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Cover -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Note on Values -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- The Dark Age of Currency? -- The Dark Age of Money? -- The Meanings of Money -- Situating Early Medieval Money -- Investigating Early Medieval Money -- Sources and Approaches -- Part I -- Chapter 2. Bullion, Mining, and Minting -- Tracing the Origins of Gold and Silver -- Bullion, Profits, and Power -- Circulation of Bullion: Dynamics -- Imports of Bullion: Three Case Studies -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3. Why Make Money? -- How to Make Coined Money -- How Large Was the Early Medieval Currency? -- Why Were Early Medieval Coins Made? -- Fiscal Minting -- Impermeable Borders -- Renovatio Monetae -- Private Demand -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4. Using Coined Money -- Money and Gift-Giving -- Making a Statement: Money, Status, and Ritual -- Giving God, King, and Lord Their Due -- Monetary Obligations -- Credit -- Fines and Compensation -- Getting Whatever You Want: Money and Commerce -- Markets and Prices -- Elites and Coined Money -- Peasants and Coined Money -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5. Money, Metal, and Commodities -- Money and Means of Exchange -- Coin and Bullion: Categories or Continuum? -- The Social Dynamics of Mixed Moneys -- Case Study 1: Northern Spain -- Case Study 2: The Viking World -- Case Study 3: Tang and Song China -- Conclusion -- Part II -- Chapter 6. The Roman Legacy -- Later Roman Coinage: An Age of Gold -- "Money, the Cause and Source of Power and Problems" -- Currencies of Inequality -- "Caesar Seeks His Image on Your Gold": Gold and the State -- State and Private Demands in Dialogue -- Conclusion -- Chapter 7. Continuity and Change in the Fifth to Seventh Centuries -- Getting By in a Time of Scarcity: Low-Value Coinage -- Gold, Taxes, and Barbarian Settlement in the West in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries.

"This volume is about ways of studying medieval money, and especially the most direct manifestation of money: coinage. It is intended to introduce readers to a range of approaches to a subject that has traditionally been seen as somewhat specialized; a domain of highly technical study which often seems to sit at some remove from the mainstream of historical and archaeological research. One important aim of the chapters offered here is to show ways in which money can be incorporated into analysis of the Middle Ages more broadly"--

"This volume consists of over twenty new essays written by friends, colleagues and pupils of Dr Mark Blackburn, Keeper of Coins and Medals at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Reader in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, who died on 1 September 2011. As well as a fitting tribute to a remarkable scholar, the collection constitutes a major body of research which will be of long-term value to scholars with an interest in the history of early medieval Europe"--

"This groundbreaking study of coinage in early medieval England is the first to take account of the very significant additions to the corpus of southern English coins discovered in recent years and to situate this evidence within the wider historical context of Anglo-Saxon England and its continental neighbours. Its nine chapters integrate historical and numismatic research to explore who made early medieval coinage, who used it and why. The currency emerges as a significant resource accessible across society and, through analysis of its production, circulation and use, the author shows that control over coinage could be a major asset. This control was guided as much by ideology as by economics and embraced several levels of power, from kings down to individual craftsmen. Thematic in approach, this innovative book offers an engaging, wide-ranging account of Anglo-Saxon coinage as a unique and revealing gauge for the interaction of society, economy and government"--

The early medieval gilds of northwest Europe were very different from their later medieval descendants. They were not specifically urban or economic in focus, instead being based on religious devotion, feasting and mutual protection, usually among members united by status and geography. Treatment of gilds differed sharply between the two main representatives of the tradition in the region: the Carolingian Empire and Anglo-Saxon England. In the former, gilds were vilified as coniurationes, spontaneous oath-bound associations, which rulers feared might undermine their authority and that of the hierarchy they represented. But in the latter gilds flourished, especially in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when England produced the first gild statutes of medieval Europe. This contribution examines these two traditions, and the reasons for the break between them. Emphasis is placed on differing visions of governmentality, participation and hierarchy. The Carolingian ruling establishment broached no meaningful governmental or legal action by autonomous associations, and actively suppressed (or, at best, defused) gild action. In England, however, gilds fitted into a more diverse ecology of legal and administrative authority, gaining prominence as vehicles for the collective representation of a new yet important cohort of small landowners or thegns.

