ll from a
half-silver standard ( 6 d . ) to a quaternal one ( 4 d . ) in
the late 1 1 2 0 s .
Assuming the weight o f the coins remained
the same , it would take 3 quaternal denarii to equal 2
denarii de medieta te . 57
Therefore , if the go ld morabeti no
was worth 4 8 denarii de medietate, a l l other factor s be ing
equal , its price should have risen to 7 2 denarii or 6
solidi after t he billon dropped to a quaternal standard .
In reality , the price of the dinar doe s not appear to have
j umped quite t hat hi gh .
Botet y s iso quoted a doc ument
from Barcelo na dated 1 1 2 7 whic h equated it to 5 solidi and
4 denarii . SB
Likewi se , in Arago n , a c harter recording the
sale of a vineyard in Zaragoza in 1 1 42 asses sed the
tripped up distingui shed numismati st s and given rise to
some of the nastie st quarrels in numismatic history . "
5 6 see appe ndix B be low.
57 A coin 4 d . fine was one-third s ilver ( t he moneta
terci a in Urrac a ' s reign ) . Hence it t ake s 3 coins one­
third fine to yield the same s ilver in 2 coins at one-ha lf
fine .
5 8 Botet , Les monede s , 5 6 . Pre sumably the coin in
question was t he denarius of B arcelo na . To the extent that
the rate between denarii and morabetino quoted here is very
close to the rat e between morabetino and the quaternal
jaccensis quoted in the fol lowing note , t hi s document
supports that the Barcelonan denarius had in f ac t fallen to
4 d. in the late 1 1 2 0 s .
(
269
(
morabetino at 5 solidi , 2 denarii jaccensi s . s 9
Perhaps as
more go ld f lowed northward in these decades with the
dec line of Almoravid power , the morabetino bec ame le s s
highly valued .
Ten year s later , in 1 1 5 2 , a mortgage
agreement from Hue sc a stated t hat the morabetino was worth
only 5 solidi , again pre sumably in money of Jac a . 60
TOward the c lose of Alfonso VI I ' s reign , the price of
the morabetino , at least 1n the eastern region of the
pe ninsula, began to c limb .
A document from the monastery
of s anta Ana in Barcelona dated 1 1 5 5 was concerned with the
re payment of a debt of 7 0 so lidi " of denarii o f Barcelona . "
(
5 9 "Et e st precio tailato XXV so lido s de moneta
I achese , et est morabetin a V so lido s , I I denarios . "
Ubieto , " Doc umento s , " part 4 , 1 8 6 .
There is a c harter recording a s ale in B ar bastro ,
dated 1 1 3 9 , which prices the morabetino at an even 6
so lidi . Martin Duque , " Doc umentos , " part 5 , 1 0 3 no . 7 2 .
j udged it an original .
Its integrit y , however , is suspect
on the basi s o f the dating f ormu la , " Regnante Ranimirus
rex , et come s Barqui lonensi in Aragon et s uperabi et
Ripacur z ia . " Ramiro I I of Ara go n had abdicated in 1 1 3 7 ,
al lowing Ramon Berenguer o f Barc e lona to rule . Neither
Ramiro nor Ramon , however , used the combined title of king
and co unt .
The title "King in Aragon and count in
Barcelona " was not employed unt i l the reign o f Alfonso I I
( Se e , for examp le , Lacarra, E bro , 2 : 7 3 no . 3 9 5 . )
In addition , Martin Duque , " Doc umentos , " part 5 , 1 0 3
no . 7 1 , published a document o f 1 1 3 7 in whic h King Garcia
Ramire z of Navarre gave to the monastery o f Irache 2 , 4 0 0
" so l idos de i l la me ( a m ) oneta qui f uerunt ad c ompunctum de
CCC moravedi s . " These figures give a rate o f 8 solidi per
morabetino whi c h seems muc h too high . Gil F arre s in
Historia, 2 6 5 , amended the text to read , " ad compunctum de
ecce moravedi s . " I f he is correct , the document would
atte st to a rate o f 6 so lidi o f the money of Navarre to the
morabetino .
6 0 "Et quando fuit i sto inpi gamento camiabat se
morabetino aiar per V solido s . " Ubieto , " Doc ume ntos , " part
1 , 1 2 3 -2 4 ; Ubieto Artur , " Morabedi s , " 2 1 5 no . 4 .
270
(
It stipulated that if the current denarius was changed the
debt s hould be paid back with 1 2 good go ld morabetinos o f
Alme ri a . 6 1
morabetino .
This i s a rate of 5 so lidi and 1 0 denarii per
A s imilar agreement from the monastery ' s
archives dated three years later stipu lated that if the
denarius was c hanged , the party wo uld pay back the debt in
morabetino s at a rate of 6 solidi and 3 denarii . 6 2
A third
sale o f 1 1 6 0 ins isted that if the money changed, the debt
be paid in gold at 6 so lidi and 6 denarii per morabetino . 6 3
As t ab le 1 s umma ri ze s , the price o f the go ld piece in
Barce lona eventually c limbed to 7 so lidi before the clo se
of the century . 6 4
(
6 1 " ( S ) i predicta moneta hodie c urrentem erat mutata ,
reddamus vobi s X I Ic im moabatinos mar ines obtimos in auro
sine e ngan . " Alturo , " Notes , " 1 4 0 .
6 2 " ( S ) i iam dicta moneta cambiabitur de lege et
penso , convenimus vobis reddere morabatino s Aiadinos in
auro s ine engan ad rationem VI so lidorum et I I I denar io s
pe r morabatinorum . " Ibid . , 1 4 0 - 4 1 .
6 3 See also the fragmnetary text from 1 1 6 1 where t he
rate i s cut o f f at " VI solidorum . . . . " Ibid .
6 4 For equivalencies in the years 1 1 7 1 , 1 1 8 6 and 1 1 9 0 ,
See I bid . For 1 1 8 0 , see " M et DCCC so lido s barc hino n ( ium )
qui faciunt morabetino s CCLXXI I I bo nos aiadano s boni auri
et rect i p:mderis " in Bisso n , Fiscal Accounts 9 6- 9 8 no . 3 6 .
This equivalency works out to a rate o f roughly 6 s . 7 d .
per morabetino . For a rate of 7 solidi per morabetino in
the year s 1 1 9 0 and 1 2 0 3 , see Mateu I bar s , " Relaci6n
cronol6gic a , " 2 0 7 .
By c . 1 2 1 2 , a new coin of 2 d . fine , the so-called
doblench , circ ulated in Barcelona at half the strength o f
the quaternal coin . Thomas N . B i s so n , " Coinages of
Barce lona ( 1 2 0 9 to 1 2 2 2 ) : The Documentary Evidence , " in
Studie s in Numi smatic Method Presented to Philip Grierson ,
ed . C . N . L . Brooke et al . ( Cambridge , 1 9 8 3 ) , 1 9 3 - 2 0 4 .
See
in particular the two document s published in his appendix,
2 0 0 - 2 0 2 . The first , a "memorand um " of c . 1 2 1 2 preserved in
the c at hedral archives value s the morabetino at 1 4 solidi
2 7 0a
'
Year
Table 1
Va lue of t he Morabetino in Barcelona ,
1 1 2 7 -c . 1 2 1 2
Morabetino ,
Price of the
Denarius ,
if Speci fied if Specified Horabetino
5
1127
1 1 55
barcelones
1 1 58
S,
1
4 d.
5
10 d ,
ayadino
6 s. , 3 d.
6 s . , 6 d.
1171
(
• 1
marino
1 1 60
1 1 80
barcel ones
1 1 86
barcel ones
1 1 90
barcel ones
12 03
barcelones
c . 1 2 12
S
ayadino
6
ayadino
6
S,
S.
1
10 d ,
1
7 d.
7 s.
7
ayadino and
l upino
s.
7 s.
14 s.
271
(
Table 2 demonstrates that the value of morabetino also
ro se to 7 so lidi in Aragon .
I n 1 1 5 9 , a c harter from
Z arago z a noted that " t he gold morabetino was worth 7 so lidi
le ss 2 denarii " or 6 so lidi , 1 0 denarii . 6 S
Eight years
later , in 1 1 6 7 , a charter from Hue sc a valued it at 6 so lidi
and 8 denarii . 6 6
By the early 1 1 7 0 s , however , the go ld
piece often commanded an even 7 so lidi jaccensi s . 6 7
The se
doc uments also make it c lear that the j accensis remained at
4 d . f ine unti l Alfonso II o f Aragon ( 1 1 62 - 1 1 9 6 ) debased it
to 3 d . , probably in 1 1 7 4 . 6 8
(
Therefore , the gradual rise
though i t does not specific ally say these were solidi
comprised of doblench denarii .
6 5 Rubio , Pilar , 6 5 - 6 6 no . 80 .
6 6 Duran Gudiol , Hue sc a , 1 : 2 5 6 no . 2 4 9 ; Ubieto Artur ,
" Morabedis , " 2 1 9 no . 2 2 .
6 7 For the price of the morabetino i n the year s 1 1 7 1
to 1 1 7 7 see Ubieto Artur , " Morabedis , " 2 1 9 -2 2 , nos . 2 6 , 2 8 3 2 , 3 4 - 3 7 , 4 0 . These citations are summa rized i n table 2 .
Bisso n , Conservation , 7 6 , refers t o a rate o f 7 s . 2 d .
before 1 1 7 4 , but I have been unable to verify hi s so urce .
A thirteenth-century copy of a sale dated 1 1 4 9 ,
records that in that year the abbot of Montearagon made a
mixed payment whic h inc luded morabetinos a s we ll a s
It notes that
"metca le s de auro " and solidi o f denar ii .
the morabetino was worth 7 solidi and the menc al 2 so lidi .
The reference i s noteworthy in that it gives the same rate
between morabetino and the o ld menca l as doe s the Catalan
usa tge , Solidus a ure us , i . e . , 3 . 5 menc als to one
morabetino . Nonethe le ss , the rate o f 7 so lidi to the
morabetino at this early date make s the document s us pect .
See Ubieto , " Doc umento s , " part 2 , no . 2 4 ; Be ltran , " E l
s ueldo j aques , " 5 7 0 . For Solidus a ureus, see appendix B
be low .
6 8 A private document dated 1 1 7 4 , noted that o n the
occasion o f his marriage and knighting , Alfonso changed
( m utavit ) the co inage . Ubieto , " Doc umento s , " part 2 , 9 5
no . 3 3 . B i sson s uggested i n conservat io n , 7 5 , 8 4 - 8 5 , that
this amounted to o nly a change in type and that a
debasement to 3 d . f ine did not occur unti l the early
1 1 8 0 s . A private document dated 1 1 7 5 , however , speaks of
( See Martin
" so lido s Iaccens i s monete de I I I bus denarii s . "
2 7 2. 3.
'
Table 2
Value of the Morabetino
in Ara�6n-catalonia c exc ludinq Barcelona ) , 1 1 4 2 - 1 2 2 2
origin o f
Year
Denari us ,
Morabetino ,
Price o f the
Document
if
if
Horabetino
S-pec if ied
S-pec if ied
.
S
s , 2 d
5
s.
.
Zarago za
1 1 42
Huesca
1 1 52
Zarago za
1 1 59
Huesca
1 1 67
j accen si s
( Of 4 d . )
Montearag6n
1171
jaccen si s
( of 4 d . )
ayadino and
l upino
7 s.
:r-rontearag6n
1 1 72
jaccen si s
(of 4 d . )
ayadino and
l upino
7 s.
Montearag6 n
and Huesca
1 1 73
j accen si s
( of 4 d. )
ayadi no and
l upino
7 s.
Montearag6n
1 1 74
jaccen si s
( of 4 d . )
ayadino and
l upino
7 s.
6 S.
6 S.
ayadi no and
l upino
6 s. , 10 . 5 d
j accen si s
ayadino
6 s. , 10 d.
6 s. , 8 d.
Montearaq6n
1 1 77
Tortosa
1 1 75
new
jaccensi s
ayadi no and
l upino
10
unknown
1 1 85
mel gorian
ayadino and
l upino
7 s.
Lerida
1 1 90
jaccen si s
Zarago za
1 1 92
Royal
1208
Daroca
( royal )
1 2 22
3 d.
4 d.
s .
7 s.
ayadino and
l upino
jaccen si s
1
1
7
s.
7
s. ,
9 d.
7 s . , 8 d.
Note: The table exc ludes the sale from Barbastro dated
1 1 3 9 , di sc us sed in n . 5 9 , and the sale dated 1 1 4 9
di sc us sed in n . 67 .
(
272
(
in the price o f the morabetino evident i n both Aragon and
Catalo ni a from mid-century c annot be attributed to a
dec line in the intrins ic value of the denarius .
It must
ref lect a real rise in t he value of go ld , pro bably as a
re sult of the Almo had consolidation of a l-Andalus from
roughly 1 1 5 0 o nward .
With Alfonso I I ' s debasement of the j accensis to 3 d . ,
the price of the morabet ino in Aragon j umped artif ic ially
to 1 0 so lidi during the 1 1 8 0 s . 6 9
Neverthe les s , in
Barcelona , doc uments from 1 1 8 6 unt il 1 2 0 3 cont inue to li st
the morabetino at 7 so lidi , implying that the denarius
there remained at 4 d . and that the value of gold was
stabiliz ing . 7 0
(
A doc ument of 1 1 85 also shows the
Duque , " Documentos , " 1 1 5 no . 9 3 . ) The increased rate of
exc hange between the morabetino and t he j accensis by 1 1 7 5
is f urther evidence that Alfonso ' s c hange i n 1 1 7 4
represented a debasement .
see n . 69 below .
6 9 For the j accensis at 1 0 solidi to the morabetino ,
see the entry of 1 1 7 5 in Bi sson , Fiscal Account s , 2 : 8 3 - 8 6
no . 2 6 ; c f . no . 2 7 and t he account rendered by the bailiff
of Lerida , 1 3 7 - 3 9 no . 62 .
The rise to 1 0 s . for the price of the morabetino was
roughly proportionate to the j accensis ' drop to 3 d . f ine .
I f it took 7 so lidi or 8 4 j accensis at 4 d . to purchase a
morabetino , one can calc ulate the fo llowing :
84 @ 4 d . = X @ 3 d .
8 4 ( 1/3 ) = X ( l/4 )
112 = X
Al l f actors remaining equa l , it should have taken 1 1 2
denari i ( 9 s . , 4 d . ) at 3 d . f ine to purchase the
morabetino .
7 0 Alfonso I I may have sworn to uphold the barcelones
at 4 d . in 1 1 7 4 .
see the undated text to this e ffec t
reprinted by Bi sson , Conservat io n , 2 0 1 no . 3 , c f . 7 6- 7 7 .
since the surviving copies are undated , Bisson t heorized
that thi s conf irmation was never off ic ia lly promul gated .
However , if o ne places the debasement o f the j accensis in
1 1 7 4 , whic h Bi sson does not , then the like liho od that the
273
(
morabet ino worth 7 so lidi o f mel gori an denarii ( still a
quaternal coin though its weight may h ave been reduced in
1 1 75 ) . 7 1
By t he early 1 1 9 0 s , Alfonso restored the
quaternal j accensis and the price of the morabetino in
terms of that coin dropped back to 7 s o lidi . 7 2
(
The price
coin of Barcelona was conf irmed in the s ame year becomes
more compe lling . Whether Alfonso public ly swore to upho ld
the barcelones or not , it seems c lear from the rates of
exchange that the coin remained at 4 d until Pedro I I ' s
debasement i n the early thirteenth century . Cf . Bisson,
" Coinage s of B arce lona , " 1 9 3 .
7 1 see t he c harter o f February 1 9 , 1 1 8 5 in Mateu
I bar s , " Re laci6n crono l6gic a , " 2 0 5 - 2 0 8 .
Catalan and
Aragonese document s in thi s period frequently note that the
mark of s ilver was worth 4 4 solidi barcelone s . Other s
source s note t hat the silver mark ( of Narbonne ) was worth
( Mateu I bars " Relaci6n
4 8 and 5 0 solidi mel gori an .
crono l6gic a , " pas sim; cf . cast aing- S ic ar d , 3 1 . See al so
the disc us sion in Thomas N . Bisson , " Coi nage s and Royal
Monetary Polic y in Languedoc During the Reign of st .
Louis , " Speculum 32 ( 19 5 7 ) : 4 4 8 . )
This rate of solidi to the mark was not the proscribed
cut of t he coin, as is often inferred i n t he literature ,
but rather a measure o f the coin ' s extrinsic strength
against the mark . Practic ally speaking , t he dif ference
between the mark se lling for 44 solidi barcelones or the
mark ( o f Narbonne ) se lling for 4 8 to 5 0 solidi melgorian
was not great .
It is not surprising , t herefore , to see the
morabetino priced at 7 so lidi barcelones or 7 solidi
on the interaction o f the barcelones and
mel gori an .
mel gori an in c irculation , see Bi s son , Fiscal Acco unts ,
2 : 1 6 4 - 6 5 no . 7 8 ; cf . 1 1 4 no . 4 7 .
See a l so the "memorandum"
o f 1 2 1 2 where the quaternal barcelones and the melgorian
are considered equal . B i s so n , " Coinages o f Barcelona , "
2 0 0 , appendi x , no . 2 .
7 2 Bi s son in Conservation , 8 4 -8 5 , believed that the
return to 4 d . fine came after 1 1 9 1 on t he basis of
Cele st ine I I I ' s letter in that year . B ut the papal letter
may have been recogni zing a fai t accompli . See the rate of
7 s . to the morabetino in the account o f t he bai liff of
Lerida o f 1 1 9 0 in Bisso n , Fiscal Accounts , 2 : 1 62-64 , no .
77 .
A mortgage agreement preserved in t he cart ul ario
peque.fio of Z arago z a with the date " anno " 1 1 9 2 reads : "et s i
moneta qui e st superius scripta s e c ami ava vel s e af f lova ,
quando vo lunt rec uperare i stos pigno s , donet morabetinos
274
'
of gold crept only slightly higher in the early decade s of
the thirteenth century . 73
Tracking the rate of exc hange between the morabetino
and denarius in Aragon and C at alonia a llows a point of
comparison for examining the s trengt h of the denarius in
Leon-casti le .
With the exce pt ion of the reference in the
Anales toledanos c ited above , the written sources for Leon-
castile are largely si lent regarding t he gold- si lver rat io .
( See tab le 3 . )
Gi l Farres a l l uded to a doc ument which
appear s to place the morabetino at 5 solidi in Leon in
1 1 3 4 , but he gave no reference .
I f hi s source can be
trusted , it wo uld show the Leo ne se denarius to have been at
approximate ly the same strength as the j accensis and
barcelones in this time frarne . 7 4
A vers ion of the tuero of
Uc le s , most likely done sometime after 1 1 5 7 , indirectly
(
aiar s et lopinos quia ipso die quando f uit f ac ta anc c arta :
camiavas se morabetin vii solidos . " Ubieto , " Doc umento s , "
part 4 , 1 8 7- 8 8 , argued that the date was meant to be " era "
1 1 92 , corresponding to A . D . 1 1 5 4 , on the grounds that the
monastic prior mentioned in the charter lived earlier . The
conc ern over t he money c hanging , the reference to
morabetinos ayadinos and l upinos and the rate of 7 solidi
to the morabetino , however , are al l co nsistent with
Aragonese document s from 1 1 70 onwards . While the charter
may cont ain o lder elements , it seems best to assume that
the stipulat ion of payment dates to 1 1 92 as it state s . The
reference is entered in table 2 accordingl y .
7 3 A doc ument from 1 2 0 8 give s t he price o f the
morabetino a s 7 so lidi and 9 denarii .
See Mateu Ibars ,
" Re l ac ion cronologic a , " 2 0 8 . A second reference from 1 2 2 2
give s a simi lar rate o f 7 so lidi and 8 denarii . See
Ambrosio Huici Miranda and M . D . Cabanes Peco urt , eds . ,
Doc umento s de Jaime I de Aragon ( Valenc i a , 1 9 76 ) , 1 : 9 1 no .
38 .
7 4 Gi l Farres , Histori a , 3 1 7 .
2 7 4a
(
Table 3
Value of the Morabetino
ln Leo n-Castile , c . 1 1 5 5-c . 1 2 2 0
Denarius ,
Year
Price of the
Or igin o f
if S-pecified r-Iorabetino
Docume nt
Fuero o f
uc le s
po st
1 1 57
6 s.
Leon
1171
Siglienza
1175
oviedo
1 1 76
angevin and
to urnoi s
7 s. .
oviedo
1 1 85
angevin
7
san Vicente
( Oviedo )
1191
San Pe layo
( Oviedo )
1 1 92
leones
7 s.
carr izo
( Leon )
1 1 93
to urno is
7 s.
Papal bull
1 1 97
7
Royal
1 2 1 7 - 1 8 burgales
pepi6n
7 S • I 6 d.
15 s .
San Pe layo
lOviedoJ
12 1 7
8 s.
an ge vin
7 s.
6 s.
S
• I
2 d.
7 s.
leones
S
• I
6 d.
Not e : The table exc ludes the two problemat ic
document s alluded to n . 74 and n . 7 6 .
(
275
(
equate s the morabetino to 6 so lidi . 7 S
This again is
comparable to the contemporary rate of exchange found in
Aragon-cataloni a . 7 6
During the separ at io n of Leo n and Casti le from 1 1 5 7 to
1 2 3 0 , the independent crowns nat ural ly str uc k separate
denarii .
Evidence for the exchange rate between the
morabetino and the coin of either kingdom is scarc e .
Alfonso VI I I o f castile , i n a grant to the monastery o f
santa Maria de Huerta in S iglienz a , may have equated the
morabetino to only 6 so lidi of his money as late as 1 1 7 5 . 77
(
7 5 Fide l Fita , " E l fuero de Uc les , " BRAH 1 4 ( 1 8 8 9 ) .
Pio Beltran Vi llagras a , " Do s tesorillo s de vel lo ne s ocu lto s
en la primera epoca de l reinado de Alfonso X , " part 1 ,
Numisma . l 4 ( 1 9 6 4 ) : 6 2 , pointed out the impl ied exchange
rate . An undocumented reference in E steban Co llantes
Vidal , "Monedas de Alfonso VI I I y s us problemas , " AN 3
{ 1 9 7 3 ) : 1 1 4 , to a rate o f 6 so lidi per morabetino is l n all
probability drawn from Beltr an and not an additional
citation .
Penalty c lauses of royal charter from as ear ly as 1 1 5 6
alternatively assign a payment of either 1 , 0 0 0 morabetinos
or 6 , 0 0 0 solidi . This could tentative ly be taken as proof
that at some point t he s ums were considered equal .
see
Todesc a , " Monetary history , " 1 4 0 - 4 1 ; c f . n . 7 8 below .
7 6 In 1 1 5 5 , the papal legate Cardinal Hyac inth
addre ssed the matter of t he annual census o f 1 0 0 so lidi
pic tavensis whic h the church of Palenc ia owed Rome . He
commuted the payment to 2 5 morabetinos , whic h meant that
Rome was to receive 1 morabetino for every 4 solidi
pictavensis owed . This was almost certainly not
representative o f the market rate of exchange . The coin o f
Poitou had bee n notoriously unsteady in the first half of
the century and it i s unlike ly that it was t hi s strong in
1 1 5 5 . Hyacint h , for whatever reason , appear s to have got
the better of Palencia i n forcing them to accept an
unfavorable rate . Papal c onfirmations after thi s cont inued
to insist on the payment . see Abaj o Marti n , Palencia, 1 1 51 6 no . 5 4 ; c f . 1 2 9 - 3 2 no . 6 2 , 1 9 1 - 9 4 no . 9 3 . For the
pictavensis , see also B isson , Conservat io n , 1 2 .
7 7 Doc uments from siglienza often employ the menc al of
si lver as a unit of acc o unt instead of the traditional
276
(
In Leo n , there are no re liable example s illustrating the
strength of the royal coin f or several decade s . 7 8
There
are , however , several he lpful citations invo lving foreign
denarii .
In the late twelfth cent ur y , two coins from France ,
the tournoi s ( the denarius o f TO ur s ) and the angevin ( the
de narius o f An j o u ) are c ited regular ly in Leonese
document s . 79
(
A charter from the c athedral of Leon shows
so lidi argenti . Hence , Alfonso ' s charter reads , " Si vero
ego salina s Medine vel destruxero ve l in usus meos
asumpsero non amaplius ( si c ) vendat abbas nis i in sexcento s
menc hale s , vel in centum quinquaginta morabetino s . . . " Jo se
Antonio Garcia Luj an, ed, cartulario del monasterio de
S anta Maria de Huerta ( Alma zan , 1 9 8 1 ) , 4 1 - 4 3 no . 2 6 .
According to the c harter , there were 4 mencals to the
morabetino . The menca l of silver eventual ly emerges as a
unit o f 1 8 denarii ( though t he f uero o f Uc les treats it as
2 4 denarii ) . I f we accept s 1 8 denarii to the mencal , thi s
charter then equates the morabet ino t o 6 solidi . For the
me nac l o f account , see Tode sc a , " Money of Account , " 2 7 3- 7 9 .
7 8 The penalty c lause in an Asturian c harter of 1 1 7 4
called for a fine of "mi lle morabetino s autem decem so lido s
de moneta fort e , " whic h seems t o equate the dinar to 1 0
so lidi .
( See Departamento , " Circu lacion , " 2 5 9 n . 3 , c f .
2 5 7 . ) Thi s is an intriguing reference in that 1 1 7 4 is
prec isely the time that the price o f the morabetino in
Aragon j umped to 10 solidi j accensis bec ause o f Alfonso
could there have been a
I I ' s temporary debasement .
corres po nding temporary de basement i n Le6n? In that
pena lty c lause s frequent ly do not reflect real market
conditio ns , it seems best not to credit it .
7 9 The tournoi s and angevin were two of the more than
5 type s of denarii t hat c irc u l ated in the cont inental
domains of the E nglish c rown i n the late twelfth cent ury .
Of these , the tournoi s , struck at the abbey of St . Martin
of ·rour s , was probably the mos t succ e s s f ul . Accordingly ,
in 1 2 0 4 , after s uccessfully rec laiming Normandy and Anjou,
Philip II of France ( 1 1 8 0- 1 2 2 3 ) suppre s sed the coinage o f
Anj ou , but preserved the t o urnoi s a s a royal coin .
( See
Spuff ord , Money , 1 9 9- 2 0 0 . )
In Le6n-Castile during t he last quarter of the twe lfth
c entury , the tournoi s and angevin appe ar frequently in
document s from Galicia and Asturias but le s s so in Le6n
277
(
proper ty purchased i n 1 1 7 1 for 4 9 so lidi o f " angevinos , "
with 7 solidi counted equivalent to the morabet ino . a o
L ikewi se , a charter from the c athedral o f oviedo recorded a
sale o f 1 1 7 6 paid in a mixture of denarii of Anj ou and
To ur s reckoned at the same rate of 7 solidi per
morabetino . B l
A second c harter from oviedo , dated 1 1 8 5 ,
equate s the morabetino to 7 so lidi minus 2 denarii of
proper .
Their prevalence in the doc uments f rom these
regions is yet o ne more indication of on-going trade
between the Cantabrian coast and northern Euro pe . For the
documentary citations , see Gautier Dalche , " Mo nn aies
d ' outre-Pyrenees , " 7 6 - 7 7 , 8 4 - 9 7 . Basi lio osaba y Ruiz de
Erenchun in " Tre s tesorillos medioevales : Brivie sc a , Muiio y
Orde j on de Abaj o ( B ur go s ) . " NH 3 ( 19 5 4 ) : 8 9 , made passing
referenc e to a hoard he had examined found in orense
( Galic i a ) comprised exc lusive ly o f denarii to urnoi s .
To my knowledge , the coins are not c ited a t a l l in
c harters from cast ile . Thi s doe s not mean , howeve r , that
they were completely unknown . A sma l l hoard o f denarii of
Anj o u and To urs was fo und in c astile near Burgo s .
see
Luciano Huidobro y Serna , " Nuevo hal lazgo de monedas
f rancesas en el c amino de S antiago , " B IFG 9 ( 1 9 5 0 - 1 ) : 4 3 0 .
Fe lipe Mateu y L lo pi s in " Di neros torneses y c as te llanos
hal lado s en sarabe ( Urdiain ) , " cuadernos de etnologia y
etnografia de Navarra 5 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 2 9- 3 2 , reported two denarii
tournoi s found in excavations in Navarre . Both of these
were royal tournoi s and so date to after 1 2 0 0 . They were
not , however , part o f a hoard and cannot be used to date
the Castilian pieces found at the site as Mate u implies .
8 0 " ( Q ) uadraginta et novem solidis de ango bino s
prec iato s septem morabetino s . " Gautier Dalc he , " Monnaies
d ' outre-Pyrenees , " 9 0 no . 1 8 .
8 1 " ( P ) ro prec io quod acce pimus de vos LX et I I I
morabetino s ad VII solidos de turonensium monete et de
a niouins . " Larragueta , Doc umento s de oviedo , 4 6 0- 6 1 no .
1 8 9 ; Gautier Dalche , " Monnaies d ' outre-Pyrenee s , " 9 2 no .
( The equivalency of 1 1 7 6 cited in Departamento ,
38 .
" Circ u lac i6n , " 2 5 7 , must be to this same doc ument , though
the author s fail to mention that it was to foreign
denari i . )
(
278
(
Anjo u . e 2
Two decade s later , i n 1 1 9 3 , the rate o f 7 so lidi
tournoi s per morabetino is given in two c harter s from the
mo nastery of Carrizo de la Ribera near Leon . B 3
Like the
mel gorian , the tournoi s and angevin were quaternal coins in
this period . e 4
Their acceptance in Leon , therefore , at 7
so lidi per morabetino confirms that the basic go ld-silver
ratio in the kingdom was the same as i n Aragon-Catalonia
though it sheds no direct light on the strength of the
indigeno us coinage .
Clear testimony to the relative strength of the
denarii of Leon and indepe ndent castile does emerge in the
final decade o f the twelfth century .
I n Leo n , a loan to
the nuns o f San Pe layo of oviedo in 1 1 9 2 consi sted o f 3 0 0
solidi " of royal mo ney" a t 7 solidi t o the morabetino . e s
(
8 2 " ( M ) orabetino s ad VI I solidos minus I I denarios de
aniouvins unoquoque morabeti . " Larragueta , Documentos de
Oviedo , 4 8 8 - 8 9 no . 2 0 3 . Sanchez Alborno z in " Devaluac io n , "
6 1 5 , mistakenly cited this reference a s 7 so lidi plus 2
denarii and saw the sl ight rise in t he price of the
moarbetino a s evidence of a " small c ri si s " for s ilver .
8 3 Casado , carrizo , 5 3 - 5 5 no s . 4 6- 4 7 . The f ir st of
these document s omi t s mention of the morabetino in the key
pas sage but it i s c lear from later i n t he text what is
meant . Cf . Gaut ier-Dalche , " Monnaie s d ' outre-Pyrenees , " 8 5
no . 2 2 .
8 4 on the f inene s s of the angevin and tournoi s , see
Fran�oise Dumas-Duborg and Jean-Noe l Barrandon , Le t itre et
le poids de fin des monnaies sous le reqne de Philippe
Auguste ( 1 1 8 0 - 1 2 2 3 ) , Cahier Ernest- Babe lo n 1 ( Paris , 1 9 82 ) ,
1 6 , 2 3 , 4 7 , pas sim .
on the melogoria n , see 1 6 .
8 5 " ( P ) ro CCC so lidis regie monete , talis scilicet
monete quod septem solidi valeant unum morabetinum . "
Franc isco Javier Fernandez co nde , et a l , E l monasterio de
San Pelayo de oviedo : Historia y fuente s , vol . 1 , Co lecc i6n
diplomatica ( 9 6 6- 1 3 2 5 ) ( Oviedo , 19 7 8 ) , 9 1 - 9 4 no . 4 2 . on
the San Pelayo doc umentation in genera l , see a lso Jean
279
(
I n Castile , a bul l o f Ce le stine I I I to the bisho p of
siglienza in 1 1 9 7 seems to equate the gold morabetino to 7
so lidi , 6 denarii . B 6
The gold dinar was sti ll valued at 7
solidi and 6 denarii burgaleses in castile in 1 2 1 8 , though
a weaker denarius called the pepi6n had by this time been
introduced into c irc ulatio n . 8 7
The rate of 7 1;2 so lidi per
morabetino i s again very c lo se to the price in Arago n at
the turn of the century .
A document o f the yo ung Jaime I
of Aragon ( 1 2 1 3- 7 6 ) , for examp le , valued the rnorabetino at
Gautier Dalche , "Aperq us s ur l a monnaie et les usage s
mo netaires dans le s Asturies d ' apres l a document at io n de
San Pelayo d ' Oviedo ( 1 0 4 3 - 1 2 7 0 ) , " E n la E spana Medieval 2
( 1 982 ) : 379-93 .
A gift to the mo nastery o f S an Vicente of oviedo i n
1 1 9 1 was described as " CCC sol ido s , XL I I I aureos
probati s simo s valentes , " which seems to imply that 3 0 0
so lidi was worth 4 3 morabetino s , a rate o f virtual ly 7 s .
since the so lidi are not named , we c an
to the morabe tino .
perhaps assume the native c urrency was implied . See
Luc iano Serrano , ed . , Cartular io de San Vicente de Oviedo
7 8 1 - 1 2 0 0 ( Madrid , 1 9 2 9 ) , 2 8 5 no . 3 1 2 ; c f . Tode sc a ,
" Monetary Hi story , " 1 4 6 n . 4 2 .
8 6 Celestine ' s bul l also c ompare s menc als ( of si lver )
to morabetinos ; "ducento s menc a l lo s valentes quadraginta
aureo s . " ( Minglie lla, Sigtienz a , 1 : 4 9 0 no . 1 3 1 ; Beltr an ,
" Do s tesorillo s , " 6 2 - 6 3 . ) I f o ne as sume s that there were
1 8 denarii to the menc al of acco unt , t he equivalency
translates to 7 s . 6 d . per morabetino , a rate consi stent
with the treatie s two decade s later, c ited below , n . 8 7 .
8 7 Like the doblench coin in B arce lona , the pepi6n
eventual ly c irculated at half the strength of the quaternal
denarius . Two treat ie s between t he kings of Leon and
Castile in 1 2 1 7 and 1 2 1 8 involved a debt o f 1 1 , 0 0 0
morabetino s . The agreement stipulated t hat the sum could
be paid in s ilver at a rate of 7 . 5 solidi of denarii
burga les to t he morabetino or 1 5 so lidi of pepiones .
see
Alfonso IX, 2 : 4 5 8- 62 , no s . 3 5 0 a nd 3 52 ; 4 7 9 no . 3 6 6 ; c f .
Tode sc a , " Mo netary History , " 1 4 1 - 4 2 .
(
280
(
7 so lidi and 8 denarii jaccen sis i n 1 2 22 . 8 8
At the same
time the morabetino rose to an even 8 solidi of leoneses . 89
overal l , whi le t he evidence regarding rate s of
exchange is sc attered , it is remarkably consistent .
The
aggregate pic ture sugge st s that after the medi etate
standard was abandoned c . 1 1 3 0 , the bil lon co inages of Leoncast ile and Ar agon-Cat alonia were maintained in rough
parity with one another at 4 d . fine for muc h of the
twelfth cent ur y .
I t was only towards the c lo se o f the
century that t hi s quaternal si lver standard became
threatened .
Alfonso I I of Aragon temporarily de based the
jaccensi s c . 1 1 7 4 .
Hi s son , Pedro I I ( 1 1 9 6- 1 2 1 3 ) , wou ld c ut
the strength o f the Barcelonan denarius to 2 d . in the
early thirteenth century .
At the same time , Alfonso VI I I
of casti le also issued a denarius of 2 d . fine , the socalled pepi6n . 9 o
In Leo n , however , there is no evidence ,
that Fernando or his son , Alfonso IX ( 1 1 8 8- 1 2 3 0 ) ,
signific antly debased their coin , although by 1 2 1 7 it was
8 8 Huic i Miranda , Doc umentos de Jaime I , 1 : 9 1 no . 3 8 .
8 9 " X morabetino s ad VI I I so lido s unoquoque morabetino
monete regi s " in a chartert o f 1 1 1 7 in Fernande z conde , san
Pelayo , 1 0 5 - 1 07 , no . s o . Gil Farre s , Historia , 32 6 , c ites
a reference of 8 solidi per morabetino which he date s as
1 1 8 4 . Again , this seems to be a mistaken reference to a
citation o f 1 2 2 1 .
see Todesca , "Monetary Hi story, " 1 4 6- 4 7 ,
n. 4 4 .
9 0 For the debasements in Barcelona and Castile, see
the disc u ssion in chapter 1 0 below .
(
281
(
recogni zed a s slightly weaker than the burgales of
castile . 9 1
carlo Cipolla warned that it is simpli st ic to
attribute debasement solely to the capriciousne s s of
" s pendthrift and warlike princes .
n92
Like the switch from
a standard of 6 d . to 4 d . in the early part o f the
cent ury, the debasements at the c lose of the c entury ,
part ic ular ly the almost simultaneo us introduction of a
denarius of 2 d. in Barc elona and Cast i l e , point to larger
economic pre ssures at work than the whims of individual
ruler s .
But before turning to the se event s in detai l , we
must f ir st ask what means al lowed the rulers of LeonCastile and Aragon-Catalonia to maintain a stable coinage
from roughly 1 1 3 0 to 1 2 0 0 .
A c l ue can be gleaned from
legi s l at ion passed at mid-cent ury by Cardinal Hyacinth , the
future Celestine I I I .
In February of 1 1 5 5 , Hyacinth called a lar ge counc il
to the town of Vallado lid in Leon-Castile .
The meet ing was
attended not o nly by the leading prelate s of Christian
Spai n , but also by Alfonso VI I , hi s two sons , and an
as sembly of noblemen .
Muc h of the legis lation promulgated
at thi s meeting was based on the decree s of the Second
Lateran Counc il of 1 1 3 9 .
(
Several of the c anons passed at
9 1 See Todesca , " Mo netary History , " 1 6 3 , n . 9 8 .
See
also , c hapter 1 0 below .
9 2 Car lo M . Cipo l l a , " Currency Depreciation in
Medieval Euro pe , " The Economic History Review , 2d ser . , 1 5
( 1 963 ) : 4 1 3 .
282
(
Vallado lid , however , were not inspired by that general
co unci l .
One of the se addre ssed the i s s ue o f coinage .
The emperor for the sake o f God and hi s own salvation
sho uld establish whatever money ( monetam quidquam ) at a
good weight and at four denarii of s ilver without any
price , ( and ) never in hi s day change it , but rat her
confirm it so that it remai ns thus . 93
Rome was o nly beginning to formulate doctrine with regards
to coinage .
The Fir st Lateran Counc il o f 1 1 2 3 had
addres sed the is sue of counterfeiting , but Hyac int h ' s canon
may represent the earliest conci liar legis lation to charge
that a sec ular ruler had an obligation to maintain the
integrity o f his money . 94
Moreover , the decree i s not couc hed in general terms .
It i s directed at the " emperor " or Alfonso VI I , who was in
attendance .
To this extent , the c anon seems a response to
grievances brought against the king ' s monetary po l ic y at
the counc i l .
It implies that Alfonso had been in the habit
of extorting a price from the po pu lace in return for a
9 3 " Mo netam quidquam bene pe ns atem et quatuor
denariorum argenti mittet imperator sine omni prec io
propter De um at anirne sue salutum nunquam in diebus suis
mutandum , sed eam ita mansuram f irmat . " For the text of
the cano n , see Ferran Val l s Taberner , "Ein Konzi l zu Lerida
im Jahre 1 1 5 5 , " in Papsttum und Kaisertum, ed . Albert
Brackman ( Munich , 1 9 2 6 ) 3 6 8 . For the problems s urro unding
the attribution of thi s particular c anon and the
legi s lation at Val lado lid see appendix c .
9 4 Between 1 1 2 5 and 1 1 2 9 , Honorius I I wrote to Count
Bernard IV o f Me lgueil warning him t hat he s houl not
falaisfy the coinage o f Me lgue i l . [ " ( I ) n f abricanda mo neta
nic hi l falsit atis admisceans . " see Bisso n , Conservation ,
7 1 - 7 2 , 1 67-68 . ]
(
283
(
stable co1nage .
Hyaci nth ' s decree , however , f al ls short of
revealing what that price was or how it was co llected .
(
(
SEVEN
MINTS
AND THE QUE STION OF MONETAGIUM
L ate in 1 1 2 3 , during a lull in the str uggle with
Aragon , urraca and her son Alfonso undertook the siege of
Muslim S iglienz a .
Probably i n preparatio n for this
campaign , both mother and son appear to have bee n in To ledo
in November .
In a grant dated the 2 9th of that mont h ,
Alfonso gave Arc hbisho p Bernardo a tenth o f all royal
revenue " in the city or in the distric t " o f To ledo .
The
next day , Urraca drew up a separate charter conf irming the
endowme nt .
Both docume nt s name moneta as o ne of the
revenues from whic h the bi shop should draw a tenth . l
since
Toledo had an active mint , a tenth of monet a would seem to
refer to a s hare in it s profit s .
Year s later , i n 1 1 3 7 , Alfonso drew u p another charter
whic h granted the see o f Toledo a tenth " o f al l money
( moneta ) that shall be made in Toledo . " 2
r
Hi lda Grassotti
1 Neither c harter s urvive s as an original , though both
are preserved in twelfth c entury copie s .
( Garcia L u j an ,
Toledo , 2 : 3 5 - 3 7 no . 8 and 2 9 - 3 2 no . 6 . ) The list of
revenues var ie s slight ly in the charter of urrac a and the
queen doe s not s pecifically state that she i s conf irming
her son ' s grant . Reilly, urraca , 1 7 8- 7 9 , ar gued that
Urraca and Alfonso were each giving away a s eparate tent h ,
but this seems unlikely .
See further, Rei l l y , " Chancery
Alfonso VII , " 2 4 8 ; Hernande z , Toledo , 2 7 - 3 0 no s . 2 3- 2 4 .
2 Garc ia Luj an , To ledo , 2 : 46-4 8 no . 1 3 .
284
285
raised the obj ection that i f t he grant s of 1 1 2 3 alre ady
inc luded a tenth o f the mint t he n this second grant of 1 1 3 7
appear s superf luous .
She argued that the ear l ier , more
ambiguo us reference to moneta might refer not to mint
profits but to revenue from a money tax co llec ted by the
crown for the purpose of maintaining the coina ge .
Her
bas i s for this s ugge stio n was that by the early thirteenth
c entury , a tax c alled moneda forera or simply moneda
emerge s in the Leonese so urces . 3
Be side s the case of To ledo , there are a number o f
other vague references t o inc ome from moneta i n the
twelfth-cent ury so urce s .
For example , a c harter dated in
February 1 1 2 4 record s that urrac a gave Bisho p Bernardo of
Z amora a tenth of moneta in zamora .
Likewise , in Apri l of
1 1 2 6 , within a month o f hi s mother ' s death , Alfonso VI I
conf irmed that t he bis ho p of s alamanca had c laim to a third
of the royal revenue from the c ity inc luding mone ta . 4
No
ot her so urce from Urraca • s reign corro borate s that either
Zamora or Salamanca were s tr iking coins at thi s stage .
(
can
3 Hilda Gras sotti , " E l pueblo y la mondeda real en
Leon y Casti lla durante el siglo X II , " part 2 of " Do s
pro blemas de hi storia Castellano-Leonesa, " CHE 4 9- 5 0
( 1 9 6 9 ) : 1 6 9 . For moneda forera i n the thirteenth c entury
see the numerous example s provided by Gras sotti in her
earlier study , " Un empre stito para la conqui sta de Sev i l la :
Problemas hist6rico s que suscita , " CHE 4 5- 4 6 ( 1 9 67 ) : 1 9 8 2 0 1 . See f urther Jo seph F . O ' Callaghan, " The Beginnings of
the corte s of Leon-castile , " American Hi storic al Review 7 4
( 1 9 6 9 ) : 1 5 1 7 -2 0 .
4 The evidence for zamora and Salamanca i s presented
be low .
286
(
the se two reference s to moneta be re lied upon as proof that
there were in fact mint s o per at ing there?
or , does mone ta
in the se instances refer to revenue generated from a
monetary-conservation tax?
Thi s type of exactio n was not unheard of in We stern
E urope at the time .
A tax c a l led monet agi um was introduced
1n E ngland after the Conquest .
While Henry I abolished it
1n an ef fort to ensure t he po pularity of his s ucce ssio n , a
related levy emerged in duc a l Normandy where it became a
triennial exaction in the cour se of the twelfth cent ury .
The Capetian monarc hs also co llec ted a tai l l age on co inage
in the twe lfth century , promising in some instance s to
preserve not only the co in ' s weight and finene s s but also
it s de sign . s
Further so ut h , the count of Barcelona had
sworn in 1 1 1 8 to upho ld his coinage in cerdanya for life in
exchange for a one-time payment and implied he had already
do ne so in his other land s . 6
Therefore , it i s not
preposterous to sugges t that the crown of Leon had
instituted a form of monet agi um by the 1 1 2 0 s .
In thi s
regard , one can hardly ignore Hyac inth ' s canon pas sed at
Valladolid in 1 1 5 5 urging Alfo nso VI I to maint ain a
quaternal coinage without exacting " any price . "
I s this
further te stimony that s uc h a levy already exi sted ?
5 Bisson , Conservatio n , 1 5 -2 1 , 2 9- 4 4 .
6 I bid . I 5 0 - 6 4 .
(
287
The pro blem o f whether moneta i n the twe lfth century
doc uments referred to mint prof it s , revenue from mone tagi um
or both has been addre ssed at length not only by Hilda
Gras sotti but also by Evelyn Procter . 7
For these authors ,
the is sue was important from the per spective o f
constitutional development .
In the thirteenth century , the
crown ' s abi lity to co llect the tax called moneda forera
was , in theory , cont ingent on the approval of a general
cortes attended by repre sentatives of the clergy , nobility
and towns .
I f a prec ur sor or prototype for the moneda
forera tax could be shown to exi st in the twelfth century,
it would s ugge st an earlier traditio n of legis lative
assemblies in Le6n-Castile . s
Neither author accounted for a l l the known
documentation and both ignored numismatic evidence .
Whi le
their surveys were insightful , in the end they left the
(
7 Evelyn Procter , curia and corte s in Le6n and
Casti le , 1 0 72 - 1 2 9 5 ( Cambridge , 1 9 8 0 ) .
8 For tho se instances where it can be shown that a
cortes consented to t he c o l lection of moneda in the
thirteenth century, see Joseph F . O ' Cal laghan , The Cortes
of castile-Leon ( Philadel phia , 1 9 89 ) , 1 3 3 - 3 5 .
The adj ec tive forera, used to describe the moneda tax
in the t hirteenth cent ury, seems to ref lect that the levy
was constrai ned by law , i . e , the c rown could not collect it
without consent .
( Cf . Alonso , Dic cionar io , s . v . " forera . " )
By contrast , the coinage itself be lo nged to the crown . The
first law of the so-c alled Fuero viejo , codified in the
mid-fourteenth century , reads : " Pertenecen al Rey por razon
de l Senorio natural , y per lo tanto no las puede enage nar ,
estas cuatro cosas : Justic ia , Moneda , Fonsadera y sus
Yantare s . " see Jose Muro Martine z , ed , Fuero viejo de
Castilla. Fuero Real , Leye s de l Estilo y ordenamiento de
Alcala ( Valladolid , 1 8 7 4 ) , 3 .
288
(
question largely unresolved . 9
From a constitutional
standpoint , it was not imperative to arrive at a f irm
so lution .
In terms of economic deve lopment , however , not
knowing if moneta referred to income from mints or a
m oneta gi um- style tax remains a maj or stumbling block in
interpreting the sources .
the i s sue afre sh .
Thi s chapter seeks to examine
B y co llat ing all the pert inent evidence ,
it attempt s to demon strate where mints existed l n the
kingdom up to the death of Alfonso VII and how the profits
of eac h were shared between crown and church .
To do thi s ,
later evidence relat ive to the se mints i s often brought to
bear .
Nevertheles s , mint s that arose after the separation
of Leo n and Castile in 1 1 5 7 are here exc luded .
For
simplicity ' s sake they are treated in a later chapter .
To ledo
Alfonso VI I ' s grant to the Arc hbis ho p of Toledo in
1 1 2 3 o ut lined the income o f the di strict as fo llows ;
A tenth part o f a l l my revenue that I have or wi ll
acquire in Toledo , in the city or in its distric t ,
inside as we ll a s outside , namely bread and wine , dues
from mills , ovens , store s , smithie s , store s of grain ,
money ( monet ar um ) , bat hs , farm land , as we ll as fishing
from the c anal s , from salt , from all tolls and even
from the c lay of Magan and from a l l fine s , penalties
for wo unds , every tribut e , guard payment . . . and a l l
(
9 L ui s Domingo Figuerola in " Privilegio s otorgados por
Alfonso VI I I relac io nado s con las cecas de l reino de
Castil la y las acufiaciones de la campafia de las Navas de
Tolosa , " AN 7 ( 1 9 7 7 ) : 2 0 3 -2 2 1 , provides a u seful , tho ugh
incomplete , review of the documentation and reconciles it
with some of the numismatic evidence .
289
I
profit that I or my suc c e s sors s hall make in the pre­
said city . 1o
While it i s perhaps dangerou s to argue from the syntax o f
the charter , the list o f revenue s a s t hey are presented can
be divided in two part s .
The first part describe s inc ome
from tangible operat io ns - - from mi l l s , oven s , store s ,
baths , etc .
Moneta i s li sted with these .
After this , the
text turns to revenue s from f ines and taxes .
I f monet a was
indeed a tax and not revenue from the mint , we would expect
to find it in this second part .
The mo st logic al conc l us io n is t hat the tenth of
moneta in this case referred to mint pro fits .
Toledo ,
after al l , had been an active mint s ince the time of
Alfo nso VI ' s conquest of t he c ity as t he numismatic
evidence abundantly demo nstrate s .
The f act that Alfonso
VI I drew up another charter in 1 1 3 7 conf irming the
c athedral ' s right to a tenth o f " all t he money that shal l
be made in Toledo " may be redundant , but it was not , as we
1 0 " Dec imam partem omnium meorum redituum quos in
To letana habeo vel adqui siero civitate vel in ei us
terminis , tam infra quam exteriu s , pan i s scilicet et vini ,
rnolendinorum , furnor um , tend ar um , toc i us fori ,
alfo ndegarum, mo netarurn, balneorum , de a lurnn i is , quoque et
pi scarii s de c analibus , de s ale , de ornni portatico , de i l l a
etiam greda de Magan e t de omnibus c al umni s , de livoribus ,
de omni pe ic ho , de guardi i s , de i l lo a le isore et de omnibus
ganatiis quas ego sive rnei s uccessores in predicta urbe
fec erint . " Garcia Luj an, Toledo , 2 : 3 5 - 3 7 no . 8 , c f . 2 9- 3 2
no . 6
r
290
shal l see , unus ua1 . 1 1
It only emphas i zes the importance
the chapter attac hed to that particular privilege . l 2
Salama nc a
Document s pertaining t o salamanc a duri ng the reign of
Alfonso
VI
and urrac a are scarce .
There i s what may be an
original c harter of count Raymond and Urraca who restored
the episcopal see there in 1 1 0 2 .
By t hi s document , the
couple a llotted the bi shop a t hird o f a l l their revenue
( cens us ) from the city .
A seco nd , muc h corrupted charter
of Alfonso VI dated 1 1 0 7 confirmed t he donations of Raymond
and Urraca and again mentioned t he bis ho p ' s right to a
r
1 1 " Dec imam totius monete que in Toleto fuerit
f abric at a . " I bid . , 4 6 - 4 8 no . 1 3 .
1 2 With the divi sion o f the realm in 1 1 5 7 , Toledo
I n 1 1 8 2 , Alfonso
became part of the kingdom of cast ile .
I
I
o
f
Castile
confirmed
the
pr
ivilege
s
o f the see of
VI
To ledo .
In so doing , Alfonso gave a detai led review of
previous royal donations which he seems to have had in
front of him at the time . He inc l uded the " pr ivilegium
donationis de decirna toc ius rnonete de To leto que fec it
imperator Toletane ecc le sie , " a referenc e to the c harter of
1 1 3 7 . He also inc luded the " privi legium donationi s quam
fecit rex supradictus . . . de dec irna omni um redditum suorum de
To leto . . . et privilegium donationis quam fecit domna
Urraca . . . de dec imam omnium regalium redditum de To leto , "
references to the two earlier grants o f 1 1 2 3 . Thi s should
not be taken as evidenc e that t he tenth o f monet a o f 1 1 2 3
was distinct from 1 1 3 7 , but only ref lect s the swee ping
nature o f Alfonso VI I I ' s confirmat ion . The c harter
s urvives in an original with its seal attached .
Ten year s later , Alfonso V II I once more addres sed the
see ' s rights regarding the mint .
s i nc e the early 1 1 7 0 s ,
Alfonso had been striking gold imitation dinar s , probably
mainly in the To ledan mint .
I n 1 1 9 2 , he confirmed that the
c h urch o f To ledo had a r ight to the tenth of money struc k
there with the exception of go ld , who se prof its he
apparent ly reserved for the crown .
See Garc ia L uj an ,
Toledo , 2 : 8 7 - 9 0 no . 3 3 , 9 4 - 9 5 no . 3 6 ; c f . Hernande z ,
Toledo , 1 9 6- 9 7 no . 2 0 9 , 2 2 5 - 2 6 no . 2 4 3 .
291
a
third of the c i ty ' s revenues . l 3
The next surviving royal
grant to Salamanca is Alfonso VI I ' s conf irmation of the
episcopa l third , dated April of 1 1 2 6 , a mo nth after
Urraca ' s death .
The list of revenue s in thi s last charter
is more detailed than in the previous two .
It is the first
to ment ion moneta :
A third part o f al l revenues of the same city, wherever
they are found , ( inc ludi ng ) to l l s o n travelers as we ll
as goods , the f ifth , monet a , and f ine s inc luding those
for homicide . 1 4
While there i s no ot her contemporary evidence
demonstrating that a mint existed in salamanca at this
time , if one fol lows the s ubsequent history of the bisho p ' s
c laim to a third of monet a , the nature o f the revenue
become s clear .
I n 1 1 3 7 , Alfonso issued a second charter to
S alamanca concerning moneta .
As with the c harter to To ledo
i ss ued that s ame year , this grant addre ssed only monet a and
no other revenue s :
" For the service that you have done for me , do for me
now and wi ll do in the f uture , I grant and concede to
1 3 Jo se L ui s Martin Martin , et al . , eds . Documentos de
lo s archives c atedralicio y diocesano de Salamanca ( siglos
X I I -X I I I ) ( Sa lamanc a , 1 97 7 ) , 8 3 - 8 7 no s . 3 and 4 ; cf . Rei l ly
Alfonso VI , 3 4 3 .
1 4 "Ex omnibus redditibus eiusdem civitati s , ubicumque
po s sent invenire , tam de montatico quam de portatico , de
quinta , de moneta , de calumpnii s vel de homicidiis terciam
partem . " Martin , Salamanc a , 8 8 - 8 9 no 6 . The document
appear s to be an original . Cf . Reil ly , " Chancery of
Alfonso VI I , " 2 4 9 , n . 3 8 .
I
292
a
the aforesaid church thi s charter for a third part o f
the moneta of the city of Salamanc a " l s
Though the text speaks of mo ney " o f the city , " it is not as
c lear as the Toledo charter which spoke of money "made " in
To ledo . l 6
Indi sputable evidence for a mint in Salamanc a
does not emerge unti l after the death o f Alfonso VI I , when
the city formed part of the inde pendent realm of Leon .
In 1 1 6 7 , Fernando I I of Leon confirmed the bisho p of
Salamanc a ' s right to a third of the c ity ' s revenue s and
referred , st i l l somewhat vague ly , to " a third part of the
mo ney in the c ity .
" 17
A private sale to the canons of the
cathedral three year s before thi s , however , was witnes sed
by " Lo pe the moneyer .
I
" 1a
Finally , a later royal charter
1 5 " Propter servitium quod mic hi f ec isti s et adhuc
faciti s et amplius f acturus esti s , c artam de tercia parte
monete urbis S alamantine , quam e go dono et concedo
s upradicte Ecclesie . " Mart in , Salamanca , 9 4 - 9 5 no . 1 1 .
1 6 The c harter s to Salamanca and To ledo were bot h do ne
under the chance llorship of Hugh , tho u gh by different
scri be s , which in part explains their divergence in form .
The Salamanc a charter al so inc luded an unusual penalty
clau se dictating that anyone who infringed upon the
privilege shall pay the crown 1 , 0 0 0 marks and the see of
Salamanca twice the expected profits from moneta .
1 7 " Terc iam insuper partem monete in eadem c ivitate
ita ut ad hec omnia secundum libitum vestrum rec ipienda . "
Marti n , Salamanc a , 1 2 2- 2 4 no . 3 3 . Fernando also reveal s
that the bis ho p was re sponsible for over seeing the
co llection o f the royal income a s we l l a s hi s own . Thi s
may have been bec ause Salamanca was an episcopal senorio .
( Re i l ly , Urrac a , 32 0- 2 1 . ) Thi s c ustodia l responsibility
appear s to a pply to all the reve nues ( " ad hec omni a " ) and
not j ust the coinage as Procter , cur i a , 5 5 , conc luded .
Gras sott i , " E l pueblo , " 1 6 5- 6 6 , attributed thi s
charter to Alfonso VI I and inaccurately quoted i t as
" terc i am partem monete in eadem c ivitate f ita . "
1 8 Martin , Salamanca , 1 1 8- 1 9 no . 3 0 . Martin j udged
the document to be an original .
It is d ated 1 1 6 4 and note s
293
I
removes any doubt that the third of moneta did mean profits
from a mint .
By 1 1 8 6 , Fernando had be gun to strike go ld
morabetino s .
In that year , he al lowed the bis ho p and
chapter of Salamanca " a third part o f the gold money of
Salamanc a in the same way that you ho ld and po sses s a third
part o f the s ilver of the same town .
" 19
It seems c lear , therefore , that Alfo nso VI I ' s charter
of 1 1 2 6 which gave the bi shop a t hird of moneta referred ,
in f ac t , to mint profits .
Since the grant done by his
grand father , Alfonso VI , in 1 1 0 7 doe s not mention moneta
and Alfonso VI I ' s charter was done immediate ly after his
mother ' s death , we can perhaps a s s ume that the mint of
Salamanc a was established at some po int during the rule of
Urraca .
No coin s urvives today , however , either from her
reign or the reign o f her son , t hat can be ide ntif ied as
the product of thi s mint .
With the division of the realm i n 1 1 57 , the Salamanc a
mint o bviously rose in proffilnence within the reduced
kingdom of Le6 n .
This is evident i n t hat Fernando I I chose
the c i ty as the site to strike his gold morabetino .
( It
may have been the only Leonese mint al lowed this status ,
although there i s evidence sugge sting that Alfonso IX
extended the pr ivilege to compo stela i n 1 1 9 3 . 2 ° )
r
It i s not
that at that time the episcopacy of Salamanca was vacant ,
which seems consistent with the death o f Bisho p Ordofio .
( See F letcher , Epi scopate , 4 0 - 4 1 . )
1 9 Martin , S alamanca, 1 8 0- 8 1 no . 9 2 .
2 0 see chapt er 9 , n . 6 4 be low .
294
I
surpri sing , then , that the fir st denarius to c arry a mark
associated wit h Salamanc a also appears in the reign of
Fernando . Z l
Zamora
At the o pe ni ng of the twelfth century , the Leo nese
town of Zamora was barely sett led .
Bi shop Jeronimo of
Salamanc a wa s appare nt ly able to also serve as bishop of
Zamora ( and Avi la ) unti l his death in 1 1 2 0 . 2 2
In 1 1 2 1 ,
however , Zamora received its own bisho p , t he Frenc hman
Bernardo of Perigord , whose new diocese was created by
I
2 1 There i s a denarius struck in the name of Fernando
where the reverse shows a crowned bust placed above what
appears to be a bridge . similar ly , the go ld morabetino of
Alfonso IX has a lion standing above a bridge o n its
reverse . This was almost certainly an allus io n to
Salamanc a ' s Roman bridge which can also be see n on several
municipa l seals from thirteenth-century Salamanc a . One ,
from the year 1 2 9 9 , i s very remini scent of Alfonso IX ' s
morabetino , s ubstituting a bul l in place o f the lion . See
Antonio orol Pernas , " Dinero s Salamanque se s de Fernando II
de Leon , " SNB , 2 : 3 8 6 - 8 7 ; Julio Gonzale z , " Maravedies
leonese s , " Arc hive E spafio l de Arte 1 5 ( 1 9 4 2 ) : 2 8 7 ; Julio
Gonzalez , "Los sel lo s concej iles de E s pana e n la edad
media , " Hispania 5 ( 1 9 4 5 ) : 3 5 6 - 6 1 , 3 7 3 and t he
corresponding plates .
See further , catalo gue 6 , no . 1
be low . For Alf onso I X ' s morabetino , see He i s s , Las
monedas , plate 3 .
The bridge o f salamanc a should not be conf used with a
similar but later device used at segovia when the mint
there was reopened under E nr ique IV ( 1 4 5 4- 7 4 ) . This mark
of segovia was probably intended to be a depiction o f the
town ' s aqueduct . Nonetheles s , by 1 4 7 1 E nrique himse lf
referred to the " bridge " on the coins of that c ity .
See
Gil y Flores , "Marcas de t al ler , " 3 8 1 , 3 9 3 - 9 4 .
2 2 See the c harters of Raymond and Alfonso VI to
Salamanca di sc us sed above . For Jeronimo ' s c laim to Avila,
see Ledesma Rubio , san Mil lan, 1 9 5- 9 6 no . 2 92 ; c f .
F letc her , Epi scopate , 3 8 .
295
I
carving into the bisho pr ic o f Astorga .
In 1 1 2 3 , under
pres sure from Astorga , a legat ine counci l in Val lado lid
ruled that the see o f Zamora should be abolished , a
deci sion s ubsequently overturned by calixtus I I before his
death in December of 1 1 2 4 . 2 3
The charter dated in February 1 1 2 4 in whic h urraca i s
said to grant Bisho p Bernardo a tenth o f moneta along with
other royal revenues i s preserved in t he cathedral ' s
cartulary known as the Turnbo negro . 2 4
Bernardo was a
protege of Arc hbishop Bernardo of To ledo .
Since the queen
was normal ly an ally of To ledo , her endowment of z amora
could have been a time ly show of support for the new see
and its bis ho p .
The inc lusio n o f moneta in the gr ant ,
however , i s suspic ious s ince there i s no other indic at io n
that a mint existed in the town this ear ly .
It is not until we ll after the separation of Leon and
Castile , that the source s again ment io n the episco pa l right
to monet a in Zamora .
I n Apr i l of 1 1 9 5 , Alfonso IX o f Leo n
acknowledged that the c urrent bishop and canons of Z amora
held
a tenth part of my monetae and to l l s and also ( a tenth )
of the annual yield from my storehouses in Z amora so
that you s hall hold the entire afore said tenth
peacef ul ly and freely from now on . . . j ust as it was
(
2 3 The Counc il of Val l adolid of 1 1 2 3 ruled that with
Bernardo ' s death or tran s l at ion to another see , the
bishopric of Z amora should be abolished . Fletcher ,
Epi scopate , 1 9 5 - 9 6 ; c f . Rei l ly , Urraca , 2 4 5- 4 6 .
2 4 I have not seen the text and rely here on Rei lly,
Urrac a , 1 8 4 , 2 7 1 -7 2 , 3 2 2 .
296
conc eded forever to the same c hurc h and to the lord
bi shop Bernard by my grandfather t he emperor and after
him by my father the lord ki ng Fernando . 2 s
By thi s time , there is evidence suggesting that a mint was
operating in the town .
A charter dated 12 1 6 pre served in
the cathedral archives records t he purchase of wine by the
chapter ' s sacristan .
Among the arti sans appearing as
witnes se s to the transac tion are two men described as
moneyers . 2 6
In terms of numismatic corroboration, Orol
Pernas pointed out that one of Alfonso IX ' s type s carried a
mark of 9 ( C with a cedil la ) .
By the c lo se of the twelfth
cent ury , both the crowns of Leon and castile were adopti ng
a system that used the f ir st letter of the mint city as an
identi fying mark; 9 most like ly indicated z amora . 27
Now, Alfonso IX ' s conf irmation of the episcopal tenth
in zamora says that these were right s given to Bernardo by
(
2 5 " Dec imam partem mearum monetarum et portatici ac
fructuum s ingulis anni s mei ce llar i de Cemora , ut decimam
partem omnium predictorum quiete e t libere deinceps
habe at i s . . . s ic ut eidem aec le sie et epi scopo domno
Bernardo f uit ab avo meo imperatore et postmodum a patre
meo rege domno Fernando peremni ( sic ) robore preconcessa . "
Alfonso I X , 2 : 1 3 5- 3 7 no . 9 1 .
