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Auction: 25021 - The Simpson Collection of Hiberno-Norse and Irish Coinage
Lot: 323

Stephen of Blois (1135-1154), Profile/Cross and Piles Penny, c. 1150-1154, Dunwich, Thorsteinn, confiscated as Crown Estate, + STIE[FNE R]E• crowned and draped bust left, holding fleur-tipped sceptre before, rev. + [TVR]STEIN : ON : DV : short cross fleury, trilobe-tipped voided piles in angles, [21.9grns], 10h (Allen [2012], p. 109; Baldwin 52, 25 September 2007, lot 260 same dies; Mack -; SCBI 54, 1343 same dies; North 879; BMC -; S.1081), light metal stressing, on a concave, square-cut flan, with distinctive 'Wicklewood' toning and typical undulating depth of strike, about very fine, OF THE HIGHEST RARITY, with a tiny numismatic record for 'Britain's Atlantis' all from the reign of King Stephen

Provenance

The John Noel Simpson Collection of English, Irish and Hiberno-Norse Coins

M Trenerry, by private treaty with T Webb Ware [with his pencil ticket]

Christie's, 15 May 1990, lot 99 - "obverse weak, reverse with flan cracks/flaws, but mostly legible, fine and rare" - £210 [Trenerry]

Wicklewood Hoard (Norfolk), April 1989



A sizeable scatter of 12th Century coins were found by metal-detectorists Mervyn Bone and Russell Chamberlin in a three metre area of a sandy clay ditch on the land of Mr Alan Goodings of Green Farm near Wicklewood, Norfolk (NHER 25269) in April 1989. The diligent and timely reporting of their find enabled further targeted investigation and excavation by Andrew Rogerson of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit whereupon further cut halfpennies and farthings were recovered alongside a trace of prehistoric pottery and Roman samian ware. At a Coroner's Inquest on 23 October 1989, the trove of 482 coins dating from the reign of Henry Beauclerc, King Stephen and culminating in the Tealby issues of c. 1168 [Class D] were declared treasure, enabling the British Museum first refusal of 158 coins; and the rest to head to auction with Christie, Manson and Wood the following Spring.



As noted in that sale catalogue: "The absence of class E need not be significant since they are scarcer that their predecessors and the local mint of Norwich - so abnormally heavily represented in this hoard - closed at the end of type D and did not reopen until 1180. Thetford, the only other mint in Norfolk by this time, also remained shut for the duration of Class E. The hoard therefore could easily have been deposited a few years after 1168. In the case of Wicklewood, it is perhaps significant that in 1173-174, East Anglia was one of the principal theatres of war in a serious rebellion against Henry II. Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, took the side of the King's sons against their father and with his army of Flemish mercenaries captured Norwich. Before the end of 1174, the rebellion had collapsed leaving considerable devastation in those areas through which rival armies had passed. With its heavy local bias, the Wicklewood hoard seems clearly to represent the savings over a period of twenty-five years or more of some person or institution based in Norwich or its environs.



According to Historia Ecclesiastica written by the Venerable Bede, a settlement existed at Dunmoc (identified with the later Medieval coastal settlement) by the early 7th Century, when King Sigebert made it his capital. At this time, he also appointed Felix of Burgundy a See at Dunmoc, further cementing the significance of the town in the fledgling Christian traditions of East Anglia.



After the Norman Conquest, the Lord of Dunwich is ascribed to a new Norman overlord, and the population to some 3,000 souls. William Malet de Graville is recorded as a High Sheriff of Yorkshire in AD 1068, but was also attributed in the apocryphal tales of contemporary chroniclers as having personally seized the body of Harold Godwinesson from the field of battle at Hastings. However within a generation of Domesday, and coinciding with the accession of Henry Beauclerc, the town was subject to Royal confiscation in AD 1101, siphoning subsequent rental income to enter the Crown's coffers directly.