A body of nearly 2,000 English finds of individual coins mintedc. 973–1100 is surveyed as evidence for the scale and form of the monetary economy. A long‐term view indicates that this was a period of expansion in coin use, although growth in this area remained limited compared to the later middle ages, or even the eighth century. Within the eleventh century single‐finds suggest more specific developments, including a decline in coin use after the Norman Conquest, and substantial short‐term fluctuations related to various economic and monetary factors. Comparison with estimates of coin production suggests a general trend for more of mints' output to enter domestic circulation afterc. 1030/40, though this need not solely reflect an increase in monetization. These chronological changes are compared with the pattern of circulation within England. Overall, the kingdom enjoyed a unified currency which did not see marked localization of coin circulation. Parts of northern England were less integrated with the south, but not so far as to suggest active exclusion of non‐local coin. More striking was a general trend for both production and circulation to be concentrated in the east and the south.

England between the early 970s and 1066 had a remarkable monetary system, consisting of silver pennies of standardised type which were reminted frequently. Each penny carried the name of the individual responsible for its manufacture, and identified where he was based. This formidable currency came about thanks to unique conditions in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. An initial reform by Edgar was followed by a rapid sequence of recoinages under his son Æthelred II, which constituted one means of asserting morally responsible governance in the face of perceived divine displeasure. It follows that the chronology and motivation behind the coinage need to be seen as products of central, courtly developments. Actual minting, however, was a matter of individual moneyers dealing with individual customers. Here, it is argued that moneyers and mint-places need to be seen as part of the wider landscape of formal and informal social power, and that production of coin generally came about through networks of lordship and authority. Integration of the moneyers (typically drawn from the lower elite) across England into centrally controlled mechanisms such as the coinage was one of the underpinning strengths of the late Anglo-Saxon kingdom, linking different forms of power and giving a large swathe of the political community a stake in the realm's institutions.

Peter's Pence began as an annual donation from England to the papacy. It was later taken up more widely and lasted until the Reformation in England, but its beginnings are much murkier. This article reassesses the earliest forms of Peter's Pence in the period before 1066. Offerings made by individual Anglo-Saxon pilgrims to Rome gave rise to more regular gifts from several kings between Offa (757–96) and Alfred (871–99); under the latter, gifts also began to be associated with the people as well as the king. A fully articulated mechanism for raising Peter's Pence only emerges later, however, in the time of Edgar (959–75) and his successors, especially Æthelred II (978–1016). The nature of the national and local frameworks which were used to extract, channel and safeguard the render are assessed in detail, based on sources from across England. Bishops played a central role in this system, above all the archbishop of Canterbury, who received the collected tribute from the kingdom as a whole. The article, utilising a variety of chronicles, law codes and religious texts, as well as coins, stresses the significance of the emergence of Peter's Pence for views of late Anglo-Saxon England's government and religious ideology. Comparisons with gifts to Rome from post-Conquest England and from other parts of early medieval Europe underscore the uniqueness of Anglo-Saxon England's large and regular offering—a powerful reflection of its close and ongoing relationship with St Peter and his heirs.

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Figures -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Medieval battles, model and myth -- Chapter 1: 'What is this Castle call'd that stands hard by?: 'The naming of battles in the Middle Ages -- Chapter 2: Battle-writing and commemoration: The transition from conflict to peace -- Chapter 3: 'Undying glory by the sword's edge': Writing and remembering battle in Anglo-Saxon England -- Chapter 4: Fortress London: War and the making of an Anglo-Saxon city -- Chapter 5: 'Axe-age, sword-age: 'Writing battles in Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia -- Chapter 6: Medieval Irish battle narratives and the construction of the past -- Chapter 7: Which 'pagans'?: The influence of the crusades on battle narratives in Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia -- Chapter 8: Writing a battle: The case of Stamford Bridge (1066) -- Chapter 9: Shooting arrows: Cinematic representations of medieval battles -- Chapter 10: A troubled memory: Battles of the First World War -- Afterword: The companionship of battle-writers -- Bibliography -- Index.