The Anniversary of The Battle of Hastings

Aethelred

Today (14 October) was the anniversary of The Battle of Hastings, when in 1066 William of Normandy defeated Harold II of England.

To celebrate (or if you are not a fan of William and the Normans you may inset the word "mark") this event please post a photo of a William the Conqueror coin.

Vive le roi William!

ProofArtworkonCircs

I never expected an "Aethelred" to be a fan of the Conqueopr.

Swampboy

RobP

[/URL]">William I sword type penny of Dorchester

RobP

Try again.


Forget it.

Nap

Rob, here is your image:

Nap

Very nice penny of the conquerer

I always liked the 'sword' type better than the 'peace' (PAX) type... what does that say about me?!

I don't own any coins of Harold II or William I but hope to one day add coins of both of them to my collection.

EVillageProwler

RobP: nice coin!

I have no William I coin, but do have one of Harold II.

True story: a few years ago at Baltimore, I ran into a guy who told me his wife is a descendant of William the Conqueror.

lordmarcovan

Awesome coins.

The only Norman coin I've had was a Stephen penny. (Which ended up with the author of this thread.)

Aethelred

Originally posted by: lordmarcovan Awesome coins.

The only Norman coin I've had was a Stephen penny. (Which ended up with the author of this thread.)

That is one of the few coins i've sold that I really miss.

asheland

Hussulo

Lovely coins Rob and EVillageProwler

Aethelred

Originally posted by: ProofArtworkonCircs
I never expected an "Aethelred" to be a fan of the Conqueopr.

I had Anglo-Saxon ancestors too.

ajaan

Pudding.

asheland

11:11

RobP

Seeing as he doesn't like them so much, here is a PAXS penny for Nap. GODESBRAND ON BA(TH). Originally given to Barnstaple, this was clearly not right as it was only ever a one moneyer mint and that was Seword during the PAXS period. It was given to Bath on account of its proximity to Malmesbury and Shaftesbury, both of which have coins of the period struck by GOD(E)SBRAND, who was presumably one and the same.

I find the new layout hard work. A few days to find the cunningly hidden login page at the left hand side leading me to join for a second time, yet the logout is where is always was - on the top right in continuous view. Trying to reply or quote requires a message title which to my mind is somewhat obviously the topic to which you are trying to reply to. Why do you have to give a new title to an existing thread?

Hopefully this quick reply will allow you add an image, but I'm not holding my breath.

OK, so it does add the image after a bit of modification, but where have the paragraphs gone? Sorry, I don't have a PhD in posting messages.

lordmarcovan

Neat coins.



As to meeting a descendant of Billy the Conk, that's probably not too rare, actually. Considering the exponential increase in one's ancestors, with the number of them doubling with each generation the farther back you go, and the much, much smaller population sizes in medieval times, it would perhaps not be terribly surprising if a few of us in this English speaking discussion also happened to be descendants. Think of how many generations removed we are from 1066.



Ever look at a graph of world population over the last 2,000 years or so? It is pretty amazing. The climb in the last century or two makes the line almost vertical, despite the 1918 influenza pandemic and two world wars! On the one hand, it is the stunning success story of our species. On the other hand, it is a bit scary and sobering, when you consider how unsustainable that kind of population explosion can be.



Now, if somebody were a documented descendant of the Conqueror, yes, that's pretty interesting. But who knows how many of us are undocumented descendants- either of him, or Charlemagne, or Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, or Cleopatra, for that matter. Take your pick of historical figures. As long as they had issue (i.e., offspring), those ancient and medieval celebrities all have untold thousands of descendants running around today, yakking on cellphones, eating at McDonald's, and chatting on Internet forums.

ProofArtworkonCircs

I would guess that most of England is descended from William the Conqueror and most of Europe, including England, from Charlemagne.

harasha

And 1 in 200 men are descended from Genghis Khan. I would post a coin from the Yuan dynasty in China, but I do not think I own one.

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: harasha

And 1 in 200 men are descended from Genghis Khan. I would post a coin from the Yuan dynasty in China, but I do not think I own one.