2 6 The c harter doe s not record that it was act ually
done i n zamora , but it seems a s afe assumption . see
Marti n , Doc umentos zamorano s , 6 6 no . 8 0 .
2 7 Altho ugh Alfonso IX i s s ued a number o f type s , two
of the se seem to have been more substantive than the rest .
One is marked with symbo ls , such a s sc allo p shells , stars
and crescent s , which most like ly repre sented mints . On the
seco nd , letter s were frequently used as marks in place o f
symbo l s . Oro l was probably correct in s ugge st ing that
plain c stood for corufia , a town whose growth Alfonso had
active ly encouraged while a c with a cedi lla was used f or
see Antonio Orol Pernas , Ac ufiac ione s de Alfonso IX
Zamora .
( Madrid , 1 9 8 2 ) , 4 5 - 4 8 , types 1 3 and 1 4 .
297
I
Alfonso VI I and conf irmed by Fernando I I .
mention Urraca .
in 1 1 4 9 .
It does not
Bernardo served a s bi shop until his death
Therefore , whi le he as sumed hi s of fice in the
last years of Urraca ' s reign , the bulk o f hi s episcopacy
fell during the reign of Alfonso VI I , with whom he seems to
have been on the " best of terms . n 2 8
Alfonso IX could have
simply been mi staken in hi s conf irmation grant , but it
make s mo st sense to take him at hi s word and place the
opening of a mint in Z amora sometime dur ing the reign of
Alfonso VI I when the town and surrounding di strict were
becomi ng more f irmly settled under the direction of it s
first bi sho p . 2 9
There is i n fact a n anonymous coin type
c arrying the mark CA which might repre sent a piece struck
in the c ity duri ng the time of Alfonso VI I or Fernando
I I . 30
The grant o f urraca as preserved in the Turnbo negro
may we ll be based on an authentic bequest of the queen
where she as signed the new see a tenth o f existing royal
revenue s .
But , the tenth from monet a i s probably a later
interpolation .
stil l , regardles s of when it was fir st
granted , the evidence from the reign o f Alfonso IX makes it
r
2 8 F letcher , Epi scopat e , 4 2 - 4 4 .
2 9 For growth in the territory o f Zamora during these
year s see the various charters of sett lement granted by
Bernard , the c rown and others co llected in Justiniano
Rodriguez Fernandez , ed . , Los fueros locales de la
provinc ia de Zamora . ( Salamanca , 1 9 9 0 ) , 2 7 1 - 8 6 no s . 5 - 1 4 .
3 0 The coin is discussed in the section on Burgo s
be low.
298
c lear that this epi sc opal t ithe o n moneta in Zamora
represented a share of profits from a loc a l mint .
There
lS
no basis to confuse it with a monetagi um tax .
Burgos
At the death o f Urraca in 1 1 2 6 , Alfonso I of Arago n
still laid c laim to much o f Castile , particularly the towns
of carrion and Burgos .
I n 1 1 2 7 , however , Alfonso VI I
regained Bur go s and arrived at a temporary accord with his
stepfather . 3 1
The following year , on July 8 , 1 1 2 8 , the
Leonese king allowed the bisho p of B urgo s the following :
From all the revenue s of B urgo s whic h pertain to me , I
give and concede to the above said c hurc h . . . a tenth
part . . . o f the labor o f the land and o f the vine , from
baths and mi lls , from orchards , from the market and
from the fields , from moneta , from tolls and fines and
from that entire distric t that pertains to the above­
said city . 32
Alfonso VI I repeated his gift of the t ithe a few day
later on July 12 when he donated more property to the
cathedral c hapter .
He added no clarif ic at ion as to what
was meant by revenue from moneta . 3 3
r
Gras sotti believed
3 1 Rec uero , Alfonso V I I , 8 7 - 9 5 ; c f . Lema Pueyo ,
Alfonso I , 2 5 7 - 59 nos . 1 7 5 - 7 6 .
3 2 " De omnibus exitibu s de B ur gi s que michi pertinet ,
dono et concede supra dicte ecc lesie . . . dec imam partem
de laboribus terrarum et vinearum , de balnei s et
mo lendinis , de ortibus , de mercato et de la plana , de
moneta , de portaticis et c al umnii s et de tota illa alfoze
que ad supra dictam c ivitatem pertinent . " Garrido , Burgo s ,
1 : 1 9 2 - 9 4 no . 1 0 9 .
3 3 Ibid . , 1 9 4- 9 7 no . 1 1 0 ; sanc he z Albornoz , " Notas , "
497 .
It was a lso on July 1 2 th that the king confirmed
privileges f or the " me n of B urgo s , " but this doc ument make s
299
I
that there i s no numismatic evidence to support the
possibi l ity o f a mint in B urgo s before the late twelfth
cent ury , when the town bec ame a favored royal re sidence of
the indepe ndent kings of castile .
She therefore stres sed
that the inc l us io n of moneta in Alfonso VI I ' s endowment of
1 1 2 6 might we l l refer to monet agi um.
The numismatic
record , however , is not as c lear c ut as Gras sott i
indic ated . 34
An ano nymous coin survives that depict s a mounted
warrior on i t s obverse wit h the legend REX .
portray s a cro s s and the legend LEO CIVITAS .
known today in four main varieties .
The reverse
The type is
I n the first , the
abbreviation LE i s seen on the reverse at the base of the
cro s s .
In the other three varieties , this abbreviation
change s to TO , BV and
mint si gnat ur e .
CA .
35
It was c learly intended as a
LE was Leon , TO represented To ledo and BV
could o nly represent B urgos .
The mark CA i s le s s certain
and its interpretation dictate s how we u ltimately date the
coin .
I
no mention of the mint .
see Gonz alez D ie z , B urgo s , 60-6 1
no . 6 .
3 4 Gras sotti , " E l pueblo , " 1 70 . Nightin ga le in
" Pepperer s ' Guild , " 1 3 0 , also be lieved t hat Burgos had no
mint i n the early twelfth century .
3 5 The abbreviation was also placed on t he obver se ,
behi nd the hor se , though it is not evident o n a l l
spec imens .
( See c atalogue 4 , no . 1 be lo w . ) oro l Pernas
reported an example of this type simply marked L .
Rather
than interpreting thi s as a worn or botched LE, he saw it
as a f ifth mark for Lugo which seems unwarranted . See
Oro l , Alfonso IX , 1 7 .
300
I
The abbreviation co uld stand for Caesar Augusta or
Zarago z a .
After the death o f Alfonso I of Arago n , Alfonso
VI I contro lled Zaragoza briefly between 1 1 3 4 - 3 6 and al lowed
a mint to operate there . 3 6
s ince he was the only monarc h to
rule simultaneou sly in the c it ie s of Leo n , Burgo s , Toledo
and Zarago z a , if we read CA as Z arago z a , the eque strian
coin must belong to him .
It s four mint marks co uld be seen
as corre sponding to the " c apital " c ities of four of the
kingdoms under his rule , i . e . , Leo n , castile , To ledo and
Zarago za . 3 7
If thi s interpretation is correc t , the
eque strian coin must have been c urrent around 1 1 3 5 and so
atte st s to an active mint at B ur go s not long after the
grant o f moneta to the bisho p of that city in 1 1 2 6 .
on the other hand , CA may stand for Zamora, where a
mint was probably opened sometime in the reign of Alfonso
VI I .
A coln with legend REX LEO C IVITAS struck in Z amora ,
Burgos , Leon and Toledo could have been is sued at any po int
in the reign of Alfonso VI I after hi s occupation of Burgos
in 1 1 2 7 .
It i s also conceivable that such a coin was
struck in the early year s of the reign of Fernando I I , whe n
he
acted as regent for Alfonso VI I I in castile .
After
Alfonso VI I I began to rule casti le in his own right in
I
3 6 see the section on Zarago z a be low .
3 7 After his imperial coronation , Alfonso at times
de scribed himself as " im:E?E=ratore imperante in Toleto , in
Legione , in Sarrago z a , Naj ara , caste l l a , Galicia . " See ,
f or example , Vi llar Garci a , Segovia , 6 2 - 6 3 no . 1 9 , 6 9 - 7 0
no . 2 4 .
30 1
I
1 1 6 9 , however , thi s combinatio n of mints bec ame
impo s s ible . 3 8
Therefore , if we read CA for zamora , thi s
eque strian coin sti l l stands as evidence that a mint
existed in Burgo s before 1 1 69 . 39
There is a second coin which support s the existence of
a mint at Burgos before this date .
It i s again anonymou s ,
the obverse legend reading IMPERA ( pre sumably short for
imperator ) and the reverse LEON I S .
On some example s , the
letter B appears at the beginning of t he obver se legend . 4°
By the reign of Alfonso VII I , B was the mark for Burgo s .
I
3 8 Dur ing Alfonso VI I I ' s minor ity , Fernando I I
frequent ly laid claim to Toledo in his c harters and on some
occ asions c laimed the kingdom of Cast i le as we l l , such as
" regnante in Toleto , Extremadura , castella , Legione ,
Gallec ia et Ast uriis . " He appears to have been phys ic ally
present in c astile mos t often in the years 1 1 6 2 and 1 1 6 3 .
Several of his charter s show him in Burgos in october of
1 162 .
See Julio Gonz alez , Regesta de Fernando I I ( Madrid ,
1 9 4 3 ) , 2 5 1 - 5 8 no s . 8 - 1 3 ; c f . 5 3- 7 3 .
see further the
section entitled " The E ar ly Coins of cast i le " in chapter 9
be low .
After the reunif icat ion of Leon and Castile in 1 2 3 0 ,
it i s conceivable that another monarch minted in zamora,
Leon , Burgos and Toledo simultaneo usly . The equestrian
coin , however , is c learly not a product of the thirteenth
centur y , if for no other reason than t hat the title REX LEO
CIVITAS was by then arc haic .
3 9 Besides thi s eque strian i s s ue , the abbreviation CA
doe s not appear on coins o f Leon-Casti le unt i l the time of
Enrique I I ( 1 3 69 - 1 4 0 6 ) .
Its assoc iation with Z amora at
that point i s c lear in that Fernando I o f Portugal ( 1 3 6 78 3 ) invaded the we stern portions of Le6n and i ss ued co ins
with a CA mark which pro c laimed him FERNANDVS REX ZAMORE .
The mark l ater may have been used by t he C ue nc a mint in
combination with a c up . I t also , however , was used by
Z arago z a in the later middle ages .
See oro l , Alfonso I X ,
4 6 - 4 8 ; Ferraro Vaz , Moedas de Portuga l , 7 3 - 7 4 ; c f . Gil
Flore s , "Marcas de Tal ler , " 3 8 7- 8 8 .
4 0 Hei s s reported an example from hi s co llec tion with
B in both the obver se and rever se legends .
see catalogue
4 , no . 2 below .
302
But , Alfonso VI I I would not have issued a co in with the
legend " emperor of Leon, " a title to which he had no
practical c laim .
This particular coin from the Burgos mint
must predate hi s rule . 4 1
Mo st like ly , it was is sued late
in the time of Alfonso VI I , though again it is po s sible it
was struck dur i ng Fernando I I ' s regency in Cast ile . 4 2
In terms o f furt her proo f for mi nting at B urgo s under
Alfonso VI I , we should consider hi s grant in 1 1 4 2 to the
cathedral chapter there , giving them the right to si lver
" wherever they c an find it in the di strict of Ar lanz6n " to
be used for " t he service o f God and the re storat io n of the
above said c hurc h . .. 4 3
This pres umably refers to s ilver
fo und in nat ure , perhaps from the Ar lanzon river itse lf .
The crown ' s wi l l ingness to give up all its right s perhaps
r
4 1 There i s one other anonymous-imperial types which
hoard evidence i ndicates belonged to Alfonso VII .
It also
displays s ingle letter s or symbo ls f or mint marks , tho ugh
there are no known variants wit h B.
( See catalogue 4 , no .
3 . For the hoard co ntaini ng t hi s coin, see c hapter a , n .
3 9 below . )
In t he time of Alfonso VI and Urraca , the main
mint s signed the full name o f their city on the coin . The
anonymous eque strian type with its two letter abbreviations
of BV, TO , LE and CA may therefore repre sent an
intermediary stage on the way to the use of sing le letters
or symbo ls . By the c lose of the century , during the reigns
of Alfonso VII I of casti le and his c ontemporary Alfonso IX
of Leon, thi s system of sing le letters or symbol s was we ll
in place . For mint marks under these two monarc hs , see
chapter 9 .
4 2 Fernando I I i s not known to have called himse lf
emperor in his diplomas . He did , however , frequently
employ the title " Rex Hispanorum . " See Gonza lez , Fernando
I I , 251ff .
4 3 " Do no e t concede ut ubicumque in terrnino Ar lanzonis
argentum invenire potuerint sit ad sevic ium Dei
omnipotentes et ad restaurandum supra dictam ecc le siam . "
Garrido , B urgo s , 2 1 8- 1 9 no . 1 2 7 .
303
a
indicate s it was not a large source .
Whi le this silver
could be used for orname ntal pur po se s , it i s more probable
that Alfonso intended it as means to help cover the see ' s
expense s .
It would have been an odd gift if there were not
a mint in the town .
Like S al amanca in Leon, B urgos would serve as a more
prominent mint for the independent realm o f cast ile .
In
time , one or more of Alfonso VI I I ' s issue s would be
popular ly labe led burga leses even thou gh t hey were struck
in a number of rnint s . 4 4
Nevert heles s , as with Salamanca ,
the root s of t he B ur go s mint c lear ly date back to before
the divi sion o f the realm .
on balance , there is no reason
to doubt that when Alfonso VI I granted the bisho p of B urgo s
a tenth o f moneta in 1 1 2 8 , the revenue referred t o was a
share in mint prof its .
Segovia
De spite the wide array of coins is sued in this town
during the c haos o f urraca • s reign , the first documentary
reference to t he money of Segovia only appears in 1 1 3 5 .
In
a charter from March o f that year , Alfonso s po ke of how the
church had been de so late for more than 3 0 0 year s , implying
that muc h work still remained to firmly co loni ze the
district .
To he lp remedy this , he granted B i s ho p Pedro a
tenth of all t hat pertained to the crown in the diocese
r
4 4 see c at alogue 5 , no s . 7 - 1 7 below .
304
I
whic h he def ined as encompas si ng segovia itself , Coc a ,
Iscar , sepulveda , Fresno , Pedraza and other vi llage s .
The
tent h was to inc lude profits from " t he f ifth , to ll s ,
c u lt ivated f ields , orc hards , mil ls , stores and f ines . "
On
top o f this , he granted " a third part o f the moneta which
sha l l be made in Segovia . n 4 5
A litt le more than a year late r , Alfonso drew up
another charter for the bi shop .
The text of thi s doc ument
c losely para l leled the one from the previous year , tho ugh
it added confirmat ion of s pec i f ic land ho ldings .
The tithe
on royal revenue in the diocese remained intac t .
The
separate provi sion regarding the coinage , however , now
reads not a third but " a fourth part of the moneta whic h
shal l be made i n Segovia . n 4 6
Continued growth o f the see ' s
ho ldings warranted another royal conf irmation in 1 1 3 9 .
Here , the provision regarding the mint was the same as in
1 1 36
the see was entit led t o a fourth o f the pro f it . 47
It i s po ss ible that the charter of 1 1 3 5 , which
survives in a contemporary copy , i s wrong in its c laim that
4 5 " Dec imas omnium quecumque in Secobiensi diocesi ad
regalem pertinet potestatem in i spsa Secobia , Coqu a , I sc ar ,
Coilare , Fontedona , Bembibre , Bernode , sagrameni a ,
Septempublic a , Madero l Freis sino , Pedr az a , vide licet , de
quinti s , portatici s , serni s , ort i s , mo lendinis , tendis ,
calumpniis .
I ns uper dono ei terciam partem monete que i n
Secobia f ac ta f uerit . " Vil lar Garc ia , segovia, 60 - 6 1 no .
18 .
4 6 Ibid . , 6 2 - 6 3 no . 1 9 .
4 7 I bid . , 7 5 - 7 7 no . 2 9 . For t he growth of the see ' s
po s se s sions since 1 1 3 6 , cf . 6 4 - 7 4 no s . 2 0- 2 7 .
(
30 5
the bishop was originally entit led to a third . � 8
The later
grants of 1 1 3 6 and 1 1 3 9 , however , both contain a provi sion
not present in the ear lier c harter which s ugge st s that the
bi shop ' s share in the mint had in fact been modi fied .
By
the later grant s , he was to receive a fo urth o f the mint
" and ( a fourth part ) of al l change s , of whatever size , that
shall occur . 4 9
..
Though vague , this addendum pro bably
refers to profits gained from periodic commutations of the
co inage , whe n old coins were exc hanged at a di scount for
new .
Alfonso VI I must have reduced the share of everyday
mint profit from one t hird to one fourth but , to he lp
off set the los s , gave the bi shop a share in revenue
generated from commutations .
After the divi sion o f the realm, segovia be longed to
the crown of c asti le .
In 1 1 6 1 , Alfonso VI I I i ncreased the
bi shop ' s share o f the municipa l revenue .
r
Instead of the
4 8 The c harter o f 1 1 3 5 is dated Marc h 2 7 . That of
1 1 3 6 , whic h Vi llar Garcia j udged to be an original , is
dated April 9t h .
Internal evidence indicate s that the two
text s indeed repre sent act s done a year apart .
In the
grant of 1 1 3 5 , Berengar is listed as " archdeacon and royal
chance llor . " That s umme r he was e lected to the see of
Salamanc a . I n the c harter of 1 1 3 6 , he appropr iate ly
appears as bisho p of Salamanca . L ikewise , the grant of
1 1 3 5 gives Ari as as bi shop of Le6n who died that year . The
grant of 1 1 3 6 correctly lists Pedro as his s uccessor . see
F letcher , Epi scopat e , 3 9 -4 0 , 6 8- 7 0 . For Berengar a s
" c hancellor " in these year s , c f . Rei lly , " Chancery o f
Alfonso VI I , " 2 5 7- 2 6 1 , tho ugh he doe s not c i te thi s
partic ular doc ument o f 1 1 3 5 .
4 9 " Quartem partem monete que in secobie f ac ta f uerit
et totius cambiacionis a quecumque parte venerit . " Vi llar
Garci a , segovia , 6 2 - 6 3 no . 1 9 .
I t is repeated es sent ially
verbatim in the charter of 1 1 3 9 , see 7 5 - 7 7 no . 2 9 .
306
te nt h the see was already entitled to , Alfonso VI I I now
granted ,
A quarter part of a l l revenues of the city o f segovi a ,
inside and o ut . . . in exchange for calatalif a , which I
give to the concejo o f Segovi a .
I give to yo u and yo ur
succes sors t he fourth part . . . from meadows , f ie lds ,
vineyards , orchards , monet a , stores , fine s for
homic ide s , tolls , tannerie s , butchers , mil ls , the
fift h , f ines and all my other revenues . s o
The bishop, of course , a lready had a fourt h of the mint ,
but it i s not unusual to f ind it reiterated in t hi s grant .
There are no grounds to be lieve that moneta here referred
to anything but the revenue from the mint .
Z arago z a
In his Christmas court he ld i n Zaragoza i n 1 1 3 4 ,
Alfonso VI I conf irmed for the bi shop of the city donations
made by Alfonso I and Ramiro I I of Aragon .
He recogni zed
that the Battler had given the c hurc h ,
( T ) he entire tenth o f a l l
moneta or in the property
tribute from all the Jews
produce of the earth , the
SO
income either i n t o l l s o r ln
of deceased Moor s or in
likewise the tenth o f all
vine or the orchard .
" Quartam partem omnium redditum Secobines i s
c ivitat i s intus e t extra . . pro concambio de Calatalipha,
quam dono Secobiensis conc il io . Dono inquam , et tibi et
succes soribu s tuis quartam partem . . . in prati s , i n sernis ,
in vinei s , in ortis , i n moneta , in tendis , in omic idii s , in
portatic o , in tanariis , in c arnaqariis , in molendi ni i s , in
quint i s , in calumbni s , et in omnibus redditibus mei s . "
I bid . , 1 0 9 - 1 1 1 no . 62 .
I
307
Moreover , he gave it the tenth from all mi lls
thro ughout the entire di strict o f the city of Zarago z a ;
likewise o f all the baths that are there . . . s l
While a mint had exi sted in Z arago z a dur ing the taif a
period , it i s not clear that the Almoravids had al lowed it
to continue . s z
I t i s certain , however , that a mint was
o perat ing there soon after the Arago ne se conquest in 1 1 1 8 .
severa l Latin moneyers c an be fo und in the documents of the
c ity dur ing the dec ades of 1 1 2 0 s and 1 1 3 0 s . s 3
It seems
reaso nable, then, that the revenue c a lled moneta in Alfonso
VI I ' s conf irmation was profits from that mint .
As wit h hi s other bi shopric s , this was not the last
time t hat Alfo nso addres sed the i s s ue of mint rights in
Zarago za .
His c harter of September 2 7 , 1 1 3 5 drawn up at
Pradil la del E bro gave the bis ho p of Z aragoza " a fourt h
part of half the moneta that shal l be made in the c ity of
Z arago za . 5 4
"
I
This unusual divi sio n amounted to the bi shop
5 1 " Do navit ei omnes decimas omnium reddituum sive in
lezdis , sive in moneta s ive in maurorum defunctorum re bus
ve l in omnibus iudeorum tributis nec non decimas omni um
fruc tu um t am de terris t am de vine i s q uam de ortis .
Insuper donavit ei dec imas omnium mo lendinorum que
s unt in toto termino Cesaraugustane urbi s ; et simi liter
et ( iam ) omnium balneorum c ui sc umque sint . . . " Lacarra ,
E bro , 1 : 2 4 7- 4 9 no . 2 4 5 .
5 2 There are no gold rnorabetinos known with a mint
signature of Z aragoz a .
See Kassis , " Notas hist6ricas , " 5 5 6 6 ; Haz ard , North Africa , 62 - 6 3 .
5 3 The moneyer Randulf witne ssed a royal grant t here
in 1 1 2 1 and the moneyer Gauz bertus witne ssed a donation of
land a pparently in Zar ago z a in the year 1 1 2 2 . Gauzbertus
owned land outside the city by 1 1 2 4 . L acarra , Ebro , 1 : 9 0 9 1 , no . 7 5 , 1 0 2 - 1 0 3 no . 8 8 , 1 1 3 no . 9 9 .
5 4 " Quarta parte rnedietatis monete que fiet in
casaraugustana civitate . " L acarra , E bro , 1 : 2 6 1 - 62 no . 2 5 8 .
308
a
recelvlng one-eighth o f the total mint which was o nly
slight ly better than the tenth Alfonso had confirmed t he
year before .
It was precise ly around this time that Alfonso VI I
entr usted Zarago z a to Garcia Ramirez , the new king o f
inde pendent Navarre .
A private charter of November 1 1 3 5 i s
dated a s the year " t hat King Alfonso , the emperor , gave
Zarago z a to do n Garc ia , the king " and another doc ume nt of
January 1 1 3 6 reads " in the year that King Garc ia held
Zarago za by the order of the emperor . .. s s
Garc ia was , in
fact , present with Alfonso at Pradilla del E bro for he
conf irms the c harter to the bi shop .
Rec uero may be right
in s ugge sting that it was at this very meeting that Alfonso
entrusted the c ity to Garcia . s 6
As part of this accord , it
would appear that the Leonese king retained half the mint .
He , then , gave the bisho p a fourth of hi s half so that the
see was assured ro ughly the same amo unt of income de s pite
the new political arrangement .
Trouble soon broke out between Alfonso V I I and Garcia
Ramire z of Navarre as Alfonso so ught to betrot h hi s so n to
the newly- born daughter of Ramiro I I o f Aragon .
I
At some
5 5 The doc uments are cartulary copies and the dat i ng
formulas may be later additions , particularly the second
whic h appear s to realize t hat Garcia would ho ld Zarago z a
only temporari ly .
I bid . , 1 : 2 6 3 no . 2 6 0 , 2 65 no . 2 62 .
5 6 Rec uero , Alfonso VII , 1 4 1 . The Chronicle of
Alfonso VII seems mistaken in its c laim that Al fonso gave
Zarago z a to Ramon Berenguer of Barce lo na . see Sanchez
Belda , Chr6nic a , 5 3 , paragraph 6 7 .
309
PJint in 1 1 3 6 , Alfonso "returned " Zarago z a to Ramiro . 5 7
He
pres umably also turned over full c ontro l of the mint at
that time .
There is no further evidence o f the Crown of
Leon ' s direc t invo lvement in Zar ago z an affair s .
Despite
Alfonso VI I ' s ef fort s to inf luence Ramiro , in the fo llowing
year , 1 1 3 7 , the Aragonese ruler betrothed hi s daughter to
Ramon Berenguer of Barcelona and delivered the entire
kingdom of Aragon to him .
compos te la
The crown ' s lack of rights to the mint in santiago
continued to be a so urce of irritation for Alfonso V I I .
If
his mother urrac a had tried to dampen the pro sperity of
Composte la by establishing alternative mint s , she was at
be st only temporarily succes sful .
to have been thriving agai n .
By the 1 1 2 0 s , it appear s
Geraldo , who began his work
on the His tori a compostelana c . 1 1 2 0 reveals that by hi s day
the mint stood near the entrance to the nort h transept of
the cathedral , a loc ation ideally suited to serve the
pi lgrim tr af fic . se
(
The northern PJrtal , according to the
5 7 A charter of Fortun Az nar , described as a merino in
the service of Alfonso VII , is dated Jul y , 1 1 3 6 , " in anno
quando imper ator reddit Zaraco za ad rege Raimiri . " A sale
the following October speaks o f " anno quando imperator
A ( defons us ) intravit s uper regem Garc i am in Stella et fec it
concordiam c um rege Rainimiro . " Lacarra , E bro , 1 : 2 6 7- 6 8
no . 2 66 , 2 7 1 no . 2 6 9 ; c f . Sanchez Belda , Chronic a , 5 8 - 5 9
paragraph 7 3 .
5 8 HC , book . 2 , c hap . 2 5 , c f . c haps . 5 4 - 5 5 . Geraldo
does not reveal when the mint was established on the plaza
in fro nt of t he nort hern portal . The famo us fountain on
310
a
author of t he Pil grim ' s Guide, was \vhere " Frenc h " pilgrims
were acc ustomed to enter the c hurc h .
On the plaza outside
there was a ho spice and one co uld buy various ware s
inc l uding scallo p she l l s . 59
Accordi ng to the Hi stori a Compostelana , Alfonso VI I
came to the city in 1 1 2 9 and attempted to forcef ully take
back lords hip of the mint but Diego Ge lmirez resisted
succ e s s f ul ly .
He was able to produce Alfonso VI ' s original
charter and shame Alfonso VI I into confirming it .
since
Geraldo conti nued to work on the His tori a unt i l after Diego
r
the plaz a , which Geraldo tells us was next to the mint , was
said to have an inscript io n dating its construction to
1126 .
It was probably in these same years t hat Diego
Gelmirez renovated the nearby- by epi scopal palace .
See
Melc zer , The P ilgr im ' s Guide , 1 2 2 ; c f . F letcher , catapult ,
1 7 6- 7 7 . For Geraldo ' s work on the His toria , see Reilly ,
" The His tori a Compos telana , " 8 2 - 8 5 .
In Arago n , the mint at Jac a al so appears to have been
establ ished outside the main churc h . A te stament dated
1 1 0 6 s peaks of " il las casas que sunt in Iaca ante
aecc lesiam ubi moneta solebat fieri . " See Duran Gudio l ,
Huesc a , 1 : 1 2 1 - 2 2 no . 9 7 . Notice o f bui ldings spec if ically
de signated a s mint s are rare at this date in western
Europe . C f . Bisson, Conservation, 6 .
St i l l , it is
important to keep in mind that the detai l s provided by the
Histori a Compostel ana to some extent serve to distort the
importance o f this mint .
In terms o f numismatic evidenc e ,
there is nothing to c learly show that i t s production far
outstripped the other mint s of Leon-Cast i le .
5 9 The a uthor of the guide seems to distinguish
between the commercial activity al lowed on t he plaza and
that out side t he c ity where one could find " money-changers ,
innkeepers and merc hant s of all sorts . " Me lc zer , The
Pilgrim ' s G uide , 1 2 2 - 2 3 .
It is easy to imagine that there
were money-c hanger s set up out side t he c ity hoping to
intercept the pi lgrim traf fic and compete with the official
exchange at the mint .
It was perhaps this act ivity that
inspired t he munic ipal statutes of 1 1 3 3 whic h warned
" innkeeper s , moneyer s , money-c hangers and c itizen" not to
use f al se wei ght s .
see HC , book 3 , chap . 3 3 .
311
Ge lmirez • death, we can perhaps tr ust him when he te lls us
that with this inc ident the i s sue over the mint was put to
re st between Alfonso and his f ormer tutor , Arc hbisho p
Diego . 60
Having controlled composte la for over four dec ades ,
first as " vicar , " then a s bi shop and final ly a s archbi shop,
Diego Gelmirez died in the E as ter season of 1 1 4 0 .
During
the remaining seventeen year s of Alfonso VII ' s rule , the
archbi shopric of Compo stela changed hands approximately six
time s .
The sources for this period , however , are sc ant
( the His tori a ' s account having left off abr uptly in 1 1 3 8 )
and the chrono logy of Ge lmirez • successors i s not entire ly
cert ai n .
At least two o f the men elected to Compostela ln
these year s , Berengar , the bis ho p of salamanca , and
Bernardo o f Agen , the bi shop o f siglienza , were a llies of
the king . 6 1
I
At some point , perhaps due to the good wi l l of
6 0 No conf irmation o f the c harter by Alfonso V I I is
known .
see He , book 3 , chaps 1 2 - 1 3 ; c f . Rei l ly , " The
His tori a compostelana , " 8 4- 8 5
6 1 Like Bernardo of Perigord who bec ame bi shop of
Z amora , Berengar and Bernardo of Agen had been members of
the cathedral community of Toledo . Both had served in
Alfonso VI I ' s chancery before be ing raised to the office of
bi shop . Berengar • s election to salamanca in 1 1 3 5 , a
suffragan of Compo ste la, must have bee n partic u lar ly
irksome to Diego Gelmire z . At Gelmire z ' death , Alfonso
tried to sec ure Berengar as archbi shop of Compostela .
De spite an appeal to Rome on B erengar ' s behalf , however , he
appear s not to have been consecrated at that time . He
successf ully gained the of fice in 1 1 5 0 and died the
fo llowing year . Bernardo of Agen s ucceeded him but
survived only to 1 1 52 . See F letc her , Episcopate , 5 7 - 5 8 .
on Berengar • s earlier election to Salamanc a and his ro le in
the royal c hancery , see F letc her , c at apult , 2 8 4- 2 9 0 ; c f .
n . 4 8 above . For Alfonso ' s attempt s to sec ure hi s election
312
either o f these men , Alfonso s uc ceeded i n rec laiming a
substantial share of the profits from the compo stela mint .
This
lS
atte sted by a later act of his son , Fernando I I .
I n a c harter o f 1 1 7 1 , Fernando acknowledged that his
( great ) grandf at her , Alfonso VI , had allowed the churc h at
Compostela full right s to moneta made in t he c ity but
explained that afterward compo stela had " lent " half the
moneta to his f ather Alfonso VI I .
Though t he text is
somewhat vague , Fernando seems to imply that in order to
obtain t hi s half , hi s father had promi sed composte la that
no-o ne e lse wou ld be al lowed to mint in Galic ia . 6 2
Alfonso
VI I , the n , was not able to simply usurp half the revenue s ,
but had to bargain for it . 63
By his charter o f 1 1 7 1 ,
to compo stela c . 1 1 4 1 , see al so cha pter 6 , n . 4 1 above . For
Bernardo of Agen ' s background , see c hapter 9 , n . 2 1 .
6 2 " Ipsa c ompo stel lana ecc lesia medietatem monete
patro ni ( sic ) no stro A ( defonsu s ) bone mernorie imperatori
prestiterit .
Ob hoc videlicet ne per stratarn publicam, aut
per gal lec iarn alic ubi mo neta f abricaretur , dignurn duxi
ipsarn mo nete e idem compo stel lane ecc lesie i n integrum
prestare . Darnus itague deo et ecc lesie commernorati patroni
nostri apl i . i acobi . . . aliam medietatern rnonete guam pater
noster irnperator per s upradictam pactionern acceperat . "
santiago , 4 : appendix , 1 1 4- 1 6 no . 4 6 .
The seco nd sentenc e , beginning " ob hoc , " i s far from
c lear . Lope z Ferreiro ' s interpretation that it meant no
one else sho uld strike coin in Galicia i s probably the most
logic al . See s antiago , 4 : 2 9 0 - 9 1 ; c f . Procter , c uria, 2 7
and sanc he z Albornoz , " Primitiva organiz ac i6 n , " 3 3 3- 3 4 .
6 3 The crown ' s c laim to half the monet a o f santiago l S
also evident i n several early act s o f Fernando I I .
In
1 1 6 4 , he gave the monks o f sobrado an annual cen s us o f 2 0 0
rnorabetino s t o be paid from hi s half o f the mi nt at
Composte la .
( These rnorabetino s were pre sumably intended to
be paid in denarii . If Santiago struck gold at all , it was
In 1 1 6 8 ,
not unti l 1 1 9 3 .
see c hapter 9 n . 64 below . )
Fernando amended Sobrado ' s stipend , making i t a third of
313
Fernando now restored a l l the mint pro fits at Sant iago to
it s archbi shop .
The existence of a mint at Lugo in Galic ia is
documented by a cartular y copy of a charter of Fernando I I .
In it , the king grants t he bishop " a third part of the
royal money ( regiae monetae ) , which in your c ity of Lugo
shall be formed ( condi ta ) and struck . "
The ac t is dated
February 1 9 , 1 1 5 8 , within a year of Alfonso VI I ' s death .
Fernando makes no reference to the see having enjoyed this
right under hi s father .
Rather , he finds precedent for hi s
ac tion by explaini ng that " indeed my ( great ) grandfather ,
King Alfonso , of celebrated memory , gave t hat share of the
money ( monetae ) to the above-said church by means of a
genuine charter . " 6 4
I
his half of the mint .
( Sanchez Belda , Doc umentos reales ,
1 5 4 no . 32 3 , 1 6 4 no . 3 4 5 . )
Al so in 1 1 6 8 , Mateo , a master builder for the
c athedral of Santi ago , received a st ipend from t he king to
be paid from the royal half of the Santiago mint . Thi s
text seems corrupt for Matthew i s said receive ,
" refectionem duarum marc harum singulis hebdomadibus . . . ita
quod haec re fect io valaet tibi centum moravetino s . " I f
these were marks o f si lver , even alloyed s ilver , t he total
for a year sho uld have been worth more than 1 0 0
morabetinos .
( Santiago , 4 : appendix 9 3- 9 4 no . 3 7 . )
6 4 " Ego Ferdinandus . . . fac io cartulam . . . de terc ia parte
Regiae monet ae , quae i n Urbe vestra Lucensi condita fuerit ,
& fabricat a . Do no itaque , . . . terciam partem Regiae
monetae in eleemo s ynam , & memoriale meum : Quam quidem
partem Monetae , Avus meu s ce lebris memoriae Rex Adefonsus
praefaae Ecc le si ae per veridic am c artulam dederat . "
The c harter i s preserved in both the Turnbo viejo and
n uevo of the c at hedr al .
I t was or iginally publ i shed by
Manuel Ri sco in E S , 4 1 : 3 1 9 . I t can al so be fo und in Cesar
314
No s uc h charter of Alfonso VI ' s regarding a mint ln
Lugo is known today . 6 S
Nor is there any other c lear
evidence , diplomatic or numi smatic , that c an confiL� that a
mint exi sted i n the town during hi s reign or the s ubsequent
reigns o f urrac a and Alfonso VI I . 6 6
I
Sti l l , there is no
Vaarnonde Lore s , " De Monetaria Gal lega , " part 4 , Boletin de
Sanchez Alborno z
la Ac ademia Galleqa 3 0 ( 1 9 3 5 ) : 1 1 4- 1 5 .
reproduced the text partially i n " Prirnitiva organi zaci6n , "
320 n . 5 5 , but dated it incorrectly to 1 1 5 7 . Cf . Sanc he z
Belda , Doc urnento s reales , 1 4 1 no . 2 9 2 ; Gonz alez , Fernando
II, 347 .
6 5 F letcher , cat apult , 1 1 , envi sioned t hat this lost
charter of Alfonso VI ' s was is sued after 1 0 8 8 . Hi s
reasoning seems to be based on Alfonso VI ' s conf irmation of
Lugo ' s po s se ssions dated June 1 8 , 1 0 8 8 . The king had j ust
suppre s sed a rebel lion in Galici a apparent ly with the
bi shop o f Lugo • s aid . The confirmation make s no reference
to a mint , and F letc her must have conc luded that the lost
grant c arne after it . This termin us post quem is repeated
in Metcalf , " A Parce l of Coins , " 2 92 . For the rebel lion ln
Galicia and Alfonso ' s grant of June 1 0 8 8 , see Rei l ly ,
Alfonso VI , 1 9 5- 2 0 1 .
6 6 I n 1 1 0 5 / 6 count R aymond and urrac a , together with
the Bi shop of Lugo and other magnate s granted protection to
merc hant s corning to Lugo ' s monthly market . According to
Sanchez Belda , Doc urnento s reales , 8 9 no . 1 78 , this charter
does not allude to a mint .
It seems , nonetheles s , to be
the basi s o f Fletcher ' s ass umpt ion in Epi scopate , 6 5 , that
Lugo had a mint by 1 1 0 0 . cf . Rei lly , Alfonso VI , 3 2 2 .
In terms o f surviving coin s , there i s an ano nymo us
type whic h hoard evidence indicate s was i s sued in the reign
of Alfonso VI I , which use s L as one of its marks ( See
catalogue 4 , no . 3 b . For the hoard evidence , see chapter 8
n . 3 9 be low. ) Hei s s also published a coin probably
belonging to Fernando I I which appeared to have the letter
F on the reverse field .
He conc luded that it was i ntended
as L for Leo n ( See c atalo gue 6 , no . 4 . ) Vaarnonde Lores in
"Monetar i a Gallega , " part 4 , 1 1 5- 1 8 , suggested that the L
mark o n this coin of Fernando was not for Le6n but in fact
stood for Lugo .
Vaarnonde ' s hypot he s i s was accepted by Orol Pernas . He
publ ished two hoards o f Alfonso IX whic h between t hem
contained only two type s . The f ir st type , o f whic h there
were 1 0 9 samp le s , contained no L mark . Of the second type ,
there were 8 72 samples in the two hoards . Only one of
these c arried t he L mark . Oro l conc luded that L was so
315
glaring reason to doubt the veracity o f Fernando I I ' s
charter . 6 7
In the secondary literature , it has generally
been taken as te stimony that a mint operated in Lugo since
the time of Alfonso VI .
B ut the text does not say thi s .
Read more c losely, it appear s Fernando was reinstating an
old privilege , after having considered a deed of his great ­
grandfather proving the bishop once held that claim .
This
interpretation f it s in wel l with what we already know about
deve lopments in Galici a under Fernando ' s f at her , Alfonso
VI I .
In order to rega1n half the mint revenue s of
Composte la , Alfo nso VI I had promised the c ha pter there that
no-one e lse in Galic ia would be al lowed to strike coin .
The fact that composte la would accept this a s compensation
for g1v1ng up a half t heir pro fit indicate s that
compet ition or the t hreat of competition from another local
mint was real .
The bargai n , the n , suggests that there was
indeed a mint at some point in near- by Lugo .
The mo st
logical interpretation of events is that Alfonso VII c lo sed
it at the time he struc k the accord with sant iago . 6 8
I
rare , that it could not conceivably be the mark of the Leon
mint and must represent the more provinc ial mint of L ugo .
While such results are s ugge stive , they are far from
conc l usive . Oro l Perna s , Alfonso IX , 5 2 - 5 3 , 9 5- 9 7 , 1 0 5 106 .
( For Oro l ' s propositio n concerning another type he
be lieved was the product of Lugo , see n 3 5 above . )
6 7 Fernando made a grant to the monastery of sobrado
four days earlier at F aro , attesting that he was in fact in
Galic ia at the time . Gonzale z , Fernando I I , 2 4 , 3 4 7 .
6 8 S ince t here i s so little evidence for a mint at
Lugo , it is conceivable that it had been c lo sed for year s
316
Why did Fernando break his f ather ' s promise and al low
a mint to reopen in Lugo within the first year o f hi s
reign?
Mo st likely hi s action was provoked by his
inability to get along with the c urrent archbi shop of
Composte la , Martin .
Formerly the bishop of oviedo , Mart in
was probably a native Galician and had been member of the
c hapter at Compo stela in the 1 1 3 0 s under Die go Ge lmirez .
He was elected to Compo stela in 1 1 5 6 . 6 9
By 1 1 58 , Fernando
had re stored minting at Lugo but continued to c l aim ha lf
the profit s of sant iago . 7 0
While thi s violation of his
father ' s agreement was probably not the so le source of
trouble , it almo st certainly contributed to the mo unting
tension between Fernando and Martin .
By the spring of 1 1 6 0 , relat io ns between the two had
deteriorated to the po int that the king expe lled the
archbishop from hi s see .
With the exception of a short
period in the winter of 1 1 6 4 - 6 5 , Martin remained exi led
from his see until j ust before his death in 1 1 6 7 . 7 1
I
His
and Alfonso VI I only t hreatened to reo pe n it in his
negotiations with Santiago . As long as the crown was
exc luded from Composte la , however , it makes litt le sense
that they would have c lo sed Lugo . Therefore , it seems
reasonable that there was a mint there under Urrac a , though
there is absolutely no other evidence to support thi s
conc lusion .
6 9 Ric hard A . Fletcher , " Regalian Right in TWe lfth­
cent ury Spai n : The c ase of Arc hbisho p Martin of Santiago de
Compo stela , " Journal of Ecc lesiastic al History 2 7 ( 1 9 7 7 ) :
3 3 9- 4 0 .
7 0 Fernando ' s continued c laim to half t he moneta of
santiago c an be seen i n hi s three grants discussed above ,
n. 63.
7 1 Fletc her , " Regalian Right , " 3 4 7 - 6 0
317
successor , Pedro Gudeste iz , was " def initely a king ' s man , "
having served as tutor to Fernando I I and later as royal
c hancellor in 1 1 5 9- 6 0 . 7 2
signif icant ly , it was under his
tenure t hat Fernando s aw f it to give up the c l aim to half
monet a of compostela and t hus make the restored mint at
Lugo legal .
Leon and S ahagun
concerning the administration of the mint in the town
of Leo n , probably the o lde st in the realm, we know very
litt le .
The only pertinent twe lfth-century charter is one
drawn up soon after Alfonso VI I ' s imperial coronat ion 1n
the late spring of 1 1 3 5 .
on June 2 , the king granted the
c hurc h of Leo n , " a tent h o f moneta whic h is made in the
c ity of Leo n , and ( a tenth ) of transit tol ls and market
to l l s and of all royal f ines which are given c ustomarily to
the crown ln Leon . 7 3
..
I
I t i s not c lear whet her the
7 2 Fletcher , Epi sc opate , 5 8 - 5 9 .
7 3 " decimam de moneta que fit in c ivitate Legionis , et
de portatico , et de zavacogato e t de omni regali c alumpnia
que regibus solet dari ex more in Legione . " ACL , 5 : 1 7 1 - 7 4
no . 1 4 1 2 .
The Fuero o f Leon c ontains two reference s to payment
in " mo neta urbis " ( laws 4 1 and 4 7 ) and one reference to
payment in "moneta regie " ( law 3 0 ) . These phrases are
c lear ly not part of the original law code , whic h date s to
the early eleventh century , but interpolations added to the
twelfth-cent ury manuscript .
I t has been sugge sted that
they may point to the existenc e o f two coinage s in the city
of Leon in the twe lfth century , a royal coin and a separate
" feudal " coin struck either by t he bis ho p or the munic ipal
counc il . The fuero , however , doe s not draw a distinc tion
between moneta of the king and moneta of the city in the
same law . The reference s appear in isolated context s .
since Le6n was one o f the mi nt s that frequently signed its
318
cathedral chapter had enj oyed the tent h of t he mint before
this time , but it is likely that t hey did .
In 1 1 3 7 ,
Alfonso reco nf irmed both the mint rights o f To ledo and
Salamanc a .
This grant to Leon two years ear lier may be a
similar reaf firmation of an older privilege .
Sahagun i s perhaps the least problematic of all the
twelfth-cent ury Leonese mint s .
Urraca ' s charter
establishing t he mint in 1 1 1 6 is one of the few minting
privileges t hat survive from t he crown of Leon-Castile .
When Alfonso , as lord in Sahagun , renewed the monastery ' s
minting rights three years later , he stipulated that the
privilege was to last only a year but co uld be renewed
again if " the abbot , lords and entire concejo " of the town
agreed .
At the same time Alfonso redi stributed the prof it .
Whereas Urraca had reserved only a third of the profit from
moneta for the crown , allowing a third to the community at
Sahagun and another third to nuns of san Pedro de las
Duenas , Alfonso divided it equally between the crown and
the monks of S ahagun . 74
I
coin s , often with LEO CIVITAS , it seems natural that a
copyist might refer to money " of t he c ity" but thi s does
not prec lude t hat it was also money " o f the king . " The
phrase moneta urbi s i s not found in other contemporary
sources . see Garcia de Valdeavel lano et al . , EL Fuero de
Leon, 1 6 , 9 7 , 1 1 6 , 1 2 7 ; sanc he z Alborno z , " Primitiva
organizac io n , " 3 1 1 - 2 2 ; Rueda, Primeras ac uiiac iones , 3 0 - 3 1 .
7 4 Sahagun , 4 : 4 7 - 4 9 no . 1 1 9 5 , 5 8 - 5 9 no . 1 2 0 1 . After
the foundation c harter of Sahagun , the next surviving royal
c harter establishing a mint doe s not c ome until the re ign
of Fernando IV ( 1 2 9 5 - 1 3 1 2 ) .
See Joaquin E spin Rae l ,
Traslado del privi legio para ac uiiar moneda , dado a Lorca en
1 2 9 7 ( Lorc a , 1 9 3 6 ) .
319
a
In 1 1 2 5 , the abbot of Sahagun together wit h Urraca
donated orchards ( h uertos ) to the burgher s of t he town with
the obligation to pay an annual rent per orc hard of " two
so lidi o f that mo ney whic h is c urrent i n the vi l lage . " 75
This might indic ate that the mint was sti l l operating .
After Urraca ' s death the fol lowing year , however , there is
no further hint that Sahagun continued to strike .
It seems
fair ly certain that Alfo nso at some po int revoked the
privi lege . 7 6
Palenc ia
If the history o f the Sahagun mint is the simple st to
decipher , the origin of minting at Palencia in the western
region of cast ile 1s t he most co nvol uted .
I t i s po s sible
that denarii were struck in Palenc ia under Alfonso VI .
The
first clear evidence for a mint in thi s town , however , i s
i n Paschal I I ' s bul l o f 1 1 1 6 which confirmed that Urraca
had given the bi shop o f Palenc ia the right to " half the
mint ( moneta ) located there .
'
.
77
Almo st fifty years later ,
7 5 Sahagun , 4 : 8 8 - 9 1 no . 1 2 1 9 .
7 6 Recuero Alfonso VI I , 1 0 0- 1 0 1 , c onc l uded t hat when
Alfonso conf irmed SahagUn ' s immunities and privi lege s at
the beginning of his reign , he also reconf irmed their right
to mint . But , the c harter of 1 1 2 6 ( whic h Rec uero date s to
see S ahagun , 4 : 1 0 3- 1 0 6
1 1 2 9 ) never addre sses the issue .
no . 1 2 2 6 .
7 7 For Pasc ha l ' s bu ll see Abaj o Martin , Palenc i a , 62 6 3 no . 2 5 . The po s s ibility of a mint in P alenci a under
Alfonso VI i s based on a confirmation of the bis ho p of
Palenc ia ' s right s granted by Alfonso V I I in 1 1 4 0 . See the
di sc us sion be low .
32 0
in 1 1 6 3 , Fernando I I , acting as regent in castile ,
recogni zed that the bisho p had c l aim to half the mone ta
"made in the c ity . n 7 8
I n the intervening years , hmvever , a
charter of Alfonso VII , dated 1 1 46 , a l lowed the see only a
tenth o f moneta .
Doe s this contradictory grant of a tenth
refer to a separate revenue , i . e . , to monetagi um?
The c a se becomes more complicated in that Alfonso
VI I ' s grant of a tenth is clearly re lated to three other
charters .
The f ir st pur port s to record the terms by which
Sanc ho the Great restored the see of P alencia in 1 0 3 7 .
Among the pr ivi leges conceded, it grants the c hurc h a tenth
of royal reve nues inc luding moneta .
The other two charters
claim to be conf irmations of sancho ' s act by his
successors , Fernando I and Alfonso VI . 79
A conce s s io n of monet a is unheard of in any other
document of Sanc ho the Great or Fernando I and makes t he se
three text s immedi ately suspec t .
In considering the l ast
of the set , the conf irmation attributed to Alfonso VI ,
Reilly conc l uded it was " a well exec uted contemporary
forgery .
" eo
Yet , besides moneta , al l three doc ument s also
7 8 Abaj o Martin , Palencia, 9 3 - 9 5 no . 42 ; 1 3 2 - 3 4 no .
63 .
(
7 9 I bid . , 5 - 9 no . 2 ; 2 3- 2 8 no . 9 ; 3 7 - 4 3 no . 1 5
8 0 The confirmation attributed to Alfonso VI i s dated
1 0 9 0 and s aid to be drawn up by Pelayo Eriguez , a we ll­
But with t he
attested scribe in Alfonso ' s c hanc ery .
exception of t h i s gr ant , Pelayo ' s ear l ie st appearance in
royal c harters is 1 0 9 6 . There are at least three original
charters known in hi s hand . Rei lly pointed out that t he
hand used in t he Palencia grant was very c lo se to Pelayo ' s .
In f ac t , e ar ly in his work o n Urraca he s uggests the grant
32 1
I
inc lude a tithe from pectum, a term that otherwise is not
known unti l the very end of Urraca ' s reign and becomes more
commonplace under the rule of her son . a 1
Taken as who le ,
the li st of revenues in these three charters i s much more
consistent wit h the royal grant s that begin c . l 1 2 3 with
Urraca and Alfo nso VI I ' s endowment of the see of Toledo . B 2
A closer examination reveals that the three doc ument s
were likely forged in the relgn of Alf onso VII .
In the
first , attributed to Sanc ho the Great , Palencia is given a
sweeping array o f lands as wel l as a tenth o f :
Bread and wine , tolls , fine s , taxes ( pec tae ) , monetae,
stores , mi lls , fishing and all c attle and other
live stock whic h are known to be a right of the crown in
whatever part of the same dioc ese , now or in the
fut ure . 83
The two subsequent confirmations attributed to Fernando I
and Alfonso VI follow the detai l s of this text c losely
I
�'las authent ic . ( See Rei lly, urraca , 1 8 n . 2 7 and 1 3 n . 1 4 . )
Later in the same work , however , he ho lds that it is a
contemporary forgery .
( Reilly , urrac a , 34 3 ; c f . Reilly,
" Chancery of Alfonso VI , " 16 n . 1 0 5 . )
8 1 Sanchez Alborno z , " Notas , " 4 9 6 - 9 9 , 5 1 6- 1 7 1 argued
that a specific tax c al led peti t um emerged as a revenue due
the crown ro ughly after 1 1 3 5 . Alfonso VII ' s grant to
Toledo in 1 1 2 3 , however , inc luded " omni peic ho . " I am not
convi nced that one can readily di stinguish petit um from
pecho and pect um in the so urce s as he contends .
8 2 The l anguage of the three P alencian c harter s ,
inc l uding expres sing the revenue s i n t he plural , i s c losely
parallel to Alfonso VI I ' s grant to Toledo in 1 1 2 3 .
See n .
1 0 above .
8 3 " Pani s et vini , portaticorum, calumpniarum,
pectar um , monetarum, tendarum, molinorum , pi sc ationum et
omni s ganadi et aliar um rerum que regi iuris in eadem
diocesi cognoscuntur e sse , quacumque et quoc umque loco sint
vel f uerint . " Abaj o Mart in , Palencia, 5- 9 no . 2 ; cf .
Bishko , " Fernando , " 1 3 n . 8 4 .
322
though neither i s a verbatim copy o f it .
Both inc lude the
same lands as we ll as the tithe on revenue s .
In the
charter attributed to Fernando , the passage concerni ng the
revenues reads :
I give and concede j us t as my father , King
and ( as ) it is contained i n his privilege ,
of all things , mobile as wel l as immobile ,
tol l s , fine s , taxes , or mone� ae , which are
a right of the crown i n the same diocese . B4
sancho , did
a tenth part
be it of
known to be
The charter attributed to Alfonso VI c ites both the
previo us grant s as precedent when list ing the revenue s .
In some ways it fo llows the Latin of the Sancho grant more
closely :
I give , moreover , and co ncede . . . and by the present
privilege conf irm, j ust as my grandfather , Kin g Sanc ho ,
and my father , King Fernando , did and ( as ) it is
cont ained in their privi lege s , a tenth part of bread
and wine , tolls , fine s , taxe s , monetae, stores , mi lls ,
f i s hing and the off spri ng ( fruct u um ) of all cattle and
other livestock whic h are or shall be in the f ut ure a
right of the crown in whatever part of the
episcopacy . a s
8 4 " Do no , etiam, et co ncedo , sic ut pater meus , rex
Sanc ius , fec it et in s uo contine nt ur privillegio , decimam
partem omnium rerum, tam mobilium quam inmobilium, s ue
usat icorum , calumpniar um , pectar um et monetarum que regii
iuri s in eadem dioce si cognosc untur e s se . " Abaj o Martin ,
Palencia , 2 3- 2 8 no . 9 .
See a lso Blanco , Fernando I , 1 4 8- 5 2
no . 5 4 and Reilly , Alfonso VI , 1 7 n . 8 and n . 9 .
8 5 " Dono , etiam, et conc edo . . . et presenti pr ivilegio
confirmo , suic ut avus meus , rex sanc i u s , et pater meus , rex
Fredinandus , fecerunt et i n suis continetur pr ivilegiis ,
decimam partem panis et vini , portat ic orum , calumpniarum ,
pectar um , monetarum, tendarum , mol ionorum, piscationum et
fruc tuum omnis ganadi et aliarum rerum que regaii iuriis in
eodem episcopatu in quoc umque loco s int ve l in posterum
fuerint . " Abaj o Martin , Palenc i a , 3 7 - 4 3 no . 1 5 .
(
32 3
I
Alfonso VI I ' s grant of 1 1 4 6 is markedly un like these
three charters in that it is not a general c onfirmation of
all the see ' s rights and holdi ngs .
It i s concerned only
with the tithe o n royal income in the diocese .
Also ,
unlike the c harter s attributed to Fernando I and Alfonso
VI , Alfonso VI I ' s grant make s no allus io n to this tenth
having been granted by his predece ssor s .
stil l , the
passage defining the tithe in hi s charter i s , for al l
purposes , identical to the pas sage in the three spurious
charters :
A tenth of bread and wine , tol l s , fine s , taxes ,
monetae , mi l l s , hor se s and al l c att le and other
live stock whic h is known to be a right o f the crown in
whatever part o f the same dioce se . B 6
Alfonso VI I was not oblivious to the act s of his
forerunner s in regards to Palenc ia .
on at least five
occasions , he ratified their beque st s to the see .
Most of
these co nf irmations were general act s suc h a s that done at
the time of the imperial coronation in 1 1 3 5 when he
conf irmed " all t he churc he s , monasterie s , vi llages , landed
wealth ( predi a ) , po sses sions and whatever e l s e " which were
I
8 6 " De c imam pani s et Vl.nl. , portaticorum, c al umpniarum,
pectar um , monetarum, tendarum, molinorum , equarum et omnis
ganadi et aliorum rerum, que regii i uris in eadem diocesi
cognoscunt ur e s s e , quacumque et quoc umque loco s int . "
Ibid . , 9 3 - 9 5 no . 4 2 .
This c harter , said to have been done at carrion on
January 2 9 , 1 1 4 6 exi st s only in a thirteenth-c entury copy .
Nonetheles s , its authentic ity is supported by a second
royal act done at carrion on the same day . This was a
donation to one Gutierre Fernandez , who al so confirmed the
grant to Palenc ia .
See Recuero , Alfonso VI I , 1 7 2 - 7 4 .
32 4
given to the c hurch of Palencia by " my predece s sors and
re lative s , the kings of Spai n , sancho , Fernando and Alfonso
and ( by ) my noble mother .
" 87
Other act s were more detailed
such as hi s charter of 1 1 4 0 whic h conf irmed " al l the
donat io ns and heredi tates " give n the see since the reign of
Sanc ho .
Whi le thi s charter li sted pro pertie s by name , it
make s no mention of the bi shop ' s right to a tent h of all
royal income in the diocese . a a
The logic al inference in
comparing the document s is that the grant of the tithe on
royal revenues originated with Alfonso VI I and that the
charters assigned to sancho , Fernando and Alfonso VI were
compiled sometime later .
once the se t hree c harter s are
recognized as later forgerie s , the history o f minting at
Palenc ia becomes somewhat simplified .
A mint may have existed in the town before urrac a,
perhaps fo unded in the reign o f her father .
Nevertheles s ,
there i s no bas i s to assume that he had given away a tenth
of its pro fits to the local bi shop .
Alfonso VI had al lowed
the exceptio na l grant of full mint right s to compostela
( after muc h pres sure from Diego Gelmirez ) and suppo sedly
gave a t hird of the Lugo mint to the bisho p there .
But , he
still must be j udged conservative with regards to hi s other
r
8 7 The king had granted a simi lar conf irmation in
1130.
See Abaj o Martin , Palencia , 7 5 - 7 8 nos . 3 2 - 3 3 ; cf .
Reilly , " Chancery Alfonso VI I , " 2 5 2 n . 5 7 , 2 5 8 n . 9 3 .
8 8 Abaj o Martin , Palencia , 8 0 - 8 2 no . 3 5 . Two other
general conf irmations were done in 1 1 5 5 , cf . 1 1 2 - 1 4 no . 5 2 ,
1 1 8- 2 0 no . 5 6 . The conf irmation o f 1 1 4 0 i s di sc us sed
further be low .
32 5
(
mint s .
The arc hbi shop of Toledo was not allowed a tenth of
monet a unt i l late in Urrac a ' s re ign and the earlie st
reference to the bisho p of Leo n ' s enjoying a tenth of that
mint i s not until 1 1 3 5 .
The f ir st sure conces sion o f moneta to the bi shop o f
Palenc ia , then , i s urrac a ' s grant o f half the mint awarded
Thi s
during her struggle with Arago n early in the rei gn .
conces sion was pro bably re spected for the rest o f her rule .
It i s repeated in a bull o f Ho norius I I in November 1 1 2 5 ,
shortly be fore her death . B 9
The next reference to the
see ' s right to monet a, however , i s Alfo nso VI I ' s charter of
1 1 4 6 in whic h the bi shop i s al lowed only a tenth .
There
are three po s s ible explanations for this apparent
contradiction .
Fir st , the tent h of moneta in Alfonso ' s
later grant refers to separate income from monet agi um .
Second , Alfonso awarded the see an additional tenth of t he
mint from the crown ' s remaining half .
Third , Alfonso
managed to c urtail the see ' s s hare of the mint from one
ha lf to one tent h .
This last i s the explanation mo st
cons istent wit h the other evidence .
Pedro of Agen had become bisho p of Palencia c . 1 1 0 8
shortly be fore Alfonso VI ' s deat h .
I t was to Pedro that
Urraca awarded half the proceeds o f the mint for his
loyalty to her during her weakes t ho ur .
Under his tenur e ,
the name of the patron sai nt o f Palenc ia appeared o n her
(
8 9 I bid . , 7 0 - 7 3 no . 3 0 .
326
I
co in .
Pedro ' s relation with Alfonso VII i s obsc ure .
Nhile
there is no hint in the s urviving doc ument s of tension
between king and bis ho p , there are no coins ln Alfonso ' s
name that carry the B . ANTONINI signature .
By 1 1 3 9 , Pedro
was succeeded by Pedro I I , a man we know even le s s about
other than that he a pparently died at the siege o f Almeria
ln 1 1 4 8 . 9 0
In 1 1 4 0 , soon after Pedro I I took of fice , Al fonso VI I
drew up a co nf irmation o f the property and right s that his
predece s sors had granted to the see of Palencia .
Nhile
this c harter is fair ly detai led in listing landed
properties it make s no mention of the bishop ' s right to
monet a .
The text does , however , addre ss another t he matter
regarding the mint :
Al so concerning those f urs and unbleached c loth whic h
my predece ssors had ordered given to the bis ho p of
Palencia when the money was c hanged ( quando m ut atio
monete fieri t ) , I , the emperor Alfonso , concede and
order that the pre sent bisho p of Palencia, lord Pedro ,
and hi s successors are to be given fifty morabetinos
when there is a c hange to new money in Palenc ia ( quando
in Palencia monete no ve fiet muta tio ) , so by t hi s he
shall have the money [ the fifty morabetinos ] by
hereditary right forever . 9 1
I
9 0 For Pedro of Agen ' s ear liest appearance a s bi shop
o f Pa lencia , see Rei l ly , Alfonso VI , 3 4 7 . Pedro I I appears
as bisho p as early as Febr uary , 1 1 3 9 . See Aba j o Martin,
P alencia, 7 8 - 8 0 , no 3 4 .
see f urther , Emiliano Gonzale z
Die z , " Formaci6n y des arro llo de l dominio seiiorial d e la
i glesia palentina ( 1 0 3 5 - 1 3 5 1 ) " in Aetas de l I congreso de
historia de Palenc i a , vol . 2 , Fuente s Document ales y Edad
Media ( Valladolid , 1 9 8 7 ) , 2 8 5 , 2 8 8 .
9 1 " Pro quadarn, quoque , pellic ia et quodarn pal lio
gri s i s , que mei antece s s sore s palent inis epi scopi s , quando
mutatio monete f ierit , stabi lierunt donari , ego , imperator
32 7
I
Alfonso appear s to be referring to an in-kind payment
trad it io na lly given to t he bisho p on tho se occasions when
the mint of Palenc ia changed to a new coin .
( If his
reco l lection is accurate , this pas sa ge attests that mint ing
at P alenc ia dated back at le ast to the time of Alfonso VI . )
This seems to have been no more than a token gesture , whic h
Alfonso now transformed into a fixed s um in cash .
Thi s new
cash stipend was deemed signif ic ant enough to be inc l uded
in I nnocent I I ' s confirmat io n of Palencia ' s po s ses sions
three year s later ; " fifty morabetino s at eac h change of the
money , which King Alfonso established as payme nt to yo u and
your c hurc h . n 9 2
At the same time , Innocent ' s bull makes no
mention o f Pa lencia ' s right to ha lf monet a , whic h both
Pasc hal and Honorius I I had inc luded in previo us bulls .
Subsequent bul ls by Innocent ' s s uc ce ssors also inc luded the
S O morabetino stipend whi le omitting t he right to half
moneta . 93
While it cannot be directly doc umented , the stipend of
SO morabetinos may have been intended to partially
I
Adefonsu s , pre senti palentino episcopi , domno Petro ,
suis que succes soribus quinquaginta morabitinos , quando in
Palenc ia monete nove f iet mut atio , ab illo qui monetam
tenuerit i ure hereditario semper donari concedo et iubeo . "
Aba j o Marti n , Palencia, 8 0 - 8 2 no . 3 S . The phrase " ab i l lo
qui monetam tenuerit " is somewhat puzz ling . Alfonso could
not have meant that the bishop was now entitled to the
whole mint .
" Moneta " in t hi s c a se , then , appe ar s to refer
to t he stipend of SO morabetino s .
9 2 " In singuli s monete mutac ionibus quinquaginta
morabetionos , quos rex Aldefonsus tibi et ecc le sie tue
reddi const iuit . " Aba jo Marti n , P alenc i a , 9 0 - 9 3 no . 4 1 .
9 3 I bid . , 1 2 9- 32 no . 6 2 , 1 9 1 - 9 4 no . 9 3 .
32 8
compensate Pedro I I for accepting a reduced share in
regular moneta .
The bisho p of Segovia appears to have been
given a similar compensat ion when his share of monet a was
c utback and Compostela received assurance of a monopo ly in
Galic ia whe n Alfonso rec laimed half the monet a there .
If
Palenc ia ' s share was reduced c . 1 1 4 0 , then the roya l c harter
o f 1 1 4 6 which refers to the bisho p ' s tenth of moneta must
be an acknowledgment of an ear lier agreement . 94
At some point after 1 1 4 6 , the crown may have c lo sed
the Palenc ia mint altogether .
