The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

46 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
Let us recollect the situation of Henry, political and
personal, at the time this " Duke's money " was struck. In
that same year, 1149, he had become Duke of Normandy.
It was an intermediate and somewhat ambiguous position,
that of his, when he was only Duke and not King. His
mother, the Empress, had not as yet withdrawn in his
favour her own claims to the crown ; though by quitting
England finally
in 1147 she had withdrawn from all
personal assertion of them. I ask, is it not likely that
any money struck by Duke Henry in such a juncture will
be found to bear on the very face of it some tokens of his
peculiar position ? He could not call himself King ; more
than an affront to Stephen, it would have been a slight
upon Maude ;
he would hardly style himself DVX instead
of REX, that would have been at least impolitic. The
crown, though the subject of contest, was on Stephen's
head, and the contesting parties were nicely balanced ;
he was a Duke indeed, but he was Duke of Normandy,
and the sound of that title in the ears of English soldiery
would have been like the crack of a whip. As " pieces of
necessity " what more likely than that the Duke's money is
bare of all titles ? Recalling, then, Henry's personal situa-
tion only, there is something to be said in favour of this
view, with which, too, the very appearance of the defaced
regal money is consistent. But recollecting also the critical
condition of the times and the exhausted state of the king-
dom, what Henry really wanted must have been read//
money money readily produced ; and to answer his
purpose, could anything be produced more readily than
" "
this ? Hough and ready was the mode then as regards
the money and a great deal more than the money. To
use a common expression, the object of his opponents was
to " stamp out " Stephen, and on these coins it was done.