Yes, Genghis Khan was, I believe, one of the most prolific biological fathers in history, courtesy of his many conquests (in both senses of the word).



NPR and WNYC's Radiolab show had a truly fascinating episode on that, and I heartily recommend their free podcast series in general and that episode in particular. When Radiolab tackles historical or archaeological topics, I find myself totally under their spell. When they described how modern genetic researchers accidentally found the trail of the Khan's conquests over central Asia and into Europe by sampling the DNA mutations in the present-day population and tracking the heritage to one common ancestor, then figuring out who that one man was by looking at the geographical maps, it was real gee-whiz stuff.

Nap

Originally posted by: RobP




Seeing as he doesn't like them so much, here is a PAXS penny for Nap. GODESBRAND ON BA(TH). Originally given to Barnstaple, this was clearly not right as it was only ever a one moneyer mint and that was Seword during the PAXS period. It was given to Bath on account of its proximity to Malmesbury and Shaftesbury, both of which have coins of the period struck by GOD(E)SBRAND, who was presumably one and the same.

Very nice PAXS penny, without the central weakness that's frequently seen on this issue. I suppose I could force myself to like a coin like that.

ProofArtworkonCircs

Perhaps of interest to lordmarcovan:
President John Adams's wife, and mother of John Quincy Adams, had three descents from English king Edward III.
King Edward III was descended from William the Conqueror in 4 lines. William's queen was a descendant of Charlemagne.
So any descendant of John Adams has at least 12 lines from the Conqueror and Charlemagne and probably many, many more.

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: ProofArtworkonCircs

Perhaps of interest to lordmarcovan:

President John Adams's wife, and mother of John Quincy Adams, had three descents from English king Edward III.

King Edward III was descended from William the Conqueror in 4 lines. William's queen was a descendant of Charlemagne.

So any descendant of John Adams has at least 12 lines from the Conqueror and Charlemagne and probably many, many more.

Considering I'm supposedly an Adams descendant through my maternal line, yes, that IS interesting! Thanks!



So now it seems I can claim British royalty, too. Too bad I didn't know that when I was over there two years ago. I could've ordered people around in Heathrow or maybe gotten a less exorbitant hotel rate!



See? As I predicted, one or more of us have a link to Billy the Conk.



Somehow I never expected it would be me, though.



Kneel, commoners!

ProofArtworkonCircs

Further checking shows that William the Conqueror was a descendant of Charlemagne.
His wife was descended in at least 8 lines. Thus your 12 lines to William the Conqueror yields 108 lines to Charlemagne.

Zohar

Very informative thread!

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: EVillageProwler

RobP: nice coin!



I have no William I coin, but do have one of Harold II.



True story: a few years ago at Baltimore, I ran into a guy who told me his wife is a descendant of William the Conqueror.

Forgot to mention that I found EVP's Harold II penny interesting for several reasons. Most are the usual: eye appeal and historical interest.



But another is the earthen deposits that remain in some of the protected crevices of the coin's surface. I became very familiar with that look when my colleagues and I were reviewing our finds back at the barn after each evening during my weeklong detecting expedition to Essex two years ago. That's a dug coin, beyond any doubt. This shouldn't be all that surprising, but the mostly uncleaned state of the coin now is, a bit. The dirt is rather appealing to me, for that reason.



Even if my eyes are deceiving me and that's toning rather than earthen deposits, I still say that has the classic look of a dug piece of hammered silver, and I think that's neat.

EVillageProwler

It's been a while since I looked at my con in detail, but I don't recall seeing any deposits. I'll take another look when I am able.

lordmarcovan

Even if those aren't actual deposits and turn out to be toning, I wouldn't be surprised if the toning resulted where such deposits used to be.



I for one don't object to that look at all, as it has fond associations from my detecting adventure, as mentioned.



(One can never forget the forum friends who helped make that happen. Without that unsolicited outpouring of generosity, it would still be a dream instead of a memory.)