The next reference to it is
in the c harter issued by Fer nando I I o f Leon in 1 1 6 3 in
conj unct ion with the young Alfonso VI I I of Casti le .
Palenc ia lay j ust within the boundarie s of the now
inde pendent cast ile .
B ut , as the charter it se lf makes
c lear , until Alfonso attained fourteen years of age he was
suppo sed to be under the t utelage of Fernando .
Addres sing
the charter to his " be loved unc le , " Bi shop Ramon o f
Palenc ia , Fernando I I decreed :
He nceforth , mo ney shal l be made in the c ity of P alencia
and it shall be made t here j us t as it once was made
( and ) from its pro fits , the bi shop shall ho ld ha lf of
everything and the king the other half . 9 S
I
9 4 Thi s was not unusual .
see the case s of Toledo ,
Salamanc a and segovia above .
9 5 " Vo lo , igit ur , et precipio quod deinceps fiat
moneta in palentina c ivitate et ibidem f abricetur , sicut i
quondam fieri so lebat , d e lucro c uius palentinus epi sc opus
habe at mediatatem in omnibus et per omnia et rex alteram
rnedietatern . " Aba j o Martin , Palenci a , 1 3 2 - 3 4 no . 6 3 ;
Gonzale z , Fernando I I , 3 7 3 .
32 9
I
It i s difficult to discern the motivat io n behi nd reo pening
the mint and restoring the bis ho p ' s right to a half the
profit s after Alfonso VI I seems to have reduced it to a
mere tenth . 9 6
Fernando may have hoped to win the support
of his unc le in an eff ort to deprive Alfonso VI I I of the
kingdom . 9 7
In the end , however , Ramon proved a staunc h
supporter of the young Casti lian king .
Fernando , if he
ever had intended to seize casti le , wo uld never accomplish
it . 9 8
siglienza and Soria
There are two final mint s in casti le that may have
been e stablished before the division o f the realm in 1 1 5 7 .
A charter in the name of Alfonso VII dated 1 1 3 9 grants the
bishop of siglienza a tenth of royal income l n hi s see .
Moneta i s inc luded amo ng the revenue s li sted .
Another
charter dated 1 1 5 4 and attributed to the infan te sancho
I
9 6 The year before Fernando ' s charter , Alexander I I I
had conf irmed Palenc ia ' s privi lege s , noting that he did so
at t he reque st o f B i shop Ramon . The bul l inc l uded t he
see ' s right to 5 0 morabetino s when the c oinage was c hanged .
Perhaps Ramon had anticipated the mint would soon be re­
opened . or , perhaps the crown had continued to pay the 5 0
morabetino s even when Palenc ia ' s mint was no longer active .
More likely, the stipulation was inadvertent ly incor porated
from Innocent I I ' s bul l of 1 1 4 3 . Aba j o Marti n , Palencia ,
1 2 9- 3 2 no . 6 2 .
9 7 The s ame day , Fernando endowed Palenc ia wit h
monastery of S an Pedro de Covelais .
I bid . , 1 3 4- 1 3 7 , nos .
64- 6 5 .
9 8 See Gautier Dalche , Historia urbana , 2 5 9- 6 1 ; cf .
D . W . Lomax , " Don R amon , Bishop o f Palenc ia ( 1 1 4 8 - 8 4 ) , " in
Homenaj e a Jaime Vicens Vives , 2 7 9- 9 1 , who maintains that
Fernando and Ram6n were also on good terms .
330
'
( the f ut ure Sanc ho I I I ) grants the bisho p of osma a te nth
of moneta in Sori a .
Gras sotti stre ssed that there 1s no
evidence that a mint existed in either s iglienza or Soria
and implied that t he se grant s stand as testimony for an
early monetagi um tax . 99
Despite Gras sott i ' s as surance to t he contrary, t here
is numismatic evidence indic ating that Alfonso VII I , as
king of an independent casti le , struck c oins in siglienza
and Soria .
Therefore , if the two charters dating to the
epoc h of Alfonso VII are genuine , they e stablish only that
the mint s of s iglienz a and Soria were opened before the
divi sion of the realm .
They in no way point to the
existence of an ear ly monetagi um .
Both these doc ume nt s ,
however , show sign s that they may be who lly or partly ba sed
on later c harter s of Alfonso V I I I .
It seems more like ly
that s iglienza and Soria first struck coins during hi s
reign , as part o f an e ffort to e stabli sh a new network o f
mints t o serve the i ndependent kingdom .
( Soria even today
is sti ll strongly associated with Alfonso VI I I .
The town
is said to have sheltered the young king from hi s unc le ,
Fernando I I . ) 1 oo
r
9 9 For the grant to siglienz a , see Mingliella , siglie n z a ,
1 : 3 67 - 6 8 no . 2 7 . For Soria , see Alfonso VII I , 2 : 2 5 -2 8 no
1 2 . Cf . Grassotti , " P ueblo , " 1 7 0 .
1 0 0 After the divisio n of Le6n and castile in 1 1 5 7 ,
the independent crowns o f each would open additional mint s .
For the evidence pertaining to t he se lat er mint s , inc l uding
Soria and Siglienza , see chapter 9 .
33 1
I
overal l , thi s survey of mint s and mint right s
demonstrates that there is no basi s to conc l ude that the
crown was levying a monet agi um tax in the time o f Alfonso
VI I or before .
In every instance where Urraca or her son
conceded revenue from monet a to one of their bishops ,
evidence demonstrate s that a mint existed in that same
bisho pric .
Monet a in these cases cannot be mi staken for a
monetagi um tax .
At the same time , thi s review o f the
evidence reveals one rec urring theme : Alfonso VI I ' s po licy
toward mint admi ni stration was dec idedly conservative .
If we place the mint s of siglienza and Soria after hi s
deat h, he may have allowed only one new mint , that of
zamora , to be e stabli s hed during the reign . 1 o 1
More
important are the steps he took to rec laim profits from
moneta that hi s mother and grandfather had given away .
While content to a llow the bis hop in eac h mint town to hold
a tenth of the profit , he seems to have worked
de liberate ly , and successful ly , to take back lar ger
portions of monet a that had been alienated from the crown .
Obliged to s plit the profits o f Sahagun with the monastery ,
he event ually c losed the mint .
He successfu lly bargai ned
to regain half the profits of the mint at sant iago and
probably at the same t ime closed the mint at L ugo , who se
I
1 0 1 The mint at B ur go s was possibly e st abli shed by
Alfonso VI I when he retook t he c ity in 1 1 2 7 .
There are
some grounds for believing , however , that urraca struck
money there in 1 1 1 1 , at the very beginning of her conf lict
See her grant to the monastery o f Ofia in
with Arago n .
exchange f or bul lion discussed in chapter 5 , n . 8 above .
332
bi shop held c laim to a third o f the profit s .
He appears to
have reduced the c laim of the see of Palencia from o ne half
to one tenth and eventua lly c losed that mint as we ll .
Likewi se , he c ut back slight ly o n the profit s owed the
bi shop of Segovia.
Of bis ho ps holding more than a tenth ,
only the bis ho p of salamanc a seems to have kept hi s
original c laim to a third intact .
Even Al fonso ' s j uggling
of mint rights at Zarago za i n Aragon , only increased that
bi shop ' s profit slight ly .
In terms of a po licy towards the coinage itself ,
however , the charters regardi ng right s to moneta reveal
very little .
We have sugges ted that after abandoning the
denarius de medietate ear ly i n his reign , Alfonso managed
to maintain a stable c oin of 4 d . fine for the rest of his
year s .
Cardinal Hyacinth ' s legislat ion at Val lado lid in
1 1 5 5 , however , admoni s hed the king that this quaternal
coinage should be maintained without exacting any pr ic e .
What was Hyac inth referring to if not a monetagi um tax ?
It 1 s po s s ible that the c ardinal was condemning the
conce pt of monetagi um in genera l , but thi s seems unlike ly .
Rome had f ormulated no s uc h doctrine .
There was , however ,
another means to exact a price for a stable coinage periodic renewal or commutation of the coinage .
I f the
various conce ssions of monet a granted by Alfonso VI I reveal
nothing spec if ic about the strength of his coinage , these
same doc uments do make several allusions to such a
I
practice .
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I
E I GHT
THE PROSPECT OF COINAGE RE NEWAL
In confirming the privileges o f Palenc ia for Bisho p
Pedro I I i n 1 1 4 0 , Alfonso VI I referred to a gift of fur s
and c lot h that h i s predecessor s c ustomarily gave t o the see
" when t he money was c hanged ( quando mut atio monete
fieri t ) . "
Alfonso now transformed thi s into a cash stipend
of 5 0 morabetino s to be paid o n such occasions .
His
charter impl ie s that the coinage was c hanged with some
regularity .
Thi s is reinforced by I nnocent I I ' s bul l of
1 1 4 3 which confirmed Palencia ' s right to " 5 0 morabetinos at
eac h change of the mo ney ( in singulis monete
m utacionibus ) . "
over fifty years later , in March o f 1 2 02 , Alfonso IX
of Leon pres ided over an assembly in Benavente attended not
only by hi s bi shops and lay vas s a l s but al so by "many men
from eac h town . "
The acts o f this assembly are preserved
today in a single charter whic h in part reads :
Also , in thi s curia it was j udged , j ust as it always
was , that if the king should again wis h to c hange hi s
coinage ( m ut are ) for another , everyone from hi s ki ngdom
must accept it equally . l
I
1 " In ipsa curia etiam iudic atum fuit s ic ut etiam
semper f uerat quod si rex de novo vo luerit s uam monetam
mutare in aliam, universi de s uo regno equaliter rec ibere
debent . " Alfonso IX , 2 : 2 3 6- 3 7 no . 1 6 7 .
334
335
Like Alfonso VII ' s c harter , this decree indicate s that a
m ut a tio of the coinage was not a rare occurrence .
Here ,
the text even seems to convey a hint t hat the as sembly was
growing weary of the crown impos ing mutations too
frequent ly .
The as sembly of Benavente represents only the second
documented instance in Leon where townsmen were
unquestionably pre sent at a royal c uria or cort es . 2
It is
perhaps not co incidental that with the ir attendance coinage
was one of the main is sues under consideration .
While the
as sembly recogni zed that it was the king ' s prerogative to
do with the mo ney what he may , the charter goe s on to
explain that there was an alternative to accepting another
m ut atio .
I f king and people agreed , the king could " sell "
hi s co inage , meaning eac h of his sub j ec t s wo uld pay him a
tax to forgo mutatio n .
The text i s unc lear whether this
sale of the co inage had ever been re sorted to in previous
year s .
But , it conc lude s by revealing t hat such a sale was
agreed to at thi s as sembly and apparently in another
meeting in Extremadura :
These things were done and firmly established at
Benavente in a f ul l curia of the lord king , the fifth
Ides of Marc h , era M cc XL , when t he lord king sold hi s
money to the people in the land between the Duero and
the sea for seven year s , receiving f rom each for thi s
sale a single morabetino . Likewise , i n the same year
I
2 The fir st instance where the attendance o f town
representative s at a royal c uria i s c learly documented i s
in 1 1 8 8 , at the beginning of Alfonso I X ' s rule . see
O ' C al laghan , Corte s , 1 6 .
336
around the s ame time the money was purchased in al l of
Extremadur a 3
.
This is the first indi sput ab le example of the
imposition of a mo netary-conservatio n tax in Leo n .
In
exchange for the tax , the king agreed not to resort to a
mutatio for seven year s . �
The Be navente c harter , however ,
give s no detai ls as to what the king agreed to refrain from
doing .
What did a mutatio of the coinage involve and what
was so detrimental about the pro spec t of enduring another
one that the assembly agreed to the impo sition of a tax of
one morabetino per head in order to avoid it ?
Defining mutatio
A coin can be physic ally altered in three ways , by
changing either it s weight , it s prescribed finene s s or its
de sign .
A change in any o f these three components might ,
from a moder n perspective , be labe led a mutation o f the
coin . s
I
An examination o f mutare and muta tio in twelfth-
3 " Hec acta s unt et f irmiter stat uta apud Benaventum
in plena c uria domini regi s V idus marti i , era M cc XL , cum
dominus rex vendidit monetam s uam ge ntibus terre a Dorio
usque ad mare VI I anni s , de singulis pro emptione ipsius
similiter eodem anno , et
singulos recipiens morabetinos .
tempore simi li eorum empta f ui t mo neta in tota
Extremadura . " Alfonso I X , 2 : 2 3 6- 3 7 no . 1 67 .
4 Grassotti i n " Empre stito , " 2 0 0- 2 0 1 , interpreted t he
passage in the previous note to read that the king received
payment each year for seven year s . The subsequent
c o l lection of moneda i n the thirteenth century shows thi s
not to be true .
5 Thi s was , i n genera l , the definition used by Bisson .
For example , he c a l l s the reductio n in weight of the go ld
manc us in the eleventh century o ne of the " best documented
337
I
cent ury text s , however , shows that it frequent ly c arried a
narrower meani ng .
A good i l l us tr atio n of the term is found in an act of
Alfonso VI I ' s co ntemporary , Lo ui s VI I of France .
Shortly
after ascending the thro ne in 1 1 3 7 , Loui s promised the men
of Etampes that :
The current money of E tampes , whic h was held by our
deceased father , we s hall neither c hange ( m utabim us )
nor allow to be diminished ( al leviabimus ) in f inene s s
o r weight for a l l the days o f our life nor shall we
suffer it to be dimini shed by anyone else as long as
the knight s and burghers of Etampes give us one hundred
pounds of the same money every t hird year on All
Saints ' Day for the redemption of that same money . 6
The agreement is s imilar to that reached at Benavente ; the
men of Etampes were buying or redeeming the co inage from
their king .
Unlike at Benavente , however, the restraint s
Lo ui s agreed to are here c lear ly def ined .
He must not
lighten the finene s s or weight o f the coin nor must he
c hange ( m ut are ) its de sign from the way it was in hi s
f ather ' s day .
In thi s context , m ut are i ndic ated o nly an
alteration of the coin ' s type .
I
inst ance s " of an abrupt mutation .
( See Bisson
conservatio n , 7 . )
6 " Quod praesentem Stamparum monetam, quae ibi a
Patris nostri dece s s u habebatur , nos omnibus diebus vitae
nostrae neque mutabimus , neque lege , neque pondere
al leviabimus , neque alleviari ab a liquo patiemur , quamdiu
mi lite s , & Burgenses Stampense s , unoquoque tertio anno , a
festivitate omnium samnctorum, pro e uisdem monetae
redemptione , l ibras cent um , de eadem moneta nobi s dabunt . "
In the same year , Lo ui s promised the town of orleans ;
"Monetam Aurelianensem que in morte patris nostr i currebat
in tota vita nostra non mutandun eis conces s imus et earn
neque mutari neque a lleviari pac iemur . " Ibid . , 2 9 - 3 0 .
338
Text s from Aragon-Catalo nia make a similar distinction
be tween change s of type and intr insic change s in weight or
f i nene s s .
I n 1 1 1 8 , Ramon Berenguer I I I , in exchange for a
o ne- time payment , conf irmed hi s coinage in the county of
Cerdanya dec l aring that it should not be " c hanged ( m utet )
nor dimini shed in fineness or weight " 7
Simi lar ly I Bishop
Pedro of Vic h promised in 1 1 7 4 that the coinage of Vic h
" shal l not be c hanged ( m utet ur )
.
..
nor sha l l it be
dimini shed in fineness or in weight . " a
At the beginning of
the thirteenth century , Pedro I I o f Ar agon-Cat alonia
promised with regards to the coinage o f Barcelona that for
the remainder of his life he 'i.·lOuld neither " change it
( m utem ) or permit it to be wor sened " or levy a redemptive
tax for it . 9
Finally , Pedro ' s son Jaime I confirmed the
j accensis at the cortes of Huesca in 1 2 2 1 , swearing he
would not " c hange ( m ut abimus ) that money nor increase it s
number or diminish it s weight or f ineness .
n lO
In all these
c ases , m ut are applies specific ally to t he design of the
7 " ( M ) o netam non mutet ve l minuet lege ve l penso , "
I bid . , 1 9 9 - 2 0 0 , no . 1 .
8 " ( M ) o neta non mutetur in omni vita mea , nee in lege
nee in pondere minuat ur . " Bote t , Les monedes , 2 1 1 - 1 2 ; cf .
Bisson, Conservatio n , 7 8 - 7 9 , 8 1 n . 2 .
9 ( M ) onetam barchinonensium in tota vita me non rnutem ,
nee deteriorari permittam, nee f ac iam ipsum ve l bovaticum
dei nde redimi . " Bisson , conservatio n , 8 8 n . 2 .
1 0 " ( N ) ec istam ( monetam ) mutabimus ve l augebimus
numero aut diminuemus penso ve l lege . " Ange l canalles
L6pe z , ed . co lecci6n diplomatic a de l concejo de Z arago z a
( Zarago z a , 1 9 72 ) , no . 4 9 ; Bisson, conservatio n , 1 1 9 .
(
339
I
coin .
A promise of non mutare was a promi se that the
coin ' s t ype wo uld not be c hanged .
At the very least , then, a m ut atio o f the coinage in
Leon must have invo lved a vi sible alteration of the coin .
Alfonso VI I in the c harter to Palenc ia s poke of the change
to " a ne\v money . "
Likewise , the c harter from Benavente
referred to the king changing one co in for another .
If one
looks at the numismatic record it plainly af firms what the
these doc ument s imply .
As the twe lfth century wore on , the
crown of Leo n appear s to have impo sed change s of type with
increas i ng frequency .
Alfonso VI probably only struck 2
type s from 1 0 8 5 unt i l his death in 1 1 0 9 .
Hi s daughter
Urraca , however , used at least 5 types in a reign that did
not last two dec ades .
As for the thirty-one year reign of
Alfonso VI I , we are faced with a plethora of coin types .
Even if we exc lude some anonymou s coins on the grounds that
they may be eleventh or tenth cent ury issues , one is still
left wit h a wide array of po s s ible types for his reign .
Under hi s successors , the variety tapers off .
For Alfonso
VI I I , whose coins are generally unmi stakable s ince he was
the only Alfonso to rule in Castile with no claim to Leo n ,
there are perhaps 7 or 8 distinct type s for a reign lasting
fifty- six year s .
I
Hi s contemporary Alfonso IX of Leon
340
struck approximate ly 6 distinct type s in his forty-two
year s o n the throne .
u
I n this light , the decree Monetam qui dquam promulgated
by cardinal Hyac inth and the counc il of Val l ado lid in 1 1 5 5
begins to make more sense .
Having been subj ected to a
parade of coin types in the almo st three dec ades of Alfonso
VI I ' s rule , the co unc i l , using legatine authority to lend
it weight , exhorted the emperor to settle on one coin
( monetam qui dquam . . . mi ttet ) , as long as it was of a good
weight and 4 d . f i ne , and to not c hange it for the rest of
his life ( n unquam in diebus s ui s mutandum ) .
Why wo uld the king have resorted to c h an ging types
frequently?
The mo st logic al explanation i s that a mutatio
engendered a pro fit for the crown .
Why e l se would Alfonso
VI I choo se to give the bisho p of Palencia 5 0 morabet inos at
eac h mut atio?
I n an analogous , though more ambiguous
grant , he also awarded the bishop of Segovia a fourth part
of overal l mint profit s , i . e . , monet a , and a fourth part of
" all changes . " 1 2
The crown co uld , o f course , prof it from a change in
type by combining it with a surreptitious debasement .
could be exec uted in two ways .
I
Thi s
The least e f f ic ient method
1 1 For an overview of the po ss ible types o f these
three reigns , see Hei s s , Las monedas , plates 1 - 4 ; cf . the
se lected types in the catalogue below . For Alfonso IX ' s
type s , see Todesca , "Rebellion , " 3 5 n . 2 0 .
1 2 " Quartem partem monete que in seco bie f acta f uerit
et tot ius cambiacionis a quecumque parte venerit . " Vi llar
Garcia, Segovia , 6 2 - 6 3 no . 1 9 .
341
a
wo uld be to simply i s s ue a new coin that had been
dimini shed in either f inene s s or weight without attempting
to demonetize the o lder is sues in c irc ulat io n .
This kind
of debasement was more s uitable as an emerge nc y measure and
was probably what urraca resorted to in the middle of the
anarchy .
Faced with a limited supply of bul lion and troops
that wanted pay , putting les s si lver in the coin was a
natural temptation .
While it he lped stretc h resources , the
maneuver generated no tangible profit .
A more
sophisticated debasement would invo lve demo netizing the old
coinage and calling it back to the mint .
By receiving the
old money and paying o ut the new , the mint would make a
profit o n each exc hange .
It i s highly unlikely that the crown o f Leon was
resorting to either of the se methods e ac h time it impo sed a
mutatio .
None of t he evidence supports that the coinage
was systemat ic ally debased in this way over the co ur se of
the twelfth centur y .
Nor are there any evident sign s of
inf lation or any o f the " c onsiderable di st ur bances " that
Sanchez Alborno z imagined resulted from s uc h a polic y . 13
In relat ion to the gold morabetino , the denari us of Leon
maintained the same purchasing power as the jaccensis o f
Aragon which was indisputably stable throughout the bulk o f
twelfth centur y , except for a brief period o f debasement
under Alfonso I I .
r
1 3 Sanchez Alborno z , " Primitiva organi zacion , " 3 3 8 - 3 9 .
342
I
The Concept of Reno vatio Monetae
A stable currency that is subj ected to frequent
change s in type points to a po licy of co inage re newal
( renova tio monetae ) , a measure designed to maintain the
strength o f the co in over time .
Faced with a supply o f o ld
and worn coins in circ ulat io n , the government ln a
renovatio i s s ued a new type o f the same weight and
finene s s , invalidating or demoneti zing the previous is sue .
sinc e the new coin had the s ame si lver as the old , to cover
the expense of the new i s s ue , and to allow a pro fit , the
old coin was not exc hanged evenly for the new .
be discounted , or dimini shed in value .
It had to
The mint would pay
out , let us say, only 3 new coins for every 4 of the o ld
taken in .
The Caro lingians attempted recoinage s of this sort
intermitte nt ly .
The best evidence for the policy is
provided by Char le s the Bald ' s Edict of Pitres of 8 6 4 .
His
act c learly ordered that the c urrent coln in c irculation
was to be invalidated and replaced with a new coin , though
it did not s pecify at what rate of exc hange the older mo ney
was to be ca lled i n .
Ear l ier legis l ation of Charlemagne
and Loui s the Pious , tho ugh le ss preci se , suggest a simi l ar
practice . 1 4
Clearer evidence of regular coinage renewa l
can be f ound in eleventh-century E ngland .
14
The Edict of Pitres reads , " ( S ) ed omnes ab ipsi s
Kalend i s r ulii argentum suum in constituti s mo neti s
conc ambiari faciant sc ientes , quia po st mi s s am sanct i
343
Dome sday contains a number o f refere nces to payments
required from individual minters for receipt of new dies o n
those occasion whe n the type was c hanged .
For example , the
inquest noted that " in the town o f Lewes when the money was
renewed ( renovat ur ) each minter gave 2 0 so lidi . "
Likewise
it state s that in Worcester, " when the money was changed
( vertebat ur ) each minter paid 2 0 so lidi .
"1s
The se
citations by themselve s fall short of demo nstrat ing that
when a net,v type was introduced the o ld coinage was in fact
invalidated .
The numi smatic evidenc e , however , po ints
strongly to that conc lusio n .
The mo st c ompe lling part of
the evidence pre se nted by Dolley and Metcalf 1n their
seminal article on the s ubject was that many of the English
hoards interred between roughly 9 7 5 and 1 0 7 5 were compri sed
I
Martini nulli alii denari i in regno no stro , nisi i st iu s
novae no strae monetae recipientur e t ab i p s i s Kalendis
Iulii ipsi novi denarii ab omnbi bus acc ipiantur . " I n 8 7 4 ,
Char lemagne ordered , " ( Q ) uod i n omni loc o , i n omni c iviatae
et in omni empturio simi liter vadant i st i novi denarii et
accipi antur ab omnibus . " This text , however , does not
spec if ic ally refer to the invalidation o f the old currency .
Boretivs and Krause , Capitularia, 1 : 7 4 , 2 : 3 1 6 , see also
3 1 4- 1 7 . For Louis the P ious , see Wi lhe lm Je sse,
Que llenbuch zur Mlinz- und Geldgeschic hte de s Mittelalters ,
( 1 9 2 4 ; reprint , LUbeck , 1 9 83 ) , 1 2 no . 4 1 . Cf . Stani s l aw
Suc hodo lski , "Reno vatio Monetae in Po land in the 1 2 th
Century , " Polish Numismatic News , spec ial is sue of
Wiadomo s ci Numi zmatycz ne 5 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 5 8 n . 7 ; c f . Bisson,
Conservat io n , 5 n . 2 .
1 5 " In burgo de Lewe s cum moneta renovat ur dat xx
so lido s unusquique monetarius . " " In c ivitate Wirecest re
. . . quando moneta vertebatur qui sque monet arius dabat xx
so lido s . " The references are co llected in George c . Brooke
" Quando Moneta verteba t ur : The Change o f coin-Types in the
E leventh century ; Its Bearing on Mules and overstrikes , "
British Numismatic Jo urna l 2 0 ( 1 92 9- 3 0 ) : 1 0 5 - 1 0 6 .
344
I
o f only one or two coin type s , indic at ing that a s new type s
were introduced into c irc ulation the o lder one s were
removed . l 6
Peters son pro po sed that under thi s system the
mint may have paid 3 new coins f or every 4 old o ne s taken
in .
As spuf ford pointed out , this would have amounted to a
2 5 percent tax o n " c apital held in the form of coin . "
As
with most taxe s , the crown was inevitably tempted to impose
it more ofte n .
B y the time o f the conquest , the lifetime
of one coin type may have been as short as two or three
years . l i
The ability of the E ngli sh kings to implement a
regular system of renewal is o ften considered an anomaly in
comparison to the re st of we stern Euro pe and accredited to
exceptionally " strong governmental organizatio n " and a
" s uf ficiently developed money- using economy . " 1 8
Renewal o f
co inage , however , was not unheard o f on the continent in
the twelfth century .
Around the year 1 1 0 0 , rabbi Rashi of
Troyes in a letter to So lomo n of Tours , di sc us sed how debt s
were to be rendered in the event that a coin was
1 6 R . H . M Dol ley and D . M . Metcalf , " The Reform of the
E ngli sh Coinage Under E adgar , " in Anglo- saxon Coins
( St udie s Presented to F . M . Stento n ) , ed . R . H . M . Dol ley
( Londo n , 1 9 6 1 ) , 1 5 6- 5 8 , passim .
See also the comments by
Philip Grierson in " Numismatic s and the Historian , " ix-xiv .
1 7 H . Bertil A . Peter sson , Anglo- saxon currency : King
Edgar ' s Reform to t he Norman Conque st ( Lund , 1 9 6 9 ) ;
S pufford , Money , 92 - 9 4 .
1 8 spufford , Money, 9 4 .
I
345
a
invalidated and replaced wit h another o f equal val ue but
altered in des i gn . l9
The chro nic le of Cosmas of Prague , also of the e ar ly
twelfth cent ur y , alludes vague ly to greedy rulers who
impo se frequent change s and fraudulent debasements of the
coinage ( frequens mutatio et fra udulenta peiora ti nummi ) .
He conc ludes t hat such a practice is more harmful than if
" an enemy ravaged the whole land with fire and pil lage . "
Co smas might be de scribing a s ituation where a ruler simply
is sued a s ucce s s ion of progres sively debased types without
recal l ing old i s sues .
Whi le t hi s would be disruptive to
the economy , i t does not seem to warrant suc h condemnation .
More l ikely, Cosmas is referring to fraudulent recoinage ,
where the people were expected to exchange the o ld money
for one more debased .
For thi s , he calls the se unnamed
rulers " not leader s but thieve s , not c aretakers of God ' s
people but tax c o l lector s , the most avaric ious men without
mercy . . . who c hange the money three or four times a year
( qui ter vel qa uter in anno monetam m utando er un t ) .
I
" 2o
1 9 A new t rans lation of the passage is provided in
Bisso n , Conservation, 1 7 5- 7 6 : "As to your question
concerning ( A ) who lent ( B ) money and the coins were
invalidated , what should ( B ) pay ( A ) . You should know that
we rule . . . ( t hat B ) give ( A ) the coin then c urrent un le s s
( value ) has been added to it . our coin was invalidated , no
( value ) has been added to it except in respect to the
alteration o f t he de sign . Therefore , ( B ) must pay ( A ) what
he borrowed from ( A ) before the coin was invalidated . " Cf .
Irving A . Agu s , Urban Civilizat ion in Pre-Crusade E urope ,
vo l . 1 ( New York , 1 9 6 5 ) , 3 7 8 - 7 9 .
2 0 The pas sage in Co smas • s chronic le i s presented as a
speech of Char lemagne to his son Pippin .
It reads , " Certe
346
a
The chro nic le o f Cosmas was composed dur ing the reign
of Vladi slav I ( 1 1 0 9 -2 5 ) of Bohemia .
It i s dif f ic ult to
escape t he conc l usio n that the pas sage on mutation was
aimed at this prince and perhaps at other co ntemporary
rulers in central Euro pe .
Whi le Co smas ' s reference to coin
change s impo sed three to four time s a year may be
exaggerated , Vladi slav I appears to have i ss ued 2 9 distinct
type s during his relat ively short reign .
There is also
evidence that ru lers in Po land and a number of other German
princ ipalitie s attempted renovationes in the e leventh and
twelfth centur ies . 2 1
These exc hanges may at t ime s have
carried hidden debasement .
At the very leas t , the pas sage
from Cosmas , like the letter o f the rabbi So lomo n ,
indicate s that the practice o f calling in o ld i s sues �n
exchange for new o ne s was not re stricted to England in the
po st-caro lingian era . 2 2
I
nulla caldes , nulla pe stilentia nee mortalitas nee non , si
ho stes totam terram rapini s , incendii s devatarent , magis
populo Dei nocerent , quam frequens mutacio e t fraudulenta
peioratio nummi . . . Atqui po st hec senescente iusticia et
invalescente nequicia surgent non duce s , sed f ures , no n
rectores populi Dei , sed nequam exactore s , avari ssimi sine
mi sericordia homine s , De um omnia cernentem non t imente s ,
qui ter ve l quater in anno monetam mutando erunt in
lacqueum diabo li ad perdic ionmem populi De i . " Berto ld
Brethloz , ed . , " Die Chronik der Bohmen des cosmas vo n
Prag , " in Sriptores Rerum Germanicarum, n . s . , vo l . 2 ,
Monumenta Germaniae Hi storica ( Ber lin , 1 92 3 ) , book 1 , chap .
3 3 ; cf . Ruth Mazo Karras " Early TWelfth-Ce nt ur y Bohemian
Coinage in Light o f a Hoard of Vladis lav I , " Americ an
Numismatic society Museum Notes 3 0 ( 1 9 8 5 ) , 2 0 5- 1 0 .
2 1 See suc hodo lski , "Renovatio Monetae , " 5 7- 5 9 .
2 2 Kir sten Bendixen suggests , on the basi s o f hoard
finds , that the c urrency in Denmark was renewed every " few
year s " There does not , however , appear to be any
347
How were s uc h recoinages c arried out ?
Do l ley and
Metc alf argued that an increase in the number of mint site s
in E ngland after 9 7 3 allowed t he population ample
opportunity to turn in the ir o ld coinage .
Grier son pointed
to a par al le l example on the continent where the B i s hop of
Chalons- sur-Marne petitioned Char les the Bald only months
after the Edict of Pitre s was issued to open a mint within
hi s dioc ese . 2 3
New mint s , however , were not the only means
of executing a rec al l .
The Edic t of Pitre s established a
time frame , from July to November , in whic h the old money
was to be brought in .
It is probable that to accomplish
this task in less than four mo nths , the crown resorted to
a
more direct , but temporary , so lution .
The thirteenth-century Aragonese compi lation kno\v.n as
the Fuero of Jac a states that , according to traditio nal
c ustom ( antich fuero ) , when the king wished to c hange
( m udar ) the money he set up a table of exc hange in eac h
city for forty days so the people could come and exc hange
their old money . 2 4
I
The contemporary Fuero general de
corroborating documentary evidence . see Kir sten Bendixen,
"The Currency in Denmark From t he Beginning of t he Viking
Age until c . 1 1 0 0 , " in Viking-Age coinage in the Northern
Lands : The s ixth Oxford sympos ium on coinage and Monetary
History , ed . Mark B lackburn and D . M . Metc alf ( Oxford ,
1 9 8 1 ) , 4 1 2 - 1 4 ; cf . Spufford , Money, 9 5 .
2 3 Dol ley and Metcalf , " The Reform , " 1 4 5 - 5 2 ; Grier son,
" Numismatic s and the Historian , " xi-xii .
2 4 " Antich fuero e s e provat que quan pl azdra a l Rey
pot mudar so moneda en c ada cuitat de so regne pot e st ablir
taula de cambi a la qual los poble s deven venir per deute
lo s qui vo len cambiar vie l la moneda segunt la constitution
el mandamnet del Rey . E la taula de l Rey deu durar XL dias
348
I
Na varra contains a paralle l pas sage . 2 s
Evidence that this
was in fact a traditio n reac hing back to the twe lf th
cent ury can be g leaned from two royal charters .
A year after becoming king o f Aragon , Ramiro I I
compensated the mona sterie s of San Juan de la Pefia and
Santa Maria de I bo zar for si lver bullion they had given him
so that he co uld make his money o f Jaca ( per meam monet am
facere ) .
The charter recording the act was done in 1 1 3 5
" in the mo nth of November , in the city of Jac a . . . on the
day that the lord king changed ( m utavit ) the mo ney in
Jac a . "
By " c hanging " the j accensis , Ramiro was probably
replac ing his dead brother ' s name with his own whi le
keeping the intrinsic value of the coin stable . 2 6
The
c harter ' s inc lusion of the m ut atio in the dating protoco l ,
however , implies that the change o f the coinage was more
I
e no pl us . " Mauricio Molho , ed . , E l Fuero de Jaca
( Z arago z a , 1 9 6 4 ) , 1 5 6 article 3 0 1 .
See also the Molho ' s
introduction, xix-xxi ; Bi s son , Conservation , 1 0 - 1 1 .
E ar lier Aragone se f ueros do not refer to suc h a procedure .
Cf . Juan Jose Morales G6me z and Manuel Jose Pedraza Garc ia ,
eds . Fuero s de Borja y Z argaoz a ( Zaragoza , 1 9 8 6 ) , 6 - 7 , 6 9 7 3 ; c f . Antonio Ubieto Arteta , Jaca : Documentos
munic ipales , 9 7 1 - 1 2 6 9 ( Valenc ia , 1 9 7 5 ) .
2 5 " ( Q ) ue tienga l a moneda nueva por cambiar con la
vie j a . Esta tabla debe ser con la moneda nueva quarenta
dias & no mas . otro s i , en vi llas cerradas puede pasar
e sta tabla en esto s quarenta dias do e l quis iere . " P .
I larregui and s . Lapuerta , Fuero General de Navarra
( Pamplona, 1 8 6 9 ) , book 1 , title 1 , c hap. 2 ; cf . Luis y
Nava s , " Aspectos , " 1 4 .
2 6 Ubieto Arteta , " Doc urnento s , " part 1 , 1 1 6- 1 7 no 4 .
One could argue that Ramiro • s m utatio of the jaccen si s
inc l uded the coin ' s debasement from 6 d . to 4 d .
On
balanc e , however , the evidence indic ates that the drop to 4
d . occ ured in the final year s of Alfonso the Battler ' s
reign .
See chapter 6 above .
349
I
than j ust a quiet deci sion reached by the king and his
counc i lors .
It seems to have been a public event likely to
be remembered .
impres sion .
A private donation of 1 1 7 4 gives the same
I t �vas do ne " in the year that King Alfonso
( I I ) was made a knight and on the day that he took the
queen as hi s wife and c hanged ( m utavi t ) the money of
Jac a . " 2 7
For Leon-Castile , there is evidenc e analogous to the
Fuero of Jac a whic h shows the crown co uld attempt to c al l
i n coinage when i t saw f it .
I n 1 3 02 at a cortes held in
Burgos , Fernando IV sought to rid the kingdom of bad and
c lipped coins that had c irculated during the chaot ic years
of his minorit y .
He ordered that they be brought " to
tables o f exchange " set up in the towns and s upervised by a
royal of ficial as we ll as one appointed by the town
counci 1 . 2 a
simi larly , Sancho IV ,
in rebelling against is
father Alfonso X, attempted to invalidate and recall his
27 " F acta c arta mense novembri s , era Ma cca XI Ia , in
anno quando rex I ldefonsus f uit mi lite facto et ipso die
pres it mul ier illa regina et mutavit i l la moneta I ac he sa . "
Ubieto , " Doc umento s , " part 2 , 9 5 no . 3 3 .
( Bi s son, in
Conservation , 7 5 n . 2 , inadvertent ly gives the date a s " era
Ma c c a . " ) .
De s pite it coinciding with his wedding celebration ,
Alfonso ' s mutatio in 1 1 7 4 seems to have a lso been a
surreptitious debasement from 4 d . to 3 d .
signs that hi �
" new j accens i s " was weaker than the old begin to s urface �n
the document s the fo llowing year . See the di sc us sion in
chapter 6 , n . 6 8 above .
2 8 cortes de los antique s reinos de Leon y Casti lla,
ed . Real Academia de la Hi storia ( Madrid , 1 8 6 1 ) , 1 : 1 6 5 - 6 9 .
see f urther , O ' Callaghan , Corte s , 3 0 .
I
350
father ' s money . 2 9
But did the c rown in the twel fth century
possess the same capability?
A diploma of Alfonso VII ' s
son , Fernando I I of Leon , indi c ate s that it did .
Af ter quarreling with the see o f S antiago during the
first decade of hi s reign , Fer nando appears to have enjoyed
good re l ations with Archbi shops Pedro Gudestei z ( 1 1 6 7- 7 3 )
and Pedro suare z ( 1 1 7 3- 1 2 0 6 ) . 3 0
to compo stela in 1 1 8 2 .
The king made a pi lgrimage
In his c harter c elebrating the
occasio n , he confirmed that he had restored to the
archbi shop and c hapter the half of the mint whic h hi s
father had c laimed from them so that t hey again he ld the
mint in full lordshi p .
He went on t o as sure them :
That however muc h I the lord king F ( er nando ) or my son
the lord king A( lfonso ) or any o f o ur successors shall
wis h to remove ( tol lere ) the money from the kingdom or
permit it to be dimini shed i n value , you and your
succe s sors shall be able to let this money of your s
cont inue a t full and f irm value , valid and steadfast ,
in your town of santiago and throughout your entire
archdiocese as long as you wis h . And this money o f
your s , granted and conceded t o you , wi ll s uf fer minimum
damage on account of any commutation and diminishment
in value . 3 1
I
2 9 Go nzalez Die z , Burgo s , 2 0 5- 2 0 6 .
see furt her,
Tode sc a , " Re be l lion, " 2 7 - 4 3 .
3 0 Fletcher , Episcopate , 5 9 - 6 0 .
3 1 " It a quod quamuis ego Rex donnus F . vel filius meus
Rex do nnus A . aut aliqui s de mea proienie monetam vo luerit
to llere de regno aut permieserit eius valorem diminuere vo s
et s uc ce ssores vestri per vi llam vestram sci . iacobi et per
totum archiepi sc opatum vestrum hanc monet am ve stram in
rigoris pleno valore quamdiu vol ueriti s ratam et firmis smam
permanere f acere pos siti s . Et propter ullam commutationem
et valor i s diminutionem hec vestra moneta vobi s data et
conce s s a le sionem minime susc ipiat . " s antiago 4 : appendix ,
1 5 4- 5 5 no . 5 7 . cf . Gras sott i , " Pueblo , " 1 8 6-8 7 ; sanc hez
Albornoz , " Deval uaci6n , " 6 1 5 .
351
Fernando spoke of the po s s ibility that he or his
succes sors might wish to " remove the money from the realm , "
an ac tion he de scribed later as a commutation ( commutatio ) .
This wou ld seem to c lear ly refer to calling in an old type
in exc hange for another .
It is les s obvious , however ,
what t he king meant by " dimini shing the value " of the coin .
He was perhaps stating t hat the crown also might elect to
debase its coi n .
Indeed , Sanc he z Alborno z took the phrase
as evide nce that the kings o f Leon were by this stage prone
to t ur ni ng to t he " vulgar recour se " of debaseme nt . 3 2
Yet ,
it seems odd that Fernando would refer openly to the
possibility that he may seek to debase , since the succe s s
o f suc h a tactic usual ly hinged on secrecy .
It may be that Fernando was not referring to altering
the intrinsic value of the money but rat her to diminishi ng
its legal value , in other word s , to di scounting the older
coinage when rec al ling it to the mi nt .
Thi s reading seems
more consistent with the rest of the text .
I f it is
correct , Fernando was only a s s ur ing the bi shop and chapter
of Compo stela that in the event the crown decided to c al l
in the royal money at a di scount , i t would not apply to
their mo ney .
They could continue to allow the ir coin to
circ ulate at its " full and f irm value " within the
boundaries of the archdiocese .
outside that parameter ,
3 2 sanche z Alborno z , " Primitiva organi zaci6n , " 3 3 8 - 3 9 .
I
352
Compo ste la ' s colns were to be di sc ounted and traded in for
the new, current money of the crown .
Either way it is read , the c harter stands as strong
corroboratio n that in the twe lfth century the crown of Leo n
did attempt to periodically renew it s coinage .
Fernando
did not envi sion that he was restricted in terms o f how
often he could impose such a rec al l .
He spoke in terms of
" however muc h I shal l wi sh " to do it .
As ec hoed l ater in
the decree s of Benavente , Fernando saw his r ight to change
the coin as an unas s ai lable prerogative of the crown .
B ut
insi sting on the prero gative to change the legal c urrenc y
i n the kingdom and s uccessfully exec uting it were two
different matter s .
The Hoard Evidence
A renewal of the coinage was intended to replace o ne
is sue with another .
I f succes sful , the bulk o f the older
coins were removed and melted down by the mint s , leaving a
homogeneous supply of new coins in their wake .
It fol lows ,
then , that coins pul led from c irculation and hoarded under
such a system wo uld tend to be a l l of the same type , with
perhaps some of the previo us i s s ue sti l l inc luded .
Two
hoards from the early year s of Louis the Pious , for
example , contain a lmost no coins of Char lemagne , pre s umably
r
353
I
a ref lection of a rec al l impo sed after Lo ui s ' s ascension . 3 3
For England , there are 1 3 hoards known who se interment c an
be dated between c . 9 7 5 and 1 0 4 2 and that were fo und in
territory under the contro l of the E ng li sh .
hoards contained a single type .
E ight of these
The other five contained
primarily one type , with a few of a second type . None of
the hoard from this period contained more than 2 types . 34
Thi s pattern of di stribution indic ates that under an
equitable system of renovatio , peo ple were not inc lined to
save coins over long periods of time , i . e . , over the course
of several renewal s .
If the coinage had remained stable in
finene s s and weight and the government was able to enforce
demo netization , there was no c ompe lling reason to save o ld
coins .
Frequent renewal s , imposed wit ho ut any pretense
that the c urrent coin was worn and ln need of replacement ,
were likely to meet with res istance .
I n E ngland after
1 0 42 , the succession of Anglo- saxon rulers leading up to
the conque st may have attempted to renew the coinage as
often as every two or three year s .
Predictabl y , some
hoards from thi s period cont ai n more than two type s . 3 5
I
3 3 Grierson , " C harlemagne , " 5 0 3 ; spuf ford , Money, 4 3 4 4 . For more on the two hoard s , Belve zet and veullin, see
Morrison , Carolingian coinage , 3 4 4- 4 5 nos . 1 4 and 1 5 .
3 4 Do l ley and Metc alf , " Re form , " 1 5 6 - 5 8 .
3 5 Of the 2 0 hoards from t he period 1 0 42 to 1 0 6 6 , 7
contained 1 type , 2 contained 2 type s and 1 1 contained more
than 2 type s . This " prono unced tendency " for hoards buried
right before the conquest to admit multiple type s seems to
correspond to a breakdown of t he effectivene s s o f the
system caused by more frequent imposition of renewal s .
354
A more abusive po l icy would be the crime cosmas of
Prague refer s to in hi s chroni c le -- attempting to impo se
frequent and fraudulent renewals , where the new coin
contained le s s silver than the o ld .
I n this scenario , the
public , as muc h as t he y could af ford to , would be inc lined
to set aside the old coins 1n savings hoards rather than
turn them in to the mint s .
signif ic antly, hoards from
twelfth-cent ury Bohemia are re lative ly plentif ul and they
often contain a variety of types stretching over sever al
reigns .
Thi s does not indic ate , as Karras suggest s , that
there was no po licy of recoinage in Bohemi a .
On the
co ntrary , it seems to support Co smas • s charge . 36
There are very f ew hoards known from twe lfth-century
Le6n .
Nonethe le ss , those that have come to light di splay a
common pattern ; each c ontains only o ne or two types .
The
one ma jor hoard from t he reign o f Alfonso VI , for example,
is almost equal ly divided between what seem to be hi s last
two issues , the star - a nnulet and christogram coins .
simi larly , Metcalf reported a parcel o f coins that were al l
of the christogram type , but t here i s no way of knowing if
this act ually repre sent s a complete hoard . 3 7
(
After thi s ,
Dol ley and Metcalf , " Re form , " 1 5 7 - 5 8 ; c f . spufford , Money ,
93 .
3 6 Karras , in " B ohemian coinage " 2 0 5 - 1 0 , dismi sses the
signif ic ance of the Co smas pas sage and doe s not consider
that there could be unsucces sf ul attempts at renewal .
She
prefers to attribute V ladislav ' s many coin types not to an
abusive monetary polic y but rather to a minting
technicality .
3 7 See chapter 3 , n . 3 3 and n . 3 4 above .
355
there i s a long gap in reported finds .
that contains coins of urrac a .
No hoard is know
While one may eventual ly
come to light , t hi s lacuna sho uld give us pause .
Thes e
were years o f c ivi l war , b y al l acco unts vio lent and
anarc hic al .
Alfonso VI I confe s sed to stealing from
Sahaglin ; Pasc hal I I threatened excommunication to anyone
one who plundered c hurc h property ; and the Hi storia
compostel ana bemoans t he const ant presence of armies i n the
land who impoverished t he people . 3 B
This was a period
whic h would tend to encour age the interment of coins for
safekeeping .
The reign of Alfonso V I I i s sc arcely better
represented ln f inds than the previo us .
There is one hoard
that c an be reasonably ass igned to the later half of his
reign .
It contained two types . 3 9
The one most repre se nted
( 1 02 denarii and 2 obo ls ) shows a crowned bust on the
obverse with the legend LEON I S C I or C IVIS .
has a c ro s s and the legend INPERATOR .
I
The rever se
There is nothing
38 For Alfonso VI I ' s transgres sions against Sahagun,
see c hapter 6, n . 1 and n . 2 above . For Paschal ' s bul l and
the c omplaint s of the His tori a compostelana , see HC , book
1 , c ha ps . 8 9 , 95 and 9 6 .
3 9 The hoard was described brief ly by Luis I nglada ors
in "Monedas ineditas de Alfonso V I I de Castilla , " BSAA
( 1 9 4 8 ) : 1 2 9- 3 1 .
( The synopsis o f Inglada ' s report in Rueda
and Saez , " Halla z go s , " no . 3 1 , is slightly inacc urate . )
According to I ng lada ' s testimony , the hoard was
quickly di sper sed amon g dif f erent museums and private
co llectors . Several years l ater , Luis Fernandez Rodriguez
in " Mo nedas de Leon y Cast i l la : Ac uiiac ione s de Alfonso
VI I , " B SAA 1 7 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 1 3 2 - 3 6 , published a st udy of 1 8
sample s of one o f the type s . One might suspect they were
part of the hoard .
356
inherent in this coin that assigns i t to Alfonso VII .
But ,
it does dis play mint markings , such as a the letter L or a
crescent moo n , which are found o n coins of Fernando I I and
Alfonso VI I I .
Thi s combined with the imperial tit le would
imply it was one of Alfo nso VI I ' s l ater i ssues . � o
The hoard also contained 3 5 spec imens of a coin whose
o bverse has no legend , but shows two profiled busts facing
each other , with a cro ss o n a pede st al rising between them .
The reverse has a plain cro s s enc irc led by the legend
IMPERATOR , though some samples read LEONI CIVI .
Again ,
this coin cannot be abso lute ly a s s igned to Alfonso VI I ,
a lthough the type resembles t he ducalis of Roger I I of
sic i ly struck in 1 1 40 . 4 1
I
Over al l , there seems litt le
4 0 See c atalogue 4 , no . 3 be low.
4 1 Roger I I ' s ducalis depict s Roger and his son
standing on either side of a c ro s s on steps . There is an
E nglish coin i ss ued during t he anarc hy , assigned to the
mint at York , which has a simi lar motif of two figures
standing f ac ing each other with a scepter between .
B l ackburn suggested the English coin was modeled o n the
ducalis and is meant to portray Stephen and his son
E u stace , both dressed in armor . He dated it c . 1 1 4 7 - 4 9 ,
since E u stace was knighted around that time . Mack argued
that the f igure on the right was act ua lly Mati lda, and that
( See Blac kbur n , " Coinage and
the coin should date to 1 1 4 1 .
currency , " 1 8 6 and R . P . Mac k , " Stephen and the Anarchy ,
1 1 3 5- 1 1 5 4 , " British Numismatic Journal 3 5 ( 1 9 6 6 ) : 8 0 . )
While the Leonese coin doe s not di splay full standing
f i gure s but only the bust s , it has a c ur ious parallel with
the English coin in that t he prof i le o n the right seems ,
dependin g on the specimen, to be that of a woman . Because
of thi s Campaner y Fuentes in " Restituci6n , " 1 5 5 -6 2 ,
proposed that the figures were Alfonso o f Arag6n and
Urrac a . Gi l Farres , Historia, 2 6 5 , s uggested that the coin
depicted Alfonso VII receiving homage from Garcia IV o f
Navarre , but t hi s has litt le t o recommend it . The c o i n
gives no sense that one figure i s paying homage to the
other .
357
reason to doubt that the two type s found in the hoard
represent suc cessive issue s of the emperor . 4 2
For the roughly simultaneous reigns of Alfonso VI I ' s
grandsons , Alfonso VI I I of castile and Alfonso IX of Le6 n ,
the number o f hoard finds increase s , albeit slightly .
There are now three reported finds pertaining to Alfonso
VI I I .
Two o f these , the " I sar " and " Granada " hoards are
said to have been comprised of a s in gle type , the co 1n
eventual ly called the burgales in the document s .
The
third, the " ot az a " hoard , cont ained 5 , 0 2 8 examples of the
(
In my op1n1on, the figure on the right is a woman .
considering t he date of the ducalis and t he E nglish piece ,
it might depict Alfonso ' s marriage to the Po li sh princess
Rica c . 1 1 5 2 . Alternatively , if one ins i st s both figures
are men , it may celebrate the knighting of Alfonso ' s e ldest
son s ancho in 1 1 5 2 . On the se event s , see Rec uero , Alfonso
VII , 1 9 1 - 92 . For the coin, see c at alogue 4 , no . 4 be low .
For another example of the piece in question see Esteban
Co llante s Vida l , " Intento de ordenac i6n de las acuii.aciones
de Alfonso VI I , " AN 2 ( 1 9 72 ) : 1 67-2 1 4 .
4 2 There are a number of other hoards reported i n the
literature as having contained coins of Alfo nso VI I . For
example , Mateu y Llopi s gave notice of a f ind from Serpa in
so uthern Portugal whic h he described as containing " dinero s
of Alf onso V I I " alongside unidentified Mus lim dirhams .
( Mateu y L lo pi s , " Hallazgo s monetarios , " part 6 , 2 32 no .
3 9 8 ; cf . Rueda and S ae z , " Hallazgo s , " no . 6 1 . )
More than likely , the type in the Serpa hoard whic h
Mateu as signed to Alfonso VI I was a problematic is sue whose
legend reads ANFVS REX TOLLETA .
I n other entrie s of his
" Hallazgos monetario s , " it is c lear that whe n he came
acro s s thi s type he assigned it to that monarc h . It c an
now be shown , however , from it s overall appearance in
hoards 1 that thi s ANFVS REX TOLLETA did not belong to
Alfonso VI I .
It was almo st certainly t he pepi6n , struck
late in the reign of Alfonso VI I I and subsequently
immo bi li zed under Fernando I I I .
( See c atalo gue 5 , nos . 1 8 1 9 be low . ) The Serpa hoard and other hoards containing the
ANFVS REX co in , therefore , should be a s signed a terminus
po st quem c . 12 o o . see , Tode sc a , " Re be llion , " 3 5 - 3 6 .
358
burgales and 6 samples o f Alfonso ' s pepi6n . � 3
There are
also three hoards containing issue s of Alfonso IX .
one is
made up of a s ingle type and the two other s are compri sed
of two type s . 4 4
Whi le the present body of twelfth cent ury hoards for
Leon-casti le i s smal l , the pattern o f one or two types it
reveals is all t he more striking when compared to finds
from the thirteenth and fourteenth century .
Beginning in
the reign of Alfonso X , the crown re sorted to repeated
debasement and manipulation of the c urrency .
As eac h new
is sue was worse than its predece s sor , it bec ame dif f ic ult
to attract the o ld coinage back to the mints .
Thi s only
strained the crown ' s resources f urther and f ue led a cyc le
of debasement .
The old coin either cont inued to c irc ulate
or was set aside in savings hoards .
Hoards interred in the
4 3 Of these three finds , t he integrity of the
"Granada " hoard is the most open to question .
It was a
parcel of coins so ld in Granada sometime prior to 1 9 7 3 .
See co llantes Vida l , " Mo nedas de Alfonso VI I I , " 1 2 2 - 3 5 and
his " Notas sobre las ac uii.ac ione s de Alfonso X , " AN 6
( 1 9 7 6 ) : 1 4 7 . The " I sar " hoard , consisting o f 1 6 00
burga leses takes its name from the town were it was found ,
a litt le east of Burgo s .
See " Hallazgos monetario s , " part
1 6 , 1 7 9 no . 9 6 3 . The find loc ation of the Otaza hoard i s
See E li sa Garcia Rete s and Jo se I gnacio San
al so known .
Vicente Gonzalez de Aspur u , "Tesorillo numismatico medieval
de otaza ( ac tualmente aeropuerto de Vitoria-Foronda,
Alava ) , " E st udio s de Argueologia Alave sa 1 2 ( 1 9 8 5 ) : 3 7 94 0 4 . Cf . Rueda Sabater and saez , " Hal lazgos , " nos . 1 , 1 1 ,
2 8 . on the attribution o f the burga les and pepi6n , see
Tode sc a , " Re be l l ion , " 3 5- 6 , 42 .
4 4 See the hoards called " M . Mac ias " and " Corese s " in
Oro l , Alfonso I X , 9 5 - 1 0 6 and the " Segovi a " hoard i n Rueda
and saez sai z , " Hallazgo s , " no . 4 0 .
I
359
I
four teenth century o ften contain a variety of type s
spanning back to the reign o f Alfonso x .
Lo ng-term savings ho ards are unknown for the twe lfth
cent ury in Leo n .
No f ind contains more than two type s , a
pattern consistent with what one would expect to f ind in a
kingdom operating under an equitable system of renewal .
The sc arcity of finds in this period in it se lf point s to
the conc lusion that the government was c apable of c a l l ing
in o ld coi nage .
There i s stil l a wide array of what a ppear
to be twelfth-century type s whic h are not known in any
hoard context and are rare today , inc luding a l l 5 type s
whic h bear urrac a ' name .
Alfonso VI I in his three dec ades
on t he throne may have a l l but eradic ated hi s mother ' s
c urrency .
Conc lusions
The rulers of Leon-Castile attempted recoinage s at
least from time to time in the course of the twe lfth
cent ur y .
This muc h seems c lear .
Impo sed j udic ious ly,
renewal of the coinage replaced worn-down currency and at
the same time al lowed the crown a pro f it which served to
check the temptation to debase .
I n this way , after
abandoning the medietate standard in t he ear ly part of the
centur y , the crown seems to have kept it s denari us at 4 d .
for the remainder of t he century .
Alfonso VI I I of castile
doe s not appear to have is sued his debased pepi6n unt i l the
I
early 1 2 0 0 s .
360
Neither the present hoard evidence nor the diplomatic
reference s allows us to detect how often or how regularly
such rec alls were attempted .
The array of s ur viving types
does s ug ge st that attempts at renewal may have been
frequent , part ic ularly under Alfonso VI I .
Thi s is
supported by the legis lation at Vallado lid , which beseec hed
Alfonso VI I to settle on one coin and conf irm it for life .
In t he e nd , however , the decree was litt le more than a
recommendation .
Whi le promulgated by a papa l le gate , it
carried no f orce of law and was naive ( or perhaps bold ) in
it s demand .
I t asked Alfonso to give up the income from mutatio
and swear to maintain one coin for life .
that he do thi s without asking any price .
But it requested
Alfonso and
Hyac inth could hardly have bee n ignorant o f the principle
of redemptio n of coinage .
They would have had to look no
further than the example of Lo uis VI I of France ( who had
recent ly taken Alfonso ' s daughter as his wife ) to know that
a ru ler might demand compensat ion for his agreement to not
change t he coinage , whic h , after all , was hi s sovereign
right . 4 5
I
( An analogo us princ i ple al lowed a sovereign to
4 5 Recuero , Alfonso VII , 1 9 2 , plac e s Loui s VI I ' s
marriage to Alfonso VI I ' s daughter in 1 1 5 3 , but other
evidence i ndic ates t hat Loui s made a pilgr image to
Compostela in 1 1 54 -5 5 . He seems to have been back in
Mont pe l l ier by February 1 1 5 5 , t he time t he counc il of
Valladolid was convoked . see Vaz quez de Parga et al . ,
Peregrinacione s , 1 : 64 .
B i s so n , conservation, 3 1 , noted that when Loui s VI I
consented not to c hange the money of E tampes a nd Orleans in
36 1
I
Alfo nso
co llect shie ld money in lieu of mi litary service . )
may wel l have honored the counc i l of vallado lid ' s request
in the two years that remained to him, but his s uc ce ssors
were not so bound .
The moneta or a monetagi um tax ,
therefore , would later emerge as a more practical
compromi se between king and people to curtai l superf luous
renewal of the coinage .
In thi s way , event s in Leo n-Castile in the twe lfth
century seem to parallel development s in E ngland in the
preceding century .
Under the Anglo- saxon system o f
renewa l , which Dol ley and Metc alf suggest began i n 9 7 3 the
year o f King Edgar ' s ( 9 5 9- 7 5 ) coronation , the co inage
appear s to have first been c hanged at interval s of every
six or seven years .
D ur ing the chaotic decade s immediately
before the conquest , however , renewals may have been
impo sed as frequently as every two or three year s .
Wi lliam
I was apparent ly wil ling to renounce the se frequent change s
of the coinage i n return for a monetagi um levy . 4 6
turn , however , was soon abused .
This in
By 1 1 0 0 , Henry I promised
in his coronation charter to utterly abo lish " the common
monetagi um which was c o l lected through the cities and
exchange for a tax , " t he form of the agreeme nts suggests
that the king • s prerogative was maintained foremo s t . The
dec isions were recorded in c harters of grace , not
conventions . "
4 6 Dolley and Metc alf , " Reform , " 1 52 , 1 5 8 ; P hi lip
Grier son , " The Monetary System Under William I , " in
Domesday Book : studie s ( London , 1 9 8 7 ) , 7 7 .
(
362
I
thro ugh the co unties , whic h did not exist i n King Edward ' s
time . " 47
It 1 s wort h noting that when Alfonso IX so ld his
coinage at Benavente , he agreed not to c hange it for seven
year s .
While Fernando I I in his charter had given no hint
of time re straints , the as sembly of Benavente c learly
deemed thi s as t he minimum time the crown must wait before
having the o pt io n to c hange the coin again .
There i s also
evidence to s ugge st s that the j accensis of Aragon as we ll
as the coinage o f Port ugal were at times gover ned by a
seven-year c yc le . 4 a
This may be the same or c lo se to the
same interval that the Anglo-Saxon system of renewal
original ly operated under . 49
I
4 7 The tran s l at ion is B i s so n ' s in Conservat io n , 1 5 ;
c f . Wil liam Stubbs , se lect Charter s and Other I l lustrations
of English Constitutional History ( Oxford , 1 9 1 3 ) , 1 1 8 .
4 8 Alfonso I ' s c hange to a quaternal coin seems to
have been c . 1 1 2 8 ( see the di sc us sion in chapter 6 above )
Rarniro I I did not c hange the j accensis until November 1 1 3 5 ,
more than a year after becoming king , but 7 year s from
1 1 2 8 . Alfonso I I ' s c hange of the j accensis in 1 1 74 ,
however , was not in keeping with this cyc le .
Nonethle ss ,
in the cortes o f Huesca in 1 2 2 1 , Jaime I agreed not to mint
for 7 years .
See c anal le s Lope z , Z aragoza, no . 4 9 .
Likewi se , Afonso I II o f Portugal ( 1 2 4 8 - 7 9 ) promi sed
c . 1 2 5 4 to make no change in hi s coin for a per io d of seven
years .
[ Portugaliae Monurnenta Hi storic a : Leges et
Consuetudines ( Liec htenstein , 1 9 6 7 ) , 1 : 1 9 6- 9 7 nos 4 - 5 , cf .
2 1 0- 1 2 no . 9 ; cf . Tode sc a , " Mo netary History , " 1 4 7 - 4 9 . ]
In
thirteenth-century Leon-castile , seven years bec arnes t he
standard time t he king was expected to wait between moneda
levie s .
See , o • cal laghan , Corte s , 1 3 3- 3 5 .
4 9 Bisso n sugges ted another common f actor in the
tradition of coin renewa l .
In Charles the Bald ' s Edict of
Pitres , the old money was to be brought in by Mart inrnas
( November 1 1 ) . Bi sson pointed out that November resurfaces
with " c urious freque nc y " as a time for changing the
coinage . Ramiro I I of Arag6n and Al fonso II of Arag6n-
363
In the end , the case for an ef fective system o f
renovatio in Leon-castile rests large ly o n c irc umstantial
evidence .
carrie s
an
The c ase , nonethe le s s , is a c ompe l ling one and
import outside Leon-Casti le .
It forces u s to
reeval uate the degree of sophi st icat io n the government s of
We stern E uro pe were capable of attaining in monetary
matter s be fore the dawn of the more complex c urrencies of
the later medieval period .
While Englan d may have had an
efficient system of renewal , it was not the only European
governme nt c apable of accompli shing such maneuvers .
As
Bisson noted , " recoinage of this sort were probably more
usual in t he e leventh and twelfth cent ur ie s than can be
demonstrated from surviving evidence .
n SO
Cataloni a both changed the money in this month . And the
Chronicle of Saint-Maixent from Po itou reports t hat in 1 1 2 0
"the coins were changed in the month o f November . " See
Bisso n , conservat io n , 5 n . 2 , 7- 8 ; c f . Grier son ,
" Numismatic s and the Historian , " ix- x .
5 0 Bisson, Conservat io n , 1 0- 1 1 .
I
PART FOUR
DIVI SION AND ADAPTATION , 1 1 5 7 - 1 2 3 0
[
NINE
THE DIVI SION OF
THE
REALM
AND THE EXPANS ION OF MINTING
The emergence of independent c asti le followi ng the
death of Alfonso VI I in 1 1 5 7 divided t he resources of the
old realm .
The kings of Leo n and Castile , each maintaining
their own co urt and admini stration , were now forced to
compete against one another for bul lio n to help fund
separate drive s against I s lam as wel l as to keep pace with
the demands of a soc iety increasing ly reliant on coin . l
As
result o f this pre ssure, both crowns gradually expanded the
number o f mint s established in t he ear lier half of the
century so as to more ef fectively s upply their realms with
denarii .
Whi le mint markings had been used somewhat on the
coins of Alfonso VI I , in the l ate twelfth century it bec ame
charac terist ic of both the mints o f castile and Leon to
identify themselve s by placing eit her a letter or symbo l on
their coins , a system whic h allowed the crown to more
readily mo nitor the output o f it s individual mints .
By
first surveying the marks on t he coins and then aligni ng
them with the surviving royal charters that concern
episcopa l mint revenues , this chapter sketches the
deve lopment of the new network of mi nt s in the late twe lfth
I
1 Sanchez Alborno z , " Notas , " 5 0 4 - 5 .
365
366
cent ury and attempts to show how t he selection of these
site s was dict ated in part by the new po litical
c irc umstance s of the period .
The Early co ins of casti le
sanc ho I I I ( 1 1 5 7 - 5 8 ) struc k one coin type in the year
that he lived to rule as king of castile .
The obverse
portrays a bust facing right wit h the legend TOLETA .
The
reverse carrie s a simple cro s s sur rounded by the
abbreviated legend SANCI ' REX or in some cases SANCIVS REX .
Be side s this variation in the legend , there are re ported
examples where a star appear s on t he obver se , below the
c hin of the profile . 2
otherwise , the coins in sanc ho ' s
name are remarkably uniform in appe arance and it i s
impo ssi ble t o te ll how many mint s they were struck i n .
sanc ho ' s untimely death left h i s inf ant son Alfonso
VI I I as successor to the t hrone o f c asti le .
since t he boy
was only about two years o ld at t he time , sanc ho ' s brother ,
King Fer nando I I of Leon was recogni zed as his guardian .
Fernando probably hoped to pus h his nephew aside and
re unite the two realms . 3
I
A hint o f his ambition can
2 See c at alogue 5 , no . 1 be low . The attribution of
this piece i s beyond que st io n .
Sanc ho I I of Casti le , the
brother of Alfonso VI , was assassinated in 1 0 7 2 and had no
c l aim to Toledo . The coin ' s a bsence from later hoards
make s it extreme ly unlikely that it belonged to sanc ho IV
( 1 2 8 4- 9 5 ) of castile-Leon .
In addition , the coin is
c learly linked styli stic al ly to the coins of Alfonso VI I I ' s
mi nority .
3 O ' Callaghan , Medieval spain , 2 3 5- 3 6 .
367
perhaps be seen in a coin he had struc k whic h is unusual
for a medieval denar iu s in the politic al mes sage it
co nveys .
The obverse depict s a crowned figure standing
with arms outstretched , a sword in one hand and what may be
a palm in the other .
small boy .
Beside him , to the left , stands a
The legend i s a corrupt rendering of the name
Alfonso ( ANFOVNS ) with no royal title . 4
The reverse o f the
coin c arries a modified cros s , with the legend FRNANDVS
RE X .
The coin , while portraying Fernando I I as protec tor
of his nephew, also seems to emphasize that it was Fernando
who act ually ruled in c astile .
The Anales toledanos record
that Fernando entered To ledo on August 9 , 1 1 62 and between
that date and November 1 1 6 3 his diplomas show him in
cast ile often .
The coin s howing him as the protector of
Alfonso was mo st likely struck in these year s .
After 1 1 63 ,
Fernando was drawn back to Leon and henc eforth appears to
have been more concerned with the af fair s of his own
kingdom . 5
As with the coin of Sanc ho I I I , it i s not evident how
wide ly the type portraying Fernando and Alfonso was struck ,
though it does not appear to have been an extremely smal l
i s sue .
(
The reverse of sancho I I I ' s coin had a cro s s with
4 see catalogue 5 , no . 2 below . The final S of the
legend appear s in the right portion of t he f ield . I t is
tempt in g to see thi s s as a mint mark , but thi s seem
unlike ly in that the abbreviations ANFONS and ALFONS appear
on other coins of the period .
5 F l6re z , " Anales toled anos I , " 3 9 2 ; Gonz alez ,
Fernando I I , 3 7 0- 7 7 .
368
I
two annulets placed inside eac h quadrant .
The coin showing
Fernando as Alf o nso ' s protector employed a s imilar des ign
on the rever se , but the annulets around the cro s s clearly
served as some f orm of privy mark .
Their number and
po sition in the quadrant s shift from one example to the
next , with at least six varietie s known .
Whet her these
were control marks used within o ne mint or were meant to
de signate the si gnatures of different mint s i s impos sible
to tell . 6
Although Fernando was more or le s s withdrawn from
castile after 1 1 6 3 , these were still times o f uncertainty
in the new kingdom . 7
Perhaps it was doubt about who would
eventually rule Castile that ins pired another unus ual coin
from thi s period .
The obver se reads simply TOLETVM and has
a f loral cro s s mot if common ln the era o f Alfonso VI I .
The
reverse motif c o pies sanc ho I I I ' s coin ( a cro s s with
annulets ) .
Yet , where Sancho ' s coin carried his name and
title on the rever se , the lege nd on this piece s substitute s
the date .
1 1 66 . 8
It reads ERA MCCI I I I , corre sponding to A . D .
While anonymous issue s were not rare i n twelfth­
cent ury Leon , no other denarius i s known whi c h c arries a
date .
I
I nc lusion o f the year was typic al o f I s lamic coin s ,
6 It perhaps make s mo st sense that Fernando struc k the
piece in P alenci a , s ince he reopened the mint t here in
1 1 63 , but he a l s o occupied Toledo , another mint town .
7 O ' Callaghan , Medieval Spain , 2 3 5- 3 6 .
8 cat alogue 5 , no . 3 ; c f . Alvaro campaner y Fuertes in
" So bre un dinero de Toledo ERA MCCIV ( 1 1 6 6 ) , " Revue
Numismatigue ( 1 8 6 4 ) : 1 4 1
(
whose fields were devoid of symbols and profiles , but is
uncharac teri stic of Latin coins in general .
It may have
served no ot her purpose on thi s piece than to provide a
legend where one would normally expect to find the king · s
name .
Alfo nso VI I I reached his maj ority in 1 1 6 9 , at about
the age of thirteen and , in November , co nvoked his f ir st
c uria in Burgos . 9
By the fol lowing september he was
married to Leonor , daughter of Henry I I of E ng land and
E leanor of Aquitaine .
Around this same time he was almo st
certainly made a knight . l O
Perhaps o ne o f the f ir st coins
Alfo nso is sued in hi s own right is a piece which displays a
crowned eque stri an on the obverse with no legend .
While
the type rec al ls one of the co ins of Alfonso VI I , here the
rider appear s to be an ado le scent .
The reverse carries a
cro s s and the legend TOLETAS , although o ne o bo l is known
that reads ALFONS ' REX . l l
(
As opposed to t he haples s boy in
9 " Rex Alde fonsus ibi primwn curiam celebraivit . "
Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 2 1 4- 1 6 no . 1 2 6 .
1 0 Leonor appear s in the royal c harter s beginning
Se ptember of 1 1 7 0 . A document dated Apr i l , 1 1 69 giving her
as queen i s misdated .
( Ibid . , 2 : 1 9 5 - 9 6 no . 1 1 4 ; cf . 2 5 3 - 5 4
no 1 4 8 . ) Both the young Alfonso I I o f Aragon and Fernando
I I I of c astile-Leo n were knighted at the t ime of their
marriage s . For Alfonso I I , see chapter 8 above . For
Fernando I I I , see Todesc a , " Mo netary History , " 1 5 2 .
1 1 catalogue 5 , nos . 5 ; cf . no . 6 . The o bo l that reads
ALFONS REX instead of TOLETAS also has a dif fere nt type on
the reverse . ( See catalogue 5 , no . 5 b . )
I t is very close
to the rever se type of S ancho I I I ' s coin and t he dated
piece of 1 1 6 6 .
( It is a lso simi lar to t he coin is sued in
the name of Fernando and Alfonso ) Thi s o bol , therefore ,
supports the hypothe si s that the equestr ian is sue was early
in the reign .
370
I
need o f protection depicted on the coin of his unc le , this
coin seems to emphasize the yo ung king ' s maturation by
de picting him as a mounted warrior .
I f t hi s equestrian coin was not Alfonso ' s first is sues
af ter comi ng of age , it certainly appear s to have been one
of the more extensive co inages of hi s ear ly reign j udging
by the number of privy marks used in its production .
Be low
the horse on the obver se , one find s either a star , the
letter s or three additional symbo ls : a crescent ( this mark
has been described as a chalice or c up in past c atalogue s ) ,
an
o
and f inally a group of three dots .
The piece i s also
known with no mark under the hor se which gives a total of 6
di st inct varieties .
Within these varietie s , there are
furt her , les s apparent markings .
on the star variety as
we ll as on the three dot variety , the symbol alternate ly
appear s be low the horse ' s body or beneat h hi s muzz le .
Other difference within these 6 varietie s are mainly
change s in the stop marks placed in the reverse legend .
overal l , in terms of symbo ls and other privy marks , Alfo nso
VI I I ' s equestrian co in is more complex than any other that
preceded it in Le6n-Casti le . l 2
1 2 The piece i n general is reminiscent o f the
anonymous , equestrian coin assigned to the reign of Alfonso
VI I , which c arried four di stinct marks , BV , TO , CA and LE .
( See c at alogue 4 , no . 1 ) This e ar lier coin, however , shows
no other deliberate variations , such as chan ge s in stop
marks . Conver se ly , Alfonso VI ' s c hr istogram coin and one
of Urrac a ' s early pieces made extensive use of variations
in legend stop marks without employing any overt symbo ls .
( See c at alogue 2 , no . 3- 1 0 ; catalogue 3 , no . 1 . )
37 1
Mi nt s in c astile
If our analysis o f mints under Alfonso VII is correc t ,
after the divi sion o f the realm in 1 1 5 7 the kingdom of
castile should have had active mints at To ledo , segovia and
Burgos with a fourth reo pened by Fernando I I at Palenc ia in
1 1 6 3 during hi s tenure as Alfonso VI I I ' s guardian .
The
equestrian coin of Alfonso VI I I , however , is kno\vn in 6
varietie s , distingui shed by symbo ls .
If the symbo ls were
mint signature s , they indicate t he exi stence of two
additional mint sites . 1 3
On the other hand , the shifting
po sition of some of the symbo ls on the equestrian type and
the appear ance of stops in the legend more than likely
represent contro l marks used within individual mints , and
should not be taken as evidence for additional sites .
This hypothesis i s borne o ut by comparing the
eque strian type with a second i s s ue of Alfonso VII I , a coln
which has a crowned bust on the obverse with the legend
ANFVS REX .
CASTELA .
The reverse carrie s a cast le and the legend
since Alfonso VI I I was the o nly mo narc h of that
name to rule an independent castile , there is no doubt that
this was one of hi s coin s .
As we shal l see in the
following chapter , thi s type was almost certainly the coin
commonly called the burga les whi c h was i ssued at the very
I
1 3 There is no doc umentary evidence stating that the
letters and symbol o n the coins represented mint s unti l t he
fifteenth centur y .
see Gi l y Flores , "Marcas de taller , "
3 7 9- 9 6 .
372
I
end o f his reign .
I t i s known wit h nine distinct symbo l s ,
but two of these were probably not employed unti l the
burga les was immobilized i n the year s after Alfonso VI I I ' s
death . l 4
Under Alfonso VI I I , therefore , it seems that the
burga les was struc k in seven mints , or o nly one more than
the ear l ier equestrian i s s ue .
Siglie nza
There are three doc ume nt s pert ai ni ng to the epi scopacy
of siglie nza in the twe lfth century t hat mention the right
to monet a , one purported to be of Alfonso VI I and two from
the chancery of Al fonso VI I I .
Of the three , the c harter
Alfonso VI I I issued to Bisho p Jo sc elmo in 1 1 7 0 , the year
after the king attained hi s maj ority , is perhaps the most
trustworthy since it s urvive s as an original with a
fragment of the royal seal sti ll attac hed . l S
In this
gran t , the king first lists the towns comprising the
episco pacy and the n " gives and concede s " to the bi sho p :
I n a l l the distr ic t s o f the above- said vil lage s , a
tenth part , name ly from bread and wine and all tolls
and hearth s , from the fifth, and from mi lls and all
I
1 4 See c atalogue 5 , no s . 9 - 1 7 ; c f . nos . 7- 8 . The
i ntroductio n of the burga les at the end of the reign of
Alfonso VI I I and its s ubsequent immo bi li zation is di scus sed
in c hapter 1 0 .
1 5 Alfonso VII I , 2 : 2 3 2 - 3 5 no . 1 3 6 . Twelfth-century
forger ies are known that have authentic seals adroit ly
attached , but there i s no reason to doubt this partic ular
docume nt . Regarding this and the prevalence of forged
charters in the twelfth cent ury in general , see C . N . L .
Brooke , " Approaches to Medieval Forgery , " in Medieval
Churc h and Society ( Lo ndo n , 1 9 7 1 ) , 1 0 0 -2 0 .
373
fine s from christian s , Jews or Moors , and from all
homic ide fine s , from tributes ( pec ti ) and shie ld money
( fos saderi a ) whic h sha l l be levied by la\v ; a te nt h also
of monetae and of al l the other things that pertain to
the king or to hi s merino or his alcalde, whic h
although they are many should be counted
individually . 16
A decade l ater , in 1 1 8 1 , a second royal char ter was drawn
up for Jo sce lmo ' s succes sor Arderico .
follows the earlier one .
Thi s text c lo se ly
There are only minor , non-
substant ive difference s , perhaps attributable to the fact
that the two doc uments were dra\vn up by different
scribe s . 1 7
Gras sotti argued that these charters were c learly
treating revenue s co llected througho ut the diocese s .
Accordi ng to her analys is , moneta here co uld not poss ibly
refer to t he pro fits o f a mint but must represent a
monetagi um levy co llected in the named vil lage s . 18
The
pertinent pas sage , however , is little different from other
royal grant s we have seen where moneta, i . e . , mint pro fit ,
is indif ferent ly grouped together with divergent types o f
�ncome .
I
F urthermore , it c an be argued that the text doe s
1 6 " Et in omnibu s aldeis supradictar um vil larum,
decimam, s c i licet , partem pani s et vini et totius portatic i
et ortc rum , de quintis et mo lendinis et de omnibis
calumpnii s christianor um , I udeorum, et Maurorum , et de
homicidii s omnibus , de pect i s et fos saderiis que per
directum f uerint iactate ; decimam quoque monetarum, et de
ceteri s omnibus que ad regem pertine nt , ve l ad eius merinum
sive alc ai adem que multa s unt ut per s ingula numerentur . "
Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 2 3 2 - 3 5 no . 1 3 6 .
1 7 Thi s grant may also survive a s an original . I bid . ,
2 : 6 5 2 - 5 4 no . 3 76 .
1 8 Gras sotti , " E l pueblo , " 1 7 0 - 7 1 .
374
I
indeed make a distinction , for monet a comes at the end and
does not neces sarily apply to " al l the districts o f the
above- said vil lages . "
The third document pertaining to siglie nza whic h
mentions moneta purports to be a grant o f Alfonso VI I to
Bi shop Bernardo of that see done in September of 1 1 3 9 .
The
text i s , in essence , verbatim with Alfonso VI I I ' s charter
of 1 1 7 0 exce pt for one important dif ferenc e .
In the
passage li sting the variou s revenues , the charter
attributed to Alfonso VI I omit s the phrase concerning
monet a .
The end of the document , however , reads ;
A tenth also of monet ae which is not written above
because of the forgetf ulne s s of the scribe . Thi s
addendum I the emperor Alfonso myself ordered to be
written so that I give and concede it to the c hurc h of
siglienza and to Bernardo , bi shop o f the same c hurc h
and , by law of inherit ance , to his successor s , j us t as
with the above- said right s . 1 9
such a c as ua l addendum i s odd , particularly for a royal
c harter , and must throw the integrity of the doc ument into
doubt .
In addition , the addendum implie s that the scribe
was fo llowing some other text .
It seems likely that the
docume nt attributed to Alfonso VI I i s not a genuine ac t of
this kin g , but was copied from Alfonso VI I I ' s grant with
(
19 " Dec imam quoque monetarum que s uperius propter
oblivionem scriptori s non scribitur .
Hie inferius egomet
imperator Adefonsus scribere mandavi quam s ic ut et alia
supradicta segotine ecc le s ie et Bernardo i s psius ecclesie
episcopo e j usque s ucce s soribus j ure hereditario dono et
concedo . " Mingliella, s iglie nz a , 1 : 3 6 7 - 6 8 no . 2 7 ; Grassotti ,
" E l pueblo , " 1 6 8 n . 2 7 .
375
the forger inadvertent ly skipping over the phrase "dec imam
quoque moneta " and then attempti ng to correct it at the
end . 2 0
Until siglienza was taken by Urraca and Alfonso VII
c . 1 1 2 4 , it had bee n a Mus lim stronghold in t he no-man ' s
land that lay between Castile and Aragon .
Ber nardo of
Agen , who served as the first bi shop of the re stored
dioc ese , needed the strong s upport of the crown to
succes sf ul ly sec ure the area and there i s every reason to
suspect that he received it . 2 1
While it is entire ly
po ssible , therefore , that Alfonso VI I establ i s hed a mint in
siglienza during Bernardo ' s epi sc opac y , the e vidence is not
convincing .
It seems more likely that the mint of siglienza
opened dur ing the reign of Alfonso VII I .
Hi s eque strian
c oin and hi s burga les , in fac t , are the f ir st coins of
Leon-castile to carry an s mark, although in t heory this
'
2 0 One other point s upport s the possibil ity that the
c harter of 1 1 3 9 is not authentic .
It descri be s the bi shop
of siglienz a as holdi ng c arcena . According to anot her
document , howeve r , Bisho p Bernardo acquired c arcena in
1 140.
See Recuero , Alfonso VII , 2 1 8 .
2 1 Ber nardo of Agen was the brother of Pedro , bishop
of Palencia and nephew to Pedro , bisho p of Segovia . The
family was part of t he Fre nc h c irc le recruited by
Archbi shop Ber nardo of Toledo and loyally served the crown .
During the preparations for the Siglie nza c ampaign , Ber nardo
was serving in the young Alfonso VII ' s c hanc er y . He
drafted the grant to Toledo in November 1 1 2 3 a s we ll as a
grant to Segovi a .
( Garcia Luj an , Toledo , 2 : 3 5 - 3 7 no . 8 ;
Vil lar Garc ia , segovia , 5 3 - 5 4 no . 1 0 ; cf . chapter 5 , n . 8 7 )
That he remained on c lose terms with Alfonso VII i s
attested by the f act that he was raised to t he
archbi shopric of Compo stela in 1 1 5 1 , undoubtedly as the
king ' s candidate .
see Fletcher , Epi scopat e , 5 7 - 5 8 .
376
could have stood for Segovia .
I f segovia was represented
by s, siglienz a must have been as signed one of the nonletter marks . 2 2
Calahorra
In 1 1 7 0 , five days after Alfonso VI I I co nf irmed the
rights of the bi shop of siglienza , he issued a charter to
the bi shop o f Calahorra granting him and his s uccessor s
perpetual c l aim to " a tent h of all moneys what soever that
shal l be made in your episcopacy by royal dec ision .
" 23
Whi le Alfonso VI I I ' s eque strian issue did not employ c a s a
mark, the later burga les did .
E ither the mint at calahorr a
was represented by one o f the non- letter marks on the
eque strian i s s ue or perhaps it did not participate in that
coinage .
Alfo nso ' s stipulat ion that the bishop should have
a tenth of profits of those moneys made in Calahorra " by
royal deci sion " may imply that all mints did not
necessarily o perate together . 24
22 on the eque strian type , t he non- letter symbo l s were
a star , a crescent , three dots and no mark . on the
burgales, the non- letter symbo ls were reduced to a star and
a crescent .
see the a ppro priate entries in catalogue 5
below.
2 3 " ( D ) ec imam omnium monetarum quamc umque regum
arbitrio in episcopio tuo in sernpiternum f abricate
f ueri nt . " I ldefonso Rodriguez de Lama, ed . , Co lecc i6n
diplomatica medieval de la Rioj a , vol s . 2 - 3 (Logofio , 1 9 7 67 9 ) , 3 : 1 7- 1 8 no . 2 4 0 ; cf . the s l ight ly dif ferent reading in
Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 2 3 5- 3 6 no . 1 3 7 .
2 4 There i s no evide nc e , to my knowledge , that a mint
exi sted in calahorra prior to 1 1 7 0 . Cf . Recuero , Alfonso
VII , 2 1 8 .
377
a
Osma / Soria
As with siglienza , there is diplomatic evidence
suggesting that a mint in Soria date s back to the reign of
the emperor Alfonso VI I .
A c harter dated 1 1 5 4 shows
Alfonso VI I ' s so n sanc ho ( the f uture Sancho I I I of cast i le )
conf irming po s se ssions and r ig ht s said to have been granted
to the bisho p of Osma by Alfonso VI I .
According to the
text , the bi shop of osma held rights in nearby Soria whi c h
inc luded a tenth o f moneta . 2 5
A second version o f the
conf irmation exi st s in the name of Alfonso VI I I , dated
1 1 74 .
Though t he two texts are a lmost identica l , there are
several notable difference s .
First , the text assigned to
sanc ho I I I emphasizes that it was a conf irmation of a l l
properties and right s original ly granted to osma by the
emperor Alfo nso VI I .
Alfo nso VI I I ' s c harter doe s not
cont ain these lines re ferring to the emperor , whic h seems
an odd omi s s io n .
secondly , and more important ly , the
passage whic h details the pro perty and right s held by Osma
in Soria makes more sense in Alfonso VI I I ' s grant than it
does ln the one assigned to sanc ho I I I .
In the c harter of Alfonso VI I I , the possessions in
Soria are def i ned as :
( T ) he church of san Pedro o f Soria with all it s
heredidates and pert inences ; and that dam ( presam ) in
the Duero whic h is below t he large bridge in Soria ,
I
2 5 Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 2 5 -2 8 no . 1 2 .
378
inc luding both sides o f the river , with it s water mills
and ( other ) mi lls and land and all its pert i nences ; and
a tenth of all to l ls and from al l labor owed the king,
and from tribute ( pect a ) , t he fifth , shie ld money , and
from all royal revenues , and from moneta and from the
baths ; and the churc h of t he Santa Maria of Bo lmaio ,
with all its heredidates and pertinences ; and a tenth
from c ultivated fields a nd vine s ; and that village
whic h i s c alled Gomara , with all it s di strict s . 26
According to Gonzale z , the s ame passage in the grant
purported to belong to sanc ho I I I reads , " that c hurc h .1.n
the Duero ( ecclesiam i l l am in Dorio ) whic h is be low the
large bridge in Soria " instead o f " and that dam in the
Duero ( et presam ill am in Dorio) . " 2 7
Clear ly the
Alphonsine text is the way t he pas sage should read .
If
Gonzalez did not make a mi stake in his transcription o f the
charter attributed to Sanc ho I I I , the document i s at best a
corrupt copy of an act of that r uler .
There is another odd phase in the grant of sanc ho I I I ,
however , that makes it s authentic ity suspect .
At the end
of the pas sage regarding Soria , after naming the right to
2 6 " ( E ) c c lesiam Sancti Petri de Soria cum omnibus suis
hereditatibu s et perti nenc ii s ; et presam illam in Dorio que
est subt us maiorem pontem in Soria integram ex utraque
f luminis parte , cum azeni i s et mo lendini s et so laribus et
omni bu s suis pertinencii s ; et decimam de omni po rtatico et
de omni labore regio , et de pecti s et quinti s , et
fossaderii s , et de omni reddit u regio , et de moneta , et de
balnei s ; et ecclesiam sancte Marie de Bolinaio c um omnibus
suis hereditatibus et pertinenciis ; et decimam de sernis et
vineis ; et vil lam que dicitur Gomera cum omnibus s ui s
terminis . " I bid . , 2 : 3 4 7- 4 9 no . 2 1 1 .
2 7 For an analogous grant of a dam with it s mi l l s , see
Alfonso VI I I ' s grant to the archdeacon of Plasencia of
" unam pres sam in Placentia , in r ivo qui dicitur Serit , . . .
cum mo lendino et aceniis ibi constructis et construe ndi s . "
Ibid . , 2 : 8 5 0 - 5 2 no . 4 9 4 .
379
I
the vi llage of Gomara , the text adds , " and the house s whic h
are in front of the c hurc h o f San Pedro of Soria .
" 2a
Thi s
line doe s not appear i n the charter of Alfonso VI I I .
Po s sibly , by Alfonso VI I I ' s time the se houses had changed
hands or had been destroyed and so were not inc luded in hi s
grant .
But in the text assigned to sanc ho , the phrase
regarding the ho uses seems glaring ly out of place in t he
overall pas sage .
one wo uld expect to find it after the
re ference to the churc h of st . Peter itself , before the
text moves on to treat the propertie s of the c hurc h of
Bo lmaio and those in Gomara .
Placed where it is , it seems
very muc h as if the author of the grant attributed to
Sanc ho was copying from the text of Alfonso VI I I ' s grant
and added the clause about the houses as an aftertho ught at
the end .
This combined with t he po s sible conf usion of
ecclesi am for et presam must c ast the integrity of the
c harter of sancho I I I in doubt .
It may we ll be a forgery
based on the grant of Alfonso VI I I .
I t was perhaps
intended to add weight to osma ' s c laims in these areas by
demo nstrating that the privi lege s were originally granted
by the emperor , Alfonso VI I .
These problems aside , the grant to osma is unusual in
one further re spec t ; it give s the bi shop of osma right s to
moneta in another town , i . e . , Soria .
There can be no
mistaking that moneta here appl ie s to mint revenues and not
2 8 I bid . , 2 : 2 5 - 2 8 no 1 2 .
380
I
t he col lection of monet agi um .
The c harter goes on to
define o sma • s po s ses sions and rights throughout the
dioc ese , inc luding in osma itself , in Gormaz and in
Ber l an ga .
Two revenue s are not mentioned again outs ide
Soria , income from moneta and i nc ome from the public baths .
These were o perations peculiar o nly to that town .
Why was the mint loc ated i n Soria and not in Osma , the
seat o f the bi shopric , as was the norm?
Soria was said to
have protected the young Alfonso VI I I during the years o f
hi s minority and perhaps the king established a mint there
as reward for the town ' s loyalty . 2 9
In addition , Soria was
c lo ser to the border of Navarre and Aragon than Osma and
thus may have been better placed to intercept foreign coin
entering the kingdom .
Regardl e s s of the mint ' s location ,
however , the bishop of O sma was al lotted a share of the
revenue and it was his mark that appeared on the coin .
both the eque strian coin and the burga les,
o
on
was used as a
symbo l . 30
Avila and Plasencia
In 1 1 7 6 , Alfonso granted t he bisho p of Avila " an
entire t hird o f all the royal revenues in Avila , " inc luding
(
2 9 It is tempting to see t he dam and water-mills on
the Duero in Soria as somehow making it a logical mint
s ite , but hydr aulic power was not a prerequi site for
striking c oin .
3 0 Domingo F iguero la , " Privi legios , " 2 1 6 , suggested
that the mint was actual ly transferred f rom Soria to Osma ,
but this doe s not seem warranted by the documentat io n .
38 1
that " from moneta . . 3 1
.
This i s the f ir st notice in the
so urces to mone t a in Avila . 3 2
That the grant referred to
mint pro f its is made c lear by the appearance of an A on the
burgales, though the e ar lier equestrian coin c arries no
such mark .
The po ssibility of a mint in the town of
Plasencia is mor e complex .
In the lat e 1 1 8 0 s , Alfonso VI I I promoted sett lement of
the area to the so uthwes t of Avi la , on the other side of
the sierra de Gredos .
A royal grant o f 1 1 8 6 was recorded
as done in " the c ity of Ambrosia , in the day s of the
fo unding of that same c ity . .. 3 3
town of Plasenc i a .
Ambrosia wo uld become the
I t was a bo ld sett lement o n the king of
Castile ' s part f or the town was not only c lo se to Muslim­
occ upied territory ( the Almohads had j us t taken nearby
3 1 " ( T ) erc iam partem integram de omnibus regalibus
Avi le redditibus . . . de monetis . " Alfonso VII I , 2 : 4 0 0- 4 0 1
no . 2 4 1 .
32 I n 1 1 4 2 , Alfonso VI I appears to have given the
bi shop o f Avi l a a third of the profits from the royal mi lls
in the town , whi c h Alfonso VI I I makes s pec ial note of in
hi s charter .
I n 1 1 4 4 , Alfonso VII gave the bi shop a tenth
of all his other " reddit um " in the dioce se . He listed many
of the same reve nues as Alfonso VI II , but did not ment io n
moneta . Alfonso VI I I ' s grant of a f ul l-third may have been
inspired by a dubious , undated c harter of Alfonso VI I whic h
claims to give t he see a f ul l third of all revenue s . This
also does not mention moneta . For Alfonso VII ' s grant s of
1 1 4 2 and 1 1 4 4 , see Barrio s Garc ia , Avil a , 4 - 7 no s . 4 - 5 .
For Alfo sno VI I ' s undated grant of a t hird , see Angel
Barrios Garci a , La c atedral de Avi la en la edad media :
E structura socioj uridic a y econ6mic a ( Avila , 1 9 7 3 ) , 1 0 1 102 .
3 3 Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 7 7 8- 7 7 9 no . 4 5 4 .
I
382
Cacere s i n 1 1 8 4 ) , it was also i n a corner o f the frontier
already conte sted by Leo n and Portugal . 34
Much like Avila and Zamora had been placed under the
directio n of t he bisho p of Salamanca when they were still
bare ly popul ated in the early part of the century, the new
diocese of Plasenc ia was now put under t he care of the
bi shop o f Avi la . 3 5
A charter o f Alfonso VI I I , dated
January 1 1 8 7 , awarded the bishop of Avila the ri ght to a
third of all royal revenue s in P lasenc ia .
The text is by
and large a verbatim copy of the c harter of 1 1 7 6 by whic h
Alfo nso had given Avila a third of royal revenue in Avi l a .
Fol lowing that older text , the c harter of 1 1 8 7 list s mone ta
as one of the revenues the bis ho p of Avi la could expect
from Plasenc ia . 3 6
Can this be taken as proof that a new
mint was ope ned in the frontier town or was moneta somehow
inadvertently copied into the grant ?
Trouble over the bisho p of Avi la ' s right s in
P lasencia , in particular his f in ancial c laim s , f lared up
almo st immediate ly .
By June of 1 1 8 8 , clement I I I addres sed
a letter to the archdeacon , clergy and people of P lasenc ia
saying that the bishop of Avila had brought it to hi s
attention that P lasenc ia had f ai led to give the bi shop his
episcopal dues .
I
Clement ordered that they make full
3 4 F letcher , Epi scopate , 3 4 .
3 5 see , in genera l , B arrios Garci a , Avi la , 2 6 - 3 0 no s .
2 9-3 5 .
3 6 Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 7 9 5- 9 7 no . 4 6 4
383
payment to Avil a and hencefort h obey t heir bi shop . 3 7
Two
years later , i n 1 1 9 0 , the di spute was sti l l not sett led and
C lement directed the bishops of Burgo s and oviedo to
intervene .
I n thi s later letter , Clement corroborates the
fact that Avi l a was due a third of royal revenue in
Plasenc i a .
Though he does not specific ally li st these
revenues , he gives some furt her insight into the
arrangement , explaining that muc h of t he c oloniz ation of
Pl asencia had been undertaken by people from the see o f
Avila and that as long as the bi shop o f Avila was alive he
wo uld exercise full power there . 3 B
Perhaps , then , a mint
was opened in P lasencia with moneyer s from Avila or perhaps
it was trans ferred altogether from Avi la to Pl asencia .
Some years later , Alfonso IX of Leon would make a very
similar dec i sio n regarding his mint at ci udad Rodrigo . 3 9
To
the extent that the Crown of cast i le had an overall
minting strategy , a site in Plasencia made sense .
The
mint s at Calahorra , Soria and Siglienz a were placed in what
seems like a de liberate line running north to south along
castile ' s border with Navarre and Aragon .
The se sites may
have been chosen ln an attempt to he lp i ntercept foreign
coin as it cro ssed the border .
calahorra , in partic ular ,
3 7 Barrio s Garc ia , Avila, 2 7 no . 3 1 .
3 8 I bid . , 2 8 -2 9 no . 3 4 . The archdeacon o f Plasencia,
Pedro , was in f act a former member of the Bi shop of Avila ' s
communit y . Alfo nso , in a grant of 1 1 8 8 c a l l s him
" P lacentino archdiacono et archipresbitero Abulens i . "
Alfonso VII I , 8 5 0- 52 no . 4 9 4 .
3 9 see the sec tion on ciudad Rodrigo below .
38 4
I
was in the heart of territory contested by the king of
Navarre and very near the Navarrese town o f Tude la , whic h
may have sti l l had an active mint .
Private charters from
the di strict of Calahorra occasional ly hint that Castilian
and Navarrese denarii competed side by side . 4 0
In the same
way , P la senc ia in the southwest was c lo s e to the borders of
Leon , Port ugal and Almohad Andalusia .
Avila ' s c l aim to minting profits i n Pl asencia ,
therefore , appears to be the second instance where a bisho p
enj oyed such revenue o ut side the seat o f h i s bishopric .
If
Plasencia and Avila minted simultaneous ly , they may have
both used t he mark of A .
There i s no evidence that
Plasenc ia retained its mint privileges after receiving its
40 For the money o f Tudela , see three purc hase s made
by the Templar s c . l l 4 6 - 4 7 in " so lido s t ute lane monete . "
( Ubieto , " Doc umentos , " part 1 , 1 1 9 - 2 1 no s . 6 -8 . ) It i s not
clear whether the Tude la mint cont inued in t he late twelfth
centur y , but t here are s igns that Navarrese coin circu lated
within in Calahorra . A private purc hase of 1 1 9 9 was paid
in " so lidos de bonos dineros sangete s , " mo ney of Sancho VI
( 1 1 5 4- 9 4 ) or s ancho VI I ( 1 1 9 4- 1 2 3 4 ) of Navarre . An undated
cart ulary doc ument records a purchase in " so lido s
alfonsinis , " pre s umably indicating money o f castile .
Finally , in 1 2 1 1 , ho uses were let in t he town of Alf aro ,
midway between Calahorra and Tudela , f or a yearly rent in
" solidos de dinero s de qualque moneda f uere firmada en
Alfaro . " See Rodriguez de Lama , Rio j a , 3 : 1 6 1 no . 3 8 1 , 1 6 7
no . 3 9 0 , 2 2 8 no . 4 52 .
During Alfonso VII I ' s time , the frontier with Navarre
was anything but peaceful , which would have contributed to
the mixed c irc ulat ion .
See Ce lestine I I I ' s letter of 1 1 9 2
to the bis ho p of Calahorra regarding t he war s that plagued
his dioce se ( Rodriguez de Lama , Rio j a , 3 : 1 0 3- 1 0 4 , no . 3 2 3 ) .
I
38 5
I
own bi shop , which occ urred by 1 2 1 7 . � 1
Avila , however ,
cont inued as a mint town into the fifteenth century . 4 2
cuenca
cuenca lie s a lmo st exact ly as far so uth as P lasenc ia ,
but in the eastern region of the peninsula .
The town ,
occupied by Almo had forces , fe ll to Alfonso VI I I in 1 1 7 7
after a long siege .
By 1 1 8 2 , Luc i us I I I recog ni zed the
diocese of cuenc a and the election of its first bi sho p ,
Juan .
It is often assumed that Alfonso VI I I had
established a mint in the town soon after the conque st . �3
The root of this be lief lies in conf usio n over o ne o f the
symbo l s used on hi s eque strian coin .
4 1 For t he bis ho p of P lasenc ia , see Barr io s Garc ia ,
Avi la , 4 8 , no . 5 3 . Domingo Figuero la , " Privi legios , " 2 1 7 1 8 , insisted that he found an example of a burgales i n the
collection of the Museo Arqueo l6gico Nac ional that
unmistakably had t he letter P . He preferred to give it to
Palencia, believing Plasenc ia probably si gned with an A . I
have examined all t he burgaleses in the collection and
found no such coin . There are , however , coins where the B
of the Burgos mint looks like a P or a D.
4 2 The A mark appears on coins of Alfonso X and later
reigns , though by that time it i s hard to di stinguish it
from the M of Mur ci a .
( The N, H and II marks t hat are
often reported on the coins of Alfonso X are mostly like ly
poorly struck As or Ms . ) See Todesca , "Monetary Hi story , "
1 9 8 - 9 9 . See also Anna M . Balaguer , " Carta de concesi6n de
lo s derechos de la c as a de moneda de Avi la a l a princesa
I sabel ( 1 46 8 ) , " N umi sma 2 8 ( 1 97 8 ) : 5 1 9- 2 9 .
4 3 See Clementine s anz y Diaz , Re sefia cro no loqica de
alguno s documentos conservados en e l arc hivo de la c atedral
See also Julio
de cuenca ( Cuenc a , 1 9 65 ) , 5 no . 1 .
Gonzale z , " Repobl ac i6n de la tierras de cuenc a , " in cuenca
y su territorio en la edad media : Aetas de l I s imp6s io
internacional de hi storia de cuenca ( Madr id , 1 9 82 ) , 1 9 1 .
I
386
By the late thirteenth century , cuenca doe s appear to
have had a mint .
on some of t he coins of Alfonso X , a c up
was used as a mint mark , whi c h seems a c lear allus ion to
that town ' s name .
Thi s cup o f Cuenc a was normal ly depicted
as a bowl with a base attached , making it look like a
chalice . 4 4
In c ataloguing the collection of Vidal Quadr a s ,
Pedrals y Mo line described o ne o f Alfonso VI I I ' s equestrian
coins as having a chalice underneath the hor se and a s s umed
that thi s was evidence for a mint in cuenc a during Alfonso
VI I I ' s reign .
I nexplicably , he never illustrated the coin
though s uc h a mark on this type was ot herwise unknown .
To
this day , the co llection o f Vidal Quadras remains
unavai lable for study and , to my knowledge , Pedral s '
de scription o f the mark has not been verified . 4 5
It seems far more like ly that what Pedrals took for a
chalice on the equestrian coin was in fact a crescent .
A
4 4 The c up symbo l is plainly evident on the MONETA
CASTELLE coin whic h was issued late in the rei gn of Al fonso
X , probably by his son Sancho . The MAN co llection has a
number of clear examples ( MAN 1 0 6 . 1 . 2 4 and 2 8 ) . The symbo l
continued to be used into the late fifteenth c entury , when
Enrique IV ( 1 4 5 4 - 7 4 ) ordered t hat all hi s mint s use the
" letter of the c ity where they are made " with the exception
of segovia which used a bridge ( i . e . the aqueduct ) and
Corufi a which used a sc allop shel l .
See the ordinance of
1 4 7 1 in Cortes de los ant iguo s reinos de Cast i l la , 3 : 8 1 4 ;
Gil y Flores , "Marcas de tal ler , " 3 8 1 .
4 5 see Pedral s y Mo line , c atalogo de vidal Quadras ,
no . 5 3 6 5 . It should be emphasized that the drawing in
Alvarez B urgo s et al . , C at alogo genera l , 2 6 no . 1 3 1 showing
a chalic e on the equestrian c o in is not based on the act ual
piece from the Vidal Quadras c o l lect io n . Thi s is evident
by the inc lusion of a ques tion mark be side the c atalogue
entry .
387
crescent appears on earlier coins of Alfonso VI I and was
used on a second equestrian type which probably dates to
Alfonso VI I I ' s reign . 4 6
Mo st importantly, for the burgales
there is no variety known that is marked by a chalic e , but
there is a variety with a crescent .
Thi s crescent o n the
burgales c an hardly be confu sed for a cup for it i s placed
on its end like a retrograde c or a moon . 4 7
Which o f
Alfonso ' s mint s used t he cresc ent cannot be determined , but
there is no reason to assign it to cuenc a .
With a mint in P lase nc ia in the southwest corner o f
the kingdom, i f Alfonso VI I I a lso established another at
cuenca i n the southeast it wou ld add to the supposition
that the king had some sense of an overall strategy in his
placement of mints .
As attrac tive as the propo s itio n of
mint in Cuenca during hi s reign may be , however , there is
no evidence for it .
Perhaps most telling of all i s the
charter Alfonso granted in 1 1 9 5 to Bisho p Juan of cuenc a .
He endowed the see with a tent h of all royal rents i n
cuenca and other distric t s , but the li st o f revenues did
not inc lude mone ta . 4 B
I
4 6 For thi s related eque strian coin, see catalogue 5 ,
no . 6 be low . For the use o f t he cre sc ent under Alfonso
VI I , see c atalogue 4 , no . 3 a .
4 7 c at logue 5 1 no . 1 0 .
4 8 Alfonso VII I , 3 : 1 4 7- 49 no . 6 4 7 ; cf . Figuerol a ,
" Privi legios , " 2 1 5 .
Marfa Enuna E spoille de Roi z , "Repoblac i6n de la tierra
de cuenca , siglos xii-xvi , " in Cuenca y s u territorio e l la
edad media : Aetas de l I simposio internacional de hi storia
de cuenca ( Madrid , 1 9 8 2 ) 2 0 5 , asserted that Cuenc a was so
important that Alfonso " establece en el su corte y donde
388
I n terms o f the more establi shed C asti lian mints , we
know that Alfonso VI I I confirmed both t he bishop of
segovia ' s mint right as we ll that of the arc hbi shop of
Toledo . � 9
The documents of his reign are si lent regarding
the mint at Burgos , but the fact that o ne of his issue s was
c alled the burga les i s te stament enough that it continued .
In addition , the burgales al so used the letter B as one of
its marks .
The fate o f the mint at Pale nc ia remains
uncert ai n .
Fernando I I clearly intended that the mint open
in 1 1 6 3 , for he af firmed that his unc le , Bishop Ramo n , was
entitled to a third of the profits .
Whi le it seems
unlike ly that Alfonso VI I I would revoke this privi lege from
hi s great- unc le , who served him loyally both during the
minority and afterwards , there is nothing to confirm that a
mint continued to operate there .
so
The diplomatic record , therefore , points to a minimum
of seven mints in Castile under Alfonso VI I I at Siglienza ,
Calahorra, Soria , segovia , Toledo , Burgo s and Avila-
I
permanecera diez aiio s hasta co nso lidar s u conqui sta . " I f
this were true , a royal mint in the town would seem almo st
inevitable , but Alfonso ' s itinerary in t he c harter s does
not support such a conclusio n .
4 9 See the sections o n Segovia and Toledo i n chapter 7
above .
5 0 There i s a charter of 1 1 7 9 that po i nt s to discord
between Ramo n and the townsmen of Palenc ia during the
troubles of Alfonso VI I I ' s minority . Perhaps , town unrest
had shut the mint down . or perhaps it vanished with
Ram6n ' s death in 1 1 8 4 . Abaj o Martin , P alenc i a , 1 6 7- 6 9 no .
8 5 ; Alfonso VII I , 2 : 5 4 7- 4 9 no 3 2 7 ; c f . Lomax , "Don Ramon , "
281 .
389
Plasenc i a .
If we accept that Avila and Plasencia mi nted
simultaneously under one s ignature and that the mint at
Palenc ia also continued to operate , the maximum number of
site s during the reign rises to nine .
The se numbers align
we ll wit h the te stimony of the coins .
Alfonso VI I I ' s
eque strian type is known with six basic marks and the
burgales with seven . s l .
overal l , the mint loc ations that emerge during Alfonso
VI I I ' s rule do not seem haphaz ardly pl aced .
The o lder
mint s at Burgo s , segovia and Toledo formed an axis runni ng
nort h to south down the center o f the kingdom .
To
the
east , Calahorra, Soria , and siglienza formed another line
from north to south along cast ile ' s border with Navarre and
Aragon .
I n the so uthwest , where c astile met Leo n and
Andalusia, there was a mint at P lasenc ia and pos sibly
another furt her north at Avila .
Final ly , more towards the
nort hwes t along the interior border with Leo n , the mint of
Palenc ia may have still operated .
These loc atio ns , then ,
seem we l l spaced both to allow the native populace access
and also to expedite the exc hange of foreign coin for
co inage of the realm alo ng the kingdom ' s borders .
The Denarius in Le6n, 1 1 5 7 - 1 2 3 0
5 1 This exc lude s the E and L mark o n the burgales,
whic h I have assigned to the irnmobil zed phase of t he coin
after Alfonso ' s deat h .
(
390
I
De nari i that can be assigned to Fernando I I of Leo n
are extremely rare today .
The type struck j ointly with hi s
ne phew Alfonso VI I I is the most plentiful .
The combined
co llec tion o f the Hi spanic Soc iety of Americ a and the
Amer ic an Numismatic society cont ains only a single example
of another type -- a denarius which in des ign resembles the
go ld morabetino struck later by hi s son Alfonso
IX . s2
In
addition , the trays of the Museo Arqueol6gico Nacional
contain 1 badly worn sample of a third type reading
FERNANDVS LE O C IVITAS
REX .
53
Finally , there are 2 types in
the name of Fernando reported in Hei ss whic h c an be
assigned to Fernando I I in that they fores hadow type s used
on the bil lo n denarii of his son , Alfonso IX .
Whi le the
co llec tion o f Vidal Quadras was said to cont ain an example
of 1 o f the se 2 types , no ot hers have been published . 54
The scarcity o f Fernando ' s coins in general supports the
hypothesis t hat during the forty-two year reign of his son
o lder is sues were effectively called in .
5 2 Oro l Pernas also published an example of this
piec e .
see catalo gue 6 , no . 1 below .
5 3 Catalogue 6 1 no . 2 . To my knowledge , thi s coin in
the MAN has not been published and I know of no other
reference to thi s partic ular type . While it most likely
be lo ng s to Fernando I I , there is nothing t hat prevents it
from being a s signed one hundred years ear l ier to Fernando
I.
5 4 cat alogue 6 , no s . 3 - 4 . Besides t he f ac t that the 2
types reported by He iss are not in the HSA/ANS and MAN
c o l lections , the ir rar it y can be gauged from Alvarez Burgo s
e t al . , catalogo genera l , 1 9 - 2 0 no s . 8 6 , 8 7 , and 9 1 , who
report no examples of these types in private collections .
r
391
Alfonso IX may have struck a s many a s 6 di stinct
bi llon types , but 2 stand out as the lar ge st i s s ue s .
They
are the only types of hi s that c arry extensive mint
markings .
one of these ( hereafter Alfonso IX type 1 ) reads
ILDEFONS ' REX on the o bverse with a cro s s in the f ield .
The reverse has no legend , only a motif consisting of two
lions with a f loral cro s s rising between them .
The
intric ac ie s of the lions and the branc he s of the cross make
for a complicated de sign which i s often poorly executed .
As a res ult , the marks placed in the upper portion of the
field are hard to decipher .
Nonethe less , within type 1
there appear s to have been 3 to 5 basic varietie s struck .
They are distingui shed by the marks of a star , a crescent ,
an annulet , and po s sibly a solid dot and a sc allo p shell . 55
The second maj or type ( hereafter Alfonso IX type 2 )
reads ANFONS REX on the obverse and di splays a cro s s
adorned with a scallop shell in each quadrant .
The reverse
depict s a lion f ac ing right with t he legend LEO bene at h .
Type 2 i s known i n approximate ly 1 4 varietie s whic h can be
divided into two s ubgroups .
Those be longi ng to the first
group all carry a symbol to the right of the lion ( and at
(
5 5 For a breakdown of the 6 po s s ible types struck by
Alfonso IX , see Todesc a , " Rebellio n , " 3 5 n . 2 0 . For the
coin which I have presently labe led Alfonso IX type 1 , see
c atalo gue 6 , no . 6 below . As an example o f the dif f ic ulty
in reading the marks on Alfonso IX type 1 , see oro l ' s
analysis of the " Coreses " hoard .
It contained 1 9 9 samples
of thi s type , but Orol c at alogued the marks of only 9 3 of
t hem, leaving 1 0 6 as unreadable . oro l , Alfonso I X , 9 6
392
time s above hi s back ) .
used on type 1 .
These symbo l s are close to tho se
They are a star , a crescent , a dot , a
sc al lop she l l , and a cro s s .
The absence o f any symbo l may
also have served as a mark , making a total of 6 varietie s .
Members of t he second group within type 2 use letter s as
marks instead of symbo ls .
eight - - c, 9,
A . s6
E,
L,
o,
There seem to be as many as
R , $ ( S with I superimpo sed ) , and
Alfonso IX types 1 and 2 are the only coins of that
ruler known in the context of hoards .
The " Core se s " hoard
consisted of 1 9 9 samples of type 1 and 8 1 8 of type 2 ( with
both subgroups of type 2 repre sented ) .
The hoard c a lled
" Segovia " is a lso thought to have contained only the se 2
types .
Type s 1 and 2 , the n , were c learly successive
is sues . s 7
There is good reason to believe that they were
Alfonso IX ' s l ast is sues and were subsequently immobilized
by Fer nando I I I when he reunited Leon to c astile in 1 2 3 0 .
Later, when sanc ho IV ( 1 2 8 4 - 9 5 ) sought to restore the o ld
denarii from the days of Fernando I I I , it was these two
type s of Alfonso IX that he irnitated . s a
since the se 2
types are both known with a variety of marking , they are
5 6 see c at alogue 6 , no . 7 below.
57 Two other hoard s , the " M . Mac ia s " hoard and a small
find from Burgos consisted o f examples o f type 2 wit h no
other type s .
For " M . Macias " and " Coreses " see Oro l ,
Alfonso I X , 9 5 - 1 06 . For " Se govia , " see Rueda and saez
Saiz , " Hallazgo s , " no . 4 0 . For the find at Burgos , see
"Hal lazgos monetario s " pt 1 6 , 1 7 7 no . 9 4 6 .
5 8 See Todesc a , " Rebellion , " 4 0- 4 1 .
39 3
useful in he lping to determi ne the mint network established
in Leo n after the lo s s of cast i le in 1 1 5 7 .
New Mint s in Leo n
At the divisio n of the realm in 1 1 5 7 , the kingdom of
Leon had mints i n Leon , salamanc a , santiago , and most
like ly z amora .
How many o f these Fernando I I kept act ive
is hard to tell given the dearth o f surviving coin in hi s
name .
He af firmed the bisho p of salamanca ' s r ight to a
third o f moneta in 1 1 6 7 and by 1 1 86 had begun to strike
gold t here as we ll .
Doc umentary evidence from the reign o f
hi s so n , Alfonso I X , seems t o attest t o the cont inuity of
minting at zamora a s we l l . s 9
We hear nothing s pec ific in
the written source s about the mint at Leon , but it seems
improbable that it would have been c lo sed .
one of Alfonso
IX ' s denarii and po s sibly one of Fernando I I ' s coins
carried a mark of
L . 6o
I n addit io n , Fernando appear s to have reopened a mint
at L ugo within a year of his f ather ' s death, an ac tion
whic h may have been tied to a quarre l with the Arc hbisho p
o f s antiago .
When he later re stored full minting right s to
Santiago in 1 1 7 1 it i s not certain i f Lugo continued to
mint .
F inally , there is c lear evidence that he fo unded a
new mint on the so uthern frontier of the kingdom at ci udad
and
I
5 9 For the doc umentary evidence relating to Salamanc a
Zamora , see the appropriate section in chapter 7 above .
6 0 see c atalogue 6 , no s . 4 and 7 h below.
394
a
Rodrigo . 6 1
I t i s pos sible , then , that there were as many
as six mints active during his rule , t ho ugh this c annot be
corroborated by the smal l number of surviving coins whic h
c arry few mint marks .
Alfonso IX type 1 was is sued wit h as many as five
different marks .
Al l the known marks on type
1
are
symbo l s ; s ingle letter s do not seem to have been used .
Alfonso IX t ype 2 , however , was struck wit h approximately
fourteen dif ferent marks .
and eight were letters .
six o f thes e marks were symbo ls
Rather than c o ntending that
Alfonso IX type 2 was produced in some fourteen different
mint s , it i s more probable that the two s ubgro ups represent
succes sive i ss ue s within the same type .
A logic al
sequence , then , is that type 1 was s tr uc k first using
symbo l s as mint marks , fol lowed by type 2 a which retained,
more or le s s , the same symbo ls , followed f inally by type 2 b
on which the mints converted to a system o f letter s .
If
this i s so , then Alfonso was striking at a pproximate ly
eight mint s by the time of his death .
Santiago and L a corufia
There are more royal doc uments touching on the mint at
S antiago de Compostela 1n the twelfth cent ury than any
other , testi f ying that the see ' s c l aim to f ul l moneta was a
contin ua l so urce of tension with the c rown .
I
Fernando I I ' s
6 1 For L ugo and santiago , see c h apter 7 above .
mint at Ciudad Rodrigo i s disc ussed be low .
The
395
grant of 1 1 8 2 had al lowed Santiago t o lgnore royal
mutations of coinage but had confi ned the c irc ulation of
santiago ' s c oin to within the border s of the archdioce se . 6 2
In 1 1 8 8 , the f ir st year of his reign , Alfonso IX confirmed
the privilege s of com�ste la and i nc luded it s right to " the
entire money of the c ity of Com� ste l a . " 6 3
In a charter of
1 1 9 4 , he s uc c inctly summed up the hi story of the mint to
date .
He conf irmed the right of t he bisho p and chapter to
the money of your city and the e nt ire land of st .
Jame s , whic h your predecessors h ad held for a long time
by an old concession o f my great grandfather and which
my gloriou s father the lord king Fernando aftenvards
And so that yo u and
re stored to you and yo ur c hurc h .
the church of Com� stela as we l l a s yo ur succe ssor s
shal l ho ld thi s forever with a l l l iberty and without
any dif f ic ulty or impedime nt , I c o nc ede to you . . . the
freedom of your officials whom you select to ma�e the
dies of your mo ney . 64
Alfonso ' s reference to the " mo ne y of the c ity and of
the entire l and of st . James " recogn i z ed that within the
boundaries o f the diocese , the see e n j oyed complete freedom
over its coinage .
I
Thi s may have been hi s last recognition
62 The c harter of 1 1 82 lS di sc us sed in c hapter 8
above .
6 3 Alfonso I X , 2 : 1 2 - 1 5 no . 5 .
6 4 I bid . , 2 : 1 2 2 - 2 4 no . 8 2 . Thi s c harter of 1 1 9 4 i s
copied i n the c artulary of santiago known a s Turnbo B . The
same c artulary contains a document , dated June 1 1 9 3 , in
whic h Alfonso IX is said to grant the see of compo stela the
right to mint gold ( 1 04 - 1 0 5 no . 6 9 ; c f . s antiago , 5 :
appendix , 1 3 - 1 4 no 4 ) . The veracity o f this privi lege of
1 1 9 3 concerning gold , however , seems doubtful . Alfonso IX
does not mention gold coinage in his s ubsequent
confirmation of santiago ' s right s in 1 1 9 4 ( de s pite
Gonzalez ' s notatio n to the contrary ) a nd the o nly
morabetino s known of Alfonso I X di splay the Roman bridge of
Salamanc a on t he rever se .
396
I
of suc h a privi lege .
An undated mandate o f Alfonso
addres sed to " al l of Galic ia " indicate s that at some point
hi s policy c hanged :
I firmly a nd openly command that all sha l l receive my
current mo ney j ust as you wo uld at any time receive a
better o ne . And he who shall hence do otherwi se , shal l
forfeit himself and al l hi s posses sions to me . ��d I
command that my man who c arrie s this mandate of mine ,
along with the man o f the archbi sho p , should seize the
of fender , deprive him ( o f his belongings ) and in t hi s
way bri ng him before me . 6 5
Al fonso may have been insi sting that his coin be
accepted in Galicia alongside the independent coin of
santiago .
More like ly , he was demanding that hi s coin be
the only coin i n Galic ia .
significant ly , when Alfonso sold
hi s co inage at Benavente i n 1 2 02 , everyone i n the kingdom
was expected to pay .
This would further imply that the
immunity of the mint at Sant iago from royal contro l had
been revoked .
By the time of the produc tion o f Alfonso IX
type 2 b , whi c h we have s uggested was the last i s sue of the
reign , the Santiago mint participated as j ust another royal
mint .
The mark o f $ on type 2 b c lear ly stood f or Sanc t us
Iacobus .
I n addition , a new mint at the near - by port o f La
corufia may have already been infringing upon t he pro sperity
r
65 " Mando vobi s f irmiter et incauto quod toti
recipiatis i st am meam monetam que modo c urret sicut unquam
earn me lius recepist i s . Et qui inde aliud fecerit ,
firfectosus meu s erit de corpore et de quanto habuerit . Et
nado ist i homini meo qui levat istas mae s litteras , quod
cum homine arc hiepicopi prendt a ei corpus et rec abdet ei
corpus quomodo appareat ante me . " Alfonso IX , 2 : 7 3 3 no .
653 .
397
of t he Santiago mint and event ually wo uld supplant it
entire ly .
I n the ear ly thirteenth centur y , Alfonso I X was
working to bring life to the port of L a Corufia , located
slight ly to the north of compostela .
I n 1 2 0 8 , he granted
the c hurc h of santiago 1 0 0 marks annual ly from the port azgo
of L a corufia along with churches and other property in
compensation for the people santiago had lost in re­
popu lating the port . 6 6
When exactly a mint was opened in
La corufia is difficult to determine .
We know that by the
time o f Enrique IV ' s ordinance of 1 4 7 1 , La Corufia was a
mint town using the sc al lop shell as it mark . 67
The sc allop shel l appear s as a mark on Alfonso IX type
2a and was po s sibly used as a mark on Alfonso IX type 1 as
we ll .
s ince it is the traditional symbo l of the pilgrim ,
the sc allop shell on t he se i ssue s may have denoted the mint
at S antiago it se lf .
By the time of Alfonso IX type 2 b ,
however , when the symbol s had given way to letters , we f ind
the marks of $ and c.
Oro l was probably correct in
suggesting that c here stood for La corufia . 6 8
If this i s
true , i t would indic ate that both sant iago and L a corufia
partic ipated i n this i s s ue .
E ither they operated
simu ltaneo us ly , or po s s i bly during the production of type
I
6 6 Alfonso I X , 2 : 3 1 8 - 3 2 0 no . 2 3 1 ; c f . 3 2 0 - 2 3 no s . 2 3 2
and 2 3 4 .
6 7 Gil y Flore s , " Marc as de taller , " 3 8 1 .
6 8 oro l , Alfonso I X , 4 3 .
398
2 b Alfonso shut do\� the mint at compo stela and al lowed La
Cor ufia to strike using the new mark of c.
Abolishi ng the mint at santiago was long overdue .
It
had been nothing but trouble to the crown sinc e Alfonso VI
al lowed Diego Gelmirez to brow beat him into granting the
see full lordship .
I f the mint there was not shut down
during Alfonso IX ' s lifetime , it almo st certainly c losed
at some point in the cour se of the thirteent h cent ur y and
La Corufia was eventually ass igned the symbo l of the sc allop
she l l . 6 9
c i udad Rodrigo
The territory of ciudad Rodri go appear s to have been
contro lled by the church of Salamanc a from 1 1 3 5 unti l 1 1 6 1 .
I n 1 1 6 1 , Fernando I I sought to establi sh it as an
i nde pe ndent bi shopric under the archdiocese of santi ago .
According to his c harter addre ssed to santiago that year ,
the king desired that the new bishop of ciudad Rodri go
e n j o y the same share o f royal revenues in the new diocese
a s Salamanca enj oyed in it s own diocese . 7 o
Though the
perc entage of the share is here unnamed , Salamanca had long
been entit led to a third of royal income .
I n a charter of
1 1 6 8 , Fernando referred generally to the bishop of C i udad
I
6 9 For the scallop shell on is s ues of the later­
thirteenth century , see Tode sc a , " Mo netary History , " 1 9 8 203.
See al so Antonio oro l Pernas , " Ordenaci6n cronol6gic a
de las ac ufiac ione s corufie sa s de Alfonso X I , " Nurnisma
( 19 72 ) , 3 5 9 .
7 0 Santiago , 4 : appendix , 7 8 - 8 0 no . 30 .
" C O
.) - -
Rodrigo ' s right to a third of " pec ta as well as pedagio and
al l fine s and all other revenues and the fifth
.
..
71
several
year s later , in 1 1 7 5 , Alexander I I I recognized the new see
of ciudad Rodrigo and mentioned that the bishop had
received , by grant of Fernando , the right to a third of all
royal heredi ta tes and revenue s , inc l uding moneta . 7 2
A
later ac t of Alfonso IX reveals that thi s reference to
moneta was indeed to mint revenue s .
It is not c lear ,
however , if the mint at ciudad Rodri go remained open or if
it was shut down when Alfonso IX o pe ned a mint at near-by
castell Rodr igo .
castel l Rodrigo
I n 1 2 0 9 , around the time he was working to build up La
corufia , Alfonso IX also sett led an area along the
Port ugue se frontier whic h was called c aste ll Rodrigo .
In a
charter of that year he def ined the extent of the new
district .
Bordered by the river s Duero to the north , coa
to t he west and Turrones and Agueda in the east , the
7 1 " ( T ) am de petit io quam de pedagio , tam de
c alumpniis vel de alii s omnibus reddit ibus et de quint i s . "
Gonz a le z , Fernando I I , 4 0 2 .
7 2 " Ex donatione predicti regi s : tertiam partem
portatic i , tertiam partem de quint i s , terc iam partern
rnonetae et tertiam partern omnium hereditaturn et reddituum. "
see a l so Fletcher ,
S ahagun , 4 : 3 5 0- 3 5 2 no . 1 3 82 .
Epi scopate , 3 4 - 3 7 .
400
sett lement lay to the northwest o f Ciudad Rodrigo . 7 3
In
1 2 1 2 , Alfonso conceded to Bi shop Martin of ciudad Rodr igo :
A third part of the to lls of that sett lement which was
newly made in castel l Rodr igo , and a third part of the
f ifth ( quinti s ) and a third part of moneta when it
shall be made there . Al l this I give to you and your
church so that you shall hold what is written here j ust
as in ciudad Rodr igo . 74
Alfonso ' s charter states unequivoc a l ly that mo ney was
to be struck in the new sett lement . 7 S
By inference , it
also co nf irms that a mint had exi sted in ciudad Rodrigo
before thi s time .
As with the c ase of Avi la and Plasenc ia
in c astile , it is impo s sible to tell if Alfonso IX ' s
intentio n was to transfer the mint from the episcopa l seat
at c iudad Rodrigo to t he new settlement of castell Rodrigo
or to al low a mint in eac h loc al .
I f the later was the
c as e , both mint s may have operated under the R mark that
appear s on Alfonso ' s t ype 2 b .
I
7 3 Alfonso I X , 2 : 3 4 7 - 4 8 no 2 5 4 .
See also Alfonso ' s
exchange of land with the mi litary order o f san Julian del
Pereiro that same month so as to e st ablish Caste ll Rodrigo .
( 3 4 6 - 4 7 no . 2 5 3 ) on the Order of S an Julian, see further
Jo seph F . O ' Callaghan, " The Foundation of the Order of
Alc antara , 1 1 7 6- 1 2 1 8 , " The c at ho lic Hi storic al Review 4 7
( 1 96 2 ) : 471 -86 .
7 4 " ( T ) ertiam partem portatici de i l la populat io ne
quam de novo fec i in C aste llo Roderici , et tertima partem
de quint is et tertiam partem de mo neta quand illam ibi
fecerint . omnia haec do vobis et ecces iae ve ste sicut
supradictum est , sicut i l l a habetis in c ivitate Roderici . "
Alfonso IX , 2 : 3 5 2- 5 3 no . 2 5 8 .
7 5 Both Gras sott i and orol misread the charter as
Alfonso conf irming mint rights in ciudad Rodrigo itself .
See Gra s sotti , " E l pueblo , " 1 66 ; orol , Alfonso I X , 1 2 5- 2 6
no . 5 .
40 1
a
oviedo
one spur ious doc ument from t he late eleventh century
whic h refers to menc ales of " auro obetensi s " has inspired
the theory that a mint may have existed in oviedo since the
time o f Alfo nso VI . 7 6
De spite the f ac t that oviedo had
traditionally been a f avored royal residence of the Leonese
ki ng s , and that Bi shop Pelayo of oviedo was a staunc h ally
of Alfonso VI and hi s daughter Urrac a , there i s no other
di plomatic evidence pointing to the existenc e of a mint
there in the e ar ly twe lfth century .
however , does c arry a mark of
o
Alfonso IX type 2 ,
and it is certainly
po s s ib le that this monarch c ho se to establish a mint in
that c ity . 77
7 6 The wil l of count Pedro Ans ilrez survive s in the
o f the c athedral of Leon , whic h was redacted c . l 1 2 4 .
Thi s c artulary copy li st among the count ' s donations 3 0 0
" metkales de auro obetensis monete . "
( ACL , 4 : 5 5 7- 5 9 no .
1 2 62 . )
This sole reference led to s pe culation that Alfonso
VI may have minted gold dinars at oviedo . See J . A . Serrano
Redonnet , " Ovetensis Monete , " CHE ( 1 9 4 4 ) , 1 5 6 - 8 9 ; Anna M .
B alague r , " La moneda de oviedo : oro o ve llo n ? " in Primera
reunion hispano-portuguesa ( Avile s , 1 9 8 3 ) , 6 1 - 6 6 . While it
is not prepo sterous that Alfonso V I struck go ld , it seems
best to ascribe this oddity to a scribal error . The
original was perhaps "metkale s de a uro obtimo monete . "
Indeed , for conf irming Pedro ' s testame nt , the same doc ument
records that Alfonso VI received a " va s aureum o bt imum . "
7 7 orol , Alfonso I X , 5 2 - 5 5 . Benj amin G arcia Alvare z ,
"Los dineros de ve ll6n de Alfonso I X con la ceca o . l Son de
Oviedo ? " Numisma 3 4 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 2 9 1 - 9 4 and E nrique cepa de l
Valle , " Ac uiiac i6n de moneda en Ast urias durante la ectad
media , " Numi sma 3 4 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 2 9 5- 3 0 7 , both publi s hed
additio nal examples of Alfonso IX type 2 with an o mark ,
but add litt le to orol ' s c at alogue .
Turnbo
I
402
orense and Astorga
In his ana lysi s of the " Core se s " hoard , orol found 5
examples o f Alfonso IX type 2 whic h appear to have the
letter A for a mark .
He proposed that the letter stood for
either Astorga or orense ( A uria ) , both episcopal sees .
While there is no diplomatic evidence to s upport the
existence of a mint in either town , oro l ' s explanation of
the A mark is not unreasonable .
Of the two town s , orense ,
on the border with Portugal , may have been the more likely
cite for a mint .
The see was a suffragan of Braga in
Portugal and the kings o f Leon therefore strove to insure
that men elected as bi shop of orense were al lies of their
cause .
Beside s the predilection for placi ng mints near the
border , if the crown o f Leon allowed a mint in orense and
shared the profit with t he loc al bisho p , it may have he lped
�nsure hi s continued loyalty . 7 8
Based on the exi sting royal document s , we have arrived
at likely attributions for five of the e ight letters that
appear on Alfonso IX type 2 b -- $ c lear ly stood for
santiago , c probably s tood for La corufia , R was either
ciudad Rodrigo or Caste l l Rodrigo or perhaps both ,
o
may
have indicated oviedo and A most likely was the mark of
orense ( A uria ) .
Of these five mints , sant iago may be the
only o ne that date s back to before the divis ion of the
I
7 8 orol , Alfonso I X , 4 3 -4 4 , 9 6 . For the deve lopment
of both bisho pric s , see F letcher , Epi scopate , 4 5 - 5 0 .
403
realm in 1 1 5 7 .
The remaining three letter marks on Alfonso
E,
IX type 2 b, 9,
and
L,
probably stood for the other more
establi s hed mint s of the kingdom o f Leon .
The � mark
should logic al ly be as signed to zamora , whic h we know
operated under Alfonso IX but seems to have been
establi s hed during t he reign of Alfonso VI I .
proposal that
E
orol ' s
( for Extremadura ) designated the Sa lamanc a
mint again seems sound .
Salamanc a struc k go ld morabetinos
for Alfonso IX and we can safely assume that it also struck
bil lon thro ugh hi s relgn .
The
L
mark oro l interpreted as
Lugo , but reason dict ates that it be ass igned to the town
of Leo n .
The Lugo mint probably had not s urvived the reign
of Fernando I I . 7 9
In the later twe lfth century , both the crowns of Leo n
and castile appear to have c ho sen the location of their new
mint s with a more de liberate sense of purpose than had been
typical of royal po licy in the pas t .
Before the separation
of the realm in 1 1 5 7 , Alfonso VI , urraca and Alfonso VI I
had been content to e stablish their mint s in epi scopal
towns .
I
This po l ic y made sense in that the seat of the
7 9 see Oro l , Alfonso IX , 4 6 - 5 2 . Alfonso IX ' s ver sion
of the morabetino shows the bridge of salamanc a on the
reverse . For go ld at salamanc a under Alfonso IX , see also
the series of purc hases made by the chapter at S alamanca in
"morabetini de domino Alfo sno regi s " in the 1 2 2 0 s . Martin ,
Salamanca , 2 4 6- 5 9 nos . 1 6 0 - 6 1 , 1 6 3- 6 4 , 1 6 6 , 1 7 3 . For the
diplomatic evidence re lating to minting at Z amora under
Alfonso IX , see chapter 7 above .
404
a
local bi shop was normal ly the more pro s perous town in a
g1ven di strict .
I n addition , by granting the bishop a
share in the mint prof it , the crown gained a loc al partner
who had a financ ial interest in the mint ' s smooth
operatio n .
Prior to 1 1 5 7 , the crown diver ged from thi s
pattern only onc e , when Urraca founded a mint at the
mo nastery of S ahagun during her wars against Arago n .
The divi sion o f the realm seems t o have compelled the
heir s of Alfonso VI I to compensate for t he reduced number
of mints in their separate domains by opening additional
site s .
I n so do ing , both government s attached at le ast
some importance to placing mints in strategic location s ,
partic ularly along t he ir borders with ot her kingdoms .
When
convenient , mint s were still placed in e pi scopal see s such
as at calahorra , on the border with Navarre , but neither
crown restricted itself as s uc h .
I n castile , for example ,
Soria was chosen as a mint town over the seat of the loc al
bishop at Osma perhaps bec ause it was be tter situated to
intercept commercial traffic from Aragon and Navarre .
Nonetheles s , the bis ho p of Osma was sti l l granted a portion
of the mint at Soria .
A better illustr at io n of thi s more ref ined mint
strategy c an be seen i n what transpired sout h of Salamanc a ,
where the kingdoms o f Portugal , Leon , castile and the
domain of the Almo hads all converged .
I
Until 1 1 5 7 ,
Salamanc a had been the southern mo st Leone se mint in thi s
area .
In 1 1 6 1 , Fernando I I of Leon sought to further
405
sett le the area be low Salamanc a by est abli shi n g an
inde pendent diocese centered around the to\v.n o f ciudad
Rodrigo .
By 1 1 7 5 , when Alexander I I I recogni zed the new
bi shop of ciudad Rodrigo , the town had a mint .
By 1 1 7 6 ,
Alfo nso VI I I o f castile established a mint in Avila, c lose
by both the new Leonese mint of ciudad Rodrigo a nd the
o lder one at salamanc a .
If the mint at Avi la was deliberately inte nded to
compete with Salamanca and ciudad Rodrigo , Alfonso VI I I ' s
encroachment did not stop there .
In the 1 1 8 0 s , he pushed
f urther southwest and by 1 1 8 7 co lo nized Plasenci a on the
other side o f the mo untains from ciudad Rodr igo .
He
prompt ly set up a new mint i n this frontier outpost .
While
it is not clear that he al lowed the mint at Avi l a to
continue , he did a llow the bis ho p of Avi la a s hare i n the
Pl asencia mi nt .
Alfonso VI I I ' s efforts i n c l aiming thi s section of the
frontier for casti le hampered expansion southward by his
younger co usin , Al fonso IX of Leon , who succeeded Fernando
II in 1 1 88 .
I n the opening years of the thirteent h
cent ury , therefore , Alfonso IX tur ned in a new direc tion .
He colonized caste l l Rodrigo , an area slight ly to the
northwest of ciudad Rodrigo whic h infringed on Portuguese
territory and opened a mint there .
Likewi se , Alfonso IX
probably opened a mi nt at hi s colony of La Corufia on the
I
Galician coast , whi c h eventua l ly supplanted the mint at
compostela .
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TE N
QUOD OMNES TANGIT: NE W POLICIES
AT THE DAWN OF THE THIRTEE NTH CENTURY
A Native Gold currency
I bn Mardanl sh , known as el Rey Lobo in the Christian
so urces , was the last of t he Alrnoravid-taifa princes to
hold out against the Alrnohad c onquest of al-Andalus .
Consequent ly , he was the l ast Mus l im authority to strike
the gold morabetino .
Very soo n after Lobo ' s death i n 1 1 7 2 ,
Alfo nso VI I I of cast ile began to strike hi s own ver s io n of
the gold morabetino , the morabetino alfonsin .
According to
Gonzalez P alencia, a Moz ar abic text of Toledo refers to
Alphonsine gold in 1 1 7 3 , but the ear liest known examples of
the Castilian coin appear to be dated "Era 1 2 1 2 , "
corresponding to A . D . 1 1 7 4 . 1
I
Whi le it is undeniable that
1 Gonz alez Palenc i a , Los moz ar abe s , 1 : 7 4 ; Vive s ,
Moneda , 1 5 ; Alvarez B urgo s et a l . , cat alogo genera l , 2 5 - 2 6
no s . 1 2 0 -2 1 . Balaguer rec ently published a morabetino from
the cabi net of the MAN whi c h s he be l ieve s is dated " Er a
1 2 1 1 " or A . D . 1 1 7 3 . I f she has read the coin correc t ly , it
is the o nly example known with t hat early of a date . There
are other examples known with date s corresponding to t he
year s A . D . 1 1 7 4 , 1 1 7 5 , and 1 1 8 1 , but these are rare .
Spec imens dated 1 1 8 4 o nward are more common . The L at i n
abbreviation ALF on the piece ' s obverse is not known o n
examples before 1 1 8 4 .
see , in general , the c atalo gue
provided in Balaguer , Manc u s , 1 5 0- 5 5 , cf . 76 - 7 8 .
Balaguer ' s c atalogue doe s not inc lude the 9 morabeti no s
alfonsines in the combined H SA/ANS c o l lection, the ear liest
of which are dated 1 1 8 5 .
see Tode sc a , "Monetary History , "
1 37 n. 1 5 .
407
408
I
Al fonso VI I I ' s dec ision to strike hi s own morabetino was
prompted by Lo bo ' s death , the immediacy of his action is
somewhat s ur pr i s ing .
As we have seen , Ibn Mardan l sh ' s morabetino was wel l
known to the Chr istians a s ear ly as the 1 1 5 0 s , particu larly
in Arago n-Cataloni a since the r-rurc ian king had agreed to
pay an annual go ld tri bute to Ramo n Bere nguer c . 1 1 4 9 .
While it was not the o nly dinar used by the count in 1 1 5 3
when purchasing Ge noa ' s rights i n Tort o s a , i t was by then
f ami liar eno ugh to the Genoese that they accepted it as a
standard of weight in reckoning Ramon ' s payment .
Lo bo ' s
tribute , however , dwindled and then pro bably sto pped
altogether before Ramo n ' s death in 1 1 62 . 2
No netheles s , the
morabetino l upino ( along with the coin o f Lo bo ' s
predece ssor , the morabetino ayadino ) cont inued to be cited
often in both royal and private charters from Aragon­
Catalonia thro ugho ut the 1 1 6 0 s .
By 1 1 6 8 , Ramo n Berenguer ' s
son , Alfonso I I , was attempting to collect payment from
Murc ia once again . 3
I
2 For the treaty with Geno a , see Rosel l , Liber , 1 : 4 8 58 7 no . 4 6 3 . T he terms o f Lobo ' s agreement with Ramo n
Berenguer and hi s subsequent f ai lure to pay in full is
evident in Lobo ' s later agreement with Alfonso I I .
See n .
5 below .
see a l s o Antonio Ubieto Arteta , Hi storia de
Arago n , vo l . 1 , L a Formac i6n territorial ( Zarago z a 1 9 8 1 ) ,
238 .
3 See Bisson , Fiscal Accounts , 47 - 8 2 no s . 8 -2 4 ; Ubieto
Artur , " Morabedi s , " 2 1 5- 2 5 . A t an gi ble ref lection of this
gold f low is the hoard of 4 9 8 morabet inos of I bn Mardan l sh
found near Hue sc a in 1 9 5 5 .
See " Hallazgo s mus ulmane s , "
part 1 0 , 1 9 2 no . 8 9 . For Alfonso I I attempt to co llect
payment in 1 1 6 8 , see Balaguer , Mancus , 1 3 0 no s . 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 .
409
I
Yet , i t was Al fonso VI I I o f cast i le , not the king of
Aragon , that moved to fill the monetary void left by the
f inal collapse of Lobo ' s kingdom i n 1 1 72 .
Whi le
morabetino s were c irculating regular ly i n Cast i le and Leon
from the 1 1 3 0 s onward, the written sources do not allude to
an abundance of coins from Hurcia , i . e . , the ayadino or the
l upino .
The fai lure of the Castilia n and Leonese charters
to note the provenance of morabetino s , however , may simply
ref lect a more ambivalent notarial style than in Aragon­
Catalo ni a . 4
The Crown of cast i le was c le arly involved to
some extent with Murcian aff airs .
In the s ummer of 1 1 7 0 , Alfonso VI I I of casti le and
Alfo nso I I o f Ar agon-Catalonia , both sti l l probably ln
their teens , met at Sahagun with the ir respective counc i ls .
I
4 The few Casti lian doc uments t ha t ment ion the
provenance of go ld , refer to a var iety of morabetino s .
See
morabetinos melequinos ( of Malaga ) and m arinis ( of Almeria )
in c harter s of 1 1 5 9 , 1 1 6 1 and 1 1 68 i n Rodrigue z de Lama ,
Rio j a , 2 : no . 2 0 7 , 2 0 8 , 2 2 4 . Reference to the coins of Ibn
Mardani s h and hi s predecessor Ibn Iyad are not abundant .
See , for example , morabetinos ayadinos i n Hernande z ,
Toledo , 1 2 8 no . 1 32 , 1 4 6- 47 no . 1 5 4 . L upinos appear in
see Rodr igue z de
some c harter s from the Rio j a regio n .
Lama , Rioj a , 3 : 8 6 no . 3 0 7 ; cf . Fe lipe Mateu y L lopi s ,
"Morabetinos l upinos y alfonsino s de sde Ramon Berenguer IV
de Barcelona a Jaime I de Aragon ( 1 1 3 1 - 1 2 7 6 ) , " in Jarique
II, 98-1 01 .
I n Toledo and Segovia during the 1 1 6 0 s , one finds
reference s to morabetinos baecini s pre s umably o f Baza .
These may have actually been Lobo ' s coins by another name .
Baza had pledged loyalty to him in 1 1 5 9 , t ho ugh there does
not seem to be evidence that he struck his own coin in the
c ity .
see Hernande z , Toledo , 1 3 2 , no . 1 3 7 , 1 3 4- 3 5 nos .
1 4 1 - 4 2 ; Vil lar Garc ia , segovia , 1 1 5- 1 6 no . 6 8 . For Lobo ' s
re lation with Baz a , see Kass is , " I bn S a ' d , " 2 1 2 , 2 1 7 , cf .
2 2 3- 2 5 .
410
There the C a st ilians negotiated the tr ibute Lo b:> of r-rurc ia
owed the crown of Aragon .
It was agreed that Alfonso I I of
Ar agon ,
should hold as yours Lobo , the king of Murcia, so that
( beginni ng ) on the coming f irst c a le nd s of January , up
to five year s and beyond , as long as you c an agree to
it , he s hall swear to yo u and give you honestly each
year that sum that he was accustomed to give your
father , the good and memorable count o f Barce lona ,
namely 4 0 , 0 0 0 of the best morabetino s in gold , terms
that were established bet�veen that king and the
memorable count . s
Alfonso VI I I o f castile then appointed f our counts to
arbitrate if in the future Lobo and the king of Aragon
should disagree .
Thi s i ntervent ion by Casti le was intended to sto p
Aragonese ho stility against Lo b:> , so that the Murc ian king
could more readi ly defend himse l f against the Almohads .
stil l , it i s hard to accept that the C asti lian cro\vn was
wi lling to unselfi shly allow Aragon-catalo ni a all the
tribute .
Lo bo ' s continued s urvival in the str uggle wi th
5 " ( Q ) uod Lupum regem Murcie vobi s t a lem habeas , quod
a kalendis I anuarii primis venientibus usque ad V anno s et
ulterius , quamdiu cum ipso potueriti s co nvenire , firmabit
et dabit vobis per singulo s anno s integre ipsum aver quod
patr i ve stro , bone memorie comiti Barc hinone , dare so lebat ,
sc ilic it , XL mil li a morabetinos maiore s in auro , statutis
terminis inter ipsum regem et memorat um c omitem . " Alfonso
VII I , 2 3 9 - 4 2 no . 1 4 0 .
The text goe s on to acknowledge that after Ramon
Berenguer had " gone to Provence , " the Murc ian king began to
pay le s s than the agreed s um . Peace between the t\V'O ruler s
eventual ly broke down altogether . Aro und 1 1 5 8 , Ramon
Berenguer seems to have campaigned against Murc ia and the
drive so uth towards Teruel continued in the minority of
Alfonso II .
see Jaime Caruana , "Alfonso I I y la
reconquista de Teruel , " Teruel 7 ( 1 9 52 ) : 9 7 - 1 4 1 .
411
the Almo hads stood to benefit the Ar agonese as muc h as it
did the Castilians .
The fact that Alfonso VI I I acted as
Lo oo ' s mediator and would only extend " friends hi p" to
Aragon if Alfonso I I accepted the terms with f-lurcia
sugge st s that Castile had taken on the role of r-turcia ' s
protector and as suc h may we ll have been receiving go ld
direct ly from Lobo . 6
Regardle ss of how Murc ian go ld pieces made their way
to castile , Alfo nso VI I I ' s quick dec i s io n to conti nue the
coin after Lobo ' s death is testimony of the extent to which
the morabetino had become an integral part of the ec onomy
of his kingdom .
I n the later twelfth cent ury, the Almohads
had introduced gold dinars to the peni n s ula that were
de liberate ly dif ferent from the go ld o f their predec e s sors ,
the Almoravids and the umayyad c al iphs .
Haz ard called the
Almo had break with tradition " complete and spectac ular . "
Not only was the design of the Almohad gold coin
dist inctive , more importantly, it was struck on a new
weight standard .
Whereas the morabetino traditional ly
weighed about 4 grams , the Almohad dinar was approximate ly
2 . 3 grams . 7
I
By the 1 1 7 0 s , the se new gold piece s began to
6 Balaguer , " Parias , " 5 3 3 , come s to a similar
conc lusion .
7 The second Almohad c aliph , Abu Ya ' qli b Yu s uf ( 1 1 6 3 8 4 ) , who oversaw the defeat of L o bo and the final
consolidation of Al-Andalus , minted dinars and half-dinar s .
The Almohad double
The later weighed around 1 . 1 5 grams .
dinar of c lo se to 4 . 5 grams does not seem to have been
struc k unt i l the reign of Y u suf • s so n , Abu Ya ' qub al-Man�ur
( 1 1 84 - 9 9 ) .
See Hazard , North Afric a , 4 8 , 66 , 6 8 , 1 5 0 .
412
a
circ ulate in the Chri stian nort h to some extent . a
Nonetheles s , the mor abet ino had become the acc epted
standard of value in most of Chr istian Spain , and was
growing increasing ly familiar outside the peni nsula as
we ll . 9
The Crown of c astile , the n , c ho se to ignore the new
Almohad coinage and preserve the o ld standard .
I
8 The dinar of Y u s uf appears a s early as 1 1 7 4 in the
doc ument s of Ara go n-cataloni a .
It was called the
mazmudina .
In t ime , Y u s uf ' s dinar was specifically c alled
the mazmudina i ucifia .
( See Mate u I bar s , " Re lacion
cronologic a , " 2 0 6- 2 0 7 ; Mateu , " Morabet inos y Mazmudina s , "
1 8 3 . ) Thi s termino logy does not , to my knowledge , appear
in the source s o f Castile-Leon .
In 1 1 7 7 , dur ing the Castilian siege of Almohad­
occupied cue nc a , Alfonso VII I granted a charter to the
mo nastery of silos . The penalty c lause stipulated that
perpetrators pay 6 , 0 0 0 solidi , a conventio nal a s se ssment at
the time , but al so added " et unum auri o bo lum . " Thi s might
refer to the sma l l Almohad dinar or perhaps to the half
dinar of 1 . 1 5 grams . See Vivanco s G6me z , Silo s , 1 0 3 no .
72 ; Alfonso VI I I , 2 : 4 5 0- 5 2 no . 2 7 3 .
on the as soci at ion
between the obol um a uri and the mazm udina , see al so P hi lip
Grier so n, " Obo l i de Muse ' , " English Hi storic al Revie\v
( 1 9 5 1 ) : 75-8 1 .
Two charters f rom To ledo dated 1 1 8 8 refer to a rent of
three bezan ts . The se reference s also might po s sibly
indicate the Almohad dinar , though a l ater summary on the
back of one of the doc uments equates the rent to three
morabetino s . Fina lly, it probably was the Almohad dinar
that i s occasional ly referred to in the doc ument s of
Casti le and Leo n a s t he morabetino chico . A testame nt from
Toledo redacted be fore 1 1 8 9 mentions morabetinos
see Hernandez ,
alfonsines, l upinos and morabetino s chicos .
Toledo , 2 0 8 - 9 no s . 2 2 3 -2 4 ; 2 1 2 - 1 3 no . 2 2 8 . The Almohad
double dinar , probably i ntroduced after 1 1 8 4 , wo uld come to
be known simply a s the dobla in casti le-Leo n .
9 Papal c o l lector s frequent ly expres sed account s in
mor abet inos in the Liber censum, though payment was s urely
often rendered in denarii . For this a nd other c it at ions of
the morabetino o ut side s pain in the twelfth century , see
Duples sey, " Mo nnaies arabes , " 1 3 9- 4 0 no s . 2 4 , 2 6 -2 9 . For
finds of morabeti no s beyond the Pyrenees , see t he same
author ' s catalogue o f find s , 1 1 5 , 1 2 8- 3 3 nos . 2 6-2 9 , 3 2 ,
3 4 , 36 ; cf . Kassi s , " Observation s , " 3 1 3 n . 8 .
413
The c leare st indic at io n that the new C asti lian
morabetino was intended to f i l l an economic ro le , and was
not simply a ceremonial issue meant to boo st Alfonso VI I I ' s
prestige , is t hat it repre sented a reform of Lobo ' s last
dinar s .
In the e ar ly part of his reign , Ibn Mardan l sh
probably reduced the weight of his morabetino from the
original Almoravid standard of s li ghtly more than 4 grams
to aro und 3 . 9 0 grams .
In the f inal year s of his life ,
however , abandoned by hi s father -in- law and lieutenant I bn
Hamushku and f ac ing a renewed Almohad of fensive , Lobo ' s
re so urces rapidly dimini shed des pite heavy t axes levied on
hi s subj ec t s .
The wei ght of his dinar i n this f inal crisis
dropped signif ic antly .
In 1 1 6 9 , he i s s ued a morabetino
disting ui shed by the inc l us io n of his son Hil a l ' s name in
the inscript ion .
The average weight of these new coins was
only about 2 . 5 grams . l 0
Thi s was hi s current morabetino ,
then , when he agreed to re sume tribute to Ar agon in 1 1 7 0 .
The Cast ilian crown ignored this last deve lopment and
struck its morabetino at c lo se to 3 . 9 0 grams , whic h was
truer to the weight o f the original l upino , the standard
the Genoese insi sted be used i n their deal with Ramo n
Berenguer in 1 1 5 3 . 1 1
I
1 0 K as si s , " Ibn Sa ' d , " 2 1 6 - 1 9 .
1 1 The wei ght o f the 9 morabetino s alfon sin in the HSA
co llection are 3 . 8 4 g . , 3 . 8 0 g . , 3 . 7 9 g . , 3 . 8 3 g . , 3 . 8 0 g . ,
See al so the example s
3 . 8 3 g . , 3 . 72 g . , 3 . 8 3 g . , 3 . 6 9 g .
c atalogued in B alaguer , Mancus , 1 5 0 - 5 5 . The accepted
standard o f 3 . 9 0 grams for a morabet ino can a l so be seen in
414
The Cast i l ian morabetino was also a wort hy successor
to the l upino i n a po litical sense .
Lobo ' s long re sist ance
to the Almohads had , as Kassis pointed out , " ser ious
theo logica l implic ations " for it c hallenged the Almo had
tenet that the legitimacy of their belie f s would be
j ustif ied by total conquest .
To remind the Almo hads they
had no monopo ly over the f aithful , Lobo had inc luded
reference to the ' Abba s id c aliph on his dinar s .
morabetino employed a simi lar strate gy .
Alfonso ' s
I n Ar abic , it s
legend proc laimed that the imam of the " Church o f the
Mes siah " was the Roman Pope and that Alfonso was the amlr
of the catho l ic s .
The coin also would of co ur se serve to
enhance Alfo nso ' s prestige in the Latin world and it was
perhaps for this reason that he placed the very c lear
abbreviation ALF in the midst of the coin ' s Arabic
inscr iption . 1 2
In the I s lamic tradition , the border inscription on
the rever se o f the morabetino alfonsin revealed the year
the coin was str uck as wel l as its place o f i s sue .
on the
surviving pieces , the mint is invariably given as To ledo
indicating that it was the only town allowed to strike the
coin .
Furthermore , the crown retained exc lusive control of
the revenues .
I
I n 1 1 9 2 , Alfo nso conf irmed for the
the Catalan usa t ge, " So l idus aureus . " See a ppendix B , n .
1 3 be low .
1 2 Kassi s , " Ibn Sa ' d , " 2 1 0 , 2 1 4- 2 1 6 .
For a ful ler
description o f the legends of the morabetino a lfonsin, see
Tode sc a , " Means of Exc hange , " 2·5 7 .
415
archbi shop of To ledo that the see had a right to a tenth o f
all mo ney made in the city at present and i n the f ut ure ,
with the exception of the prof it from gold . l 3 .
Fernando I I of Leon did not choo se to send any mes sage
to the I slamic world when he too issued a version of t he
morabetino .
Whi le pro bably having the same intended wei ght
as the morabetino alfon si n , the Leonese dinar was in the
Latin tradition stylistically .
It shows a crowned king
with sword and scepter o n the obverse and the lion o f Leon
on the rever se .
GRAC IA REX .
Its o bver se legend reads FERNANDVS DE I
The rever se inscr iption , IN NE PATRIS I FLI I
SP S SC I , was perhaps a nod to the usual proc lamation o f a
faith on a dinar . H
The Leonese morabetino was not dated , making it
dif f ic ult to determine when it appeared .
The first certain
referenc e to its product io n is in 1 1 8 6 when Fernando , in
I
1 3 Alf onso VII I , 3 : 7 7 - 7 9 no . 6 0 6 . Gold would a l so be
re served exc lusively f or the c rown in Portugal when that
kingdom initiated a series of morabetinos . See n . 1 7 be low .
According to Gonz alez P alencia, Los mozarabe s , 2 : 7 9
no . 4 7 7 , a moz arabic c harter o f 1 2 2 4 refers to the sale of
a house in To ledo for t he price of " 3 8 mizcales of alfonsin
gold o f the mint of segovia . " While it is possible that
go ld was also struck i n this c ity, which housed an act ive
mint , it seems best not to a s s ume so o n the basi s of t hi s
one text .
1 4 The o bverse mar gi na l inscript ion on the morabetino
a lfonsin is a proc lamation of the trinity in Arabic .
For
illustrations of the mor abetino alfonsin as we ll as the
Leonese and Portugue se ver sions of the gold piece , see
Tode sc a , " Means of Exc ha nge , " 2 4 1 no s . 8 - 1 0 . The piece of
Fernando II is rarer today than the morabetino alfon sin and
individual weights are harder to obtai n . Cf . Balaguer ,
Mancus , 90- 9 1 .
416
conj unction with his son Alfonso IX , granted the bisho p of
salamanc a " a third part of the gold money o f Salamanc a .
" 15
Like Toledo in c asti le , Salamanc a was probably the only
Leonese town a l lowed to mint t he dinar .
Des pite a c harter
to the contrary , it is not like ly that gold was struck at
Sant iago . l 6
At some point , the kingdom of Portugal also
began to strike a go ld morabetino .
Like the Leo nese
versio n , it used L at in legends and motif s and made no
ef fort to mimic the style of an I s lamic dinar .
This third
Christ ian morabetino pos sibly did not appear until the
reign of sanc ho I I ( 1 2 2 3 - 4 8 ) of Portugal . l7
I
1 5 Martin , salamanca 1 8 0 - 8 1 no . 9 2 . Gonzale z in
"Maravedie s , " 2 8 7 , referred to a private document of 1 1 7 7
which sp:>ke o f " I a marobitina de Salamanca , " which may
place the introduc tion of the Leonese piece c loser to the
appearance o f its Castilian counterpar t .
There is a purchase made by the c anons o f c athedral of
salamanc a in 1 1 6 4 , in which they paid out 1 0 0 "morabetinos
de auro . " I nc luded in the witne s s list are Lope , de scribed
as a moneyer , fo llowed by Pain and Wil li am both de scribed
as go ldsmiths ( a urifaber) , but it seems be st to assume that
these men were art i s an s not moneyers and that the
morabetino s used in the purc hase were I s lamic . The
presence of go ldsmiths in the c ity at this date , however ,
may be seen as a ref lection of the inc re asing avai labi lity
of go ld in Leon in the twelfth cent ury . Martin , Salamanca ,
1 1 8- 1 1 9 no . 3 0 .
1 6 see c ha pter 9 , n . 6 4 above .
1 7 Portuguese morabetino s exis t today in the name of
sanc ho and Afonso , both in several var ietie s .
Traditionally, S ancho I ( 1 1 8 5 - 1 2 1 1 ) is c redited with
init iating the coin, which would place it c lo se to the
introduction o f the Castilian and Leones e pieces . But , to
my knowledge , there is no documentary evidence s upp:>rting
that the coin was struck in this reign .
Inexplic ably , c urrent works as sign no go ld to the
reign of Afonso I I I ( 1 2 4 8- 7 9 ) .
In 1 2 6 1 , Afonso issued a
charter regarding a redemption of the kingdom ' s bi llon .
While he agreed to be limited in the number of t imes he
co uld strike denarii he stipulated , " ret ineo tamen mihi et
417
By initi at ing a gold c urrenc y , the crowns of cast i le ,
Leon and Portugal , consc ious ly or not , were embarking on a
more ambitious monetary po licy then had previous ly been
required of their government s .
Earlier in the twe lfth
century, the Christian princes o f Spain had established
simple bi-metallic c urrenc y systems by allowing Almoravid
go ld to circ ulate free ly alongside the indigenous denarii
of their realm s .
But undertaking the re sponsibi lity for
minting both a gold and si lver- based coinage signi ficant ly
complicated the proc es s .
The we stern kingdoms were now
receiving no tribute from the so ut h and therefore had no
ready access to a so urce of gold s ave their own stockpiles .
North Africa remained the main source of gold for the
Mediterranean world .
If the Christian kings of spain were
to continue their ver s ions of the morabetino , in time they
would have to find another means of extracting gold from
the Almo had-co ntro lled south .
s ucces soribus mei s quod po ssimus f ac ere morabitino s de a uro
quando voluerimus . "
( Portugaliae Mo numenta Historic a :
Leges et cons uetudine s , 1 : 2 1 0- 1 2 no . 9 ) I n this light , one
must consider the po ss ibility that t he f ir st go ld piece s
were not struck unti l the reign of S ancho I I and continued
under Afonso I I I .
see Pedro Batalha Reis , Morabitino s
Portugueses : E studios de Numi smatic a Medieval ( Lisbon ,
1 940 ) , 26-39 .
see a l so B alaguer , Manc us , 9 2 - 9 3 , which
fo llows the traditional attributions a s does Jose Ferraro
vaz , "The Morabetino of Braga , " in PMC I , 3 3 5- 3 4 0 ; Mario
Gomes Marques , " Numaria Medieval Potugues a , " Numi sma
( 1 9 8 2 ) : 2 2 4- 2 5 ; Juan I gnac io S aenz -Die z , " E arly Go ld
Coinages of the Reconque st : A critic al Review of the
Theorie s About Their I ntroduction , " in PMC I I I , 5 4 8 - 5 0 .
418
I
Mi litary booty or trade were two po s si bi lities for
increas i ng the Christian gold supply , but the Almo hads had
proved themselve s strong adver saries o n the batt lefield and
there was litt le merchandise the Lat in state s co uld trade
for go ld .
The western Mus lim world at thi s time was ,
however , in dire need of s ilver whic h is attested by the
wel l-known trade in mil lareses .
The mil l areses were
imitat io n Almohad dirhams struck in various Mediterranean
towns in c atalonia , France and Italy in the ear lythirteenth century and shipped directly to North Afric a . 1e
While there is no evidence that the kings of Casti le , Le6n
or Port ugal went so far as to strike mil l arese s , it i s
certainly po s s ible that they used stocks of s i lver to
purc hase go ld from al-Anda lus .
I n compari son to t he Leonese and Portuguese
morabetinos , the morabetino alfonsin o f cast i le was c learly
a more s ucce ssful coin .
I n the late twe lfth c entury , it
circ ulated in Navarre and Aragon-catalonia and event ually
reac hed the south of France . l 9
By contrast , the Leone se
1 8 The mil lares trade appears to have been thriving
as ear ly as 1 2 0 2 .
see wat so n , " Back to Go ld and S ilver , "
6- 1 2 . Watson, however , implied that the Almohads had not
begun to s trike si lver i n earnest unt i l c . 1 2 2 9 .
S pufford,
in Money, 1 7 1 - 72 , pointed out that muc h of t he Almohad
si lver i s anonymous and cannot be dated .
I s s ue s of dirhams
were pro bably begun before the death of the c aliph Yus uf in
1 1 84 .
1 9 I n the Rioj a region , shared by Castile and Navarre
t he piece was o ften c al led the morabetino de cr uz , because
of the distinc ti ve cro s s in its field among the Arabic
inscript io n .
See the sa le from Tude la , dated 1 1 92 , " per
X I I moarabetinos VI I I de c ri uz et I I I I lopis et so lido s
419
I
and Portuguese morabetinos are not evident either in coin
f i nds or in surviving doc ument s outside the boundaries of
their re spec tive kingdoms .
This would seem to indic ate
that Casti le ' s out put of morabet inos was greater and imply
that the kingdom was more aggressive in accruing go ld . 2 o
If the crown had to expend silver for go ld suc h a po licy
would make it more difficult to provide an adequate supply
of denarii at home .
Deba sement of the Cast i li a n De narius c . 1 2 0 0
Between 1 1 8 0 and 1 1 8 1 , Alfonso VII I is sued a ser ie s of
charters to the c lergy of the re alm in \'lhich he promi sed to
protect their property and not vio lent ly extort taxe s from
them .
Furthermore , he absolved them from their obligation
to pay any of the ordinary taxes or services owed the
I
monete de Navrra . " Ubieto , " Doc umento s , " pt . 3 , 1 5 4 - 5 5 no .
4 7 . Cf . Rodr igue z de Lama , Rioja , 3 : 5 1 no . 2 7 4 , 6 0 no .
2 8 1 . For the c irculation of the morabetino alfonsin i n
Navarre and i n Aragon-cataloni a , s ee also Mateu y Llopi s ,
" Morabetinos lupines y alfonsino s , " 9 3 - 1 1 6 . For the
morabetino alfonsin in France see the find at Me slay- le­
Vidame whic h consisted of 1 1 l upines and 1 alfonsino .
Duples sey, " Mo nnaies arabe s , " 1 3 2 no . 3 2 .
2 0 An intrigui ng f acet o f the success of the
morabetino alfonsin are the c as t s o f the coin found i n
Salamanc a . These were obviously u sed to make counterfeit
versions o f the Castilian coin .
see Maria Paz Garci a y
Be llido , " Mo ldes procedentes de salamanc a para f undir
maravedis de Alfonso VI I I , " Numisma ( 19 8 3 ) : 2 2 7- 2 4 0 .
After Alfonso VIII ' s deat h , t he morabetino alfonsin
was immo bili zed and minted probably unti l the mid­
thirteenth century . The c ast co unterfeits , then , do not
have to date to the time of Alfonso VI I I . Nonethe le s s , in
that the molds were found in S al amanc a , the site of t he
Leon ' s gold mint , it i s tempting to see the counterfeits a s
products o f the late twe lfth-cent ury .
42 0
a
crown .
Instead , he wo uld only accept what payment s they
wi llingly conceded to him . 2 1
such a meas ure surely
indi c ate s that Alfonso had been gui lty o f extort ing the
wealth o f the churc h , but hi s conc i li atory efforts were , in
hindsight , exces sive .
s uc h sweeping exemptions dimini shed
hi s financ i a l re sources at a time when he co uld least
afford it .
By the ear ly 1 1 9 0 s , cast ile was forced to
defend itself from the combined aggr e s sion of Portugal ,
Leon , Navarre and Aragon .
Peace was barely restored ,
before Alfonso VII I suffered his disastrous lo ss to the
Almo hads at Alarco s in 1 1 9 5 . 22
With the se expense s , in addition to the strain of
maint ai ning t he morabet ino alfonsi n , it is not surprising
that Alfonso resorted to debasement of his bil lon coinage .
He had certainly done so by 1 2 0 7 whe n he attempted to
instit ute pric e ceilings l n the kingdo m .
Legi slat ion
towards this end s urvive s today in a c harter addre ssed to
the munic ipal counc il ( concejo ) of Toledo .
These decrees
were mo st l ikely enacted at a meeting of the cortes with
copies sent to the other towns of the realm as wel l .
r
2 1 A gener al charter addressed t o a l l the c lergy o f
the realm was i s sued at Naj era in June 1 1 8 0 . The bi shops
of Calahor a , B urgo s , P alenc i a and Avi l a appear a s
witne s se s .
I n July, Alfonso addre s sed separate charters to
the bi shops of s iglienza and Osma repeating the promise .
Individual c harter s were i s s ued to P alenc i a in November , to
segovia in December and to Burgo s the f o llowing May .
Alfonso VII I , 2 : 5 8 2 - 8 4 no . 3 4 4 , 5 8 9- 9 1 no . 3 4 8 , 5 9 5- 9 8 no .
3 5 1 , 5 9 9 - 6 0 1 no . 3 5 3 , 6 3 5- 3 8 no . 3 68 .
see also , sanchez
Alborno z , " Notas , " 5 1 1 - 5 1 4 .
2 2 O ' Callaghan, Medieval Spain , 2 4 2 - 4 5 .
42 1
In the preamble of t he c harter , Alfo nso acknmvledged
that in the ki ngdom goods were " being so ld for more than i s
right . "
He spoke of the great damage do ne not o nly to the
re sident s of Toledo but to " to all the good men of my
towns , " and therefore impo sed " limit s on all things "
thro ughout the kingdom .
The decrees set maximum price s for
a wide var iety of goods from texti le s , to arms and hor se s ,
to meat and f i sh .
They al so placed re strictions on what
co uld be exported and imported . 23
The prices in the doc ument are expre ssed either in
mor abetino s or in denarii c al led pepiones, whic h is the
first time in the Castilian so urces that a denar ius of the
realm is modi f ied by a specific name .
Oddly , for the
remainder of Alfonso ' s rei gn , the document s , both private
and roya l , are si lent a bo ut the pepi6n . 2 4
I
To
learn more of
2 3 Franc isco J . Hernande z , " La s cortes de To ledo de
1 2 0 7 , " in Las cortes de Castilla y Leo n en la Edad Media
( Va l lado lid , 1 9 8 8 ) , 2 1 9- 6 3 .
2 4 The pepi6n i s mentio ned in the testament o f Sanc ho
I of Portugal who died in 1 2 1 1 .
See A . C . Teixeira de
Aragao , De sc ripcao geral e historica das moedas c unhadas em
nome dos rei s , regentes e gover nadores de Portuga l , vo l 1
( L i s bo n , 1 8 7 4 ) , 33 3 .
The etymo logy of pepi6n i s hard to di scern . Alonso ,
Dic c ionar io , s . v . " pepi6n , " s ug ge sted it derived from t he
I prefer
Latin noun pipio meaning a young bird or piping .
to be l ieve t hat the term somehow referred to the debased
It perha ps derived from pipa or
nature of t he coin .
pepi t a , literally a seed or a pip, but which also carrie s
the connotat ion of something worthle s s . Edwin Wil liams ,
Spani sh and E ngli sh Dic tionary s . v . " pe pino , " lists the
idiom " no dar se lo a uno un pepino de . " Pepino in modern
S panish is a c uc umber , pre s umably so named bec ause it is
f ul l o f seed s . Wi lliams a pt ly equates thi s idiom to the
English expres sion " to not give a fig for . "
422
this coln we must look ahe ad brief ly t o the year 1 2 1 7 ,
three year s after Alfonso VI I I ' s death .
Alfonso died in 1 2 1 4 and was s ucceeded by hi s son
Enrique I ( 1 2 1 4- 1 7 ) .
I n his short reign , E nrique did not
strike coin in his own name .
The go ld morabetino , for
example , continued to be minted but only the year was
ad j usted in the inscript io n .
I n all other a spec ts t he
de sign o f the coin was u nc hanged .
Likewise , i f Enrique
struck denar ii at al l , he did so using immobilized types of
hi s father .
When the young king died in an accide nt three
year s into his rule , the c urrency was probably the s ame as
it had been when he a scended the thro ne . 2 s
He was
succeeded by Fernando I I I ( 1 2 1 7- 52 ) , the son of Alfonso
VI I I ' s daughter Berengue l a and Alfonso IX of Leo n .
Al fonso IX moved to c l aim the ki ngdom o f Castile for
himself , but reached an accord with hi s son in November of
12 17 .
In two suppleme ntary treaties , Fernando o f c a stile
promised to pay hi s father 1 1 , 0 0 0 morabetino s , whi c h
I
2 5 Hei s s , L a s monedas , plate 4 , publi shed a n
illustration of a c o i n reading ( H ) ENRICVS o n the o bver se
and showing a cast le o n the reverse which he s ugge sted
might represent an i s s ue o f Enrique I . Recent ly , Rueda in
Primeras ac ufiacione s , 6 4 , f i g . 1 3 , publi shed a photogr aph
of this coin , again attributing it to E nrique I . The coin
in que stion actual ly belonged to the Lusignan kings of
See Gustave
Cyprus , mo st likely Henry I ( 1 2 1 8- 5 3 ) .
Schlumberger , Numismatigue de L ' Orient Latin ( Pari s , 1 8 7 8 ) ,
1 8 7 and plate 6 , 1 0 ; D . M . Metcalf , Coinage of the crusades
and the Lat i n East ( Lo ndo n , 1 9 8 3 ) , nos . 4 8 0- 3 . For the
minting of go ld under E nr ique , cf . Todesca , "Monetary
History , " 1 5 1 - 5 2 .
see a l so Alvarez Burgo s et a l . , Catalogo
general , 2 9 no . 1 6 1 - 6 2 .
42 3
Alfonso IX c laimed were mved by Enrique .
It was agreed
that the debt could be paid off in gold or in denarii .
If
rendered in denarii , it was to be paid at a rate of 7 and
1 / 2 so lidi of burga leses per morabetino or 1 5 so lidi of
pepiones per morabetino . 26
From thi s accord , we learn that by thi s date there
were two distinc t denarii circ ulating in castile , the
burgales and the pepi6n and that the burga les \vas worth
twice the pepi6n . 27
The Casti lian crown wo uld not have
intentionally is sued two denarii of unequal value .
The
pepi6n , whic h we know was is sued by 1 2 0 7 during the reign
of Alfonso VI I I , was c lear ly an attempt at debasement .
When it was unsuccessf ul , it s of ficial value must have been
later "cried down " to put it in proper parity with the soc alled burgales .
A very similar set of circ umstanc e s occurred in
Barcelona under Pedro I I .
The coinage o f Barcelona had
very likely remained at 4 d . fine sinc e the early twelfth
I
26 Alf onso I X , 2 : 4 5 8- 62 nos . 3 5 0 and 3 5 2 , 4 7 9 no . 3 6 6 ;
c f . Todesc a , " Mo netary History , " 1 4 1 - 4 2 . A fe\'1 years
later , in 1 2 2 1 , the convent of Las Hue lgas paid off a debt
of 4 , 7 0 6 " aureos . " It was rendered " partim in bur ga lens i ,
partim i n pipionibus , partim i n aoro ( sic ) . " Again the rate
of exchange was 1 5 so lidi of pepiones or 7 . 5 so lid of
burgaleses to the morabet ino . Garrido , Burgo s , 2 : 3 6 5 no .
533 .
2 7 The tre at ie s between Fernando I I I and his f ather
are , to my knowledge , the earlie st reference s in the
doc umentation to the burgales . Gi l Farres in Historia ,
32 6 , referred to a doc ument of 1 2 1 2 mentioning " sueldo s de
lo s burgaleses . . . moneda viej a , " but gave no referenc e .
I
noted this in "Monetary Hi story , " 1 4 5 , but still have been
unable to determine Gi l Farres ' s sourc e .
I
42 4
cent ury .
In 1 2 0 3 , the morabetino still so ld for 7 solidi
barcelones, an appropr iate rate of exchange at that time
for a quater nal de nar i us .
I n 1 2 0 9 , or thereabouts , Pedro
introduced a debased denar ius of only
2
d . f ine that was
intended to replace t he quaternal barcelones .
Three years
later , the king was forced to restore the quaternal coin ,
and acknowledge that the doblench was actually wort h only
half t he quaternal piece .
By 1 2 1 2 , therefore , the
mor abet ino in Barce lona sold for 1 4 solidi of the doblench
( and pre sumably 7 solid of the quaternal coin ) z e
There can
be litt le doubt , then , that the pepi6n of Castile , at 1 5
so lidi t o the morabetino , was also a coin o f 2 d . fine and
re presented a failed attempt at debasement .
How long the pepi6n was in circ ulation before 1 2 0 7 ,
the date o f Alfonso VI I ' s price decree s , we do not know .
A
bull o f Ce le stine I I I in 1 1 9 7 appear s to put the morabet ino
at 7 so lidi , 6 de narii , s ugge st ing that the pepi6n was not
yet circ ulating or , if it was , its debased nature was not
yet general knowledge . 2 9
I
Alfonso , therefore , probably did
2 8 B i s son, " Coinages of Barcelona , " 1 9 3 - 2 0 4 ; c f .
chapter 6 , table 1 .
2 9 Mingliella, siqlienz a , 1 : 4 9 0 no . 1 3 1 , see above
chapter 6 , n . 8 6 . Celestine was Cardinal Hyac inth , who had
made at least two legations to Spain , the seco nd in the
1 1 7 0 s . We might t he n expect him to have been nominally
fami liar with the money and it s current value .
It was he
that pas sed the legi s l at io n at Val lado lid on coinage in
1155.
It i s true that in 1 1 5 5 he commuted a cen s us o f 1 0 0
solidi pic tavensis to 2 5 morabetinos , a rate that
overvalued the Poitou coin . B ut thi s rate worked to Rome ' s
see appendix c below and see chapter 6 , n . 7 6
advant age .
above .
I
42 5
not resort to de basement unt i l sometime after hi s defeat at
Alarco s in 1 1 9 5 .
In 1 2 0 7 , whi le his poor coin was driving
up price s , he was sti l l not re ady to abandon it .
Instead
he o pted to try to c ur b the inf lat io n by imposing price
ceilings , a method that i s almost always futile .
There is evidence s uggesting that after his great
victory at Las Navas de To lo sa in 1 2 1 2 , Alfonso co nvoked a
cortes in Burgo s where he confirmed the fueros of the to�vns
and also promi sed to confirm and amend the right s of the
nobi lity . 3 o
While there i s no co ntemporary record of thi s
meeting, it was perhaps here , in the s pirit o f thank s giving
for hi s victory , that Alfonso also reformed the coinage ,
bringing back a quaternal denar ii and devaluing the pepi6n .
The booty gained at Las Navas may have given him the means
nece ssary to carry the reform o ut . 3 1
With two coins of unequal value in circulation , it
was natural that another name would now arise to denote the
good money . 3 2
I
The coin type we labe led the burgales in
3 0 See O ' Cal laghan , " Beginnings , " 1 5 2 3 -2 4 .
3 1 The Christian s overran the caliph ' s c amp and the
booty gained was said to be immense . O ' Cal laghan , Medieval
spain , 2 4 7- 4 8 .
It is pos sible that the re-tariff ing of the pepi6n did
not come until the reign o f Enrique I .
This scenario wo uld
f it in wel l with the f ac t that t he f ir st reference to the
pepi6n circ ulating at half the value of the burgales does
not come until 1 2 1 7 .
sti l l , it seems to me unlike ly .
If
E nrique re stored a good quaternal coin to the kingdom, one
wo uld expect that he wou ld have put hi s name on it . All
indications are that E nr ique s imply maintained the status
quo .
3 2 Bi s son noted that in B arcelo na t he word quaternus
be gan to appear in doc uments to de sc ribe the good coin
42 6
c hapter 9 may have existed before the pepi6n and was
s ubsequent ly rei s s ued after the reform .
Rivaled only by
Alfonso ' s ear lier equestrian type , the burga les appears to
have been one of the large st and best contro l led of the
reign .
It �vas struc k in some seven mint s and copper
pattern pieces s urvive demon strating that care was taken to
make s ure the die s used by the mints were consi stent . 33
A good indic ation that this type was indeed the
burga les of the early thirteenth century i s that it shows
sign s of being immobilized after Alfonso VI I I ' s death .
Be side the seven mint marks di sc us sed above , there are two
other marks known on this type ,
L
and
E.
The se do not
correspond to any Cast ilian towns known to have mint s .
They do , however , correspond s to two Leone se mint marks
used by Alfonso IX , that of Leon and Salamanca .
The se two
marks , the n , imply that after Fernando I I I uni ted Leon to
after the doblench was introduced .
( B i s so n , " Co inage of
Barcelona , " 1 9 7 . ) similarly , i n Leon , in the ear lier part
o f the century, denarii were not de scribed as de medietate
unt i l a coin of a les ser standard , the moneta de terti a was
introduced .
3 3 There are similar copper trial piece s known for
Alfonso IX ' S type 2 . These copper pieces are frequent ly
c alled " ponderales " or wei ghts in the numi smat ic
Their
literature , but this explanation seems unlikely .
weight s are not consistent and bear no o bvio us relation to
the weight of the actual c oi n .
See Fe lipe Mateu y L lo pi s ,
catalogo de lo s ponderales monetario s de l Museo
Argueologico Nacional ( Madrid , 1 9 3 4 ) and his " Commentaries
a mi · catalogo de lo s ponderales monetario s de l Museo
Arqueologico Nacional · ; Addenda despues de medio siglo . " GN
9 4- 9 5 ( 1 9 8 9 ) , 1 0 3 - 1 3 . See a lso orol , Alfonso I X , 1 1 0- 1 3 .
I
42 7
a
C astile , he struck the burga les l n at least two Leone se
mint s . 3 4
De spite i t starting off as " bad " money , after it was
put in parity wit h the burga les , the pepi6n also remained
in c irc ulat io n .
Oddly , between t he burga les and the
pepi6n, Fernando I I I may have preferred to str ike the
pepi6n .
It i s the coin that i s c ited mo st frequently in
the document s of his reign .
The pepion was almo st
cert ainly the coin type that reads ANFVS REX TOLETA whic h
surf aces frequently in thirteent h-cent ury hoards .
Rueda
Sabater ' s study of thi s type i ndic ates that although the
coin c arried no overt mint marki ng s , it was struck by many
dies . 3 5
crisis Averted i n Leon
In the kingdom of Leon , the crown largely avoided
debaseme nt , although its denarius did drop somewhat in
value near the e nd of the twelfth century .
I
In 1 1 9 3 , \vith
3 4 The otaza hoard also indicate s that thi s type was
t he burga le s .
see the arguments presented i n Tode sc a ,
"Rebel lion , " 3 5- 3 6 , 42 . Perhaps the most succ inct proof
that this type represented t he good mo ney of Alfonso VI I I
i s that it was consciously imitated by sancho IV , who tried
to c ast himself as a reformer of his f ather ' s coins .
3 5 Todesc a , " Rebel lion , " 3 5 - 3 7 ; For Mercedes Rueda
Sabater ' s work o n this particular coin type , see her
" Crono logia de l ve llon c astellano : Un caso desconcertante , "
i n Congreso de argueologia medieval espano la I I , ( Madrid ,
1 9 87 ) 662-70 .
See also Mercedes R ueda Sabater and
Chri stina Rueda sabater , " La moneda medieval c astellana :
Pro blematic a y propue sta de metodo de e st udio , " in Co ngre so
de argueo logia medieval espanol a I I I , ( Oviedo , 1 9 8 9 ) , 4 3 6 8 ; c f . Rueda , Primeras ac ufiac io ne s , 5 4 - 6 2 .
428
Alfonso I X on the thr o ne , there were 7 so lidi leoneses to
the gold morabetino , t he same rate that the denarii
j accensi s , barcelone s , angevin and tournai all enj oyed at
this time .
In casti le , Alfonso VI I I ' s quaternal denarius
wa s somewhat weaker sinc e it took 7 . 5 so lidi o f hi s coin to
equal the morabetino .
By 12 1 7 , the re stored denar ius of
casti le , now called t he burgales , was still valued at 7 . 5
so lidi to the morabetino .
In the same year , however , it
took 8 solidi leoneses to equal the go ld piece .
Whereas
the leones had previously been stronger than its Casti lian
counterpart , it was now slightly weaker . 36
Another indication that Alfonso IX had t ampered with
the coinage can be seen in his undated mandate to the
inhabitant s of Galic ia ordering them to " receive my c urrent
money j ust as ( they wou ld ) . . . receive a better one . " 37
Sti ll , the slight dro p in the val ue o f the l eones was more
likely c aused by a reduction of weight than a mani pulation
of the coin ' s silver content . J B
Alfo nso IX ' s abi lity to
avoid the hars her debasements attempted in Cast i le and
Barcelona was undo ubtedly linked to hi s co llection of a
monet agi um tax .
r
In 1 2 0 2 , the cortes o f Be nave nte co nsented
3 6 See c hapter 6 , tables 1 - 3 .
3 7 "Mando vobis f irmiter et incauto quod toti
recipiatis istam meam monetam que modo c urret sicut unquam
earn melius recepi st is . " Alfonso I X , 2 : 7 3 3 no . 6 5 3 .
3 8 A reduction f rom 4 d . to even 3 d . would have
cau sed the leones ' s value to drop wel l be low 8 solidi to
the morabetino . The j ac censis of Aragon had dropped to a
rate of 1 0 solidi per morabetino when debased in t hi s
manner by Alfonso I I .
42 9
to s uc h a levy in exc hange for Alfonso IX glvlng up hi s
right to change ( m ut are ) the coinage for seven year s .
A m utatio o f the coinage was supposed to represent an
hone st renewal of the kingdom ' s currency .
on such
occasions , the c rown would call in the o ld , worn c urrency
at a disco unt in exc hange for new coin o f the same
intrinsic value .
Alfonso IX ' s grandfather , Alfo nso VI I ,
had changed coin types o ften but maintained the money at 4
d . fine since the early year s of his reign .
In the end ,
hi s frequent renewal o f the currency was the source of some
re sentme nt among his s ub j ects for he was reprimanded at the
general counc i l of Val lado lid in 1 1 5 5 by cardina l Hyac inth
and the prac tice may have become les s frequent under his
successors .
There are o nly 4 coin type s knotvn for the
thirty-one year reign of Fernando I I of Leon ( exc luding the
type he is sued j oi nt ly with the young Alfonso VI I I in
castile ) .
Nevertheles s , Fernando insi sted i n hi s charter
to santiago in 1 1 8 2 that he could call i n the coinage as
often as he liked .
Indeed , the decree s from Alfonso IX ' s
cortes of Benavente stres sed that a mutatio was the
sovereign ' s inalienable prerogative , and if he was
unwi lling to forgo it his subj ects were bo und to accept hi s
new type .
Thi s system o f renovatio, though it may have been
begr udged by the populace , functioned in Leo n , and probably
I
in independent Cas t i le as we ll , because both c rowns
continued to maintai n the finene s s of the denarius at 4 d .
430
such a system hinged o n the po pulation ' s trust that they
would receive coins of equal intrins ic value in the
exchange .
The radic al debasement of Alfonso VI I I , however ,
perhaps imposed under the guise of a renovatio , surely
undermined f aith in the royal co inage in Castile and
perhaps af fected affairs in Leon as we l l .
The consent to a
monet a levy at Benavente in Leon 1n 1 2 0 2 coincides very
closely with Alfonso VI I I ' s debasement l n castile and also
Pedro I I ' s manipul ation in Barce lona .
I t may have been
fear in Leon t hat the king would resort to a similar
debasement that helped convince the cortes of Benavente to
vote for the tax . 3 9
I
3 9 I n November 1 1 9 4 , Alfonso granted the mil itary
order of santi ago , " totam decimam mee mo neta de terra
Legionis , Z amore , Vi llefrance et mearum Asturiarum . " This
may have meant that the order was entitled to a tent h of
prof it s from all royal mints with the exc l us ion of
Composte la . A second charter , however , drawn up a month
later seems to c onfirm the same conces sion . It gave t he
Order , " dec imam partem tallii totius monete regni mei " The
reference to a t al lage o n the coinage could be interpreted
as a refere nce to a monetagi um .
( See Alfonso I X , 2 : 1 3 3- 3 5
no s . 8 9 - 9 0 )
In thi s light , it is tempting to po s it that Alfonso IX
col lected a moneta at the cortes he held in Leon soon af ter
gaining the throne in 1 1 8 8 , though the surviving decrees do
not mention it .
( The meeting , however , is notable in that
it i s the first documented instance of townsmen attending
the cortes .
See Alfonso IX , 2 : 2 3 -2 6 no . 1 1 . )
If he levied
a monet a in 1 1 8 8 in exchange for forgoing a m ut atio f or
seven year s , t he agreement wou ld have expired in 1 1 9 5 .
If
renewed in 1 1 9 5 for another seven year s , the term would
have ended in 1 2 0 2 , the date of the Benavente cortes .
Nonetheles s , the phrase " tallii totius monete " in
Alfonso IX ' s grant to the order of Santiago co uld al so
refer to the king ' s seignoriage or profit from his mint s .
I am inc lined to believe this later interpretation f or two
reasons . First , there i s a parallel to Alfonso IX ' s grant
to the Knights o f sant iago in Alfonso I I of Aragon ' s
43 1
Together , the introductio n of Alfonso VI I I ' s pepi6n ,
Pedro I I ' s doblench and Alfonso IX ' s c o l lect io n of moneta
at the tur n of the century point to the conc lusion that the
resources of t he Chr istian prince s were , in general ,
beginning to s uf fer .
The collapse o f Almoravid power ln
the mid-twelfth century had al lowed the Christian states a
second o pportunity to exploit the wealth of al-Andal us ,
analogo us to the age of the parias t ho ugh much briefer .
The so-called " Pilgrim · s Guide to composte la , " compo sed
sometime in this period , described C asti le as a land " full
of treas ures , of gold and si lver " and remarked that Galicia
abounded " in gold and si lver . . . as we ll as in saracen
treasure s .
" 40
From 1 1 5 0 o nward, however, the Almohad s
pres sed the Chri stians hard to win c ontrol o f al-Andal us .
With the deat h of I bn Mardanl s h , tribute to the Christians
ceased and the second " gold boom " came to an end in the
north , though the strain of fighting the Almohads
co nt inued .
I
endowment of the Templar s with a tenth of the profit o f the
j accensi s .
( See Bisso n , conservat io n , 8 5 n . 2 . ) Sec ondly ,
the numi smatic evidence indicate s that Alfonso IX changed
type s a number of time s . This combined with the scarc ity
of his f ather ' s coins today wo uld te nd to point to Alfonso
having renewed his coinage several times in the early year s
of the reign be fore monet agi um was c o l lected .
4 0 The pi lgrim ' s guide is book five of the Liber
Sancti Jacobi , also called the Codex Calixti n us . The
compilat ion of the codex c an be dated between 1 1 3 9 and
1 1 7 3 . From internal evidenc e , the " Guide " itself c learly
date s to after 1 1 2 0 . The author ' s c omment s on go ld would ,
in my mi nd , tend to place it c . 1 1 4 0 or later .
see Me lczer ,
Pilgrim • s Guide , 8 8 , 9 6 , cf . 2 8 -2 9 .
432
In addition to the cost o f maintai ning the struggle
against the Almo hads , the prospe rity of Chri stian Spain wa s
probably beginning to feel the pinch of Latin Euro pe ' s
commercial expansion .
It co uld be argued that the limited
amount o f I s lamic go ld that re ac hed We stern Europe over the
cour se of the twelfth cent ury c ame mainly through the
Hi spanic Chr istian states whic h had in turn al lowed tho se
states to attract silver from E uro pe . � l
But , as the
century came to a close , the advantage that Chri stian Spai n
had as a s upplier of gold to Latin E urope was gradua lly
eroded .
Italian and Fre nc h maritime communities began to
establish more direct link s with North Afric an ports as is
4 1 P amela Nightingale , i n " Pepperers ' Guild , " 1 2 9- 3 0 ,
arrive s at a similar conclusio n , but a number of her
s uggestions should be c larif ied . we have already shown
that her content ion that P alenci a was a center for E uropean
merc hants seeking to exchange E urope an s ilver for 11-tus l i.rn
go ld i s ill founded .
( See c hapter 6 , n . 2 8 . above )
Seco ndly , she point s to a f i nd o f two morabetinos in
London , both dated 1 1 3 1 , as evidence of the importatio n of
gold from Spai n . This find , however , cannot s upport her
inferenc e that thi s trade in gold was prospering as early
as 1 1 1 9 . Morabetino s had bare ly begun to surf ace in Leo n
by 1 1 3 0 . The date s on the coins o bviously serve only as a
terminus post quem for their arrival in England .
( The
find , not referenced i n Nightingale , i s reported ln
Duples sey, " Monnaies arabes , " 1 3 3 no . 3 6 . )
Finally , Nightingale writes t hat , " the ado ption of the
English ster ling mark by the C hr istian kings o f Spain and
Portugal in the last quarter o f t he twelfth ce ntury as the
weight standard for their go ld marabetinos implies that
Engli s h coin was being exported in some quantity to spain
in exc hange for go ld . " ( 1 3 0 ) There is no basis for this
conc lusion . The weight standard for the morabetino
alfonsin and the other Latin morabetinos of roughly 3 . 8 9
grams was derived from the weight of Lobo ' s morabetino
whic h may have ultimately been i nf luenced by the Hispanic­
Chri stian custom o f reckoning the dinar at 7 to the Roman
ounc e .
( See appendix A . )
433
I
c lear ly demonstrated by the product io n of silver mi l l areses
in the se towns which f lo urished into the late thirteenth
century . -' 2
The debasement s of Alfonso VI I I in castile and Pedro
II in Barcelona had been drastic .
Bot h ki ngs c ut the
si lver content of their quaternal denarii in half .
More
remarkable , however , than the fact that these two
debasement s happened s imultaneously is that both were
unsuccessf ul .
Alfonso and Pedro eve ntually re stored t he
older quaternal co inage s , an action whic h must have been
the re sult o f popular outcry .
Pedro should have been able
to predict the unpopular ity of his measure from the les son
of his father ' s reign .
Alfonso I I of Aragon , had attempted
a les s dramatic reduction of the j accensis from 4 d . to 3
d . around 1 1 7 4 but here again the king was forced to
reverse hi s action and bring back the stronger coinage . -'3
In Leo n , a similar debasement was probably avoided by
the populace ' s wil l ingne s s to consent to a moneta s ubsidy .
The failure of the debasements in cast ile , B arcelona and
Aragon , as we ll as the emergence of the monet a tax in Leo n ,
therefore , serve as an indic ation that over the cour se o f
I
4 2 wat son , i n " Back to Gold and si lver , " 7 , conc luded
that t he f ir st crusade s served to drain Chri stian Span i s h
go ld toward the Levant . The s ugge st ion is an intriguing
one , but he offers no evidence . For Genoa and Pisa • s
contac t with North Afric a and commercial expansion i n the
thirteenth century in general , see Spufford , Money , 1 6 3 - 8 6 .
4 3 Bisson , conservat io n , 8 5 .
434
the twelfth century mo ney had come to play a more integral
ro le in society .
I n the ear lier years of the century, the
denarius de medietate was abandoned in these st ates and
left barely a ripple i n the so urce s .
By 1 2 0 0 , however , the
use of money had undoubtedly grown and after the denar ii of
Leo n , castile, Aragon and Barcelona had been long
maintained at 4 d . , a sudden c hanges in it value was bound
to meet with resistanc e .
While coinage be lo nged to the
sovereign , it �vas now increasingly a matter that " touc hed
al l . "
Aftermath - The Thirteenth Century
The thirteenth century began exceptional ly wel l for
Leon-Casti le , at least in terms of the reconques t .
Alfonso
VI I I ' s victory at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1 2 1 2 marked the
begi nning of the e nd o f Almo had power in spain .
Under
Fernando I I I , a re united Leo n-castile rapidly increased it s
territory .
I n 1 2 3 6 , Fernando co nquered cordoba , the former
capital of the umayyad c aliphate , and by 1 2 4 8 he advanced
furt her south to take sevi lle .
At his death i n 1 2 5 2 , hi s
realm covered more than half the Iberian pe ni n s ula . 44
As far as we know, Fernando I I I struck no coin 1n hi s
own name .
Rather , he al lowed the immo bi li zed type s of
Alfonso VI I I , the burgales and the pepi6n , to continue in
I
4 4 In the east , a simi lar advance was led by Pedro
I I ' S son Jaime I , who colo ni zed the Muslim kingdom of
Valenc ia and be gan the conques t of the Balearic i s lands .
O ' Cal laghan , Medieval Spain , 3 3 7- 4 9 .
435
Cast ile . � 5
He also appears to have continued to strike the
morabetino alfonsin, though the se i s s ue s were probably
limi ted .
When he gained the throne of Leo n in 1 2 3 0 , he
likewise al lowed the leones o f hi s father , Alfonso IX , to
continue unchanged . � 6
Fernando I I I ' s lai s sez-faire po licy
toward the coinage , however , s ho uld not be mistaken for
indi f ference .
Fer nando ' s immo bi li zation of the coin types
of his predece ssor s was almo st c ertainly the res ult of t he
constraints placed on the c rown by a monetagi um tax .
Even without the threat of debasement , the adopt io n of
a monetagi um tax as an alternat ive to renovatio had muc h to
recommend it to those who met at the cortes of Benavente ln
1 2 02 .
Des pite the democratic language o f the charter
issued there , which dec lared t hat neither " a knight nor the
knight ' s servant who col lect s hi s bread and wine " was to be
exempt from the tax , the f l at monet agi um payment f avored
the \vea lthy who in a renovatio were taxed on their total
capital in coin . � 7
I
An assembly o f the kingdom ' s leading
4 5 The debate over the so-called F . REX coinage
appear s to have been laid to rest . The hoard finds
combined \vith the di lplamtic e vidence demonstrates that
this was the coin of Fernando IV . See Todesca , " Honetary
Hi story , " 1 8 2 - 8 8 .
4 6 since the leones was s li ghtly weaker than the
burgales, this resulted in two s li ghtly different unit s of
account in the kingdom . See Todesca , " Rebel lion , " 3 1 , 3 5 37 .
4 7 " Nee debet de emtione i ps iu s monete aliquis
excusari nisi . . . mi le s et c as sarius ipsius mi litis qui
panem vel vinum eius co llegerit . " Alfonso I X , 2 : 2 3 6- 3 7 no .
167.
436
nobles , prelates and to\�smen as were gathered at Benavente
would be likely to f avor s uc h an opt ion .
Whi le there i s no record of a Casti lian cortes
arriving at a simi lar agreement with Alfonso VI I I before
hi s deat h in 1 2 1 4 , there is fair ly c lear evidence that
monetagi um was being col lected in castile by the reign of
Enrique I and cert ainly by the ear ly years of Fernando
II I . 4 8
The documents from Fernando I I I ' s reign do not show
that this monet a tax was voted o n by a meeting of the
cortes every seven years , but hi s po licy of immo bili zation ,
whic h is evident from the numi smatic record , suggest that
the tax was collected .
By the e ar ly years of the reign of
Alfonso X , the crown had be gun to consider the moneta tax a
customary right due every seven year s . 49
Fernando I I I died in 1 2 5 2 , o nly a few year s after hi s
crowni ng military ac hievement , the conquest of Seville .
Alfonso X fe l l the task of conso lidating his father ' s
tremendous territorial gains .
Though much of the Muslim
population i nitial ly remained in the countryside of the
newly-co nquered so ut h , the crown had encouraged Chri stian
occupation of the towns to sec ure the frontier .
Thi s
migrat ion taxed the manpower o f the northern regions and
probably made the kingdom more reliant on a network of
trade .
I
The so uthern regions , Andalusia and Murc ia , soon
4 8 See Todesca , "Monetary hi story, " 1 5 1 - 5 3 ; cf .
o · callaghan, " Beginnings , " 1 5 1 9
4 9 Todesca , "Monetary hi story , " 1 6 0- 6 1 .
To
437
suffered their own shortage of manpower with the virtual
expu l s io n of the Mus lim population after the uprising of
1264 .
At the same time , the recent acquis ition of sevil le
on the Guadalquivir river fully opened castile-Leon to
Mediterranean commerce and the luxury items it could
provide .
The overall ef fect seems to have been an
increasing demand for ample coinage to maintain a more
complex and de licately balanced economy .
Al fo nso X perhaps irrevocably aggravated the problem
in his f ir st dec ade as kin g .
He expended huge sums outs ide
the realm both i n he lping to ran som the so n of the Latin
emperor of constantinople and attempting to purc hase for
himself the title of Roman emperor .
He re sponded at home
by repeatedly promulgating sumptuary l aws against the use
of luxury items , setting wage and price ceilings and
finally by manipulating the coinage . 5 0
I f Alfonso X indeed
felt co nf ident that he co uld co llec t the monetagium with or
without fir st gaini ng the approval of t he a ssembled cortes,
there was litt le incentive for him to adhere to the old
coinage standards .
By 1 2 6 4 , at war with Granada , he issued
the first new type seen in casti le-Le6n sinc e the last coin
of Alfonso IX was is sued sometime before 1 2 3 0 .
Alfonso X ' s
5 0 O ' Cal laghan , " Paths to Ruin , " 4 1 - 6 7 ; Miguel Angel
Ladero Que sada , "Aspecto s de la po litica economica de
Alfonso X , " Revi sta de la Fac u lt ad de Derecho de la
Univers idad compl utense de Madrid 9 : 6 9 - 82 .
I
438
new moneda de la guerra contained roughly a third les s
si lver than the o ld burgal es and leones . s 1
At t hi s stage , Alfonso ' s government may have sti ll
been c apable of calling in the o lder coinage .
The
burga les, leones and pepi6n dro p quickly from the doc uments
and are fo und in few hoards .
But when , de spite hi s
promises at Jere z in 1 2 6 8 , Alfonso imposed two more
deba seme nt s in the next decade , the crown ' s ability to
ef fect ively call in the c urrency seems to have bee n
severe ly undermined .
Hi s son sanc ho would attempt to
reca l l o lder issue s , as wo uld hi s son , Fernando IV , but
neither appear to have been partic ularly succes sful . s2
With eac h successive debasement , the o lder , stro nger coins
tended to be hoarded rather than s urrendered back to t he
Witho ut the effec tive rec al l of o lder issue s , t he
mint .
crown ' s abilit y to mai ntain a st able coinage at a pro f it
was severe ly undermi ned .
Thus , with Alfonso X , a cyc le of
debasement and manipulation began in Leo n- castile that
wo uld cont inue down to the reign of the Catho lic Kings .
51
For the moneda de l a guerra and Alfonso X ' s two
subsequent coins see , in general , Tode sc a , " Ho netary
Hi story , " 1 62 - 7 8 . The identif ic ation of Alfonso ' s thi rd
co in , however , i s revi sed in Todesca , " Rebellion , " 2 7- 4 3 .
5 2 For Sancho ' s attempt at recalling o lder issue , see
Tode sc a , " Rebe llio n , " 2 7- 4 3 . For Fernando IV , see Todesca ,
"Monetary Hi story , " 1 8 2 - 8 8 .
I
43?
(
Fernando I
( 1 0 3 5- 6 5 )
I
ca sti le
Leon
I
Alfonso VI
Sancho I I
( 1 0 6 5- 72 )
Galicia
Garc ia
( 1 06 5- 1 1 0 9 )
I
I
Port ugal
Henry of B urgundy
=
Leon-Casti le
Tere sa
Afonso Henriques
( 1 1 85-12 1 1 )
=
Raymond
of Burgundy
6}
Al fonso VI I
( 1 1 2 8- 8 5 )
I
r
Urrac a
( 1109
Sanc ho I
( 1 0 6 5 - 72 )
( 1 1 2 6- 5 7 )
cast i le
Leon
I
I
sanc ho I I
Fernando I I
( 1 1 5 7- 5 8 )
( 1 1 5 7- 8 8 )
I
Alfonso VI I I
( 1 1 5 8- 1 2 1 4 )
I
Enrique I
( 1 2 1 4- 1 7 )
Bere ngue la
=
Alfonso IX
I
cast ile-Leon
( 1 188- 1 2 30 )
I
Fernando I I I
( 1 2 1 7- 5 2 )
I
Al fonso X
( 12 52-84 )
Fig . 1 . Rulers of Leon-Casti le , 1 0 3 5 - 1 2 8 4
r
I
CONCLUSION
Bet'tveen the year s 8 0 0 and 1 3 0 0 , the economy of �iestern
Europe was transformed by the interrelated growth of trade ,
town s , and the use coin .
Hi storians may still debate how
extensively the si lver denarius of the Carolingians
c irc ulated on a daily basis in the ninth century , but with
the opening of the silver mine s in the Har z mo untains in
Germany c . 9 6 0 mi nting and the use of money progres sed
steadi ly in Latin Chri stendom . 1
By the late thirteenth
century, with the rise of loca l and international banking,
the degree to whic h the Europe an eco nomy relied on money
had far surpassed that of the anc ient world .
To thi s
extent , the deve lopment of an economy in which all levels
of soc iety accepted and for the mo st part trusted coin as a
means of payment was one of the ac hievements of the We ster n
Middle Age s passed on to the modern era .
The ki ngdom of Leon-Cast i le was not exc luded from this
gradual European revival .
At the close of the ninth
cent ury, during the reign of Alfonso I I I , some form of
si lver c urre nc y began to c irculate wit hin the kingdom .
Beginning in his reign , s urviving charters from the tent h
cent ury refer to payment s made in so lidi argenti and , le s s
commonly , t o payments in so lidi gal licani .
r
1 see , in general , Metc alf , " Prosperity of North­
We stern Europe , " 3 4 4 - 4 8 .
440
44 1
Alfonso I I I extended the borders of hi s kingdom so ut h
to the ouero river and it is certainly likely that sett ler s
along the new frontier were able to proc ure some silver
dirhams from Andal usia .
Nonethe le s s , there
lS
no
compel ling reaso n to accept the theory held by Beltran and
others that the so lidus argenti in tenth-century Ast urias­
Leon was based on Is lamic mo netary val ue s .
Besides
extending hi s kingdom to the south , Alfonso had promoted
the cult of St . Jame s by rebui lding the church of sant iago
de Compo stela .
Evidence o f pilgrims making the journey
from southern France to compostela c an be found as ear ly as
950 . 2
Franki sh denarii , t hen , were almost certainly
reaching the kingdom in the early tenth cent ury, carried
either overland through Catalonia or possibly via early
maritime links acro s s the Bay of B iscay .
The phrase
solidus argenti in the sources was most likely derived from
the caro lingian so lidus argent i , a unit of account
representing the val ue o f 1 2 denar ii .
In the same regard , there is little reason to believe
that the phrase solidus gal lican us, whic h is met
occasional ly in the so urce s of tenth-century Galicia,
indicates that the populac e of thi s part of Asturias-Leon
had resurrec ted three- hundred-year-o ld S uevic gold piece s
as has been suggested by previou s studie s .
(
46 .
2
The term could
Vazque z de Parga et al . , Las peregrinacione s , 1 : 3 9 -
442
be see n as evide nce that the crown or some other authority
struck denarii i n Galicia, perhaps in co nnection with the
building of the new church at sant iago , but there is
nothing else to substantiate s uc h a theory .
I t is more
like ly that the t erm solidus gal lican us was s imply another
way of referr ing to the foreign denar ii of Francia or Gaul .
Whether the kings of tenth-century Ast urias struck their
own denarii anywhere in the realm is impo s sible to
determine from t he evidence that survive s today .
It was in the following cent ury that I sl amic coinage
made a significant impact on the eco nomy of Leon as we ll as
the other Latin states of I beria .
The effect of the
co llapse of the umayyad caliphate in the ear ly dec ades o f
the eleventh century is immediately evident i n the Catalan
doc umentary so urce s where citations of the mancu s , the
Is lamic go ld dinar , are plentiful .
Go ld f lowed to
Barcelona and the other Catalan lands at f ir st as a re sult
of Catalan troops serving in Andalusia and perhaps also
through trade and border raids .
Probably by the 1 0 3 0 s and
certainly by the 1 0 4 0 s , however , the Catalan count s had
begun to col lect gold tribute from the i ndependent Mus lim
lords that emerged after the breakup o f the caliphate .
In contrast to its pre sence in Cat alonia , the go ld
dinar is almost whol ly absent from Leo ne se and C astilian
charters of the first half of the eleventh century .
Charters from the town of Leon do be gi n to refer to si lver
r
paid out by weight .
Thi s practice may pos sibly re flec t an
443
inf lux o f dirhams which tended to be more erratic in \veight
than C hr istian denarii .
By hi s death in 1 0 6 5 , however ,
Fernando I of Leo n-castile had begun to collect parias or
tribute from the south and could afford to endow the Frenc h
house of Cluny with 1 , 0 0 0 dinars per ann um .
Sti ll , the
source s give little indication that go ld was c irculating in
the dome st ic eco nomy , though payment s in si lver seemed to
become more common .
The bis hop of Leo n in 1 0 7 4 , for
example , could rely on an annual payme nt of 5 0 0 so lidi o f
"excel lent silver " from the Jewish community in the town of
Leon .
The expl anation for the cont inued lack of go ld i n
Leon-Casti le lie s i n the f act that the nat ure of the
payments from Andalusia had undo ubtedly be gu n to c hange by
mid-cent ury .
With their gold re so urces dwindling , the
taif a prince s started to render their tribute either in
poor quality gold or alter natively in si lver dirhams and
also in-kind .
Faced wit h this scenario , Fernando I and hi s
son Alfonso VI appear to have guarded their go ld for l ar ge
internatio na l payments like the census to Cluny .
simi larly, s anc ho Ramire z of Aragon-Navarre made payme nt ln
go ld to Rome .
What gold t he se ruler s al lowed to trickle
down to their native ari stocracy and c lergy seems to have
in tur n been used spar ingly by them .
The end re sult may
have been that incoming si lver from Anda lusia along with
I
previously hoarded silver was now freed up for domestic
circ ulat io n while go ld was set aside .
444
I
But what form did the si lver c irculating in Leon­
castile take ?
Was it mere ly a " mixed bag " of plate ,
dirhams and as sorted L atin denar ii ?
By the 1 0 6 0 s ,
referenc es t o transactions conducted i n so lidi argenti
\ve ighed on the scale cease .
Whi le there is still no c le ar
evidence at this j uncture that Fernando I struck his own
denari i , to read through t he s urvivi ng c harters from 1 0 6 0
onward , partic ular ly tho se from the town o f Leon c iting
repeated payment of so lidi argenti , it seems almost
inco nceivable that the king was as yet not minting .
Po ssibly the crown proc ured de narii on a limited
contract ua l basi s .
we know that at mid-century, Ramon
Berenguer I of B arce lo na hired private moneyer s to strike
denarii in thi s manner .
With the reign of Alfo nso VI , we final ly come to
somewhat f irm ground .
By the year 1 1 0 0 , royal co1ns were
struck i n at least three mint s , Leo n , Santiago and To ledo .
Whether Alfonso VI expanded on a limited minting tradition
of his predece s sor s or was act ually the first king of Leon
to mint coin , hi s monetary po licy was by either measure
ambitiou s .
Hi s chri stogram coin , as Metcalf noted , wa s
struck from hundreds of die s and appears to be one of the
first large- sc ale bi llon is sues of Chri stian Spain . J
Gaut ier Dalc he , accept ing Heis s ' s chrono logy that
Alfonso VI was in fact the f ir st king of Leon-Castile to
3 Metcalf , "A Parce l of coins , " 2 8 8
a
445
strike coin, suggested that it was the pre stige of
occ u pylng To ledo , the seat o f the old Vi sigothic kingdom ,
that lent the crown a sense of legitimacy and convinced
Alf onso that the time had arrived to mint .
In Gautier
Dale he ' s view , the act t.vas " symbo lic more than economic .
" -l
But such a hypothe si s does not explain the extensivene ss o f
hi s colnage and ignore s the growth o f the use o f money i n
the kingdom i n the century and a half before Alfonso VI
asce nded the throne .
If his predece s sor s truly had not
struck any coin, in economic terms a native coinage t.vas
lo ng overdue by Alfonso VI ' s reign
Along with c lear evidence regarding mi nting , it
lS
also during the relgn of Alfonso VI that the sources fir st
revea l attempt s by the crown to levy a tax on each
household , a s ses sed in solidi argent i , both in the
terr itory of Leo n and in the dioce se o f santiago .
The se
exac tions were emergency measure s de signed to raise funds
for defense against the Almoravids , who be side s threatening
the kingdom physic al ly , had c ut off Alfo nso ' s income in
tribute .
To attempt to co llect such a tax demanded an
ample coinage and the Histori a compos telana testifies that
in S antiago the levy f ai led because of the state of the
currency .
A desire to remedy this pro blem may well have
4 Jean Gautier Da lc he , "Le ro le de la reconquete de
To lede dans l ' histoire monetaire de la C astile ( 1 0 8 5 1 1 7 4 ) , " in E studios sobre Alfonso V I y la reconguista de
Toledo ( aetas de l I I congreso internac io nal de e studio s
moz ar abe s ) , vo l 2 ( Toledo , 1 9 8 7 ) , 1 4 .
I
446
been the immediate motive behi nd Alfonso VI ' s carefu lly
struck i s s ue s , the star-annulet and c hr istogram types .
Bernard Rei l ly in hi s recent s urvey of spain from 1 0 3 1
to 1 1 5 7 emphas ized what he sa\v a s " the very limited
reso urces of the central power in any of t he political
center s of I beria during the period . "
Whi le Rei lly
recognized t hat the kings of Chr istian S pain enj oyed a
certain prestige among their s ub j ect s , e spec ially in their
ro le as leader s in the reconquest , he conc luded that " royal
government was s hort of reach and spastic in application .
"
s
In particular , Reilly stre s sed that along with a fai lure to
admini ster j ustice and col lect royal revenue s direct ly , the
kings of Chr i stian Spain f armed out the right to coin
mone y :
( The right t o mint ) was so ld o r leased t o pr ivate
moneyers and in that fas hion fur ni shed revenue to the
crown . Neither in thi s nor in any other regard is
there evidence of a central mac hinery whic h could have
contro l led or directed the everyday operation of suc h
an enterpri se . 6
Rei l ly ' s conc l usion may have bee n based on the
evidence of three mint contracts from eleventh-century
Barcelona .
Though the terms o f these contracts are
somewhat ambiguo us , Ramon Berenguer I c learly received a
fixed payment in return for allowing the mo neyers to mint . 7
I
5 Rei l ly , Contest , xiv, 2 3 9 .
6 I bid . , 5 8 .
7 Botet , Les monedes , 2 0 0- 2 0 2 no s . 4 - 6 .
appendix B be low .
See further
447
As i n a tax farm , the count knew his pro fit in advance and
was at no financ ial risk .
I f the kings o f Leon-castile
once resorted to a simi lar practice , by the beginning of
the twelfth cent ury the crown ' s mo netary po licy had grown
more so phi st ic ated .
In his c harter o f 1 1 0 7 granting the bi shop and c hapter
of compo stela full right s to the loc al mint , Alf onso VI
spoke of the po s sibi lity that the cler gy might not realize
an ample pro fit in administering the mint on their own .
In
s uc h a case , the king proposed that his own preposi t us or
over seer of mint s co uld come to their aid .
The crown ,
then , was plai nly invo lved to some extent in supervi sing
it s mint s and it expected the clergy o f sant iago to attempt
to do the same .
Profit from coinage did not come from
fixed co ntract s , but depended direct ly o n how succes s f ul ly
each of the mint s co uld attract bullion in exc hange for
coin .
Alfonso i n the same charter was tro ubled by the harm
that counterfeit s were causing in the kingdom .
If his
coinage was farmed , the potential lo s s in profit from
counterfeiti ng would not have been his c o ncern .
In additio n to the royal grant to Sant iago , the
surviving coins attributed to Alfonso VI bear further
testimony to a monetary policy that went beyond ad hoc mint
contract s .
The coins produced at sant iago , To ledo , Leon
and possibly other unsigned mint s in the f inal years of hi s
I
reign are so uniform i n appearance that it seems very
like ly that the dies were centrally c ut and then
448
di stributed .
Al so , the weight s of the f lans appear to have
been tight ly control led , another s ign of c aref ul
supervi sion . a
The long period of anarc hy that fo llowed the death of
Alfonso VI 1 n 1 1 09 , prec luded hi s succes sors from striking
coins that were as caref ul ly produced as his chr istogr am
coin , although the ear ly issue s o f Urrac a came c lose .
wit h
tribute from al-Andalus still cut of f , and a three-way
civi l war raging within the kingdom, urrac a ' s imme diate
need for coin was probably greater tha n her father ' s .
Citi ng the demands o f war , the queen o pe ned at least o ne
new mint at Sahagun in 1 1 1 6 .
De spite the chaos of the se
year s , her minti ng polic y did not invo lve farming the
coinage in retur n for a one-time payme nt .
At her new mi nt
in S ahagun , she placed the abbot of the monastery 1n c harge
of the operation .
He wa s to hire the worker s , assay the
coinage and receive a third of whatever profit s were made .
Another third of the profits were to go to a near-by
convent .
By alienating such a large s hare of potential
reve nue , the queen perhaps hoped to cement loc al loyalties .
It also obviously provided her with a hands-on
admini strator in the per son of the abbot .
At Palenc ia , she
awarded the bi shop half the proceeds of the local mint .
While the exigencies o f war probably c aused Urraca to
give away more mint profit s than she may have been inc li ned
I
8 Metcalf , "A Parce l of coins , " 2 9 8 - 3 0 0 .
449
a
to do if her reign was peacefu l , her succe ssor , Alfonso
VI I , regained some of what was lost .
He c lo sed the mi nt at
Sahagun , appear s to have reduced the bishop of Palenc ia ' s
share of mint profits to a tenth and reduced the bisho p of
Segovia ' s mint share from a third to a fourt h .
He also
successf ully rec laimed half of the pro fits o f composte la
and may have c lo sed a mint at Lugo establi shed under
Alfonso VI .
By the end of Alfonso VI I ' s reign , there were
approximately seven mint s in the realm , all located in
towns that were the seat s of bishops .
Each of these
bi shops still retained some share of the loc al minting
proceeds .
one hear s nothing more of a royal preposi t us o f
mint s a s mentioned i n the re ign of Alfonso V I and we might
surmise that the king ' s directives with regards to the
co inage were in general carried out by the loc al bis ho ps .
Henc e , Alfonso VII awarded the bishop of Palencia an
additional 5 0 morabetino s above hi s share of normal mint
proceeds eac h time the mint was required to change to a new
type .
The role of these bisho ps in mo netary matters may
also be seen in the legi s lation passed at Valladolid at the
end of Alfonso VI I ' s reign .
Tho se gui lty of counterfeit ing
were to lo se all their wealth and a tenth of the money
conf iscated , legitimate coin as we ll as false , was to go to
the bisho p . 9
9 see appendix
c,
n . 6 below.
a
450
Alfonso VI I struck a wide variety of types in hi s
thirty-one year reign , tho ugh a lack o f pert inent hoards
prevents plac i ng them in any c hrono logic al order .
Nonetheles s , doc umentary evidence indicate s that from
roughly 1 1 3 0 onward the denarius o f Leon was maintained at
a fineness of 4 d . , in par ity with the coins of Aragon and
Barcelona .
The evidence o f intrinsic stability , combined
with the variety of surviving type s and sc attered
references in the doc ume nt s to " c hanging " the mo ney all
point to the conc l usio n that Alfonso VII periodically
renewed the co inage .
More t han hi s ability to safeguard
his rights in a network of seven mint s , the likelihood that
Alfo nso VI I had the authority and means necessary to
exec ute a renewal of t he c urrency speaks to the strength of
royal governme nt in the mid-twelfth cent ury and should make
us pause to reconsider Rei lly ' s overal l assessment .
The twe lfth centur y was , i n genera l , a period of
political maturation in we stern E urope .
Whi le it is true
that the kings of Leon-castile did not develop the
bureaucratic mac hinery that the Norman-P lantagenet kings of
E ngland or the c apetians o f France did , the challenges that
faced the rulers of Leon-Castile were in key respect s
different from tho se f ac ing their more norther n
contemporaries .
The Frenc h and English crowns had to
overcome the decentraliz ing forces o f feudalism .
I
To
do so ,
they developed a corps o f royal agents that could perform
their wi ll at the local leve l and he lp c ircumvent the
I
45 1
inde pendence of powerf ul vas sals .
never as prominent in Leon-Castile .
Feudali sm , however, was
strong bonds of
vas s alage as wel l as landed servitude were hampered from
the ninth cent ury onward by the freedom to be found along
the frontier .
To this extent , the ruler s of Leo n- Castile
did not have the same imme diate need to develo p a
bureauc racy of loya l agents comparable to the pre v6 ts and
bai llis o f the French crown or the sherif f s and bai li f f s of
the Eng lish mo narchy . 1 o
The structure of their kingdom afforded them a
different avenue towards loc al administratio n .
The
cont inual process of coloniz at io n along the frontier had
given rise to a network of towns in twelfth-century LeonCastile that was unparalle led in either England or Franc e .
While some of these sett leme nt s were under the rule of
sec ular or ecc le siastical lords , most were direc tly
dependent on the king .
Because these towns contro lled
expansive tracts of outlyi ng territory , at times equivalent
to the s hires of E ngland or co unties of France they became
"ma j or element s in the administrat ive structure " of the
kingdom . u
1 0 As Reilly point s out , the royal agent s in C hr istian
S pain , called merinos , general ly enj oyed a great deal of
independence . Reilly , conte st , 2 3 9 . cf . W . L . Warren ,
Henry I I ( Berkeley , 1 9 7 3 ) , 3 6 2 ; John w . Baldwin , The
Government of Phi lip Augustus ( Berkeley , 1 9 8 6 ) , 1 2 5 - 4 4 .
1 1 o • callaghan , Corte s , 1 3 - 1 4 .
I
452
It was undoubtedly through thi s municipa l structure
that t he crown of Leon-castile was able to ac hieve suc h
measures a s the recall o f its coinage .
The thirteenth­
century Fuero of Jaca i nforms us that in ne ighboring Ar agon
the crown had lo ng been acc ustomed to sett ing up table s of
exchange for a pre scribed period in the towns for the
purpose of c hanging the co inage .
In Leo n-Cast ile , concrete
evidence of such a pract ice can be see n in Fer nando IV ' s
ordinance of 1 3 0 2 in which he so ught to rid the kingdom of
bad coin by setting up tables in the towns , j ust as is
alluded to in the Fuero o f Jac a .
Fer nando IV ' s ordinance
further inform s us that each table was to be s upervi sed by
a royal agent as well as a repre sentative of the loc al town
counci l .
There is reaso n to bel ieve , then , that the crown
in the twelfth c entury was also able to use the town
government to simi lar advantage in carrying out renewals of
the co inage as wel l as i n the exec utio n of other matters ,
such as in mustering tho se who owed mi litary service or
co llec ting shield money from tho se who could not answer the
call .
In the later half of the twelfth c entury , after the
divi sion of the realm in 1 1 5 7 , the demands o f an
increasingly commerc ial economy called for both the crowns
of Leon and castile to f urther ref ine their monetary
po licy .
r
E ighty year s be fore the Itali an merc hant cities
fe lt the need to strike their own go ld coins , the economie s
of Leon and cast i le had become so acc l imated to a bi -
453
a
meta l l ic system based on t he val ue of the go ld morabetino
that when the flow of morabetino s from a l-Andalus dried up
both c rowns init iated their own versio n of the coin .
While
the morabetino appears to have been struck in only one mint
in eac h kingdom, at the same t ime the two crowns opened
additional mints to strike denarii .
These new mint s were not placed strict ly ln to\vns that
corresponded to episcopa l sees .
Rather , they seem to have
been placed co nsciously in front ier or border regions .
Growing commercial contact with E urope brought an
increas i ng amo unt of forei gn coin to the realms , such as
the denarii of Anj ou and Tours .
I n addition , the divi sion
of the o ld realm put pre s s ur e on the i ndependent crowns to
def i ne separate spheres of c irculation f or their coins in
an area that had once en j o yed a common c urrency .
In
grant ing a fuero to the town of Benavente in 1 1 67 , for
example , Fernando I I commanded t hat no o ne dare to use any
coin other than his own . l 2
The placement o f mints along
po litica l boundaries , then , may ref lect a similar ef fort on
the part of these rulers to exc l ude foreign coin .
The growing use of coin , accompanied by increased mint
site s soon brought about a more f undamental shift in royal
mo netary policy in both Leon and c asti le .
As the vo lume of
coin i n c irc ulation increased periodic renewal of the
c urrency bec ame le ss and les s prac tical for the crown .
I
1 2 Rodrigue z , Fuero s loca le s , 2 8 9 - 9 0
n.
17 .
454
I
From the popul ace ' s po int of view, the more capital an
individual acquired in coin, the more he was hurt by
periodic demo neti zation .
The ado ption of a f lat mone tagi um
tax , therefore , was a prac tical compromi se .
After an
attempt at debasement in casti le , both crowns in the ear ly
part o f the thirteenth century appear to have sett led on
the option of collecting monet a wit h the co nsent of
representative as semblies analogous to the cortes that had
as sembled at Benavente in 1 2 0 2 .
In casti le , as a res ult of the adoption of a
monetagi um tax in place o f a system of renovatio, neither
Enrique I nor Fernando I I I struc k coins in their o�vn name .
I n return for the new monet a s ubsidy , they immobilized the
last two is sue s of Alfonso VI I I , the burgales and the
pepi6n .
When Fernando I I I later gained the thro ne o f Leon
in 1 2 3 0 and united the two realms , he al so immobilized the
last issue of Alfonso IX , whic h came to be c al led the
leones .
This coin was s l ight ly weaker than the burgales ,
probably due to a defic iency in weight .
leoneses to equal 9 0 burga leses ) .
( It took 9 6
Fernando dared not
adj ust either coin to put them in parity with one anot he r .
At Fernando ' s death i n 1 2 5 2 , the n , 3 coins were in
c ircu lation in the united realm , the leones, the burgales
and pepi6n .
The fir st two repre sented a tradition of
quaternal co inage that reached back to the ear ly years of
I
Alfonso VII , c . 1 1 3 0 .
The pepi6n , represented a failed
attempt at debasement by Alfonso VI I I and should have stood
I
455
as a warning to Alfonso X o f t he hazards of such maneuvers .
It did not .
After enduring three succes sive debasements
under Alfo nso X , during whic h time the king cont inued to
exact t he moneta tax , the as sembly of Vallado lid in 1 2 8 2
asked t he infan te Sancho t o restore t he leones , the
b urga les and the pepi6n .
Together these 3 coins
represented a time under Fernando I I I when t he crown had
honored the concept of the monet a tax and kept the co inage
unchanged . 1 3
The monarc hs of Leon-casti le i n the twelfth and the
thirteenth century may not have built a state machinery as
elaborate as that of the E nglish and Frenc h crowns , but at
an ear ly stage they compensated for this disadvantage by
calling as semblies compo sed of repre sent at ives from al l
three estate s to aid in the admini stration o f the realm .
Popular concern over the kingdom ' s coi nage , whic h can be
seen as early as the assembly of Val lado lid in 1 1 5 5 ,
quickly emerged as a prime consideration of these fuller
as semblies of nobles , clergy and townsmen that began to be
called in both Leon and cast ile in t he early years of the
1 3 The assembly at Val lado lid also asked s ancho to
re store a second coin from Leo n that t he y referred to as
t he salamanques . Doc uments f rom the re ign of Fernando I I I
rarely u se thi s term . Judging from numi smatic evidence
from t he period of sanc ho ' s rebe l lio n , by salamanques the
Valladol id assembly seemed to mean t he coin we have labe led
Alfonso IX type 1 . Fernando I I I , therefore , may have
al lowed Alfonso IX ' s last two is sues to c irc ulate , tho ugh
t hey must have been of equal value .
I n Fernando I I I ' s day ,
bot h types were probably simply c al led the leone s .
see
Tode sc a , " Rebe llion, " 3 5 , 3 9 - 4 0 ; c f . c hapter 9 above .
thirteenth century .
I n this regard , the n , the i s s ue of
coinage was a driving force behind the development o f the
cortes .
I n calling such ear ly assembl ie s as tho se that met
in Leon in 1 1 8 8 , Benavente in 1 2 0 2 and po s s i bly To ledo in
1 2 0 7 , almo st a hundred years prior to analogous meet ings in
England or Franc e , the monarchs of Leo n- ca stile had taken a
cruc ial step towards forging a nat io n .
r
I
APPENDIX A
SOL IDUS KAZIMI
AND
THE
DIRHAM OF ANDALUSIA
Po s s ibly the ear liest reference to the so lidus argenti
kazimi in the Latin document s of s pain is in a charter from
the terr itory of Portuga l whic h records the sale of a
church in 9 4 3 for 3 5 " so lidos kazimis . " l
The date of thi s
document may be suspec t , however , i n that there is n o other
mention of so lidi kazimi in the so urce s for the neA� thirty
year s . z
The term appear s in a sec o nd charter dated 9 7 7
preserved in a cartulary from the monastery of Lorvao ,
again in Portugal , and in an e ntry from the cart ulary of
the Galician monastery of Sobrado dated 9 8 4 . 3
In
Catalo nia , t he ear liest citation may be 9 8 1 , but thi s
referenc e too seems corrupt . 4
I
1 Portugaliae Monume nta Hi stor ic a : Diplomata et
Chartae , 1 : 3 0 , no . 6 0 . For a s umma ry o f many o f the
c it ations to so lidi kazimi , see Chalmeta , " Preci sion s , "
3 1 6- 1 8 .
2 Gi l Farres in Histori a , 2 1 8 , alludes t o a c harter
from Coimbra dated 8 9 3 whic h cite s so lidi kazimi . He give s
no reference , however , and was almost certainly mi staken .
3 Port ugaliae Mo numenta Hi storic a : Diplomata et
Chartae , 1 : 7 6 no . 2 1 1 ; sanc he z Albornoz , " Primi ti va
organi zaci6n , " 3 0 7 - 3 0 8 and his " Mo neda de cambio , " 1 8 1 .
4 " ( M ) ancusos . . . c acmino s . " Bo nnas sie, La Catalogne ,
3 8 5 . This i s the only time in the Hispanic Latin source s
where the adj ective is applied to manc us rat her than
solidi .
It may be a corruption of " manc uso s cocido s , " an
adjective normally used to emphasi s the purity of go ld .
curiously, several doc uments from the Italian towns of
Amalfi and S alerno dated 9 5 6 - 5 7 ment ion " auri tari . . .
457
458
The maj ority o f references to the phrase are in
transactions o f the eleventh century , though eve n here t he
total number o f known citations i s not many .
Ac cording to
Bonnas sie , after the reference of 9 8 1 , the term does not
appear in the Catalan documentatio n agai n until 1 0 1 9 .
From
that date it appears s ix to seven time s in the Catalan
docume nt s over t he next decade and once again in a doc ument
dated 1 0 4 1 . 5
With two pos sible exceptions , the so lidi
argenti kazimi is not c ited in the sources of the we stern
kingdoms dur in g the first half of t he century . 6
From 1 0 6 1
until the ear ly twelfth century, however , it appears
cassimini " and " auri solidos . . . cas simini . " The
refere nces are mos t like ly to Fatimid go ld issued by the
caliph Qasim ( 9 3 4- 4 6 ) .
[ See Travaini , " I tari di Sa lerno , "
1 4 ; Philip Grier so n , " La monetaz io ne amalfit ana ne i seco li
XI e XI I , " in Later Medieval Numismatics ( 1 1 th- 1 6th
centuries ) ( Londo n , 1 9 7 9 ) , 2 2 2 ] Whi le kazimi in these
Ital ian document s is applied to a different coin , the use
of the term among early Italian trader s may be f urther
evidence of their presence in Spain in the tenth century .
For Amalfi de legate s at cordoba , see Constable , Trade , 4 1 .
5 See the table compiled by Bonnassie , La catalogne ,
38 5 . He lists seven c it atio ns but I am he sitant about
assigning the undated c harter betwee n Berenguer Ramon and
Ermengo l of Urgel l in the Liber Feodorum Maior to the reign
of Berenguer Ramon I ( 1 0 1 7- 3 5 ) . see Rose l l , Liber 1 : 1 62 no .
1 5 7 ; cf . appendix B be low .
6 See the s ale of 1 0 1 6 to the monastery of Lorvao by
Z uleiman in Portugaliae Monumenta Hi storic a : Diolomata et
Chartae , 1 : 1 4 3 no . 2 3 0 .
( The sale of 9 7 7 c ited i n n . 3
above i s also by Z uleiman . ) A c harter from the monastery
of vacar ic a dated 1 0 4 6 c iting so lidi " ha llices " may be a
( Portugaliae Mo numenta
corrupt ion of h azimis or kazimis .
Historica : Diplomata et Chartae , 1 : no . 3 4 4 ; cf . Losa ,
"Money among the Mozar abs , " 2 8 8 . )
I
459
occasional ly in the doc ume nt s of Arago n- Navarre and Le6n­
casti le . 7
There is no doubt that the term referred to Is lamic
si lver .
Several o f the Catalan docume nt s spec ify that
solidi kazimi were from spani a , the Lat i n name for alAndalus . 8
The phrase , therefore , has often been taken as
corroboratio n that the frequent and unmodified references
to solidi argent i in the Latin sources before the twelfth
century were in fact to dirhams . 9
This is a haz ardo us leap
of faith .
It
lS
generally ignored that the c it at ions to so lidi
argenti kazimi in the Latin so urce s coincide wit h the
col lapse of the caliphate and the era of the parias .
They
appear i n Catalan docume nt s at the same time as the gold
manc us and are soo n ec lipsed by it .
I f the four ear ly
citation s from Portugal and Galicia are to be tr usted , the
I
7 For c itations after 1 0 5 0 , see tho se c ompi led by
Chalmeta in " Preci sions , " 3 1 8 . To the se c an be added the
charter of the abbot of San Victorian c . 1 0 5 6 - 6 8 which
refers to " unum bo num asinum qui fuit cornparat um in
quadriginta so lido s de c azmi . "
( Ubieto , " Docume ntos , " part
5 , 9 7 - 9 8 no . 6 2 )
See also the charter dated 1 0 7 2 in
Sahagun , 2 : 4 3 7- 3 8 no . 7 1 3 and c harter s dated 1 0 8 3 and 1 1 0 5
in Sahagun , 3 : 9 9 - 1 0 1 no 8 0 6 , 4 8 5 - 8 6 no 1 1 2 5 .
8 " ( S ) o lido s de argento K ac imi de I spania . " Ro sell ,
Liber 1 : 1 62 no . 1 5 7 . See f urther Bonna s s ie , L a catalogne ,
385 .
9 See , for example , Pedro Chalrneta ' s conc lusion : " I l
e st aus si logique de supooser que les argenteos , argentos
ou solidos de argento qui a pparai ssent frequernment , sans
autre mentio n identifcatrice , dans les doc uments leonais ,
aragonais et catalans de s xie et X I Ie siec les soient tout
simplement de s dirham Qa siml . " Chalmeta , " P reci sions , "
32 1 .
a
460
dirham also made i nroads into the we stern economy at thi s
time .
It is pro bably not coincidenc e , however , that the
phrase becomes more common in the so urces from the western
kingdoms after mid-e leve nth cent ury, preci se ly whe n the
princes of the se kingdoms were beginning to co l lec t parias .
One cannot argue by inference that the unmodif ied
so lidus argenti whic h emerge s in the doc uments of AsturiasLeon c . 9 0 0 was a unit based on the dir ham .
The very f ac t
that the so lidi argenti kazimi of the eleventh c entury were
given a spec ial name and were at times noted to be " from
Spani a" points to the co nc lusion that they were a new
phenomenon .
I t was part o f the same politic al s hift that
suddenly brought the gold manc us f lowing north , i . e . , the
di sintegration o f the caliphate .
Nonetheles s , P io Beltran propo sed that the s o l idus
argenti had al-.;o.1ays been f undamentally a unit comprised of
dirhams and that the so lidus ar ge nti kazimi ref erred to
debased dirhams that had bee n init iated by the C6rdoban
mint master Q a s im . 1 o
correct .
I n one way , Be ltran was probably
The adj ective kazimi in the Latin docume nt s doe s
like ly derive from thi s mint master , but both Mus l im
narrative source s and the evidence of the co in t hemselve s
i ndicate that Q a s im had i n fact reformed the dirham o f alAnda lus .
I
1 0 Pio Beltran vil lagrasa , " Notas sobre mo neda s
aragonesas , " P SANA 1 1 - 1 2 ( 1 9 5 8 ) , 4 4 ; c f . L luis y Navas ,
" Aspecto s , " 1 3 .
I
40 1
The dirhams of the emirate in the ninth century had
not been out standing .
Whi le t here
1s no re liable data on
the fine ne s s of the emirate ' s si lver , on the average the
coins seemed to weigh only aro und 2 . 6 0 grams whereas the
theoretical legal weight for the dirham ( the dirham kayl )
according to Mus lim j urists was supposed to be 2 . 9 7
gram s . l l
By the end of the ni nt h century , minting at
cordoba had ceased entirely in t he polit ic al upheaval of
When
those time s .
' Abd
-
al-Ra�an began to re store orde r ,
he waited sixteen year s into his reign before reactivati ng
the C6rdoban mint .
When he be ga n striking both dirhams and
dinar s c . 9 2 9 ( A . H . 3 1 6 ) whic h proc laimed him caliph , he
probably intended the mint to produce high quality coins
but according to I bn �ayyan , an e leventh-century
c hro nic ler , he was at first plagued with corrupt mint
of ficial s .
-
I bn �ayyan tells us that t he c aliph was forced to
employ a succession of mint master s in the first years
after he resumed minting .
I n 9 4 1 ( A . H . 3 3 0 ) he imprisoned
the c urrent master on c harges o f fraud and appo inted Qa s im
I
1 1 Alberto canto Garcia and Eduardo Marsal Moyano ,
"On the Metrology of the Silver Coinage of the Spani sh
Amirate , " in PMC I I , 1 6 7 -8 0 . For the dirham kayl , see Paul
B alo g , Umayyad , Abbasid and Tul unid Glas s Weights and
ves se l stamps ( New York, 1 9 7 6 ) , 2 5 ; The common dictum
used by the j urists was that t he weight of 7 legal dinar s
was equivalent to the wei ght of 1 0 dirhams kayl . Taking
the dinar to be 4 . 2 5 grams thi s trans lates to a weight of
See f urther , Grierson " The
2 . 9 7 grams for the dirham kayl .
Mo netary Reforms of ' Abd a l-Ma li k, " 2 4 8 , 2 5 6 , n . 1 3 ;
chalmeta " Prec isions , " 3 2 3 .
a
462
b . Ha lid , who is sued better coins than tho se of hi s
predecessors .
Qas im held the po st honorably unt i l his
deat h three years later in 9 4 4 ( A . H . 3 3 2 ) . 12
Ibn �ayyan ' s acc o unt i s largely corroborated by the
s urviving coinage .
The name Qa s im appears as the last line
of the obverse legend on bot h dinars and dirhams dated
between A. H . 3 3 0 and 3 3 2 . 1 3
Based on dies studie s of hi s
surviving co ins as wel l as their high survival rate,
Qasim ' s three years i n office appear to have seen a high
production of dir hams . 1 4
Hi s surviving coins al so indicate
that he increased the weight of the dirham to a standard
approaching that of dirham kay1 . 1 s
Nonethe less , co nsider ing that solidus kazimi is mainly
cited in elevent h-cent ury document s , it seems un like ly that
the Chri stians were applyi ng it only to dirhams whic h
carried the name Qa sim in the legend .
1 2 Chalmeta " Preci sions , " 3 1 9- 2 1 .
1 3 See Mi le s , Umayyads , no s . 2 1 7 - 2 2 0 . Miles doubted
that there were genuine specimens bearing the date A . H . 3 3 3 .
Mateu y LLopis , however , i n " Hal lazgos musulmane s , " part 6 ,
4 4 2 - 4 3 no . 5 7 , reported a hoard of dirhams from valenc ia
containing 2 1 pieces bearing Qa s im ' s name , 1 7 of which were
said to be dated A . H . 3 3 3 .
1 4 Alberto canto Garcia, " La reforma monetaria de
Qasim , " Al-Qantara 7 ( 1 9 8 6 ) : 4 0 3 - 1 2 .
1 5 see Alberto c anto Garci a , Luz cardito and carmen
Martinez , "La metro locjia del califato de cordo ba : Las
emi siones de plata de las cec as de al-Andal us y Mad l nat al­
Z ahra en el per iodo 3 2 1 -3 9 9 H . / 9 3 3 - 1 0 0 8 ( 9 ) D . C . , " GN 9 4 - 9 5
( 1 9 8 9 ) , 4 1 - 42 . Q a sim may also have i ssued dirhams of
be tter alloy than those of his immediate predece ssor s , but
thi s is hard to demonstrate . see Miles , umayyads , 92 . In
general the dirhams of t he c aliphate seem to have been
between 70 and 8 0 % s i lver , see be low .
_
I
soon after Qasim ' s
a
463
death, the mint was transferred to the nearby royal
residence of Madl nat al- Z ahr a in 9 4 7 ( A . H . 3 3 6 ) .
There its
year ly output may have even surpas sed that obtained under
Qasim , at least in t he f ir st decade . l 6
By the end of the
century , in the reign of Hi sh am I I , umayyad silver was also
struck acro s s the strait s in Fez and sidj i lmasa and
po ssibly other loc ations . 1 7
The hoard evidence today
demonstrates that by the end of the century coins from
' Abd
al-Ra�an ' s reign , i nc luding the coins wit h the name Qasim ,
were wel l integrated wit h the subseque nt i ssue s of his
succes sors . l B
Almo st certai nly , then , the Christians of
the elevent h centur y used solidi kazimi in a wider , more
general sense .
Tho ugh hi s tenure i n of fice had been brief , Qasim ' s
adoption of a more orthodox weight for the dir ham of the
caliphate was adhered to by hi s succe s sors .
�vhi le at the
end of the reign of ' Abd al-Ra�an I I I and again in the
re ign of al- eakam I I , the average weight of the dir ham
slipped slight ly , it general ly held c lose to the orthodox
weight .
Perhaps i nf luenced by the religio us fervor of al­
Man� ur , the mint under Hi sh am I I may have tended to even
I
1 6 Alberto canto Garcia, Franc isco P alou , and Belen
Tort aj ada, " Volume s of Productio n of Dirhams in al-Andalus
During the Years A . H . 3 3 0 and A. H 3 4 0 as C alculated From
Die-Link Stat istic s , " i n PMC I II , 9 3 - 9 5 .
1 7 saenz-Diez , Acunaciones , 3 1 - 7 0 ; c f . Miles ,
umayyads , 4 6 - 5 0 .
1 8 see the hoards surveyed i n canto Garc ia ,
" Perforations in coins , " 3 4 6 - 5 3 .
464
over c ompensate .
Dirhams from thi s period often weigh
slight ly more than 3 grams . l9
I t i s diffic ult to pro ve given the lack of
contemporary Mus lim di plomatic sources , but the mo st likely
explanation for the use of the term kazimi in the Lati n
source s i s that Andalusian society had adopted Qa sim ' s name
as a " sort of nickname " for the slight ly heavier dirham of
the c al iphate .
I bn ' Idhar l , writing in the early
fourteent h cent ury referred to dirhams qa si.� in di sc u s s i ng
' Abd a l-Ra�an ' s expenditure s but there is not a more
co ntemporary Muslim source that corroborates this c ustom . 2 o
Stil l , it must be realized that , unlike in the Christian
kingdoms , for al -Andalus in the tenth and eleventh
cent ur ie s there is no body of charters or records of
transac t ions that might reveal s uch a c ustom .
It
lS
perhaps significant , however , that two of the early charter
from Port ugal which c ite so lidi kazimi seem to be mo zarabic
in origin . 2 1
Whi le the solidi kazimi that entered the Chri stian
economie s in the eleventh cent ury may have been a mixed lot
-
of coins reaching back to the days of ' Abd al-Ra�an , they
were pro bably mainly dirhams of Hisham I I and later piec e s
I
1 9 C anto et al . , " Metrologia , " 4 3- 5 4 . Determining t he
intended weight standard o f I s lamic coins is , in general ,
dif f ic ult since mints often did not trouble to c ontrol
individual coin wei ghts c lo se ly . on the weight of Hi sh am ' s
issues , see further , appendix B .
2 0 Mi le s , Umavvads , 7 6 ; Chalmeta , " Preci sions , " 3 1 6 .
2 1 c f . Los a , " Mo ney Among the Mo zarabs , " 2 8 5
I
465
str uck in Hisham ' s n ame by the ear ly taifa pri nces .
During
the period of the emirate , silver had been drawn out of
Andalusia eastward , a f low that seems to have stopped under
the first caliphs .
By the ear ly eleve nth cent ury, however ,
there is c lear hoard evidence from Northern Euro pe
demo nstrating that dir hams were again being taken out a
Spai n , thi s time in a dif ferent direct io n .
Hoards found in
Germany , scandinavia and as far we st as Brit ain are largely
composed of dirhams in the name of the caliph Hisham .
Indeed , these coins became so we ll known in the Baltic
economy that bilingual imitations were struc k in the name
of t he German emperor Henry ( probably Henry I I who ruled
1 0 0 2 -2 4 ) . 22
This f low o f dirhams towards the north in the
early eleventh century was pro bably linked to the slave
trade . 2 3
It was a anot her facet of the economic dec line of
the caliphate and underscore s that the emergence of so lidi
kazimi in the Hi spanic Chr istian state s was tied to this
same disintegrat ion .
I
22 see t he hoards compiled i n Miko la j c zyk,
"Movements , " 2 5 6 - 62 , nos . 7 , 1 5 , 1 6 , 2 1 , 2 2 , 2 3 , 3 4 ; cf .
Noonan , "Dir hams , " 8 4- 8 6 and his appendix of f inds , 8 9 - 9 1 .
The dirhams from the se f inds , when ident if ied , are usually
given to Hish arn I I . H i s ham ' s name , however , continued to
appear on taif a coins af ter hi s reign .
see was serstein • s
c hapter " Caliphs , Counter-Caliphs , and Counterfeit C aliphs :
Hisharn and ' Abd All a h on Taifa coins , " in Caliphate , 9 8 1 1 9 . For the bilingu a l imitation , see Mi le s , Umayyads ,
540 .
These European hoards also contain other imitations .
Their Chri st ian origin i s betrayed by pseudo-Arabic
lege nd s , though they do not bear Latin legends as we ll . See
Noonan " Dirhams , " 87 .
2 3 See chapter 2 .
466
I
A f inal point regarding the silver coi nage o f the
umayyads and its inf luence on the Chr i st ian economie s needs
clarific ation .
Pio Be ltran several time s proposed that the
unit of weight c al led the arge ntus in the Latin so urces
( equivalent to approximate ly 1 . 9 4 grams ) was synonymous
with a Mus lim unit of weight for silver called the dir ham
andal us l .
Thi s bolstered hi s conviction that the Chri stian
currency systems in Iberi a were fo unded mainly on Is lamic
traditio n .
In character istic style , Beltran never
adequate ly explained hi s reasoning behind the hypothesis . 2 �
There i s to my knowledge no evidence to support it .
2 4 see Beltran , "E l s ueldo j acques , " 5 3 4 - 3 5 , where he
speaks of a " po nder al de l a plata f ina . . . l lamado dirhem de
a l-Anadal us . . . de 6 1 8 ( sic ) en la libra de la plata fina
. . . l lamado por los cristiano s argen to . "
( His number of
6 1 8 should read 1 6 8 . We k now that i n the Chri stian system
of weight there were 8 argenti o f weight to the so lidi and
2 1 solidi to the pound , making 1 6 8 argenti to the pound .
( See a ppendix B . )
see also Beltran ' s e ar lier artic le , " Fernando I , " 5 9 59 7 . Here , using a sectio n from I sidore ' s Etymologies , he
argued that the Romans divided the pound into 2 , 3 0 4 unit s
c al led calculi . He next a s s umed that in the late Empire
the silver coin cal led the mil iarense was so called bec ause
1 , 0 0 0 of them equa led a po und of go ld . Though it is not
evident in his text , he c a lc ul ated t he following :
1 , 0 0 0 miliarenses = 1 pound of go ld
"
1 , 0 0 0 ( 4 5 4 grams ) =
=
2 , 3 0 4 calc uli av .
4 , 5 4 0 grams ar .
=
1 calc ulus av .
1 . 9 7 grams ar .
Beltran ' s theory, the n , was that , " este calco de plata
se conserv6 entre lo s arabes e spafio les con e l nombre de
dirhem del Andal us , y lo s hispanocri stiano s lo l lamaron
argen to . " Ingenious though it is , hi s extrapolatio ns from
the Roman system are f i l led with pitfal l s . Primarily, the
miliarense coin changed re peatedly from constantine ' s time
and could not have maintained a steady exchange with go ld .
The very etymo logy of it s name remains in doubt .
( See
•
I
467
Typically, an Is lamic coin c arried the name of the
city where it was minted .
The C6rdoban mint o ften signed
al-Andal us , the name of the province , at least until the
mint was transferred to Mad l nat al- Z ahra in 9 4 7 .
Mus lim
j uridica l text s , therefore , do occasionally refer to the
dirham andal usl .
At other time s the umayyad dirham from
the era of the C aliphate appears to be c a l led the dirham
arba ' lnl or dirham " of forty . "
This last name seems likely
to derive from a conviction that to equal 1 0 0 dir hams kayl
one needed 1 4 0 Andalus ian dirhams . 2 S
According to the above ratio , if the dirham kayl is
2 . 9 7 grams , the dirham of Andalusia would only weigh 2 . 0 0
grams .
There are , however , no dirhams of the umayyads ,
either from the cali phate or the emirate , that were struck
at thi s light of a weight standard .
I f this j uridic al
formula was at all acc urat e , it must have been founded on a
belief that while the dirhams of the Umayyad c aliphs were
close to ort hodox weight , they contained onl y about 2 grams
I
Evans , " Coinage Systems , " 4 82 - 8 3 ; Spufford , Money , 8- 9 ,
51 . )
2 5 Chalmeta co nvincingly shows that this was the
meaning of dirham arba ' ini .
( See Chalmeta , " Preci sions , "
3 2 2 -2 4 and his " E l dirham arba 'ini , " 1 1 3 - 2 6 ) As sertions
s uc h as Pel licer ' s that arba ' ini is " a c lear reference " to
the coin ' s weight whic h corresponded to forty grains is
groundle s s .
[ See Jo sep Pe llicer i Bru , " On the Si lver
coinage of the Caliphate I s s ued in the Name of Hisam I I
Almowayad B il lah ( A . H . 3 6 6- 4 0 3 / A . D . 9 7 6- 1 0 1 3 ) 1 " in PMC I I ,
1 8 3 . ] Pel licer ' s line o f argument draws from Joaquin
va llve , " Notas de la metro logia hi spano- arabe I I I : pesos y
monedas , " Al-Qantara 5 ( 1 9 8 4 ) , 1 4 9 , whic h Chalmeta
effectively refuted .
468
of f ine si lver .
Thi s may have formed the basis of
Be ltran ' s theory .
Though we lack a comprehensive study o f the fine ne s s
o f umayyad si lve r , several studies confirm that the coins
were not pure si lver .
Peixoto Cabral analyzed 1 0 3 dirhams
of the c aliphate by x-ray f luore scence .
I nterested mainly
in s howing potential debasement in t he so-called
" revo lut ionary period " after the year 1 0 0 8 , he selec ted
only 2 5 dirhams from the tenth century , that i s from t he
-
reigns o f ' Abd a l-Ra�an , al-ijakam I I and Hisham I I ' s first
reign .
The surface of the coins were fo und to be between
7 0 and 7 5 percent si lver .
( Anot her study , using a
different method , showed s lightly higher silver co ntents
for the coins of the first three c aliphs . ) 2 6
A dirham
weighing 2 . 9 5 grams and 7 5 perce nt f ine wo uld carry 2 . 2 1
grams of pure si lver .
2 6 Joao M . Peixoto Cabral and Juan I gnac io saenz -Die z
"The S ilver co ntents of Some Dir hams o f the Revo lutionary
Period of the S pani sh umayyad Cali phate , " in PMC I I , 1 9 8 2 0 0 , pas sim . These re sult s are remarkably consi stent to
as says conducted in the nineteenth century .
( See Mi le s ,
umayyads , 9 2 . ) A second , recent study analyzed 7 3 dirhams
by " ne utro n and ganuna-ray transmi s sio n " and obtained higher
re sult s . The si lver content s of t he f ir st three cal i phs
( 3 5 coin s ) were between 82 and 8 6 % silver .
( Pel licer i
Bru , " Si lver Coinage of the Caliphate , " 1 8 4 - 5 . ] I n a
follow up study Peixoto presented additional findings and
co nc luded that t he caliphate ' s standard was " def ined at
some level between 7 0 and 8 0 % s ilver . " Jose Rodrigue s
Marinho and Joao M . Peixoto Cabral , " On the Si lver content s
of the Dirhams I s s ued by Hi sh am I I in A . H . 4 0 3 ( A . D . 1 0 1 2 1 3 ) , " i n PMC I I , 1 0 0- 1 0 1 .
I
469
It is conceivable that , o n t he average , Umayyad
dirhams cont ai ned slight ly les s si lver , perhaps approaching
2 . 0 grams .
Even if this were so , there
lS
nothing to
suggest that thi s then formed the basis of a unit of weight
c al led the dirham andal us l that became synonymous with the
Christian argentus .
The term dirham andal usl seems to a
have bee n used occ asiona l ly in Mus lim narrative so urces to
refer to the coin of that region but not to any abstract
unit of weight .
I
APPEND IX B
SILVER TO GOLD EXCHANGE
IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
In a mint contract dat ed 1 0 5 6 , Ramon Berenguer I of
Barcelona ordered the moneyers Narcus and Bo nf i l l Freda to
strike an unspec if ied quantity of co�n �n the fo llowing
manner : " from the so lidus of pure si lver by weight they
should make two solidi of coined denarii . " l
This is one of
the c learer re ferences i n the Christ ian Hi spanic sources to
the so lidus of weight whic h seems to have original ly served
as a division of the pound . 2
A cart ulary doc ument from the
mo nastery of Sobrado o n the Galician coast pre serves a late
tenth century donation of a vi llage and a " c hurc h with all
it s property , with be l ls made from good metal we ighing
1 , 0 0 0 pounds " and " a c ro s s , re liquary and chalic e of s ilver
weighing together 60 solidi .
I
..
3
The so lidu s of weight was ,
1 " ( U ) t f ac iant de so lido s de plata mera de pe s
solidos I I de dinar io s monetato s . " Botet , L e s monedes , 2 0 0
no . 4 .
2 I n the early twelfth century, the solidus o f weight
was occasional ly used to divide the newly-adopted mark . By
the c lose of that cent ury , however , the solidus of weight
is no longer evident i n the Latin so urce s .
see the section
on t he mark in c hapter 4 above .
3 "Et ipsam ecc le siam c um omnibus bonis sui s , signa ex
metallo bona pensantes libras mi lle , crucem, c apsam,
calicem aregento s pe ns ante s sub uno so lidos LX . "
Loscert ales , Tumbo s de sobrado , no . 1 3 7 . For si gn um
meaning a bell see the donat ion of " uno signo c um suo
c imbrio " or " a bell with its c lapper " in ACL , 4 : 1 5 - 6 no .
470
I
47 1
1n tur n , divided into 8 argenti as is evident in a purc hase
conducted by weight from Leon in 1 0 5 5 .
The price accepted
was " 2 0 so lidi o f good s ilver , which were good and pleasing
to us ( and ) were weighed by the pound where each so lidus
( was ) 8 argenti .
n4
Although the solidus of weight was broken dmvn into
unit s called argenti , it was also used as a measure for
gold.
The Catalan usa tge known as Solidus a ureus tel ls us
that the " so lidu s of gold has 8 argenti , t he ounce ( has )
1 4 " and that t he pound of gold consisted of 2 1 so lidi . s
9 0 5 . C f . Niermeyer , Lexicon , s . v . " signum " no . 1 1 ; Alonso ,
Diccionario , s . v . " c imbre . "
4 " In precio so lido s XX de argenteis l:x:mi s , quo s
magnus et plac ibiles f uerunt contra no s pensados per
pondere per unumquoque solidum argenzos VI I I , et apud vo s
nichi l remansit debit um . " The document i s in the Turnbo of
Leon which was redacted in the early twelfth century .
Another copy o f the same doc ument appear s earlier in the
cart ulary .
It omits the reference to weight and reads
simply , " in precio so lido s xx ti argentei s bonis , quos
magnus et plac ibiles f uerunt apud no s , et de ipso prec io
apud vo s nichil remansit in debito . " ACL , 4 : 2 9 5- 9 8 no .
1096 .
5 " So u d ' or ha vuyt argens , unq a catorz e , lli ura d ' or
vint y un sous . " Botet , Les Monedes , 5 8 - 5 9 . The pas s age
Solidus a ureus appears in about a half doz en renditions of
the usa tges .
( See the di sc us sion in Joan B astardas and M.
Mayer , "La moneda en e l s usatge s , " SNB , 2 : 2 1 6- 1 7 . ) The
Catalan vers io n published by Botet may date to the
fourteenth century .
It inc ludes a number o f obvio us
mathematic al mis take s , but in this openi ng line it i s
acc urate . The Latin version that Ferran Val l s Taberner
publi shed in Lo s usatge s de Barce lona : Estudios ,
comentarios y edici6n bilinglie de l texto ( Ma laga , 1 9 8 4 ) ,
1 1 4 , i s from the fifteenth-century compi lation of the
usa tges .
Its opening line reads : " So lidus aureus habet
octo argento s . unic ia vero XIII . Libra quoque habet XX I
so lido s aureos . " The reference here to an o unce of 1 3
See n . 8 below .
argenti instead o f 1 4 i s c learly wrong .
Solidus a ureus is mainly concerned with reconci ling
the value of debased taifa gold with the morabetino and
472
When Ramon Berenguer minted hi s light-we ight mancus bearing
his name on the revere s towards the end of his reign , it
was ofte n de scribed in the doc uments as weighing one
argent us . 6
Al l known examples of thi s coin fall between
1 . 9 0 and 1 . 9 5 grams . 7
with thi s knowledge , it become s
c lear that when solidus a ureus s peaks of 1 4 argenti to an
ounce it is referring to the Roman o unce of roughly 2 7 . 2 4
grams , which when divided by 1 4 give s a weight of 1 . 94 5
grams .
The so lidus of weight of 8 argenti , therefore , was
equivalent to approximately 1 5 . 5 6 grams ( 8 x 1 . 9 4 5 ) .
21
so lidi o f weight made the Roman po und of roughly 3 2 7
grams . 8
Be side s Ramon Berenguer ' s mint contrac t , two later
doc ument s from Barcelona refer to so lidi of pure silver .
I
obviously has it s origin sometime in t he f ir st half of the
twelfth centur y . Be ltran ' s explanation of the text in
" I nterpretac ion , " 1 - 2 6 , is f lawed and has hampered a number
of s ubsequent work s .
I hope to re-examine the text fully
in the f ut ure .
6 See , for example , " manc usos . . . aur i puri et cocti
mo nete B archinone a pe nso legitime pensato s unumquemque ex
istis manc us s i s . . . unum argenti s , " or " mo nete
Barc hino nensis pe nsato s unum ad unum de argencio uno . "
Botet i n Les monedes , 4 0 - 4 4 , provide s a number o f other
illust rations .
7 For c atalogued weight s see Miguel crusafont i
Sabater , Anna M . Balaguer , and I gnasi M . P uig i Ferrete,
" E ls comtats c atalan s : Les seves enc unyacions i aree s
d ' inf luemcia , " SNB , 1 : 4 1 5 - 1 6 ; crusafont , Numismatica , 1 8 0
no . 5 2 .
see also Tode sc a , " Means of Exc hange , " 2 3 9- 4 0 no .
4.
8 According to solidus a ureus , 2 1 solidi of 8 argenti
made a pound of 1 6 8 argent i . The Catalan version of the
usa tge tells u s there were 1 4 argenti to the ounce which
would make 1 2 ounces to the po und , the c orrect number of
ounces in the Roman po und . The Latin vers ion ' s 1 3 argenti
to the o unce , therefore , is clear ly an error .
473
a
These doc ume nt s also inc lude equivalencies i n go ld allowing
The
a glimpse of the relat ive value of the two metal s .
first i s dated 1 0 9 5 and refers to " 1 0 0 o unce s of good
Valenc ian go ld
or 3 5 0 solidi of good fine s ilver " 9
According to thi s , 1 ounce of Valenc ian go ld commanded 3 . 5
so lidi o f fine silver , though " f ine " s ilver is not def ined .
A more detai led document of 1 0 9 7 , however , refer s to " 1 0 0 0
manc usos o f Valenc ian gold or 5 0 0 so lidi of si lver o f whic h
each so lidi has only half an argentus that is bad .
..
10
we are given a specific prescription for the silver .
Here
Each
so lidus of 8 argenti was to co ntai n no more than half an
argenti of alloy which trans late s to s ilver that was 9 3 . 7 5
percent pure . u
I n the second docume nt , 1 manc us of vale nc ian gold i s
held equivalent t o a 1 /2 so lidi o f fine silver .
Solidus
a ure us tel l us that Va lenc ian go ld was reckoned at 7
manc usos to the ounce . l 2
I
Therefore , 7 mancuso s or one
9 " Uncias centum auri Valentiae obt imo recipiente aut
sol idos CCCL de bona plata fina . " Botet , Les monedes , 5 6 ;
Be ltran , " Interpretac ion , " 7 .
1 0 " Mi l le manc usos auri Valenc ie aut per quingento s
so lido s de plata qui non teneat unus quinque ( sic ) solidos
ni si medium argentum de mallo . " As noted in c hapter 4
above , Botet was sure ly correct t hat quinque i n this text
sho uld read qui sque . Bote t , Les monedes , 5 6 and 1 9 1 - 9 4 .
1 1 C f . c hapter 4 n . 2 4 above .
1 2 " ( S ) et manc usos de aque l l meteix aux ( of Valenc ia )
f an una un<; a , qui val dos morabatins . " Botet , Le s
Monededs , 5 8 - 5 9 .
"Valencian " go ld was actually compri sed
of quarter dinar pieces called rova l les in the Catalan
sources from the Arabic robal .
( See " manc usos auri
Valenc ie de rovalles , " and other c itat io ns in Alturo ,
" Note s , " 1 2 7 - 2 8 ) These were crude ly str uck with little
regard to consistency in weight . Whi le theoretically , 4
474
ounce of Valenc ian go ld was equal to 3 . 5 solidi of fine
si lver , the same rate that was in the first document .
Valenc ian go ld , however , was far from pure .
between 2 5 and 3 0 percent fine .
It was only
Its baseness is evident in
Solidus a ure us which e stabli shed that it took 3 . 5 manc usos
of Valencian go ld to equal 1 morabet ino .
The Almoravids may have original ly struck their dinar
at an intended weight of c lo se to 4 grams or more , but
Solidus a ureus rec ko ns the coin at the c ustomary weight for
the manc us , i . e . , 7 to the o unce or 3 . 8 9 grams apiece . l 3
since the morabetino was c lo se to pure gold, we can
tentatively calc ulate the fo llowing :
7 manc usos o f Valenc ia gold = 3 . 5 so lidi o f fine silver
2 morabetino s =
2
x
3 . 8 9 g . f i ne gold = 3 . 5
x
1 5 . 5 6 g . fine si lver
7 . 7 8 g . f i ne gold = 5 4 . 4 6 g . fine si lver
1 g . f ine go ld = 7 g . f ine si lver
We arrive then at a gold to si lver ratio of 1 to 7 .
That
this equat io n works out prec isely may suggest that the
calc ulations are i ndeed correct .
I
roval les equaled a mancu s , i n reality t he piece s were
sure ly weighed . on the nature of the Valenc ian go ld , see
further chapter 2 .
1 3 " ( L ) o sou val quatre morabatins , la ung a set
morabatins , la l liura setanta quatre morabatins . " Botet ,
Les Monededs , 5 8 - 5 9 .
Thus , in the sol idus of weight of
1 5 . 5 6 grams there were 4 morabetinos o f 3 . 8 9 grams apiece .
Likewise , 7 morabetino s at 3 . 8 9 grams made an ounce of
approximately 2 7 . 2 4 grams .
475
I
While this was a rate of exchange between gold and
fine silve r , a dif ferent rat io would o bviously apply when
al loyed coin was involved .
I n a treaty of 1 0 7 3 betwee n
Sanc ho Garcia of Navarre and al-Muctadir of Z arago z a , the
Z arago zan prince agreed to pay 1 2 , 0 0 0 "manc uso s of good
go ld " per annum in tribute .
S ancho added the proviso that
if the quality of the gold did not suit him he could demand
payment in silver .
For each mancus owed , he wanted 7
so lidi argenti "of the mo ney o f Zarago za .
..
u
In compar ison
to 1 manc us of Valenc ian go ld apprai sed at a l f 2 solidus of
fine s ilver , this is a muc h inf lated ratio . 1 s
The rate that sanc ho insisted upon , however , was not
exorbitant .
since the mancu s was commonly recko ned at 7 to
the ounce , Sancho would have been entitled to 4 9 solidi of
si lver per o unce of go ld .
An undated docume nt pre served ln
the Liber Feudorum Maior records count Berenguer Ramon ' s
gift of a sword cal led Tizon to Count Ermengol of Urge l .
The sword was valued at 5 , 0 0 0 " so lidi argenti kazimi from
Ispani a or 1 0 0 ounces of gold . " 1 6
This translates to rate
1 4 Lac arra , " Dos tratado s , " 9 3 - 9 4 no . 2 .
1 5 one hundred years l ater , at the end o f the twelfth
cent ur y , the gold morabetino was commonly valued at 7
so lidi in the Chri stian Iberian states . ( See c hapter 6 . )
The rate in Sanc ho ' s treat y , t he n , might at first seem like
a later interpolation . The text s di sc us sed below show that
it is not .
1 6 Ro se l l , Liber , 1 : 1 6 2 no . 1 5 7 .
I
I
4 7 15
o f 5 0 so lidi argenti to 1 ounce o f go ld , e ssential ly the
same rate . 1 7
Both doc uments c lear ly treat solidi compri sed of
The doc ument of Berenguer Ramon speaks of so lidi
dirhams .
kazimi from Ispani a whi le the treaty between sanc ho and al-
Muctadir refer s to a specific dirham , the " money of
Zaragoza . "
It i s unlikely that the so lidus argenti of
dirhams was a unit of account of twe lve coin s .
The dirhams
of the cali phate had weighed c lo se to the orthodox dirham
kayl of 2 . 9 7 grams and were probably around 75 percent
si lver .
As the eleventh century wore on , the dirhams of
the various taif a lords become erratic in weight and , mo st
likely, considerably les s f i ne .
The silver coins of al­
Muctadir of Z arago z a which sancho expected to be paid in
ranged from 4 grams to as much as 4 . 5 grams . l B
Arbitrari ly
taking 4 grams as their intended weight , if there were 1 2
of these dirhams counted to a so lidus argent i , it would
mean that for 1 go ld mancus of 3 . 8 9 grams , sancho expected
3 3 6 grams in dirhams ( 4 g . x 1 2 x 7 ) .
Though no data is
avai lable on the silver content o f al-Muctadir ' s coins ,
1 7 Whi le the C atalan doc ument i s undated , it s use of
the same rate of exchange as i n the treaty o f Sancho of
Navarre implie s that it is roughly contemporary .
See
further the other Catalan texts di sc us sed be low .
1 8 Pel licer i Bru in " Metrologic al considerations , "
1 9 6- 9 8 provide s an overview of Al-Muctadir ' s silver
coinage .
I n general , howeve r , his conc lusions are
unconvincing .
I
I
477
even i f they were extremely deba se , this i s far too high a
ratio between go ld and s ilver .
It seems more like ly that the equivalency of 4 9 or S O
solidi argenti o f dirhams to 1 o unce o f go ld was an
equivalenc y between unit s of weight .
The ounc e of gold
weighed 2 7 . 2 4 gram s and S O solidi of silver by weight
equaled 7 7 8 grams ( S O x 1 S . S 6 ) .
Thi s means that the ounce
of gold commanded around 2 8 times it s weight in so lidi
argent i of dirhams .
I f the equiva lenc y was based on the
supposition that t he dirhams u sed were S O percent fine , the
exchange between f ine go ld and f ine silver drops to 1 to
1 4 , whic h still seems to place a high premium on gold .
If
the dirhams were recko ned as o nly 2S percent f ine , the rate
of exc hange is 1 to 7 , a rate consiste nt with our other
so urce s .
These two docume nt s , the treaty of s ancho of Navarre
and the charter of Berenguer Ramon , were unmistakably
concerned with dirhams .
There are , however , in the Catalan
so urces , numerous doc ument s from 1 0 S 4 on which apply the
equivalency of
so
so lidi argenti to the ounce but do not
clarify the type o f si lver i nvolved .
A sale of 1 0 6 1 , for
example , was paid with 3 , 0 0 0 solidi arge nt i valued at 60
ounces o f Barcelonan gold whic h is SO so lidi argenti per
ounce . l 9
I
Was the rat e of 5 0 solidi argenti o f weight to 1
1 9 Ro se ll , L iber , 1 : 1 8 3 no . 1 7 3 , c f . 1 2 4 - 2 6 no s . 1 2 4
-2 5 , 1 4 1 - 4 2 no . 1 4 6 , 1 52 - S 3 no . 1 5 2 and 5 1 8- 2 0 no . 4 8 9 .
see also , Botet , Les monedes , 4 3 ; Be ltra n ,
478
ounce o f gold used equal ly for dirhams and denarii alike ?
It seems unlikely .
De spite the survival o f three mint contracts from the
time o f Ramon Berenguer I , we are unsure of the finene s s of
the denarii he had struc k .
The earlie st o f these
cont ract s , dated 1 0 5 6 , instr uc ted the minter s to make 2
so li di o f coin ( 2 4 denar ii ) from every 1 solidi of weight
of pure si lver .
Interpreted literally, this would have
res ulted in coins of pure si lver weighing . 6 5 grams each
( 15 . 56
�
24 ) .
The surviving coinage of eleventh-cent ury
Barc e lona is scarce and a firm chronology is far from
establ i s hed , but there i s no coin that matches thi s weight
or t hat shows sign s of being pure si lver .
The contract of 1 0 5 6 , howeve r , c learly omits some
detai l s .
For example , whi le it inc l udes a rent in
food s t uf f to be paid by the moneyers to the count , it does
not address how the moneyers were to pro fit from the
arrangement .
Mo st likel y , Ramon Berenguer was instruc ting
them t hat for every so lidus of pure si lver of we ight he
turned over , he expected 2 4 coins in return .
I
The weight
" I nterpretac io n , " 1 5 ; cf . Lacarr a , " As pectos , " 5 5 , n . 2 9 .
I n the table compiled by Bonnai ssie , La Cataloqne 3 9 0 , the
author probably as sumed a rate o f 5 0 solidi argenti to the
ounc e .
I know o f no doc uments dated before 1 0 5 0 that c ite
the equiva lenc y .
The gift Berenguer Ramon and Ermengol o f Urge l is
undated , and has in the past been assigned to Berenguer
Ramon I ( 1 0 1 7- 3 5 ) and , pre sumably, Ermengo l I I ( 1 0 1 0 - 3 8 ) .
The rate o f exchange , however , would make it seem more
like ly that it was an act of Berenguer Ramon I I ( 1 0 7 6- 9 6 )
and Erme ngol IV ( 1 0 6 5- 92 ) or Ermengo l v ( 1 09 2 - 1 1 02 ) .
479
and alloy for the coin i s not spel led out in the contract ,
but must have been agreed upon .
The c ount only warned t he
minter s to make the coin " without any deceit regarding t he
number , and without diminishing or debasing it .
..
za
What we
seem to lack , then , is a formula for mixing the pure silver
with a lloy and the number of c oins c ut from that mixture .
Mo st likely, the coins were intended to be at least 6
d . f ine .
If eac h so lidus of s ilver was mixed with a
so lidus of alloy , the minter s wo uld arrive at 2 so lidi of
weight ( 3 1 . 1 2 grams ) 50 percent fine .
I f from thi s they
struck 2 . 5 solidi of account ( or 3 0 coins ) , they would
produce denarii de medietate of slight ly more than a gram .
Handing back two solidi to the count , they could ret ain 6
denarii to cover costs and pro fit .
I f thi s is correct and
the count ' s coin was 6 d . fine , it is unlike ly it was
reckoned at 5 0 solidi of weight to t he o unce of go ld .
If
it was , it was almo st certainly being undervalued . Z l
overal l , it seems be st to conc lude t hat the formula that
deve loped in the Catalan c harter s of equat ing 50 solidi
argenti of weight to the ounce of go ld aro se as a neces s ary
co nvention for incorporating I slamic s ilver into the
c irc ulating medi um .
2 0 " ( S ) ine henganno a numero , sine minuament et
peiorament . " Botet , Les monedes , 2 0 0 no . 4 .
2 1 suc h an exc hange would assume a go ld to silver
ratio of 1 to 1 4 . While thi s is not impo s sible , the other
evidence doe s not support that bi-metallic exc hange was
that high .
480
I n the I slamic monetary traditio ns , weight s of
individual c o i ns were not closely co ntro lled at the mint .
A clear illustration o f this i s provided by Saenz-Diez '
study o f dirhams of Hisham I I .
I n a group of 6 1 dirhams
al l from the s ame year ( A . H . 3 8 8 ) and mint , individual
weight s ranged from 1 . 9 5 grams to 3 . 8 5 grams , though their
median weight was 2 . 9 5 grams , almo st exact ly the weight of
the dirham kay1 . 2 2
This wide range o f i ndividual weight s
in I slamic coins was either the cause or res ult of a
This i s
traditio n of weighing coins in the Mus lim world .
evident i n that si lver and gold I s lamic coins were
freque nt ly c ut into fragment s , to even o ut s ums or perhaps
at times to f ac ilitate small trans action s .
A hoard of
silver interred near Truj illo sometime after 1 0 1 6- 1 7
contained over 6 , 0 0 0 fragments of dirhams alongside only a
few who le coins . 2 3
How often al loyed- si lver coin was weighed out in
transactions in Latin E urope remain s o bsc ure . 2 4
Bisson in
his di sc ussion of eleventh-century Normandy conc luded that
the circ ulat ing medi um was a "mixed bag " of denier s from
various regions and that weighing the coins became the rule
2 2 Juan Ignacio saenz-Diez , "Los dirhems del 3 8 8 de la
cec a de ' al -Andalus , ' " Numisma 3 0 ( 1 9 8 0 ) , 2 1 1 - 2 1 . See also
the f l uctuat ion in the weight of t he dinar during the
caliphate as noted by Miles , Umayyads , 8 6 .
2 3 Jorge de Navascue s y de Palac io , " Te soro hi spano­
arabe hal lado e n Truj illo ( Cacere s ) , " NH 6 ( 1 9 5 7 ) : 5 -2 8 .
2 4 High- value go ld pieces were , of course , more like ly
to be weighed in both the Is lamic and christ ian worlds .
I
48 1
by mid c entury .
He suggest that it was only with Wi lliam
I ' s po ss ible improvement of the coinage that confidence
grew and the duc al money began to be accepted by tale .
Hi s
argument is pl ausible , but the evidence falls short of
clear ly demo nstrating that coins were actually wei ghed
out . z s
In e levent h-century Christ ian Spai n , however , evidence
for transact ions by weight of si lver is undeniable .
In the
early part of the eleventh century , purc hase s from the town
of Leo n were frequently said to be paid in solidi argenti
weighed on the sc ale ( pondere pensato ) . 2 6
Slightly before
this , in c atalonia in the last two dec ades of the tenth
cent ury , there are a number of reference s to purchases made
in the pessa of silver
In 9 9 2 , for example , count Ramon
Bore l l sold the castle of cerevello for the price of " 1 0 0
pessas o f fine , pleasing silver .
n27
It i s impos sible to
tel l from the se c itations if the pessa corre sponded to the
so lidus argent i of weight or was a distinct unit .
still ,
it s emergenc e coincide s almo st preci se ly with the earliest
referenc e s in the Catalan doc ument s to the mancus of gold .
I
2 5 Bisson takes reference s to l ibra in the charters as
an indic ation that the coins were weighed . For example , he
c ites " xxxta libras nummo rum . " Thi s , however , could easily
be a reference to the pound of account o f 2 4 0 coins . The
use of n ummo rum, in fac t , would t end to point in that
directio n .
See Bisson, Conservation , 2 3 -2 4 .
2 6 see c hapter 2 above .
2 7 " In precium pessas c de argento mero plac ibile . "
Udina Martore ll , E l Archivo , 2 3 2 , see also 1 9 2 - 2 2 5 .
See
furt her , Alturo , " Notes , " 1 2 2 . Cf . Gi l Farres ,
" Circ ulac i6n, " 3 8 9 ; Bonnassie , L a Catalogne , 38 4 .
482
Reference s to the pessa o f si lver gener ally die out , only
to give way in the 1 02 0 s to transactio ns made in solidi
argenti kazimi . 2 e
It seems c lear that with t he dec line of the caliphate
at the e nd of the mi llenni um the s ubsequent infusion o f
Muslim c o i n into the Latin economies o f the north
encour aged the Chr istians to ado pt the practice of
reckoning the si lver dirham ( as we l l as the gold manc u s ) by
weight . 2 9
As t he century wore on and the taif a princ es
began to render their tribute increasingly in si lver ,
weighing the c oins would have become more nece ssary.
As we
have seen with the coins o f al-Muctadir of Zar ago z a , many
of the t ai f a dirhams were struck at weight s we ll exceedi ng
the Umayyad standard of ro ughly 3 grams and , to conf use
matter s furthe r , fractional denominations of roughly a gram
were also introduced . 3 o
Variatio n s in finene s s , may have
caused all dirhams in catalonia to be summarily reckoned by
the formula of 5 0 so lidi to the ounc e .
We might assume ,
however , that the native denarii o f Ram6 n Berenguer and
other Catalan lords were not governed by thi s equation at
I
2 8 See appendix A.
2 9 Other a lternative s were perhaps employed . one is
reminded o f the Umayyad dirham found i n a tomb near B loi s ,
see
France that was c lipped to the size of a denar ius .
Adrien de Longperier , "Monnaie andalouse tro uvee a
Centres , " Revue Numismatigue , n . s . , 8 ( 1 8 6 3 ) , 2 1 4- 1 6 .
3 0 Noo nan , " Si lver Cri si s , " 1 3 3- 3 4 . For the smal ler
pieces , see the hoard from Jaen publi s hed by Antonio Prieto
y Vive s , " Hal lazgo de monedas his pa no-musulmanas , " RABM 3 1
( 1 9 1 4 ) : 362-77 .
483
least within their res pective market s .
Not only were they
like ly more fine than the taifa dirhams but they also
should have enj oyed am additional added value as the
of ficial coin of tho se area s . 3 1
Finally , some purc hase s conducted by weight of s ilver
may have involved plate or bul lion .
I n do nations and
te staments , silver o bj ec t s were often de signated by weight
such a s the bequest of 9 7 6 from Oviedo which inc luded " a
cros s , reliquary cha lice ( and ) crown all made from 5 0 0 very
pure solid argent i " . 3 2
A gift to Sah agun in 1 02 5 inc luded
a " cro s s of silver of 3 0 0 so lidi n 3 3
Another donation to
Sahagun in February 1 0 8 3 , consisted of two quilts or
3 1 It i s possi ble that within a domest ic market
foreign denarii were also weighed in bulk , though it seems
doubt f ul . Many of the popular denarii from so ut hern France
at thi s time were 6 d. f ine if not better and wo uld have
been unj ustly served by the 5 0 solid argenti per ounce o f
( See castain g , Monnaie s feodales , passim . )
gold formula .
I am inc lined to be l ieve that denarii generally circ ulated
by tale and dirhams by weight . Nonethe less , Botet , Le s
monedes , 1 6 8 cited a document of 9 6 6 whic h refers to " pe s as
X de dinario s Ausonae . "
one reference that may s how a di stinction between the
so lidus argenti of account ( of denarii ) and the so lidus
ar genti of weight is a charter from Sahagun, dated 1 0 7 2 :
" ad inve stie ndo carta ista dedisti nobis una spata valente
viii0 solidos de argento et quinque solidos de cazmi . "
Sahagun , 2 : 4 3 7- 3 8 no . 7 1 3 .
3 2 " ( 0 ) ferimus . . . sir gi a et linea , crucem , cap am ,
:>
calicam , coronam, toto s ex quingentiis solidis pur1ssmi
argenti l aboratos . " Garcia Larragueta , Co lecci6n de
oviedo , 1 1 5- 8 no . 30 ; De partamento , " C irculaci6n , " 2 4 3 .
3 3 The gift inc l uded , " ( L ) ec to s pallio s v, xii muats
inter litteras et litone s de mensa , vasos iiii de argento ,
ia cornia , ii0 aretomas , ii c a lices de argento , casullas
. . . i crux argentea de ccc solidos , alia crux de alato ne ,
alia de heramine . . . .. Sahagun , 2 : 63 - 6 5 , no . 4 1 5 .
48 4
a
tape stries and a ve ssel " o f 50 solidi . " H
A fe\v months
later , a larger bequest to the monastery inc luded various
pieces of tableware and other items " weighing 1 , 0 0 0 so lidi
argent i kazimi . " 3 5
The use of kazimi here may be a
de signation that the silver in thi s case was j udged le ss
than pure .
The dirham kazimi of the caliphate was probably
betwee n 7 0 and 7 5 percent f ine . 3 6
3 4 ( C ) artulam donac io ni s de i0 alf iafe z ingave ; et de
i0 medio vaso , de 1a so lido s ; et de una almuz alla anamat . "
Sahagun , 3 : 9 8 - 9 9 no . 8 0 5 . At 5 0 so lidi o f weight , the
vesse l wo uld equal about 2 7 modern ounces ( 1 5 . 5 6 g . x 5 0
28 . 3 4 ) .
3 5 " Adic io adhuc vobis uno lecto palleo , c um duobus
plumac iis et una cozedra , uno fatele et uno alif af e , duo s
mankales , tres almuzal las , uno mes sorio cum suo servic io de
mensa c um suas c uliare s et uno s alare , uno pigme ntario et
uno tarego , iias tagaras , iias casullas grec i sc a s , una
corona obt ima , una sto la pensante mi lle so lido s de argento
cazmi et iiii0r arotomas . " Sahagun , 3 : 9 9 - 1 0 1 no . 8 0 6 .
1 0 0 0 solidi argenti was the equivalent o f about 3 4
modern pounds . This could not have been the wei ght of the
stole alone .
The weight may have described the entire
list , tho ugh it s diffic ult to tel l if " lecto palleo " refers
to a covered bed or a bed covering . The doc ument is a
cartulary copy and the weight c l ause i s perhaps out of
place
It seems to make most sense to see the weight as
applying to the li st of tableware , beginning with " uno
( Cf . the
messorio " down to the two " tagaras " or ves se l s .
two passages c ited above , n . 3 3 and n . 3 2 )
3 6 see appendix A above .
APPEND IX C
THE COUNC IL OF VALLADOLID, 1 1 5 5
Betwee n 1 1 5 4 and 1 1 5 5 , Cardinal Hyac inth undertook his
first legation to the Spai n .
( He wo uld return at least
once again as legate in the ear l y 1 1 7 0 s before ascending
the papal throne as Ce le stine I I I in 1 1 9 1 . )
one of hi s
primary re sponsibi lities as a legate from the papal c uria
was to convoke c hurc h counc i l s in the lands he vis ited .
These gatherings gave him the opport unity to dis seminate
the current tenets of the Rome and provided a convenient
forum in which to re so lve loc al dispute s and grievance s . 1
Hyac inth called at least three counc i l s during his
legation of 1 1 5 4 - 5 5 . 2
I
Probably t he first and mo st we l l
1 For the Gregorian c hurc h ' s use of legates , see
Robert somervi lle , " Cardinal Stephan of st . Grisogono : some
Remarks on Legates and Legat ine Councils in the E leventh
Century , " in Law, Churc h and Society : E ssays in Honor o f
Stephen Kuttner , ed . Kenneth Pennington and Robert
Somerville ( Philadelphia , 1 9 7 7 ) , 1 5 7 - 6 6 .
2 Hyac inth was in Leo n-Castile by the s ummer of 1 1 5 4 .
( See Abaj o Martin , P alenc i a , 1 0 6- 1 0 8 no . 4 9 ; Pefia Perez ,
San Juan de Burgo s , 3 5 - 3 7 , no . 2 3 . )
I n addition to the
counc i l s of Valladolid and Lerida di scussed below, he may
have held a counci l in Calahorra and certainly convoked a
meeting in Narbonne direct ly a fter the Lerida as sembly . No
legi slat ion from Calahorra or Narbonne , however , survive s
today .
Some of the re levant evidence for Hyac inth ' s legatio n
is reviewed in the two studie s by Fide l Fita , " Primera
legaci6n de cardenal Jac into e n E s pana : Bulas ineditos de
Anastasio IV . Nuevas luce s sobre el conci lio nacional de
Vallado lid ( 1 1 5 5 y otro s dato s ineditos ) , " BRAH 1 4 ( 1 8 8 9 ) :
5 3 0- 5 5 and " Conc ilio s nacionales de Salamanc a en 1 1 5 4 y de
Vallado lid en 1 1 5 5 , " BRAH 2 4 ( 1 8 9 4 ) : 4 4 9 - 7 5 . As is evident
485
486
I
attended o f these meet ings �vas that he ld at vallado lid i n
February o f 1 1 5 5 .
A c harter of Alfo nso VI I dated Fe bruary
1 , 1 1 5 5 record s that it �vas dr a�vn up " in Val lado lid . . .
when lord Hyac inth , cardinal of the Ho ly Roman Churc h and
legate of a l l Spai n celebrated a counc i l with the lord
Alfonso , Emperor , and hi s so ns , Kings sanc ho and Fernando ,
and with a l l the arc hbishops and bisho ps , abbots , co unts
and princes of spain . " 3
De spite the magnitude of the
meetin g , the legis lation promulgated there survives today
in a s ingle , serendipitous ver sion -- co pied on the back of
a parc hment preserved in the cathedral of Tuy . �
This text
al so appe ars to be incomplete when it is c ompared to
subsequent legis lation .
Later that spring, Hyacinth called another counc i l i n
the rece nt ly-conquered town of Lerida along the Catalan
frontier .
By co incide nc e , the c anon s issued at Lerida are
be low , however , Hyac inth ' s legations to Spain are in need
of further study . I hope to addre ss the i ss ue s more f ul ly
in the f ut ure .
3 " ( I ) n Val ledo lid . . . quando domnus I ac i nt us , sanc te
Romane Ecc le sie cardinalis et tocius Yspanie legatus ,
ce lebravit c onci lium c um domno Adefonso imperatore , et c um
filiis s ui s Santio e t Fernando regibus , e t c um omnibus
arciepiscopi s et epi scopis , abbatibus , comitibus et
princ ipus Yspanie . " Pere z ce lada , s an Zoi lo , 6 0 - 6 1 no . 3 6 .
4 The manuscript cont ai ni ng the Val lado lid canons �vas
publi shed by carl Erdma n , Das Papstt um und Portugal im
Ersten Jahrhundert der port ugie sischen Ge sc hichte ( Berlin ,
1 9 2 8 ) , 5 5- 5 8 . The text corroborates the attendance of
churchme n from Portuga l , Leo n , c asti le and Arago n .
see
further , Fletc her , Epi scopate, 2 0 8 .
I
48 /
I
also known today from a single manuscr i pt . s
For the mo st
part , the cano ns contained in this Ler ida te:x"t fol lmv very
c losely those attr ibuted to the Vallado l id assembly .
is not surpr i sing .
This
The Lerida council was almost certainly
more provinc ial in sco pe .
It was perhaps ca lled in part
for the benefit of tho se of the Catalan c lergy who did not
atte nd the Val lado lid meeting .
Hyac inth would have been
unlike ly to promulgate radic al ly dif fere nt legis lation than
that pas sed at the previous co unci l .
sti l l , the very last canon found i n the Lerida text
does not appear in the Val lado lid manuscript .
Thi s cano n ,
Monet am quidquam , first admoni shes the emperor t o maintain
the coinage at a good weight and at 4 d . f ine \vi thout
exacting any price .
It then goe s on to addres s the problem
of counterfeiting, warning that any individual who produces
I
5 Ferran Valls Taberner found the manuscript
preserving t he c anons of Lerida 1 1 5 5 in the Biblioteca
I n his "Ein Kon z i l zu Lerida im
Centra l of Barce lona .
Jahre 1 1 5 5 " in P apsttum und Kaisertum, ed . Al bert Brackman
( Munic h , 1 92 6 ) , 3 6 4- 6 8 , he generally did not provide f ull
transcr i ptions o f the canons but only gave detai led notes
on how t hey varied from very similar legis lation
promul gated at Lerida in 1 1 7 4 during Hyaci nth ' s second
legat io n . Bisson subsequently reported ( in Conservation,
8 1 n. 2 ) that he searc hed unsuccessful ly for Val l s
Taberner ' s manuscript . The authenticity o f the counc i l of
Lerida 1 1 5 5 , however , is corroborated by two of Hyac inth ' s
letters .
See P aul Kehr , Papsturkunden i n Spanien vol . 2 ,
Navarra und Arago n ( Berlin , 1 9 2 8 ) 3 8 9 - 9 4 nos . 7 6 and 7 8 .
The canons of Lerida , 1 1 7 4 , are al so known in a single
manuscr i pt . They can be found in Juan Te j ada y Ramiro ,
Co lecc i6 n de c anones y de todo s lo s conc i l io s de la igle sia
e spanola ( Madrid , 1 8 5 1 ) 3 : 2 7 9 - 8 6 . The rubric o n this
manuscript assigns the c ouncil to 1 1 73 , but a detailed
examinat ion of Hyacinth ' s itinerary shows that it must have
been convoked in 1 1 7 4 .
488
I
false mo ney shal l suffer bot h anat hema and bodily
puni shment as we ll as forfeiture of his wealth . 6
Why wo uld Hyac inth c hoose to pas s this decree for the
first time at a provincial c ounc i l on the Catalan frontier ?
Bisson has s ugge sted that he was inspired by the spirit of
a '" c lerical program'" already e stabli shed in Cataloni a .
There i s no real evide nce , however , to support that the
Catalan churc h was particularly intere sted in a '" program'"
to maintai n the co inage . 7
on the contrary , Hyac inth ' s
cano n as it appear s in the Lerida text i s decidedly nonCatalan .
The admo ni shment to maintain the coinage i s
directed t o '" the emperor '" who c a n only be Alfonso VI I of
Leon .
�vhy would Hyac i nth promulgate a warning to Alfonso
VI I at a counc il in Lerida ?
The obvious conc lusion i s that the canon did not
originate at the Catalan counc il .
It must be part of the
legi s l ation passed ear lier at the greater , '" international'"
I
6 '" Monetam quidquam bene pe nsatem et quatuor
denariorum argenti mittet imperator sine omni prec io
propter Deum at anime sue salutum nunquam in diebus suis
mutand um , sed earn it a mansur am firmat . Quam
f al s if ic aver it , anatema sit et perdat quicquid habuerit et
corporalem vindicatam incurrat . Monete vero et pecc unie
quam f al sificator perdiderit partem decimam episcopi s donat
et c o ncedit in diocesibu s suis . " see Valls Tal::::e rner , " E in
Konz i l , " 3 6 8 ; c f . Bisson, conservatio n , 8 1 - 8 2 .
7 It is true that Ramon Berenguer I I I of Barcelona
( 1 0 8 6- 1 1 3 1 ) had , in 1 1 1 8 , sworn to maintain the coinage of
Cerdanya in exchange f or a o ne-time levy from the people of
that county . While this i s the earlie st doc umented example
in S pain of the co llection of some form of money
conservation t ax , it i s not tantamount to a c lerical
agenda .
See B i s son , Conservat ion , 1 6 8 , cf . 5 0 - 6 4 .
48?
meet ing ln Val lado lid whic h was pres ided over by Alfonso
VI I in his ro le as emperor . s
since the canon on coinage i s
the last pas sage in the Lerida manuscript , i t wo uld appe ar
to be mi ssing from the text of the Val ladolid canons , whic h
survives in only one hurried ver sion , scribbled on the back
of another parc hment . 9
8 Since the Val lado lid meeting was atte nded by Spanish
prelates and apparent ly nobles from out s ide Leon-casti le .
Alfonso wo uld have been certain to emphasize his role as
emperor . The royal c harter cited in n . 3 above , which
noted the wide attendance at the counc i l , al so proclaimed
Alfonso " imperante tempo imperatore To leti , Legione ,
Gal le9 ie , Castella , Naiar a , saragoci a , Bae9ia et Almar i a ;
come s Barchi loni a , vas su l l us imperartori s ; santius , rex
Navarre , vassulus imperatoris . " Pere z Ce lada , san zoilo ,
60 - 6 1 no . 36 .
9 I n this regar d , it is i nstructive to add that the
teA� containing the cano n s o f Hyac inth ' s second counc i l of
Lerida , he ld in 1 1 7 4 , al so appears incomplete . The
manusc ript s of Val lado lid 1 1 5 5 and Lerida 1 1 5 5 both open
with an important cano n whic h extended the same crusading
privileges to those who fo ught in Spai n as were enj oyed by
those who fo ught in the Ho ly L and .
The text of Lerida ,
1 1 7 4 has no introduction , only an added rubric , and is
mi s s ing this opening c anon from Hyac inth ' s counc i l s of
1 1 5 5 . Just as we are mi ss ing the end of the legis lation of
Va lladolid 1 1 5 5 , we wo uld also appear to be mi ss ing the
begi nn ing of the legis lation of Lerida 1 1 7 4 . For Lerida
1 1 7 4 , see above n . 5 .
I
I
CATALOGUE I
ANONYMOUS TYPE S
1.
Obv . LEO , churc h .
Rev . LEGIONENSI , cros s .
so urce . VQR 5 3 7 4 a , plate 1 1 , no . 1 1 .
-var .
Obv .
I I O , churc h , retrograde L be low
Rev . LEGIONENS , cro s s .
source . HSA 1 . 2 6 6 , \vt
94.
.
•
-var .
Obv .
, churc h , legend either badly wor n or
omitted .
Rev . LEGIONIN , cro s s .
So urce . Pedra ls and campaner , " Nuevos
de sc ubrimentos , " 1 0 9 - 1 0 , plate 4 , no . 2 . , wt .
. 73 .
-var .
obv . . LEO , church , ) ( below .
So urce . Col lantes , " I ntento de ordenacion , " 1 7 1
no . 4 .
Note s . The ) ( mark may be two omegas .
2.
Obv .
+ * IHESUS * , cro s s .
Rev . LEO CIVI I I S , three cro s s let s and triangular
mark .
so urce . Pedral s and Campaner , '' Nuevo s
de sc ubrimentos , " 1 0 8 - 9 , wt . 1 . 0 4 .
Addi tional Ref s . VQR 5 3 1 1 .
-var .
Rev . Three cro s s lets and letter A .
so urce . Poey d ' Avant , 2 60 5 , plate 5 5 .
-var .
Rev . Three cros slet s and dot .
so urce . MAN 9 4- 2 2 , wt . 1 . 0 8 .
-var .
Three cros s s lets and two dot s .
Rev .
So urce . Alvarez 7 3 , wt . 9 0 - 1 . 0 .
___
.
I
-var .
Rev .
Three cro s s let s , no other mark .
so urce . Alvarez , 6 9 , wt . 1 . 0 .
-var .
Dot in 1 st and 2 nd quadrant of cross .
obv .
Rev . LIO CIVI I I S , three cro s s let s , no ot her mark .
so urce . VQR 5 3 0 9 .
490
4? 1
3.
Obv . LE O CIVITAS , cro s s , s - shape super im� sed
Rev . Two lions , back to bac k , crescent above , star
be low .
so urce . Hei ss , 3 5 .
4.
Obv .
IACOB I , bust with halo , front .
Rev . REX , lio n passant , l , cro s s above .
so urce . collantes , " Notas sobre un dinerillo , "
18 .
5.
Obv .
SUPER REX , cross .
Rev . LEONI S0 , latin cros s , fitchy at foot .
source . Hei ss , 2 . 1 3 .
-var .
0LEONIS
Rev .
So urce . HSA 1 . 8 82 9
*LEONI S *
Rev .
so urce . VQR 5 2 9 8
Rev .
I LENOI S L
source . HSA 1 . 2 65
-var .
-var .
wt .
. 89 .
1.
02 .
6.
Obv .
IMPERATOR , cro ss
Rev . LEONIS * , lat in cro s s , fitc hy at foot
so urce . Hei s s , lam . 2 . 1 2 ; VQR 5 2 9 9 var .
7.
Obv .
I�WE RATO , bust front , imperial crown
Rev . CIVITAS LEONI , lion pas s ant , l
Source . VQR 5 3 2 1 a .
-obo l
Source . HSA 1 . 2 5 6 ,
8.
Obv .
IMPER + RATO , bust l .
Rev . BEAT I _ACOBI , lion pas sant l .
source . Hei ss 2 . 2 8 .
9.
10 .
I
wt .
wt
.
. 41 .
Obv .
IMPERA , bust 1 . , imperial crown
Rev .
IMPERATOR , cro s s
so urce . Hei s s , 2 . 1 4 ; VQR 5 3 2 1
Obv .
IMPERATO , cros s , annulet in 4th quadrant
Rev .
0TOLETA , lion pas sant , l .
So urce . MAN 9 4 - 3 3 , wt . . 9 5 .
1 5-
CATALOGUE I I
THE
RE IGN OF ALFONSO VI
( 1 0 6 5- 1 1 0 9 )
Al l references from
�ffiN
are to cabinet 4 , tray 6 8 .
Star-annulet c o i n
The type i s divided into two main groups ,
di stinguished by the pre sence or absence o f a cross
beginning the obverse legend .
r
la.
obv . ANFVS REX , cross
Rev .
+TOLETVM , two star s , two annulet s .
So urce . HAN 4 0 , �vt . . 7 8 ; MAN 4 1 , wt . . 8 8 ; MAN 4 3 ,
wt . 1 . 0 3 ; MAN 5 5 , wt . . 9 4 ; AN S 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 12 4 0 ,
wt . 1 . 1 3 ; ANS 1 9 3 2 . 5 0 . 3 4 , wt . 1 . 1 1 ; ANS
1 9 4 1 . 4 8 . 3 8 , wt . 1 . 1 8 ; HSA 1 . 8 8 1 4 , wt . . 9 0 ; ANS
1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 4 1 , wt . . 9 9 ; ANS 1 9 3 9 . 1 1 6 . 3 6 , wt . . 96
( s retrograde in obverse legend ) .
Additional Ref s . Heis s , 1 . 4 ; VQR , 5 2 8 1 .
-var .
Obv . cro s s has pellet on le ft arm .
Source . MAN 5 2 , wt . 1 . 0 0 .
-o bol
same as 1 a .
H SA 1 . 2 43 , �vt . . 4 7 ; MAN 6 7 , wt .
Source .
Additional Ref s . Heis s , 1 . 5 ; VQR 52 8 2 .
.
44
lb.
Obv . ANFVS REX , cross .
Rev .
+TOLETVM, two star s , two annulet s , pe l let in
center .
so urce . MAN 4 4 , wt . . 8 7 ; MAN 5 1 , wt . 1 . 1 9 ; �rnN 54 ,
�vt . 1 . 2 7 ; MAN 56 1 wt . 1 . 1 9 ; MAN 5 9 , wt 1 . 0 3 ; HSA
1 . 2 4 5 , wt . 77 .
-var .
Obv . Annu let in 3rd quadrant of cro s s .
source . MAN 5 0 , wt . 9 5 .
-obol
same a s l b .
Source . Alvarez 1 2 .
-obol
Obv . Annu let in 4th quadrant of cro s s .
Source . MAN 6 6 , wt . 5 2 ; MAN 7 1 , wt
so .
•
492
.
4S3
(
1c .
1d .
-ot:o l
Obv .
ANFVS RE X , cro ss
Rev .
+TOLETVM , two star s , t\vo annulet s , pe l let
inside o ne annulet , pe l let in center .
So urce . MAN 6 9 , wt . . 4 1 .
1e .
Obv .
ANFVS REX , cro ss .
Rev .
+TOLETVr-1 , two star s , two annulet s , pel let
inside both annu lets .
so urce . MAN 4 6 , wt . 8 6 .
Addi tional Ref s . Al vare z 9 .
1f .
obv . ANFVS REX , cro ss .
Rev .
+TOLETVM , two star s , t\vo annulet s , pe l let
inside bot h annulets and pe l let in center .
source . �IAN 6 2 , wt . . 8 4 .
ot:ol
same as 1 f .
source . MAN 6 8 , wt .
2a .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX , cro s s .
Rev .
+TOLETVM , two star s , two annulet s .
source . MAN 5 8 , wt . 1 . 0 0 . ( obverse legend
retrograde )
Additional Ref s . VQR 52 8 0 .
2b.
Obv .
+ANFVS REX , cro s s .
Rev.
+TOLETVM , two star s , two annulet s , pe l let
inside o ne annulet .
source . MAN 4 8 , wt . 1 . 0 3 .
2c .
-ot:o l
2d .
(
Obv . ANFVS RE X , cro ss .
Rev .
+TOLETVM , two star s , two annulet s , pe l let
inside o ne annulet .
source . HAN 4 5 , wt . . 6 4 .
. 36 .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX , cros s .
Rev .
+TOLETVM, two star s , two annulet s , pe l let
inside o ne annulet , pe l let in center .
Source . MAN 7 0 , wt . . 4 1 .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX , cros s .
Rev.
+TOLETVM , two star s , two annulet s , pe l let
inside both annulets .
So urce . MAN 5 7 , wt . 1 . o 8 ; MAN 6 o , �rt .
�rt . . 7 4 ; HSA 1 . 2 4 4 , wt . . 8 9 .
494
. 8 5 ; HAN 6 1 ,
-o oo l
Source .
. 32 .
2e .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX , cross .
Rev .
+TOLETVr-1 , two star s , t�vo annulet s , pel let
inside both annulets , pe l let in center .
so urce . HAN 4 7 , wt . 8 8 .
-var .
Obv . cros s has hash mark in 4th quadrant .
so urce . MAN 4 9 , �rt . 1 . 1 0 .
Rev .
+TOLETVM, pe l let in o of legend .
Source . MAN 6 3 , wt . . 78 .
-var .
HAN 6 5 , wt . 3 1 ; ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 3 9 , �rt .
Chri stogram - To ledo ser ie s
3.
-o bo l
-var .
Obv . ANFVS RE X , cro s s .
Rev . TOLE TV"N , s ame chri stogram .
Source . Monteverde , " Algunas monedas , " part 2 , 2 5 1
and plate 1 , no . 1 .
4.
Obv . ANFVS RE X , cro ss .
Rev .
+TOLETVO , same christogram .
source . MAN 2 5 , wt . 1 . 0 6 ; MAN 3 0 , �rt . 1 . 0 7 : l'-ffiN
36 1 wt . 1 . 1 8 ; HSA 1 . 8 8 1 2 , wt . 1 . 1 2 .
Additional Ref s . Me tcal f , " Parcel , " 2 9 5 , re port ed
2 3 coins .
-var .
Obv . cros s , pe l let in 1 st quadr ant .
Source . Metcalf , " P arce l , " 2 9 5 , reported 2 5 coins ,
4 with reversed s in obverse legend .
Obv . Cro s s , has h mark in 2 nd quadrant .
So urce . MAN 3 5 , wt . 1 . 0 6 .
Obv . Cro s s , has h mark in 4th quadrant .
Source . ANE ( December , 1 9 8 5 ) , 3 8 no . 3 7 8 .
Rev .
Same c hr istogram, pel let to l .
Source . Metcalf , " P arce l , " 2 9 5 , reported 6 co lns .
Rev .
Same c hristogr am , pellet to r .
source . Alvarez 6 .
Rev .
Same chr i stogram, pe l let at bottom , attached
to s .
-var .
-var .
-var .
-var .
I
Obv .
+ANFVS RE X , cross
Rev .
+TOLETVH , chri stogram, with al pha and omega
and horizontal s below
So urce . MAN 2 6 , wt . 1 . 0 1
Additional Ref s . caballero , " Dinero s , " 1 3 .
-var .
source . .HAN 3 4 , \'it . . 9 7 .
Additional Ref s . Hetc alf , " Parcel , " 2 9 5 , 1 1 coins .
I
5.
Obv . ANFVS REX , cro s s .
Rev .
+ . TOLETVO , s ame c hristogram .
source . HSA 1 . 1 . 8 8 1 3 , \'it . 1 . 0 6 .
-var .
Rev .
+TOLE . TVO , s ame c hri stogram .
source . r-retcalf , " P arce l , 2 9 5 , 1 coin
"
-var .
Rev . +TOLETVO . , same c hri stogram
source . HAN 2 8 , wt . 1 . 0 0 ; MAN 2 9 , wt . . 9 8 .
Note . May be a poor example of no . 6 be low· .
6.
obv . ANFVS REX , cro s s .
Rev .
+TOLETVO : , s ame c hri stogram .
so urce . HAN 2 7 , \vt
8 2 ; MAN 3 3 , \vt . 1 . 0 0 ; MAN 3 7 ,
wt . . 6 2 ( broken ) ; AN S 1 9 69 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 4 2 , \'it . . 9 7 ;
HSA 1 . 2 8 1 , wt . 1 . 0 0 .
Additional ref s .
Hei s s 1 . 3 ; VQR 5 2 7 9 .
•
r
•
-var .
Rev .
+TOLETVO : , s ame c hri stogram , pellet be low
attac hed to s of c hri stogram .
source . Metcalf , " P ar ce l , " 2 9 5 , 3 coins
-o bo l
same as 7 .
ANS 1 9 69 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 3 8 ,
7.
Obv . ANFVS RE X , c ro ss ,
Rev .
+TOL . ETVO : , same chr i stogr am .
so urce . MAN 3 1 , wt . 1 . o 9 ; MAN 3 2 , \'it . 1 . o 1 .
Additional Ref s . Metc alf , " Parcel , " 2 9 5 , 62 coins .
-o bo l
Same
source .
8.
Obv . ANFVS REX , c ro s s .
Rev .
+TOLETVO : . ( tr iple sto p ) , same christo gr am .
source . Metcalf , " P arce l , " 2 9 5 , 2 0 coins .
9.
obv . ANFVS RE X , c ro s s .
Rev .
+ : . ( triple sto p ) TOLETVO , s ame chri stogram .
so urce . Metcalf , " P ar ce l , " 2 9 5 , 1 6 coins .
10 .
Obv . ANFVS REX . , cros s .
Rev .
+TOLETVO , same c hr i stogr am .
source . Metcalf , " P arcel , " 2 9 4- 9 5 , 1 coin .
wt .
. 41 .
Cabal lero , " Dineros "
4 9 15
Chri stoqram - Leon
11 .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX : . ( triple stop ) , cro s s .
Rev .
+LEO CIVITAS , chri stogram .
so urce . MAN 2 , t.vt . . 7 9 ; MAN 3 , t.vt . 1 . 0 0 ; JI.!AN 4 ,
wt . . 9 5 ; MAN 5 , wt . 9 4 ; MAN 6 , wt . 1 0 0 ; JI.!AN 7 ,
t.vt 1 . 0 4 ; JI.!AN 8 , wt . 8 7 ; AN S 1 9 5 3 2 6 2 5 , wt .
1. 16.
Additional Ref s . Hei s s 1 . 1 ; VQR 5 2 7 7 .
•
•
-obo l
•
•
same inc luding tri ple stop .
Source . MAN 1 7 , t.vt . 5 1 ; MAN 1 8 , wt . . 5 4 ; HAN 1 9 ,
wt . . 5 0 ; MAN 2 0 , wt . . 4 8 ; JI.1AN 2 1 , wt . 4 1 ; JI.!AN
2 2 . wt . 44 .
Additional Ref s . Hei s s 1 . 2 ; VQR 5 2 7 8 .
•
Chri stograrn - santiago
12 .
I
obv .
+ANFVS REX , cros s , pe l let in 2 nd quadrant .
Rev .
+ S IACOB I , c hristogram .
Source . c abel lero , " Dineros , " 1 1 .
Adiitional Ref s . orol Pernas , " Notes For Future
studie s , " 67 .
CATALOGUE I I I
THE RE IGN OF URRACA
( 1 1 0 9- 1 1 2 6 )
co ins in the name of Urr ac a
Al l references from MAN are to c abinet 4 , tray 6 8 .
1.
Obv .
+VRACA RE , bust front w . diadem .
Rev .
+TOLETVO , cro s s .
source . MAN 8 3 , wt . 1 . 1 5 ; MAN 8 5 , 'l.vt . 1 . 0 8 .
Additional Ref s . Heis s , 1 . 1 ; VQR , 5 2 8 8 ; Alvarez ,
13.
variet ie s are based on privy marks in legend .
-var . obv .
+VRACA . RE
source . MAN 8 4 , 'l.vt . 1 . 1 5 ; MAN 8 6 , wt . . 95 .
-var . Obv .
+VRACA . RE
Rev .
+TOLETVO .
so urce . MAN 8 7 , wt . 1 . 2 7 .
-var . Obv . +TOL . ETVO
Source . ANS . 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 4 3 , 'l.vt • • 97 ; HSA 1 . 8 8 1 6 ,
wt . 1 . 0 7 .
-var . Obv .
+VRACA : RE
so urce . MAN 8 2 , wt 1 . 1 4 .
-var . Obv .
+VRACA : RE
Rev .
+TOL . ETVO , cro s s , pellet l n Jrd quadrant .
Source . MAN 8 8 , wt . 1 . 0 1 .
2.
Obv . VRRACA REGI , cro s s pomme moline .
Rev . LEO CIVITAS , c hristogr am , with alpha , omega
and horizontal s adorning .
source . MAN 1 0 5 , wt . . 9 6 ; MAN 1 0 6 , wt . . 9 2 .
Additional Ref s . Monteverde , " Algunas mo nedas , " pt .
2 1 2 5 1 ; Alvare z , 1 5 ex . ANE 1 9 6 9 .
-var .
Rev . LEO CIVITAS : .
so urce . ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 4 4 , wt . . 9 2 .
Note s .
Stop o n obverse is three pellets .
3.
I
Obv . VRRACA REXA, crowned bust 1 .
Rev .
+L IGIONENS I S , cros s w . cro s s lets or scepters
in eac h quadrant .
source . HSA 1 . 8 8 1 8 'l.vt .
78.
•
497
498
I
Note s .
Badly worn , barely legible .
-var .
Rev .
+LEGIONENS I S
so urce . Hei ss 1 . 5 .
4a .
Obv .
VRRACA R QG , cross .
Rev .
LEO CIVITAS , two alphas , two omega s .
so urce . Hei ss 1 . 2 , ex Rea l Ac ademia de la
Hi storia; VQR 5 2 8 9 .
4b.
Obv . VRRACA R Q G , cros s .
Rev .
s B ANTONINIO, two alphas , two omegas .
so urce . HSA 1 . 8 8 1 6 , wt . . 9 7 .
-var .
Rev .
s B ANTONI NI , two alphas , two omegas .
source . Hei s s 1 . 3 , ex Rea l Ac ademia de la
Hi storia .
obv .
+VRRACA REGI , cros s .
Rev .
BEATI ANTONN , two alphas , two omegas .
so urce . MAN 9 7 , wt . . 8 3 .
Additional Ref s . Heiss 1 . 4 ; VQR 5 2 9 0 .
-var .
5.
Obv .
VRRACA REG I , cross .
Rev . LEO C IVITAS , cross on pedesta l , two Es and
star .
source . Rueda, Primeras Ac ufiac ione s , 3 4 , ex
Bibliotheque Nac ional de Par i s .
Additional Ref s . Gil Farre s , Histori a , 3 1 1 , no .
184.
Note s .
see the comparable type reading ANFVS REX
ARAGONI S in Alvarez , 1 1 2 9 0 .
In the name of Alfonso Raimundez
6.
7.
I
obv .
: . ANFVSVS R REX , crowned bus t , 1 . , star to 1 .
IONENS I S , cro ss w . cro s s let s or sce pter s
Rev .
++
in eac h quadrant .
so urce . HSA 1 . 2 62 , wt . . 7 8 .
obv . ANFVS R REX , crowned bus t , 1 , star to 1 .
+ SOCOVIA C IV , cross w . cro s s lets or scepters
Rev .
in eac h quadrant .
so urce . HSA 1 . 8 82 0 , \qt . 8 0 .
Addit ional Ref s . Del Rivero , segovia , pl . 1 , 8 ;
Gil Farre s , Histori a , 3 1 8- 2 0 , no . 1 9 5 ; Alvarez ,
37 .
499
I
8.
Obv . ANFVS BA REX , cro s s .
Rev .
SECOVIA C IVI S , abstrac t cros s , annulet in
each quadrant .
Source . De l Rivero , Segovia , pl . 1 , 1 0 ; cf .
Alvare z 52 .
Note s . Probably i ntended to read ANFVS RA REX .
9.
Obv . ANFVS . R . RE X , cro s s .
Rev . TOLETO C IVI , cro sier , f lanked by t\vO
scepters .
so urce . HSA 1 . 2 8 0 , wt . . 9 4 .
Additional Ref s . Co llante s , " Intento " 1 74 - 7 5 .
In the name of Alfonso s anchez I o f Aragon
10 .
Obv . ANFVS+S REX , cro s s .
Rev .
SVCOVIA C IA : . , crowned bus t , l .
so urce . HSA 1 . 2 5 3 , wt . . 7 0 .
Additional Ref s . Del Rivero , segovia , pl . 1 , 9 ;
Gil Farre s , Histori a , 3 1 5- 1 6 , no 1 9 0 ; Alvare z ,
33 .
In the name of Alfonso , Segovia series , c . 1 1 1 4 -c . 1 1 2 6
11 .
Obv . ANVOS RE X , c ro s s .
Rev . SECOVIA CI I , two a lphas and two crosslet s .
source . De l Rivero , segovia , 1 5 and pl . 1 , 9 .
12 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , c ro s s .
Rev . SOCOVIA C I , scepter divide s field , to l an
annulet , s, and star , to r . a star and cro s s .
Source . MAN 9 4- 4- 2 5 , wt . . 7 8 ; MAN 9 4 - 4- 2 6 , wt .
. 88.
Additional Ref s . Heis s , pl . 2 , 2 5 ex Cerda; Del
Rivero , Segovia , pl . 1 , 3 .
-var .
Obv . Pellet s in second and fourth quadrant of
cros s .
Source . Alvarez 2 7 .
Rev .
SAIVICVIVC ( some letter s retrograde ) .
Source . VQR , 5 3 1 3 .
-var .
13.
II
Obv . ANFOS RE X , c ro ss .
Rev .
SOCOVIA CI I , design .
Source . Alvarez , 5 1 .
500
14 .
Obv .
+ANFVS REC , cross , annulet in eac h quadrant .
Rev .
+SOCOVIA C IE , crosier , adorned w . al phas .
Source . VQR , 5 3 0 5 .
-var .
Obv .
+ IANFVS RIC .
Rev .
+SOCOVIA C I I .
source . VQR , 5 3 0 4 , Heis s , pl . 2 , 2 3 .
In the name of Alfonso , To ledo serie s , c . 1 1 1 4-c . 1 1 2 6
15 .
16.
-var .
-var .
-obol
I
Obv . ANFVS RE X , bust r , crowned or he lmeted .
Rev .
TOLETA , Latin cross , two stars above , alpha
and omega be lmv .
so urce . Hei s s , pl . 1 , 1 ; VQR , 5 2 9 1 .
Obv .
) ( TOLETULA , bust 1 , crowned or he lmeted .
Rev . ANFVS REX , cro ss , alpha and omega hanging
be low.
Source . ANS -H SA 1 . 2 7 9 , wt . 1 . 1 2 .
Additional Ref s . Heis s , pl . 1 , 1 ( Hei s s ' s drawing
reverses a l pha and omega . ) ; VQR , 5 3 0 0 .
Obv .
) ( TOLETULA with one T w . f lo uris h .
so urce . VQR 5 3 0 2 .
Rev . cros s , two dot s above , a lpha and omega below .
source . Hei s s , pl . 1 , 2 ; VQR , 5 3 0 1 .
Rev .
Cros s , o ne dot above , alpha and omega be low .
so urce . HSA 1 . 2 5 2 , wt . . 4 1 .
17 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , cro s s , pellet , s , pe l let and II ln
quadrant s .
Rev . REX TOLETVS , incomplete c hri stogram
source . Hei s s pl . 1 , 4 ; Alvarez , 4 0 .
-var .
Rev . REX TOLE TVOS :
source . VQR , 5 3 0 6 .
18 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , cro s s .
Rev .
+TOLETO C IVI , crosier , f lanked by two
scepters .
Source . Hei s s , pl . 3 , 2 9 ; VQR , 5 3 1 4 .
Note s . Cf . no . 9 above .
19 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , cro s s
Rev .
*TOLETO C IVI , calvary cros s , f lanked by
upside down cro siers and annulet s .
Source . HSA 1 . 8 8 4 1 , wt . . 7 5 .
(
Imperial To ledo
20 .
r
Obv .
IPERATOR , cros s .
Rev .
TOL + ET I , c astle tower?
source . VQR , 5 3 2 4 , 5 3 2 4 a and 5 3 2 4 b ; Hei s s , pl . 2 ,
15 .
Note s . Hei s s ' s dr awing of t he reverse i s poor .
one turns it upside down and compare s it w·it h
the rubbings i n VQR , it is e vident t hey are t he
same type , but whether it is a castle de picted
on t he rever se remai ns uncertain .
CATALOGUE IV
THE RE IGN OF ALFONSO VII
( 1 1 2 6- 1 1 5 7 )
1.
Obv . REX , eque strian , r, with sword , LE pos sibly
be hi nd horse .
Rev . LEO C IVITAS , cro s s moline, LE at base .
so urce . Monteverde , " Al gunas monedas , part 2 ,
2 5 1 - 52 .
Addit ional Ref s . Alvarez Burgos 4 8 .
··
-var .
Obv .
T behind horse .
Rev .
TO, retrograde , at base .
Source . VQR . 5 3 1 9 .
-var .
Obv .
CA behind horse .
CA at base .
Rev .
So urce . Heiss 2 . 9 ; VQR 53 1 8 .
-var .
Obv .
BV behind horse .
BV at base .
Rev .
Source . MAN 4 - 9 4- 1 3 , wt . . 9 7 .
Additional Ref s . Monteverde , "Algunas monedas , "
part 2 , 2 5 1 - 52 .
( Mo nteverde also reported that
the co llection of Co llante s contained an example
of t hi s variety . )
2a.
Obv .
+INPERA, Latin cro ss , in f ie ld I N PE .
Rev .
+LEONI S , lio n ' s head , fac i ng front .
So urce . MAN 4 - 9 4- 1 8 , wt . 1 . 0 3 .
Note s .
The abbreviation in obverse f ield was
undoubtedly intended to stand for inpera . The
var i at ions c atalogued below are best seen as
blunders rather than intentional deviations .
-var .
+ . IMPERA . , L at in cross , in f ie ld I I II .
Obv .
+.L
EON I S . , lion ' s head , f ac ing front .
Rev .
source . VQR 5 32 8 .
___
I
-var .
Obv .
+ : . INPERA , Lat in cross , in f ield I N E I .
Rev .
+LEOINIS , lion ' s head , fac ing front .
Source . MAN 4 - 9 4- 1 7 , wt . 1 . 1 7 .
-var .
Obv .
+ INPERA, Latin c ross , in f ie ld I I N .
Rev .
+LEONI , lion ' s head , fac ing front .
so urce . HSA 1 . 2 5 5 , wt . 1 . 0 4 .
502
(
-var .
-obo l
Obv .
+INPERA, Lat in cro s s , in f ield I N I I .
Rev .
+LEONI S , lio n ' s head , facing front .
source . HSA 1 . 2 8 7 , wt . . 4 5 .
2b .
Obv .
+ B I�WERA , Latin cros s , in field IN PE .
Rev . +LEONI S , lion ' s he ad , facing front .
source . HSA 1 . 8 8 2 6 , wt . 1 . 1 8 .
Additional Ref s .
cf . Hei s s 2 . 2 1 ; cf . VQR 5 3 2 7 .
-var .
obv .
+ B I�WERA , same f ield .
Rev . B LEON I S , same field .
so urce . Hei ss 2 . 2 2 .
3a .
obv . LEONI S C I , crowned bust front .
Rev .
INPERATOR , c ro s s .
source . Hei ss 2 . 1 6 ; VQR 5 3 2 2 ; Fernandez ,
11 Honedas , �� 1 . 1 4 .
-var .
Obv . LEON I S C I I , crowned bust front , crescent to
r.
Rev .
INPERATO , cro s s .
source . MAN 4 . 9 4 . 5 , wt . 1 . 0 0 .
-var .
Obv . LE ON I S C I , crowned bust front , dot to
r.
so urce . Fernandez , 11Monedas , 1 . 1 0- 1 1
1.
and
II
-var .
Obv . LEONI S C I , crowned bust front , star to r .
source . ANS 1 9 4 0 . 5 6 . 4 6 , \vt . . 8 4 ; Fernande z ,
'"Monedas ,
1 . 12.
II
-var .
Rev .
INPERATO , cros s , i n 1 st quadrant a crescent .
so urce . MAN 4 . 9 4 . 4 , wt . . 8 9 .
Additional Ref s . Fernande z , 11 Mo nedas , �� 1 . 1 5 - 1 6 .
-obo l . source .
-var .
ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 5 4 ,
wt
•
•
42 .
Rev
. INPERATO , cros s , i n 1 st quadrant a cre scent .
source . Fernandez , 11Monedas , 1 . 1 8 .
II
(
-var .
Rev .
INPEATOR , cro s s , in 1 st quadrant a crescent .
source . MAN 4 . 9 4 . 6 , wt . . 82 .
-var .
Rev .
IMPERATO REX , cros s .
source . Hei ss 2 . 1 8 .
50 4
(
3b.
Obv . LEONI S C IVI , crowned bust front .
Rev .
INPERATOR , cro ss .
so urce . HAN 4 . 9 4 . 3 .
Additional Ref s .
Heiss 2 . 1 7 ; VQR 5 3 2 3 ; Fernande z ,
" Monedas , " 1 . 4 .
-o bo l
so urce . The hoard reported by I nglada , "Monedas
inedit as , " 1 2 9 - 3 0 , was said to contain 2 o bo ls o f
this variety . From the plate , i t is hard to be
cert ai n that t hey were not example s of 3 a .
-var .
-var .
-var .
-var .
-var .
4a .
Rev .
s ame , L i n 3 rd quadrant .
source . Fer nandez , "Monedas , " 1 . 6 .
Obv .
S ame , L to 1 . of bust .
S ame , L in 3rd quadrant .
Rev .
source . MAN 4 . 9 4 . 2 , wt . . 7 7 .
Additional Ref s .
Fernande z , " r-tonedas , " 1 . 8 .
Obv .
S ame , L retro grade to r . of bus t .
S ame , L in 3rd quadrant .
Rev .
so urce .
Fernandez , "Monedas , " 1 . 5 .
Obv .
Same , dot to 1 . and r . of bust .
So urce . Fernandez , "Monedas , " 1 . 9 .
Obv .
Same , three dots to 1 . and r . of bust .
Rev . S ame , T ( or smal l cros s ) in 3rd quadrant .
so urce . Fernandez , "Monedas , " 1 . 1 3 .
Additional Ref s . MAN 4 . 9 4 . 7 , wt . . 8 8 , seems to be
this variety , but marks are not c lear .
Obv .
Two profiled busts fac ing each other , w .
cro s s between them . Annulet to eac h side of
cros s . Cros s r i se s from a pedestal comprised of
triangle s , be low it three crescent s .
Rev .
I�WERATOR , c ross .
so urce . HSA 1 . 2 7 6 , wt . 1 . o 7 ; ANS 1 9 1 6 . 2 2 6 . 4 1 �'It .
. 7 4 ; MAN 9 4 . 4 . 9 1 wt . 1 . 1 4 ; MAN 9 4 . 4 . 1 0 1 \vt . . 9 4 ;
?-fAN 9 4 4 1 1 1 wt
87
Additional ref s . VQR 5 2 9 0 a ; C ampaner 1
" Re stituci6n , " plate 7 , no . 9 ; Hei s s 2 . 1 1 .
•
4b.
•
•
•
•
Same
Obv .
Rev . LEONI CIVI . : 1 cro s s .
so urce . ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 5 3 , tvt
94.
Additional Ref s . The hoard reported by Inlgada ,
"Monedas I nedi ta s 1 " 1 3 0 , contained 2 coins o f
thi s variety a lo ng side 3 3 example s of 4 a .
Co llantes i n his later " Intento de ordenac i6n "
.
(
•
50 5
re produced 2 example s of type 4b . ( One from the
co l lection of Mo nteverde . )
I
CATALOGUE V
CASTILE ( 1 1 5 7- 1 2 3 0 )
Sanc ho I I I ( 1 1 5 7 - 5 8 )
obv . TOLETA , bust f ac ing r .
Rev .
+SANCI ' RE X , cro s s , two annulets in each
quadrant .
source . HSA 1 0 0 1 . 1 . 8 9 0 0 , \vt
8 9 ; I-IAN 4 . 9 5 . 5 0 , \vt .
. 9 0 ; I-!AN 4 . 9 5 . 5 1 , wt . 62 ; MAN 4 . 9 5 . 5 2 , wt . 9 2 .
Additional Ref s . Hel s s 4 . 2 , VQR 5 3 4 1 .
1.
•
•
-obo l . So urce . HSA 1 0 0 1 . 1 . 6 8 6 0 , \vt . 52 ; HSA 1 0 0 1 . 1 . 2 5 1 ,
wt . . 3 6 .
-var .
Obv . TOLETA , bust f ac ing r . , star under c hin .
so urce . Hei ss 4 . 3 ; VQR 5 3 42 and 5 3 4 3 .
-var .
Obv . TOLETA , bust f ac ing r .
Rev .
SANC IVS RE X
so urce . Hei s s 4 . 1 ; VQR 5 3 4 0 .
Note s . Di stinguished by the f ul l name o n the
reverse and the absence of a cro ss beginning the
legend .
Alfonso VI I I ( 1 1 5 8 - 1 2 1 4 )
MAN
Al l references to
2.
are from c abinet 4 , tray 9 6 .
obv . ALFOVNS , crowned king , standing w . sword in
one hand and palm in the other , to left a boy.
Rev . FRNANDVS REX , a cro s s , who se foot ends in
crescent , annulet in eac h quadrant .
so urce . MAN 2 , wt . . 6 0 ( worn and cracked ) ; HSA
1 . 8 8 42 , \vt
82 .
•
•
-var .
Rev . Two annulets in 3rd quadrant and two in 4th
So urce . MAN 3 , wt . 8 8 .
-var .
Rev . Two annulets i n 3rd , one � n 4th and one
underneath cro s s ' s foot .
source . MAN 5 , wt .
91.
.
I
-var .
Rev . Two annulets in 3rd , two �n 4th and one
underneath cro s s ' s foot .
506
I
Source .
ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 5 5 ,
\vt .
1 . 02 .
-var .
Rev . Two annulets i n 2 nd , three in 3 rd and three
in 4th .
source . MAN 4 , \vt . 1 . 0 6 ( with glue adhered )
-var .
Rev . Ann u let in 3rd quadrant .
source .
Heiss 4 . 2 ; VQR 5 3 4 8 .
Note . According to Hei s s and VQR , t here are more
variants than these .
( See Heis s 4 . 3 and VQR
5 3 4 5 - 4 7 . ) Marki ngs also appear on the obver se
of some spec imens , e . g . MAN 4 has a n annulet
and crescent ending the legend . MAN 5 has a
total of four annu let s on the obverse . l
3.
-ot:ol
4.
Obv . TOLETVM, f loral cros s .
Rev .
+ERA MCI I I I , cro s s ending in c re scent ,
annulet in eac h quadrant .
Source . Hei ss 4 . 7 ; VQR 5 3 5 9 .
Additional Ref s .
see f urther campaner y Fuentes ,
" Sobre u n dinero de To ledo ERA JI.1CC IV ( 1 1 6 6 ) . "
Obv .
TOLE TAS , figure standing , w . sword in one
hand and palm in the other .
Rev .
+REX ALFONSVS , cro s s .
source . VQR 5 3 5 0 ; c f . Heiss 4 . 4 .
The Eque strian Type
Sa .
Obv .
crowned eque strian , facing r .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , cro s s , arms end in crescent .
Source . ANS 1 9 3 2 . 5 6 . 9 , ,vt . . 8 7 .
Additional Ref s . VQR 5 3 5 4 .
-var .
Rev . TOLETAS :
source . H SA 1 . 2 8 4 ,
Sb.
r
-var .
-o bo l
wt
•
.
77 .
Obv . crowned eque strian , facing r . , t hree dot s
below horse .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , cro s s , arms e nd in crescent .
source . Hei ss 4 . 8 .
Same , three dot s be low horse ' s muz zle .
Obv .
Rev .
+ALFON S ' REX , cros s , annulet in each quadrant
Source . H SA 1 . 2 58 , wt
44 .
•
.
508
Note . The reverse legend and type c lose ly paralle l
the co in of Sanc ho I I I .
Sc .
-o oo 1
-var .
-var .
-o bo l
Sd .
I
Obv . crowned equestrian , f ac ing r . , s below horse .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , cross , arms end i n crescent .
So urce . HSA 1 . 2 5 9 , wt . 1 . 1 2 ; MAN 1 5 , wt . 1 . 4 0
( Glue adhered to coi n . )
wt .
So urce . HSA 1 . 8 8 43 ,
.53.
Rev . TOLE . : TAS . :
so urce . MAN 9 , wt . 1 . 0 4 ( Gl ue adhered to co in . )
Rev . T A PV A , cros s , whic h quarter s the legend ,
arms end in crescent .
So urce . HSA 1 . 2 4 6 , wt . . 1 9 .
Obv . crowned equestrian , f ac in g r . , o be low horse .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , cross , arms end i n crescent .
so urce . VQR 5 3 5 7 .
Se .
Obv . crowned eque strian , fac i ng r . , star be low
horse .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , simple cros s .
source . Hei ss 4 . 9
In his drawing , Hei s s de picted t he obverse
Note s .
as distinc t from his 4 . 8 .
-var .
Obv . crowned eque strian , fac ing r . , star be low
horse ' s mu z z le .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , cross , arms end in crescent .
so urce . VQR 5 3 5 8 .
Sf .
Obv . crowned equestrian , fac i ng r . , cre sc ent be low
horse .
Rev . TOLETAS . : , cross , arms e nd in crescent .
source . VQR 5 3 5 6 .
Note s . VQR li st s the mark as a " c halice " but does
not illustrate the coin . More likely , the mark
is a c re scent .
( Cf . no . 6 be l ow . )
6.
Obv . TOLE , uncrowned eque strian , fac ing r , .
ho lding palm .
Rev . ANFVS RE X , cross , w . cre scent i n 3rd
quadrant .
Source . MAN 1 0 1 wt . 8 1 ; MAN 1 1 , wt . . 9 4 ; HAN 1 2 ,
wt . . 7 9 ; MAN 1 3 , wt . 1 . 0 1 ; MAN 1 4 , wt . . 9 7 .
.
509
Additional Ref s .
-obol
-var .
-o bol
He i s s 4 . 1 0 ; VQR 5 3 5 1 , 5 3 52 .
source . HSA 1 . 8 8 4 4 , wt . . 3 9 .
Additional Ref s . VQR 5 3 5 3 .
Rev . Cros s , w . crescent in 4th quadrant .
So urce . HSA 1 . 2 5 7 , wt . . 3 9 .
Additional Ref s . Ped.rals y Ho line , " N uevo s
de sc ubrimiento s , " plate 7 , no . 3 , ex D . J . Pr at y
sanc ho .
Note s .
In Pedra l ' s public at io n the mark loo ks more
like a pel let than a crescent .
Proto-burqales serie s
since Alfo nso VI I I ruled t he independent kingdom o f
castile , the image o f a cast le began t o be employed on his
coins .
The term b urgales, used later to de scribe his
quaternal coin , probably derived from association with
Burgo s , j ust as jaccensis did from Jaca , though both coins
were minted in other loc ations .
It is pos sible that t he
name burgales was also reinforced by the depict ion of
cast le or fortre ss on t he back of the coins .
I
7a .
Obv . +ANFVS REX , cros s , annulet in eac h quadrant ,
connected to center by radia l .
Rev . CA STE LA, c astle , w . three towers , a star to
1 . and r . of c entral tower .
Source . Hei s s 4 . 1 1 , VQR 5 3 6 3 .
-o bo l
So urce . Honteverde , " Al gunas monedas , " 2 5 3 no . 8 .
Notes . Hint mark on reverse uncertain .
-var .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX . , same cros s .
source . MAN 1 8 , wt . . 8 8 .
-var .
Obv . + . ANFVS : RE X , same cros s .
Source . MAN 1 9 , wt . . 9 0
Notes .
stops are annulets .
-var .
Obv . + . ANFVS : RE X . , same cro s s .
Source . HSA 1 . 8 8 4 0 , wt . 1 . 1 2 .
Notes .
Stops are annulets .
a
-var .
Obv .
+ . ANFVS : . REX . , same cros s .
Source . MAN 1 7 , wt . . 8 9 .
Note s .
Stops are annulet s .
7b .
Obv .
Rev .
7c .
Obv .
+ANFVS . REX , cro s s quasi- pornmee .
Rev . CA STE LA , cast le , w . t hree tower s ,
and star to r . of central tower .
source . MAN 2 0 , r.vt . 1 . 3 2 .
+ . ANFVS : . REX , same cro s s
CA S TE LA, c astle , r.v . three towers , a star to
1 . and s to r . of central tower .
so urce . VQR 5 3 6 2 .
A
to
1.
7d .
obv .
+ANFVS . REX , cro s s quasi- pornmee .
Rev . CA STE LA , cast le , w . three tower s , B to l .
of central tower .
source . Hei ss 4 . 1 2 .
Notes . Alvarez , 1 3 7 , lists t hi s mark as R , but
c ites only Hei s s who read it as B . Monteverde ,
" Algunas monedas , " 2 5 3 , referred to a coin in
hi s co llection of this general type with t he
mark of P whic h was mo st likely a B .
Sa .
Obv .
+ANFVS REX , cro s s
Rev . CA STE LA , cast l e , w . crowned bust fac ing
imposed above , a star to 1 . and r . of bust .
So urce . MAN 2 5 , wt , . 8 7 .
Additional Ref s . Hei s s 4 . 1 3 , VQR 5 3 6 4 .
1.
-o bo l . source . Monteverde , " Al gunas monedas , " 2 5 3 no . 9 .
Notes . �tint mark is uncertain .
-var .
Obv .
+ANFVS . REX , cro s s .
So urce . MAN 2 6 , wt . 1 . 1 8 .
-var .
Obv .
+ . ANFVS . REX . , cro s s .
So urce . MAN 2 8 , wt
8 0 ; AN S 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 5 6
. 89 .
Additional Ref s . He i s s 4 . 1 4 ; VQR . 5 3 66
Note s .
Stops are annulet s .
•
8b .
I
.
wt .
Obv .
+ANFVS . REX , cro s s .
Rev . CA STE LA, cast le , w . crowned bust fac ing l .
imposed above , a star to 1 . and c to r . of bust .
So urce . MAN 2 7 , wt . . 9 1 .
Addi tional Ref s . VQR 5 3 6 5 .
51 1
I
Obv .
+ . ANFVS . REX , cross .
Rev . CA S TE LA, c astle , w . crowned bust fac ing l .
imposed above , a star to 1 . and A to r . of bus t .
Source . HSA 1 . 8 8 5 0 .
8c .
B urgales
The type c ataloged below was not necessari ly the only
i s s ue o f Alfonso VI I I c al led a burgales .
Nonet heless , this
partic ular coin was c lear ly a ma j or 1 s sue and shows sign s
of being immobilized under Fernando I I I .
It therefore was
like ly the coin mo st assoc iated with t he name in the ear ly
thir teenth c entury .
I n at least four of the varieties
presented be low, t he reverse legend occ asional ly appears
retrograde .
Thi s may have been an int entional variation ,
but for the purposes o f thi s cata logue it is ignored . 1
9a .
-obo l
Obv . ANFVS RE X , crowned bust , 1 .
Rev . CA STE LA , c astle w. cro s s , star to each
side .
So urce . The trays of the MAN cont ain over 5 0
examples o f this type . The c o l lection of the H SA
ha s several more . The wei ghts of these coins
are presented in figure 2 be low .
Additional Ref s .
Heiss 4 . 1 9 ; Pier so n , " Algunas
observac io ne s , " 2 . 1 .
Note s . The otaz a hoard co ntained 5 , 02 8 burgaleses .
Of the se , 3 , 2 4 1 were of this s tar- star variety .
( see Garcia Rete s , " Tesori ll o , " 3 9 2 , 3 9 7 . )
Source .
VQR 5 3 7 2 .
1 Alain Pierson , "Algunas observaciones sobre uno s
ve l lo ne s de Alfonso VI I I ( 1 1 5 8- 1 2 1 4 ) , " GN 1 8 ( 1 9 7 0 ) : 2 3 - 2 7 .
I
Sl2
-copper trial piece or pattern .
So urce . ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 6 1 \vt . 1 . 6 2
Additional Refs . Mateu y L lopi s , Cata logo de
Ponderale s , 2 4 and plate 1 .
9b .
Obv . ANFVS REX , crowned bust , l .
Rev . CA STE LA, castle w . cro s s , star and annulet
to eac h side .
So urce . HSA 1 . 2 7 8 , wt . 1 . 0 5 ; HSA 1 . 8 8 3 8 , \Vi: . 1 . 0 2 .
-copper trial piece or pattern .
So urce . HSA 1 . 2 9 0 , wt . 5 . 7 7 ; HSA 1 . 2 8 9 , wt . 3 . 2 1 ;
HSA 1 . 1 6 9 9 , wt . 3 . 4 9 ; HSA 1 6 9 0 7 , \vt . 3 . 5 3 .
Additional Ref s . He is s , 4 . 1 5 ; VQR 5 3 6 7 .
10 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , crowned bust , l .
Rev . CA STE LA, c astle w . c ro s s , crescent to l ,
star to r .
So urce . ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 6 3 , wt . . 9 0 ; ANS
1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 6 2 , wt . 9 5 ; HSA 1 . 2 5 4 , wt . . 6 1 ; MAN
5 0 , wt . 82 ; 6 1 , wt . . 9 2 ; MAN 6 3 , \vt
82 ; MAN
6 9 , wt . . 6 9 ; MAN 7 0 , wt . 8 0 ; .HAN 7 8 , wt . . 6 7 ;
1 . 1 0 ; MAN 1 4 0 I wt
. 7 2 ; l-1AN 1 4 9 wt .
HAN 1 3 3 ' wt .
. 8 1 ; MAN 1 5 0 , wt
74 .
Additional Ref s . Hei s s 4 . 1 8 ; VQR 5 3 7 0 ; Pierso n,
"Algunas observaciones , " 2 . 9 .
Note s . The second mos t represented type in the
Otaza hoard , 7 72 example s reported .
( Garc ia
Rete s , " Te sorillo , " 3 9 7 ) .
•
.
•
•
-var .
Rev . cast le , w . cro s s , cresce nt to 1 . , star with
annulet as center to r .
so urce . MAN 4 9 , wt . 1 . o 6 ; MAN 5 8 , wt . . 9 o ; HAN 7 5 ,
wt . . 7 7 ; MAN 9 4 , wt . . 7 3 ; MAN 1 0 4 , \vt . . 86 ; MAN
1 2 3 , wt . . 8 8 ; MAN 1 4 5 , wt . . 76 ; MAN 1 4 6 , wt .
. 82 ; MAN 1 4 7 . \'lt
7 4 ; MAN 1 4 8 , \"lt
80.
•
(
•
•
•
•
-var .
Rev . Castle , w . cros s , D to l . , star to r .
So urce . 2 example s reported i n the Otaza hoard
( Garc ia Retes , " Tesor i l lo , " 3 9 7 ) .
D was surely
not a valid mark .
S ince it appear s to the left
of the c astle , the mark is perhaps a bad ly
struck crescent .
( Cf . no . 1 1 be low . )
11 .
Obv . ANFVS RE X , crowned bus t , l .
Rev . CA STE LA , cast le w . cros s , star to l . and B
to r .
so urce . MAN 6 7 , wt . 9 8 ; MAN 7 3 , wt . . 72 ; MAN 77 ,
\'It . . 7 1 ; MAN 1 52 I wt . . 8 5 .
Additional Ref s . Hei s s 4 . 1 6 ; Pier so n , " Algunas
observac ione s , " 2 . 8 .
51 3
Note s .
Third mo st repre sented type in the Ota z a
hoard , 3 3 7 s amples reported ( Garcia Rete s ,
" Tesorillo , " 3 9 2 ) .
-var .
Rev . castle w . cro s s , star with annulet a s center
to 1 . and B to r .
source . MAN 4 3 , wt . . 7 7 .
-var .
Rev . cast le w . cro s s , star with annulet as center
to l . and D to r .
source . Pierson , " Algunas observac ione s , " 2 . 7 .
Note s . The ota z a hoard was said to co ntain 1 6 suc h
coins ( Garci a Rete s , " Tesori llo ,
39 7 ) .
It
seems be st to take t he mark here a s a poor ly
executed B .
"
12 .
obv . ANFVS RE X , c rowned bus t , l .
Rev . CA STE LA , c a st le w . cros s , star to l . and A
to r .
So urce . MAN 4 5 , wt . 8 8 ; MAN 4 6 , wt . 8 4 ; .HAN 5 5 ,
wt . . 9 3 ; MAN 1 2 9 , wt . 7 9 .
Notes . The letter A i s often poor ly executed and ,
as a result , has been frequent ly c atalogued as
N, such as in the Otaza report , which listed 5 4
specimens ( Garc i a Rete s , " Te sori llo , " 39 5 ) .
.
13 .
Obv . ANFVS RE X , c rowned bust , l .
Rev . CA STE LA , c a st le w . cro s s , star to l . and o
to r .
so urce . ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 60 , wt . 8 9 ; J.I.!AN 1 3 9 , \vt .
. 9 0 ; MAN 1 4 2 , wt . . 8 0 .
Additional Ref s .
Pier son , " Al gunas observac ione s , "
2 . 4.
Note s . The Ota z a hoard contai ned 72 example s
( Garcia Rete s , " Te sori llo , " 39 5 ) .
.
14 .
Obv . ANFVS RE X , c rowned bus t , l .
Rev . castle w . c ro s s , star to l . and s to
so urce . Pierson , "Algunas observaciones , "
Note s . The otaza hoard was said to contain
co�ns ( Garc i a Rete s , " Tesori llo , " 3 9 7- 8 )
15 .
obv . ANFVS RE X , c rowned bus t , l .
Rev . CA STE LA , c a st le w . cros s , star to l . and
to r .
so urce . MAN 5 2 , wt . . 8 0 ; MAN 1 3 4 , wt . 1 . 2 0 ; MAN
1 5 1 , wt . 7 9 ; HSA 1 . 8 8 3 4 , wt . 1 . 0 6 ; HSA 1 . 8 8 3 7 ,
\'It
8 7 ; ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 5 7 1 \vi:
7 7 ; ANS
1 9 4 1 . 4 8 . 3 9 , wt 1 . 1 8 .
.
I
•
•
•
•
r.
1.2.
1 1 s uch
.
c
514
(
Additional Ref s .
Heiss 4 . 1 7 ; VQR 5 3 7 3 ; Pierson,
" Algunas observaciones , " 1 . 3 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , crowned bust , 1 .
Rev . CA STE LA , cast le w . cros s , star to l . and E
to r .
Source . ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 5 9 , wt . . 8 3 .
Addi tional Ref s .
Pier so n, " Algunas observac ione s , "
2 . 3 ; Monteverde , " Al gunas moneda s , " 2 5 3 .
Notes .
otaza hoard reported to contai n 1 1 4
examples ( Garc ia Retes , " Tesor illo , " 3 9 5 ) .
16 .
-o ool
-var .
-var .
So urce .
Monteverde , " Al gunas mo nedas , " 2 5 3 . no 1 0 .
Rev . c astle w . c ro s s , star to 1 . and F to r .
So urce . P ierson , " Algunas observac ione s , " 2 . 6 .
Notes .
The ota z a hoard said to co ntai n 1 1 example s
( Garci a Rete s , " Te sori llo , " 3 9 6 ) . The mark
could be poor ly done E .
Rev . Castle w . c ro s s , F, retrograde , to 1 . and
star to r .
source . Garcia Rete s , " Te sorillo , " 3 9 6 , reported 4
suc h s pec imens in the otaza hoard .
Obv . ANFVS RE X , crowned bust , l .
Rev . CA STE LA , c a st le w . cros s , star to 1 . and L
to r .
Source . MAN 5 4 , wt . . 8 8 .
Additional Ref s .
Pier so n , " Al gunas observac ione s , "
2.5.
Note s . otaza hoard said to cont ain 1 0 6 examples
( Garcia Rete s , " Te sorillo , " 3 9 5- 9 6 ) .
17 .
The pepi6n
Only the two basic variations of thi s type are
presented here .
ignored .
(
Sto p mark s and other variations are
The coinage has been extensive ly studied by
515
I
Mercedes Rueda Sabater , who attempted to arrive at a
c hrono logy based mainly on stylistic analys is . z .
18 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , bust f ac i ng 1 .
Rev .
+TOLLETA , cros s , s tar in 1 st and 4 th
quadrant .
source . Heiss , 1 . 3 ; VQR 5 2 9 3
-obol . So urce . VQR 5 2 9 6
-copper trial piece or pattern
So urce . VQR 5 2 9 2 .
19 .
Obv . ANFVS REX , bust f ac i ng 1 .
Rev .
+TOLLETA , cros s , star in 2 nd and 3rd
quadrant .
so urce . Hei ss 1 . 4 ; VQR 5 2 9 4 .
-o bo l . So urce .
Hei ss 1 . 2 ; VQR 5 2 9 5 .
2 see Rueda , " Cro no lo gia de l ve ll6n , " 6 62 - 7 0 ; c f .
chapter 1 0 , n . 3 5 above .
I
516
Number
of
Coins
20
1 81 16
r---
,-
r-
12
10
8
13
6
r--
0
16
9
-
2
r---
3
9
r--
r--
8
r---
5
3
. 60
7
. 70
. 80
.90
r-..1
1 . 00
r-3
GJ
1 . 10
1 . 20
1 . 30
Weight in Grams
Fig . 2 . We ight distr i bution of burgaleses of the star- star
mint in the HSA , ANS and MAN col lections ( inc luding those
denarii with the star/annulet- star / annulet mark ) .
I
517
Number
of
Coins
20
18
16
1�
12
10
8
6
�
6
2
0
. 60
.. 70
6
. 80
.90
Weight
Fig . 3 .
r
1 . 00
1 . 10
1 . 20
1 . 30
in Grams
Weight distribution of all other burgaleses ln the
HSA, ANS and MAN c o l lectio ns .
I
CATALOGUE VI
LEON 1 1 5 7- 1 2 3 0
Fernando I I ( 1 1 5 7- 1 1 8 8 )
1.
Obv . FERNANDVS REX , cro s s
Rev . _PAI , crowned bust f ac ing l . above a
br idge , scepter and orb to l . , sword to r .
source . HSA 1 . 1 7 0 2 , wt . . 8 7 .
Addi tional Ref s .
orol Pernas , " Dinero s
salamanquese s , " 3 8 6 - 8 7 .
Note s .
stylistically, the coin is rel ated to the
proto- b urgales of Alfonso VI I I whi le the bridge
on the reverse also anticipate s the motif used
on Alfonso IX ' s morabetino . The piece witho ut
question belongs to Fernando I I . oral ' s example
is the only other I know . He reported the
reverse legend as i l legi ble except for the f ir st
letter whic h was s . Combined with the HSA coi n ,
t h i s makes i t c lear that t he reverse legend is
SPANIA, t he I on the HSA coin being t he fir st
punch of an N.
I n light of t hi s , it should be
considered that the Lo s Arco s coin a s s igned to
Fernando I may be an i s s ue o f Fernando I I .
__
2.
Obv .
FERNANDVS , crowned bust facing 1 .
Rev .
: . LE O : CIVITAS : . REX , cro s s ( e nds adorned ) .
So urce . MAN IV- 9 5 - 3 , wt . 4 9
Note s . Badly worn and chipped .
.
I
3.
Obv .
FERNAND , bust facing r .
Rev .
+REX D . LEON , lion f ac ing r . , annulet above ,
be low, t hree point s .
so urce . Hei s s 3 . 2 , ex Real Ac ademia de Historia .
4.
Obv .
+FERNANDVS REX , cro s s
Rev . L io n f acing right , with F or
so urce . Hei s s 3 . 3 ; VQR 5 3 4 4 .
L
above .
-var .
same
-obo l . Obv .
same , with no letter reported above .
Rev .
Source . Hei s s 3 . 4 .
518
519
Alfonso IX ( 1 1 8 8 - 1 2 3 0 )
Type 1
6.
Obv .
+ILDEFONS ' : REX , cro s s with f leur de lys ln
each quadrant .
Rev . Floral cro s s , lion to 1 . and r . Mint
markings indeterminate .
source . ANS 1 9 8 7 . 4 1 . 7 2 1 , wt . . 4 0 .
6a .
Rev .
Same , annulet to l and r of cros s .
Source . HSA 1 . 1 8 0 1 3 , wt . . 7 1 .
Additional Ref s . orol , 1 0 , wt . . 7 4 .
Note s .
Cf . Orol , 1 1 .
-var .
6b .
-var .
-var .
6c .
-var .
Rev .
Same , dot to 1 . and r . o f cros s .
source . oro l 8 , wt . . 8 8 .
Rev .
same , star to l and r . of cros s .
source . oro l 3 , wt . . 7 3 .
Rev .
Same , star to 1 . , dot to r . of cro s s .
source . oro l 2 , wt . . 9 8 .
Additional Ref s . HSA 1 . 8 9 0 4 , wt . . 5 5 ( hard to
read )
Rev .
Same , indeterminate to 1 . , scallop to r . of
cro s s .
Source . Oro l 1 , wt . . 9 1 ( the sc allop could ea sily
be a star . )
Rev .
Same , crescent to l . and r . of cro s s .
source . oro l 5 , wt . . 6 9 ; orol 6 , wt . 6 8 ; oro l 7 ,
wt . . 7 7 ; oro 1 1 1 , wt . . 8 9 .
Rev .
same , dot to 1
So urce . oro l 4 , \vt
•
.,
•
cre scent to r . of cross .
76 .
Type 2 ( subgroup A )
7a
I
Obv . ANFONS REX , cro s s mo line pomme , sc allop in
eac h quadr ant .
Rev . LEO , lio n facing r . , cro ss and star above .
Source . HSA 1 . 8 8 4 8 , wt . . 9 6 ; ANS 0 0 0 0 . 9 9 9 . 1 6 4 0 0 1
wt . . 7 3 ; oro l 2 1 , wt . . 8 2 ; Oro l 2 1 c . wt . . 7 4 .
52 0
(
-var .
Rev .
same , cross and st ar above , dot in front of
head
So urce . oro l 2 1 a , wt . . 8 3 ; Orol 2 1 b , wt . 8 3 .
7b .
Rev .
Same , cros s and sc a l lo p above .
So urce . oro l 2 7 , wt . . 8 4 .
-var .
Rev .
same , cros s and sc al lo p above , dot l n front
of lion ' s head .
source . oro l 2 6 , \vt
97.
.
•
7c .
Rev . LEO, lio n fac i ng r . , cro s s above and cro s s in
front of head .
so urce . oro l . 2 3 , wt . 6 7 ; oro l 2 3 a , \vt . . 9 1 . ( c f .
oro l 2 8 and 30 )
-var .
same , cross and crescent above , cros s
Rev .
( pos sibly with staff attac hed ) in front of head .
So urce . oro l 2 2 , wt . 1 0 5 . ( cf . orol 2 9 ) .
7d .
Rev .
same , cro s s above , cre scent in front of head .
So urce . oro l 32 . wt . 7 1 ; Oro l 3 2 a wt . 7 0 ( c f . oro l
3 1 -3 1b ) .
Type
2 ( subgroup B )
c
7e .
Rev .
same , cross and scallop above ,
head .
source . oro l 1 3 .
7f
Rev .
same , cross and scallop above , 9 in front of
head .
source . oro l 1 4 .
7g .
7h .
(
.
ln front of
Rev .
same , cro s s and scallop above , E in front of
head .
Source . HSA 1 . 2 5 0 , wt
. 5 6 ; Oro l 1 6 .
.
Rev .
Same , cro s s and scallop above ,
head .
So urce . oro l 1 7 , wt . 7 9 .
L
in front of
52 1
o
7i .
Rev . same , cro s s and scallop above ,
head .
so urce . oro l 1 8 , wt . . 8 1 .
7j .
Rev . same , cro s s and s c a l lop above , R , retrograde ,
in front of head .
source . oro l 1 9 , wt . . 7 5 ( c f . Oro l 1 5 ) .
7k .
Rev . same , cro s s and scallop above , $ in fro nt of
head .
Source . HSA 1 . 8 8 4 7 , \vt
8 8 ; ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 6 4 ,
wt . 8 1 ; ANS 1 9 6 9 . 2 2 2 . 1 2 6 5 , wt . . 6 4 ; oro l 2 0 b ,
wt . . 9 2 ( c f . oro l 2 0d ) .
.
in front of
•
.
-var .
Rev . same , cross and s c a l lop above , $ in fro nt of
head , cro s s between paws .
Source . oro l 2 0 , \� . . 7 3 ; oro l 2 0c \vt . 1 . 0 5 ( c f .
HSA 1 . 8 8 4 9 , wt . . 7 0 and AN S 1 5 0 , wt . . 7 0 ) .
-var .
Rev . same , cro s s and scallop above , $ in fro nt of
head , dot between paws .
So urce . Oro l 2 0 a , wt .
83 .
.
71 .
I
Rev . same , cross above , A in fro nt o f head .
source . oro l 12 , wt . . 7 4 .
I
B I BL IOGRAPHY
Narrative and Literary Sources
522
Documentary so urces
Leo n-Castile
52 3
outs ide Leon-castile
528
Numi smatic sources
General
53 1
Leo n-casti le
532
outs ide Leon-castile
537
Seco ndary Works
547
Narrative and Literary sources
-
-
' Abd Al lah . The Tibyan : Memoirs o f ' Abd Allah B . B ul uggi n ,
Last Zirid Amir of Granada , tran s . Amin T . Tibi .
Leiden , 1 9 8 6 .
Bonnaz , Yves . chronigue s asturienne s ( f in I X� siec le ) .
Pari s , 1 9 8 7 .
Brethloz , Bertold , ed . " Die Chronik der Bohmen des Cosmas
von Prag . " scriptore s Rerum Germanicarum, n . s . , vo l 2 .
Mo numenta Germaniae Hi storic a . Ber lin , 1 92 3 .
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York , 1 9 3 6 .
,
ed . De Expugnatione Lyxbo nens i . New
E inhard , "The Life of Charlemagne . " I n Two Live s of
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Falque Rey , Emma , ed . Historia composte l lana . corpus
Chri st ianorum, vo l . 7 0 . Turnho ldt , 1 9 8 8 .
(
522
52 3
I
Flore z , E nr ique , ed . '" C hronic on compostel lanum . .. In E S .
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, ed . '" Anales toledanos , I- I I I . .. I n E S . Vo l . 2 3 , 3 5 9 7 0 , 3 8 2 - 42 3 .
---
Melc zer , Wi l l iam , trans . The Pi lgrim ' s Guide to santiago de
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sanchez Alo nso , Benito , ed . cr6 nica del o bi spo don Pe layo .
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Va lenc ia , 1 9 6 6 .
--- , ed . Cr6nicas an6nimas de Sahagun . Zarago za , 1 9 8 7 .
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Bej ar y Candelario . Salamanc a , 1 9 8 6 .
I
B lanco Lo zano , Pi lar , ed . co lec c i6n diplomatic a de Fernando
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5 2. 4
Cal Pardo , Enrique , ed . E l monasterio de san Salvador de
Pedro so en Tierra de Trasancos : coleccion doc umental .
La corun a , 1 9 8 4 .
Casado Lobato , Haria co ncepcion , ed . co lecc io n diplomat ic a
de l monasterio de carrizo ( Leon ) , 9 6 9 - 1 2 9 9 . 2 vo ls .
Leon , 1 9 8 3 .
castan Lanaspa , Gui llermo , ed . Doc ume ntos del monasterio de
Vi l laverde de Sando val ( s iglo s XI I - XV ) . Salamanc a ,
198 1 .
Doc umento s de l archivo de la catedral de Orense , 2 vol s .
orense , 1 9 2 3 .
Erdmann , carl , ed . Das Papsttum und Portugal im ersten
Jahrhundert der portugiesischen Geschic hte . Berlin ,
1928 .
E spin Rae l , Joaquin . Tras lado del privi legio para acunar
moneda, dado a Lorc a en 1 2 9 7 . Lorc a , 19 3 6 .
Fernande z , Agapito , ed . " Doc umento s reales del monasterio
de sant Haria de otero de las Duenas . " Parts 1 - 2 .
Arc hivo s Leoneses 5 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 1 5 5 - 6 2 ; 6 ( 1 9 5 2 ) : 1 1 1 - 1 8 .
Fernande z Cato n , Jose Haria , ed . " Docume ntos leo ne se s en
e scritura visigotica : Fondo H . Bravo del arc hivo
hi storico dioce sano de Leon . " Arc hivo s Leoneses 2 7
( 1 97 3 ) : 99- 1 46 .
Fernandez conde , Franci sco Javier . E l l i bro de testamento
de la c atedral de oviedo . Rome , 1 9 7 1 .
Fernandez conde , Franci sco Javier , et a l . , eds . El
monasterio de san Pe layo de oviedo : Hi storia y
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Fita
y
Co lomer , Fidel . "E l fuero de Uc les . " BRAH 1 4 ( 1 8 8 9 ) .
F lori ano Llorente , Pedro , ed . Co leccion diplomatic a de l
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E st udio y Transcripcion . oviedo , 1 9 6 8 .
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ast uriano s 1 9 ( 1 9 6 5 ) : 3 - 4 0 .
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pergamino s de la catedral de oviedo . oviedo , 1 9 5 7 .
52 5
I
, ed . Co leccion de doc umento s de l a catedr al de
oviedo . oviedo , 1 9 62 .
------
Garcia Luj an , Jose Anto nio , ed . cart ular io del monasterio
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( 1 0 8 6 - 1 4 6 2 ) . 2 vo ls . Toledo , 1 9 82 .
------
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Gonza le z Diez , Emiliano , ed . Co lecc io n diplomatica de
concejo de Burgos ( 8 8 4- 1 3 6 9 ) . Burgo s , 1 9 8 4 .
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s iglo s X I I y XI I I . 4 vo ls . Madr id , 1 9 2 6 - 3 0 .
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catalogo documental . Madrid , 1 9 8 5 .
------ . " La s cortes de To ledo de 1 2 0 7 . " I n Las cortes de
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I
Martinez Diez , Gonzalo , ed . Fuero s loc ales en el territorio
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------
Rodriguez de Lama , Ildefonso , ed . Co lec c io n diplomat ic a
medieval de la Rioj a . Vo ls . 2 - 3 . Logrono , 1 9 7 6-7 9 .
Rodriguez Gonzalez , Angel , ed . E l tumbo del monasterio de
san Hartin de Castaneda . Leon , 1 9 7 3 .
Sae z , Emi lio , et . al . , eds . , Co lecc ion documental del
arc hivo de la catedral de Leo n ( 7 7 5 - 1 2 3 0 ) , 1 0 vo ls . to
date . Leon , 1 9 8 7 - 9 4 .
, ed . Lo s f ueros de sepulveda : E di c ion critica y
apendice documental . segovi a , 1 9 5 3 .
-------
I
Sainz Ripa , E li seo , ed . Co lec c ion diolomatic a de las
colegiatas de Albelda y Logrono , vol 1 . , ( 92 4- 1 3 9 9 ) .
Logroiio , 1 9 8 1 .
527
(
Sanchez Belda , Luis , ed . cart ulario de santo Toribio de
Liebana . Madrid , 1 9 4 8 .
------ ,
ed . Documentos reale s de la ectad media referente s a
Galicia : Catalogo de los conservados e n la secci6n de
c lero del Arc hivo Hist6rico Nac iona l . Madrid , 1 9 5 3 .
sanz y Diaz , Clementine . Re sena cronologica de alguno s
documentos conservados en el arc hivo de la catedral de
cuenc a . cuenc a , 1 9 6 5 .
sanz Fuentes , Maria Jo sefa , "Mas doc umento s de l mo nasterio
de san Vicente anteriores a 1 2 0 0 . " Asturiensia
Medieva lia 5 ( 1 9 8 5 - 8 6 ) , 8 9 - 1 0 9 .
Serrano , Luciano , ed . Cartulario de san Pedro de Arlanz a .
Madrid , 1 9 2 5 .
------ ,
ed . Cartulario de S an Vicente de ovied 7 8 1 - 1 2 00 .
Madrid , 1 9 2 9 .
Serrano y Sanz , Manuel , ed . "Car tulario de l a iglesia santa
Maria del P uerto ( Santo na ) . " BRAH 7 3 ( 1 9 1 8 ) : 42 0 - 4 2 ;
74 ( 1 9 1 9 ) : 1 9- 3 4 , 2 2 4 - 42 , 4 3 9- 5 5 ; 7 5 ( 1 9 1 9 ) : 3 2 3 - 4 8 ;
76 ( 1 9 2 0 ) : 2 5 7 - 6 3 ; 8 0 ( 1 92 2 ) : 52 3 - 2 7 .
----- .
" Doc umento s de l c artulario del monasterio de
Celanova . " Revista de ciencias j ur idic as y soc iale s 4 6
( 1 92 9 ) : 5 - 4 7 , 5 1 2 - 52 4 .
Ubieto Arteta , Antonio , ed . cartulario de San Mi llan de la
Cogolla ( 7 5 9- 1 0 7 6 ) . Valenc ia , 1 9 7 6 .
------ , ed . cart ularie s ( I , I I y I I ) de santo Domingo de la
Calzada . Zarago z a , 1 9 7 8 .
------ , ed . Colecci6n diplomatica de Cuel lar . segovia,
19 6 1 .
Raf ae l de Urena y smenj aud , ed . Fuero de cuenc a . Madrid ,
1935 .
Vac a Lorenzo , Angel , ed . Documentac i6n medieval del arc hivo
parroguial de Vil lalpando ( Zamora ) . salamanc a , 1 9 8 8 .
Vignau y Ballester , Vicente , ed . cart ular io del monasterio
de E s lo nz a . Madrid , 1 8 8 5 .
(
Vil lar Garc ia , Luis-Migue l , ed . Docume ntac i6n medieval de
la catedral de segovia ( 1 1 1 5- 1 3 0 0 ) . salamanc a , 1 9 9 0 .
528
Vivanco s GOmez , Higue l c . , ed . Documentos del Honasterio de
S anto Domingo de Silo s ( 9 5 4 - 1 2 5 4 ) . Burgo s , 1 9 8 8 .
Outside Leon-Castile
Alturo i Peruc ho , J . " Note s numi smatique s de ls diplomatari s
de santa Anna de Barce lona ( Pons de Santa Anna i de
santa E ul alia del Camq ) del 9 42 al 12 o o . " AN 1 1
( 1 9 8 1 ) : 12 1 - 4 1 .
Bastardas , Joan et al s . Usatge s de Barcelona : E l codi a
mitjan segle X I I . Barcelona , 1 9 8 4 .
Bisso n , Thomas N . Fiscal Account s of c atalonia Under the
E ar ly count-Kings ( 1 1 5 1 - 1 2 1 3 ) . 2 vo ls . Berkeley , 1 9 8 4 .
Boret ivs , Alfredus and Victor Krause , eds . capit ularia
Regum Francor um . 2 Vo ls . Hanover , 1 8 8 3 - 8 7 .
Bruel , Alexandre , ed . Recuei l de s chartes de l ' abbave de
Cluny . 6 vo ls . 1 8 7 6 - 1 9 0 3 . Reprint , Frankf ur t , 1 9 7 4 .
canal le s Lo pe z , Angel , ed . Colecc ion di lomatica de l concejo
de Zaragoza . 2 vo ls . Zaragoza , 1 9 72 .
Cortes de los antiguos reinos de Arago n y de valenc ia y
Princ ipado de cataluna . 2 5 vol s . Hadrid , 1 9 0 4- 1 9 2 0 .
Duran Gudio l , Antonio , ed . coleccio n diplomat ic a de la
c atedral de Hue sc a . 2 vo ls . Zaragoza , 1 9 6 5 - 6 9 .
Garc ia de Linare s , R . , ed . " E scrituras arabes
pertenec ientes a l archivo de Nue stra Senora de l
Pilar . " In Homenaj e a Francisc o Codera . Zarago z a ,
1 9 04 .
Huic i Hirand a , Ambro sio and H . D . Cabanes Pecourt , eds .
Doc umento s de Jaime I de Aragon . 4 vo ls . Valenc i a ,
1 9 76 .
I larregui , P . and s . Lapuerta . Fuero Ge neral de Navarra
Pamplona , 1 8 6 9 .
Jes se , Wi lhelm . Quel le nbuc h zur Mlinz - und Geldge sc hichte
des Mitte lalter s 1 9 2 4 . Reprint , LUbeck , 1 9 8 3 .
I
Kehr , Pau l . Papsturkunden in Spanien . Vol . 2 , Navarra und
Arago n . Berlin , 1 9 2 8 .
Lacarra , Jo se Mar ia , ed . Documentos para e l e studio de la
recongu ista y repoblacion del val le del E bro . 2 vo ls .
Zarago z a , 1 9 8 2 - 8 5 .
Lema Pueyo , Jose Ange l , ed . Co lecc io n diplomat ic a de
Alfonso I de Aragon y Pamplona ( 1 1 0 4- 1 1 3 4 ) . san
sebastian , 1 9 9 0 .
Martin Duque , Angel J , ed . Documentac ion medieval de Leire
( siglo s IX-XI I ) . Parnplona , 1 9 8 3
, ed . " Doc umento s para e l estudio de l a numi smatic a
navarro -arago ne sa medieval . " Part 5 . P SANA 1 1 - 1 2
( 1958 ) : 95-123 .
---
Mateu Ibar s , Maria de lo s Do lores . " Re lacion crono logica de
docume nto s monetales desde 1 0 6 6 a 1 2 6 0 , de l Arc hivo de
la coro na de Aragon . " I n SNB I I , 2 0 5- 2 0 9 .
Me l lvil le , Char le s and Ahmad Ubaydli , eds . Chri stian and
Moors in Spain . Vol 3 . , Arabic Source s ( 7 1 1 - 1 5 0 1 ) .
Warminster , 1 9 9 2 .
Molho , Maur ic io , ed . E l Fuero de Jac a . Zarago za , 1 9 6 4 .
r-rorales Gome z , Juan Jo se and Manue l Jo se Pedraza Garcia,
eds . F uero s de Borja y Z argao z a . Zarago za , 1 9 8 6 .
Portuga liae r-ronumenta Historica : Diplomata et Chartae .
Lisbon , 1 8 6 7 .
Portugaliae Monumenta Historica : Lege s et consuetudines ,
vo l 1 . L iechtenstein , 1 9 6 7 .
Rius , Jo se p . " Cartes antigues de sant Marti saco sta . "
Analect a Sacra Tarraconensia 4 ( 1 9 2 8 ) : 3 4 3 - 9 4 .
Rosel l , Franc isco Migue l . Liber Feudorum Maior : cart ulario
real que se conserva en el arc hivo de la corona de
Arago n . 2 vo l s . Barcelona , 1 9 4 5 .
Rubio , Luis , ed . Los doc umento s de l Pi lar ( s iglo X I I ) .
Zarago z a , 1 9 7 1 .
Ubieto Arteta , Antonio . " Doc umento s para e l estudio de la
numismatic a navarro-argo ne sa medieval . " Part s 1- 4 .
P SANA 1 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 1 1 3 - 3 5 ; 2 ( 1 9 5 3 ) : 8 5 - 1 0 2 ; 5 ( 1 9 5 4 ) :
1 4 7 - 5 9 ; 6 ( 1 9 5 5 ) : 1 8 3- 8 9 .
530
a
. Jac a : Doc umento s municipale s , 9 7 1 - 1 2 6 9 . vale nc i a ,
1975 .
-------
Ubieto Art ur , Maria I s abe l . "Los morabedis ayadino s ,
circ ulac i6n y cambio e n e l reino de Ar agon segun l a
doc umentaci6n coetane a . " Numisma 3 4 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 2 0 9- 2 5 .
Udina Martore ll , Federico , ed . E l arc hive condal de
Barce lona en lo s siglos I X- X . Barcelona : Conce j o
superior e Investgac ione s , 1 9 5 1 .
Val l s Taberner , Ferran . Lo s usatge s de Barce lona : Est udi o s ,
comentarios y edici6n bilinqlie de l texto . Halaga ,
1984 .
I
I
Numi smatic Sources
The fo llowing are works that are predomi nant ly
numi smatic in nature .
I nc luded here are catalogue s , hoard
report s and st udie s whose pr imary conc er n is t he coins
themse lves .
works t hat make use o f numi smatic sources
while treating broader historical themes are inc luded under
the heading of secondary works .
General
Alvare z Burgos , Fernando , Vicente Ramon Benedito and
Vicente Ramon Perez . catalogo general de la moneda
medieval hi spano-cristiana desde el s iglo IX al XVI .
Hadrid , 1 9 8 0 .
Gil Far re s , Octavia . Historia de l a moneda espanola . 2d ed .
Hadrid , 1 9 7 6 .
Hei s s , Aloiss . De scripcion general de las monedas hispano ­
cri stianas desde la invas ion de los arabe s . Vo l . 1 .
Hadrid , 1 8 6 5 .
Hateu y L lopi s , Felipe . catalogo de ponderales monetario s
de l Huseo Argueologico Nacional . Hadr id , 1 9 3 4 .
---monetarios
. " Commentar ie s a mi ' Catalo go de lo s ponderales
del Museo Arqueo logico Nac ional ' ; Addenda
des pues de medio siglo . " GN 9 4- 9 5 ( 1 9 8 9 ) , 1 0 3 - 1 3 .
--- .
" Hallazgo s mo netarios . " P arts 1 - 6 . Ampurias :
Revista de Argueo logi a , Prehi storia y Etnologia 4
( 1 9 42 ) : 2 1 5- 2 4 ; 5 ( 1 94 3 ) : 22 1-2 3 8 ; 6 ( 1 9 44 ) : 2 1 5-3 7 ;
7 - 8 ( 1 94 5- 6 ) : 2 3 3- 7 6 ; 9- 1 0 ( 1 9 4 7 - 8 ) : 5 5- 9 5 ; 1 3 ( 1 9 5 1 ) :
2 0 3- 5 5 .
--- . " Hallaz go s mo netarios . " Par t s 7 -2 0 . NH 1 ( 1 9 5 2 ) :
2 2 5 - 6 4 ; 2 ( 1 9 5 3 ) : 9 1 - 1 0 5 , 2 7 5 - 3 0 2 ; 3 ( 1 9 5 4 ) : 9 9- 1 1 0 ,
2 4 9 ; 4 ( 1 9 55 ) : 1 1 9-4 6 , 3 1 5-2 8 ; 5 ( 1 9 56 ) : 2 8 1 -9 4 ; 7
( 1 9 5 8 ) : 6 7 - 7 8 , 1 7 3 - 9 1 ; 8 ( 1 9 5 9 ) : 1 5 1 - 6 4 ; 9 ( 1 9 60 ) :
17 9-97 ; 10 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 1 4 1 -6 1 ; 1 1 ( 1 96 7 ) : 45-7 4 .
(
--- . " Hallaz go s monetarios . " P arts 2 1 - 2 7 . Numisma 2 1
( 1 9 7 1 ) : 1 7 7- 2 0 8 ; 2 2 ( 1 9 7 2 ) : 1 2 7- 5 4 ; 2 5 ( 1 9 7 5 ) : 2 3 5 - 7 1 ;
2 7 ( 1 9 7 7 ) : 6 5- 8 8 ; 2 9 ( 1 9 7 9 ) : 1 2 1 - 4 7 ; 3 1 ( 1 98 1 ) : 8 9 1 3 6 ; 3 5- 3 6 ( 1 9 8 5 - 8 6 ) : 4 7 - 7 1 .
531
532
. " Hallazgos nurnismaticos musulmanes . " Parts 1 and
1 bis- 1 0 . Al-Andalus 1 2 ( 1 9 4 7 ) : 4 8 1 - 8 4 ; 1 4 ( 1 94 9 ) : 2 0 1 7 ; 1 5 ( 1 9 5 0 ) : 2 1 8- 2 6 , 4 8 6- 9 0 ; 1 6 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 2 0 5-2 1 0 , 4 8 0 82 ; 1 7 ( 1 9 5 2 ) : 4 4 2 - 4 4 ; 1 8 ( 1 9 5 3 ) : 1 9 9 -2 0 0 ; 1 9 ( 1 9 5 4 ) :
4 3 9- 4 6 ; 2 0 ( 1 9 5 5 ) : 4 5 4 - 5 5 ; 2 1 ( 1 9 5 6 ) : 1 9 1 - 9 2 .
---
Pedrals y Moline , Arturo , ed . cataloqo de la colec cion de
mo nedas y medal las de Manuel vidal ouadras y Ramon de
Barce lona . Vo l . 2 . Barcelona , 1 8 9 2 .
Leon-casti le
Lo s Arco s E l io , Jo se L ui s . " Una moneda atribuida a Fernando
I de Cast i l la . " I n I I exposic io n nacional de
nurni smatica e inter nacional de medal l as , 2 2 8 - 2 9 .
Madrid , 1 9 5 1 .
Balaguer , Anna M . "La Moneda de Oviedo : oro o ve llon ? " I n
Primera reunion hispano-portugues a , 6 1 - 6 . Aviles ,
1983 .
Beltran Martinez , Antonio . " Notas de arqueo logia y
nurni smatica almeriense . " In cronic a de l I co ngre so
nacional de argueologia y de l v congreso argueologico
del s udeste ( Almeria , 1 9 4 9 ) , 2 1 9 - 2 7 . Cart agena , 1 9 5 0 .
Be ltran Vi l l agrasa , Pio . " Dinero de ve llon de Fernando I e l
Magno , e n l a co lecc ion ' Los Arcos . · " I n Obra completa ,
5 8 5 - 6 0 5 . First publi s hed in P SANA 3 ( 1 9 52 ) : 9 7- 1 1 3 .
--- . " Do s tesorillo s de vel lones oc ulto s en la pr imera
epoc a de l re inado de Alfonso X . " Parts 1 and 2 .
Numisma 1 4 , no 6 8 . ( 1 9 6 4 ) : 5 5 - 7 9 ; no . 6 9 ( 1 9 6 4 ) : 7- 2 0 .
Reprinted in Obra completa , 6 4 6- 9 8 .
. " L a gran dobla de Fernando e l Santo : E st udio
numismatico . " In obra completa , 6 3 2 - 4 5 . First
published in Anuario de l cuerpo de archiveros ,
bibliotec ar io s y argue6 logos 2 ( 1 9 3 4 ) : 1 2 9 - 4 6 .
---
--- . " L a part ic i6n de los reinos de Alfonso VII segun
los doc umento s y las monedas que se conocen . " Numisma
1 1 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 9 - 2 6 Reprinted in Obra completa , 6 0 6- 3 1 .
Bouza Brey y Trillo , Fermi n . " E l tesori l lo medieval de
Pefiat urmi l . " Bo let.in de l Institute de E studio s
Ast ur iano s . 1 5 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 5 4 3 - 5 4 .
I
53 3
I
Caba llero Alcaraz , Juan . " Dinero s de Alfonso VI : Una
correc c io n de Heiss . " Numi sma 1 3 ( 1 9 6 3 ) : 9- 16
Campaner y Fuertes , Alvaro . " Restitucion a d . Alfonso , el
Batallador , rey de Arago n , de una mo neda con el titulo
Imperator . " Memorial Numi smat ico E s pafio l 2 ( 1 8 6 8 ) :
1 5 5- 62 .
. " sobre un dinero de Toledo ERA MCCIV ( 1 1 66 ) . " Revue
Numismatigue ( 1 86 4 ) : 1 4 1 .
---
Carter , Gi le s F . " Enriched silver coat ings on Some
Portuguese Dinheiros and c as t i l l ian Cornados . " In PMC
I I I , 55 5-65 .
Cepa de l val le , Enrique . " Ac ufiac ion de moneda en Ast urias
durante la edad media . " Numisma 3 4 ( 1 9 8 4 ) , 2 9 5 - 3 0 7 .
Co llante s Vida l , E staban . " Diner o s de ve llon de Fernando
I I I ( 1 2 3 0 - 1 2 5 2 ) . " AN 1 ( 1 9 7 1 ) : 1 2 9 - 3 8 .
--- . " I ntento de ordenacion de las ac ufiac ione s de
Alfonso VI I . " AN 2 ( 1 9 72 ) : 1 6 7 -2 1 4 .
--- . " Mo nedas de Alfonso VI I I y sus problemas . " AN 3
( 1 9 7 3 ) : 1 1 3- 3 6 .
--- . " Notas numismaticas : Hal lazgos de moneda medieval
en la provinc ia de Burgos . " B SAA 3 1 ( 1 9 6 5 ) : 1 4 5 - 4 8 .
" Notas sobre las ac ufiac io ne s de Alfonso x . " AN 6
( 1 976 ) : 14 1-66 .
--- . " Notas sobre un diner i l lo de
1 7 ( 1 9 7 0 ) : 1 5- 1 8 .
I
S anct i Iacobi . " GN
I
--- . "Los seisenes de sancho IV e n un tesorillo de
Me lgar de Fer name ntal . " AN 3 ( 19 7 3 ) : 1 3 7 - 4 0 .
--- . " Ve llones atribuidas a Alfonso I de Arago n . " GN 1 5
( 1 969 ) : 1 9 .
--- . "Variantes de dinero s con leyendas F REGIS y F REX
en los tesorillos de san salvador de Paramo y de
Valdunqui llo . " AN 4 ( 1 9 7 4 ) : 1 8 1 - 2 0 4 .
Crusafont i Sabater , Migue l . " Te sorillo de dineros ANFVS
REX /TOLLETA procedente de cordoba . Numi sma 3 3 ( 1 9 8 3 ) :
201-8 .
II
I
534
I
Domingo Fi guero la, Lui s . " Mo nedas con F RE X CASTELLE I ET
LEGION I S : Ac unadas por Fernando I I I ? No , por Fernando
IV. " GN 2 8 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 7- 1 6 .
. " Privi legios otorgados por Alfonso VI I I
re lacionados con las cec as del reino de Cast i l la y las
ac uiiaciones de la c ampana de las Nava s de Tolo s a . " AN
7 ( 1 9 77 ) : 20 3-22 1 .
---
--- . " Una moneda de urraca y Alfon so . " Numi sma 2 2
( 1 982 ) : 293-300 .
Fernande z Rodriguez , Lui s . " Mo nedas de Leo n y Castil la :
Acunaciones de Alfonso VI I . " B SAA 1 7 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 1 3 2 - 6 .
Garc ia Alvarez , Benj amin . "Los dineros de ve ll6n de Alfonso
I X con la cec a o. c:. so n de oviedo ? " Numisma 34 ( 1 9 8 4 ) :
29 1-94 .
Garc ia y Bel lido , Maria Paz . " Mo ldes procedentes de
Salamanc a para f undir maravedi s de Alfonso VI I I . "
Numisma ( 19 8 3 ) : 2 2 7 - 4 0 .
Garcia Rami la , I . casa de la moneda burgalesa . Hadr id ,
1956 .
Garc ia Retes , Elisa and Jo se I gnac io San Vicente Gon z a lez
de Aspur u . " Tesori llo numi smatico medieval de ot a z a
( actualmente aeropuerto de Vitoria-Foronda , Alava ) . "
E st udio s de argueo logia a lave sa 1 2 ( 1 9 8 5 ) : 3 7 9 - 4 0 4 .
Gi l Farres , oc tavio . " Unos ' di nero s ' de Alfonso el
Batal lador . " Bo leti n de l Museo Argueo l6gico Nac ional
( Madrid ) 2 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 1 5 9 - 6 6 .
Gi l
y
Flores , Manue l . "Marcas de taller 6 zeca de lo s
monedas hispano-crist iana s . " RABM 1 ( 1 8 9 7 ) : 3 7 9 - 9 6 .
Huidobro y Serna , Luciano . " Nuevo hall azgo de moneda s
francesas en el c ami no de santiago . " B IFG 9 ( 1 9 5 0 - 1 ) :
430 .
Inglada or s , L ui s . " Mo nedas ineditas de Alfo nso VI I de
Casti lla . " BSAA ( 1 9 4 8 ) : 1 2 9 - 3 1 .
Lecea y Garcia, Car lo s de . E studio hist6rico acerca l a
moneda de segovia desde lo s ce ltiberos hasta nue stras
dias . Segovia, 1 8 9 2
r
535
(
Mateu y Llopis , Fe li pe . " Dineros torne se s y castel lano s
hal lado s en sar abe ( Urdiain ) . " cuaderno s de etno logia
y etnografia de Navarra 5 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 2 9- 3 2 .
Metc alf , D . M. " A Parce l o f Coins of Alfonso VI of Leon
( 1 0 7 3 - 1 1 0 9 ) . " I n PMC I I I , 2 7 1 - 8 6 .
Monteverde , Jo se L ui s . " Notas numismatic as y u n hallazgo
arqueo logico en L ar a . " B IFG 9 ( 19 5 0 - 1 ) : 1 2 7 - 1 3 0 .
--- .
" Notas sobre algunas monedas no conocidas por
Hei ss . " Parts 1 - 2 . B IFG 8 ( 1 9 4 8 - 9 ) : 1 5 8 - 6 0 , 2 5 1 - 5 3 .
--- .
"Notic ias sobre co lecc ioni stas y co lecciones de
monedas de Burgos y s u provincia . " B IFG ( 1 9 4 4 ) : 3 4 5 52 .
--- .
" Un tesoril lo ric o en la via compo ste lana . " B IFG 9
( 1 9 5 0- 1 ) : 4 7- 9 .
r-1uro carvaj al , Jo se . " Mo nedas de santiago . " E scenas
contemporaneas , 2d ser . , 1 ( 1 8 8 3 ) : 2 1 3 -2 1 6 , 2 6 7- 2 7 0 .
de Navascues , Joaquin Mar i a . " Hallaz go s mo netarios e n la
catedral de Santiago de compostela . " NH 7 ( 1 9 5 8 ) : 1 9 5 97 .
Oro l Pernas , Antoni o . Acufiaciones de Alfonso IX . Madrid ,
1982 .
--- . "Aportac ion a la numismatica medieva l : Monedas
castellanas s in marc a de ceca . " Numisma 2 6 ( 1 9 7 6 ) :
2 5 7- 6 4 .
--- . " Dinero s salamanque ses de Fernando I I de Leon , " SNB
2 : 3 8 6- 8 7 .
--- .
" Do s notas de numi smat ic a medieval : La c ec a tres
punto s y nueva ac ufi.ac ion de Enrique IV . " AN 3 ( 1 9 7 3 ) .
--- . " I nterpretac io n hi storic a de l as ac ufiaci ones con
inf luencia hi spano- portug ue sa . " I n Primera reunion
hispano-portuques a , 2 9 - 3 3 . Avi le s , 1 9 8 3 .
--- .
"Las monedas medievale s castel lano - leone sas . "
Numisma 2 7 ( 1 9 7 7 ) : 9 1 - 1 1 3 .
--- . "Las monedas medievale s castel lano- leone sas :
Addenda . " Numisma 2 8 ( 1 9 7 8 ) : 4 1 5- 1 9 .
r
I
. " Notes for Fut ure St udie s on the Chrono logy of the
c astillian-Leonese coinage . " In PMC I I , 6 3 - 6 9 .
---
--- . " Notes for Fut ure studie s on the Hetro logy of the
c asti lian-Leo ne se Coinage . " I n PHC I I , 2 0 7- 1 0 .
" Numi smatic a gallega . " Numisma 3 0 ( 1 9 8 0 ) : 2 2 7- 42 .
" Ordenac io n cronol6gic a de las acufiac iones
c or ufiesas de Alfonso XI , " Numisma ( 1 9 7 2 ) : 3 5 1 - 6 0 .
Osaba y Ruiz de Erenchun , Basi lio . " Tres tesoril los
medioevale s : Briviesca , Mufio y Orde j on de Abaj o
( Burgos ) . " NH 3 ( 19 5 4 ) : 8 7- 9 7 .
Pedral s y Ho line , Arturo and Alvaro campaner y Fuertes .
" Nuevos de sc ubrime ntos en la numsmatic a es panola , "
Memorial Numi smatico Espafio l 3 ( 1 8 72 - 7 3 ) : 1 0 8- 1 6 .
( Pedr a l s y Ho line , Arturo and Alvaro campaner y Fuerte s ? ]
" Serie Caste llan a : <.Alfo nso I de Arago n , el
B at al lador ? " Hemorial Numi smatic a Espano l 4 : 2 2 -2 4 .
Pier so n , Alain . " Algunas o bservaciones sobre uno s ve llones
de Alfonso VI I I ( 1 1 5 8 - 1 2 1 4 ) . " GN 1 8 ( 1 9 7 0 ) : 2 3 -2 7 .
del Rivero , Casto Haria . segovia numi smatica : E studio
general de la cec a y mo nedas de segovia . segovia,
1928 .
Rueda Sabater , Mercede s . " Cronologia del vellon castellano :
un caso desconcertante . " In congre so de argueo logia
medieval espano la I I , 662- 7 0 . Hadr id , 1 9 8 7 .
. Primeras ac unac io ne s de Casti lla y Leon . sa lamanc a ,
1991 .
-----
Rueda sabater , Mercedes and christina Rueda Sabater , "La
mo neda medieval castel lana : Problematica y propuesta
de metodo de estudio . " I n congre so de argueo logia
medieval espano la I I I , 4 3 - 6 8 . oviedo , 1 9 8 9 .
Rueda Sabater , Hercedes and Inmacu lada saez Saiz .
" Hal lazgos medievale s de moneda c a stel lana y leone sa . "
Forthcoming .
Sainz Varona , Fe lix-Ange l and E lor za Guine a , Juan carlos .
" E l tesoril lo de la j uderia de Brivie sc a . " GN 7 9
( 1 985 ) : 47-66 .
537
'
Vives , Antonio . La moneda castel lana : Di sc ur sos leidos ante
la Real Academia de la Hi storia . Madr id , 19 0 1 .
outs ide Leon-castile
Allan , J . " Of f a ' s Imitation of an Arab dinar . " Numi smatic
c hronic le , 4th ser . , 1 4 ( 1 9 1 4 ) : 7 7- 8 9 .
Bal aguer , Anna M. De l manc us a l a dobla : or i par1es
d ' Hispania . Barcelona , 1 9 9 3 .
------ .
Las emis ione s tran sicionales arabe-musulmanas de
Hispani a . Barcelona , 1 9 7 6 .
------ .
" Primere s conc lusions de l ' e st udi de la moneda
c atalana comtal . " In SNB , 2 : 2 9 7- 3 2 7 .
------ .
" Troba l le s de moneda caro lingia a Catalunya . " GN
7 4 - 7 5 ( 1 9 8 4 ) : 1 4 3- 4 6 .
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I
Jame s J . Todesca
B . A . , Georgetown Univer sity
M . A . , Catho lic Univer sity of Amer ic a
What Touches All : co inage and Mo netary Po licy in Leo n­
Casti le to 1 2 3 0 .
Dissertation directed by Joseph F . O ' Cal laghan , Ph . D .
This work traces the growth of the use of mo ney in
kingdom of Leon-Castile from 7 1 1 to 1 2 3 0 and assesse s the
mo narc hy ' s role in providing t he realm with an ample and
acceptable c urrenc y .
Previous studies treating the ear ly
mo netary history of the kingdom have tended to be
predominantly numi smatic in their approach and are o ften
narrowly foc used on the coins of a particu lar reign .
The
present st udy , however , synthe size s the numi smatic and
di plomat ic source s within a broad chro no logic al co ntext .
In addit io n , it draws on an array of evidence from the
other Hi spanic C hr istian state s as wel l as from the Mu s l im
south, so as to place the mo netary po licy shaped by the
kings of Leo n-castile in the l arger co ntext of the
deve loping I berian eco nomy .
The work i s organized into four chrono logical part s .
Part one , surveys the ninth through e leventh centuries , a
period where it is not certain that the crown was ac tive ly
minting .
I
No netheles s , the sources from the period revea l
that the eco nomy was quickly growing rel iant on coin ,
I
obtained both from Latin E urope and Muslin Andalusia .
The
steady monetization that occ urred in the se centuries , laid
the fo undation for the royal coinage that began after 1 0 8 5 .
Part s two to four examine a " long twelfth centur y "
from roughly 1 0 8 5 to 1 2 3 0 .
Re sponding to the poor or non­
exi stent royal coinages before his reign , Alfo nso VI ( 1 0 6 5 1 1 0 9 ) initiated a large sc ale co inage struck i n a minimum
of three mints .
This mi nt network was bui lt upon by his
succes sors so that by 1 1 5 7 there were at least seven royal
mi nt s .
Under the divi sion o f the realm , from 1 1 5 7- 1 2 3 0 ,
mi nting o f the bil lon denarius was fur ther expanded and a
gold denomination mode led on the I s lamic dinar was
introduced in both Le6n and inde pe ndent castile .
By the
time the kingdoms were reunited in 1 2 3 0 , the crown had
ac hieved a stable , bi-metallic c urrency we ll before mo st
other part s of Latin E uro pe .
By a detai led examinat io n of
these events , this study f urthers our knowledge not j ust of
a medieval currency system bui lt on Latin and Is lamic
traditions but deepens our under standing of the stre ngth of
roya l government in Leon-casti le .
(
VITA
James Jo seph Todesca , the so n of Albert and Harian
Tode sc a , was born on February 8t h , 1 9 5 9 in Bo sto n
Hassac husett s .
After graduating from Catholic Hemor ial
High Sc hool in Boston in 1 9 7 6 , he atte nded Georgetown
Univer sity where he received the Bac he lor of Art s degree
Hi story in 1 9 8 0 .
in
He enrol led at the C at ho lic Univer sity of
Americ a in 1 9 8 2 and received his Haster of Art s in Hi story
in February of 1 9 8 5 .
In september of 1 9 8 5 , he entered Fordham university as
a doctoral student in hi story, under t he mentors hip of Dr .
Jo seph F . o · callaghan .
He was a Fulbr ight scholar in Spain
during the 1 9 8 9 - 9 0 academic year and was awarded the Van
Courtlandt E lliott Prize of the Medieval Academy of America
for hi s artic le , " The Mo netary History o f castile-Leon ( ca .
1 1 0 0 - 1 3 0 0 ) in Li ght of t he Bourgey Hoard , " which appeared
in 1 9 8 8 .
I