Until the early 13th Century, Dunwich’s economy and population boomed through the development of the marine fishing industry in the North Sea. Mysteriously, the only coins attributable to a mint at Dunwich were those struck in the reign of Stephen, and all within a solitary decade c. 1145-1155 (BMC types II, VI and VII). EMC lists a total of fourteen coins, of which five are cut fractions. Of those nine pennies, two are classified under "Type II", six are "Type VI", of which seven further coins (including the present specimen were added by the Wicklewood trove) and finally two specimens of "Type VII". For many years numismatists had accepted the notion that 'ON DVN' signed-coins were merely the product of the Durham mint. However the East Anglian make-up of the Wicklewood hoard satisfactorily re-established the importance of this Medieval civic centre in the numism-archaeological record, and as will be seen in the following accounts, provides an evocative context to the years in which this very coin was struck.



The Martyrdom of William of Norwich (22 March 1144)



The 12th Century is amongst the bloodiest periods in England's history, from the 'Anarchy' of King Stephen, to Bigod's revolt and the anti-semitic riots across York and East Anglia in 1190; there is much lamentable documentation of civil unrest and internecine conflict throughout the Kingdom. One of the more infamous episodes of anti-Jewish hysteria occurred at Easter 1144 when the horrifying discovery of the mutilated body of a twelve-year old tanner's boy was made on Mousehold heath, north of the city of Norwich. Shaven, gagged and 'stabbed with countless thornpoints as to be afixed to a cross in mockery of the Lord's Passion', rumour soon spread about the likely culprits for this most heinous murder. Seized upon by contemporary chronicler Thomas of Monmouth, a Benedictine Monk and member of Norwich's Cathedral Priory, the following "facts" were quickly established.



Born on 2 February 1132, William was apprenticed to a local skinner and tanning agent, from where he would go on to meet much of the local Jewish community in the course of his work. On Holy Tuesday, his mother was approached by a man claiming to work for the Archdeacon of Norwich. William was offered a job working in the Archdeacon's kitchen but subsequently disappeared. His body was found on Holy Saturday in Thorpe Wood, north of the city. It was seen by a forester, Henry de Sprowston, who happened across his jacket and shoes. The forester noted that the boy had been gagged and the body showed signs of extreme violence. It was elected to bury the remains in unconsecrated ground on Easter Monday, whereupon funerary attendees recognised William. The body was then re-buried at the site of the murder. The following day, members of William's family, including a local priest, confirmed him as the victim. He was then re-buried for a second time following a Requiem Mass.



William's family swiftly blamed the local Jewish community and demanded justice from the ecclesiastical court. Members were summoned by the Bishop to attend court and submit to trial by ordeal, but the local Norman Sheriff, John de Chesney, advised them that the ecclesiastical court had no jurisdiction over them, as the accused were not Christians.



de Chesney then offered protection to the Jewish community in Norwich Castle. After the situation had calmed down, they returned to their homes. The issue was revived two years later, when a member of the Jewish community was murdered in an unrelated incident. King Stephen agreed to look into the matter, but later decided not to pursue it.



Meanwhile, William's body had been moved to the Monastic cemetery. The local clergy attempted to create a cult around the boy as a Christian martyr, but this plan did not succeed. There was no evidence in the initial accusations against local Jews that the murder was related to religious activity of any kind, but as the cult developed, so did a story of how and why William was killed. Monmouth's account is attributed to the testimony of a monk and former Jew named Theobald of Cambridge. Theobald alleged that the murder was a human sacrifice and that the "ancient writings of his fathers" required the yearly killing of a Christian on Good Friday.



With the fateful line, 'who will rid me of this turbulent priest' still echoing the land, and a repentant King severely weakened in the eyes of his barons, his Queen Consort and even his sons seized their opportunity in April 1173. Henry, the Young King, bolstered by his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, brothers Richard (the Lionheart) and John ("Lacklands") as well as, David, Earl of Huntingdon, legendary knight William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. Conflict began with the invasion of Normandy from the east by their ally the King of France, and from the west by the Bretons. Simultaneously, William the Lion, King of the Scots invaded England. All attacks were repulsed and negotiations between Henry and his disgruntled family began soon after.



Without amicable resolution, the Earl of Leicester initiated the next act, as he accompanied Flemish mercenaries across the channel to join up with Hugh Bigod in East Anglia. Battle lines were drawn between the rebels and the King's forces in Suffolk on 17 October 1173. Some 3,000 mercenaries faced at least 300 loyal knights, including, surprisingly Bigod's own son, Roger. In fording the river Lark at Fornham St Genevieve, the rebel lines fractured and many were put to the sword., leading the King's barons to reputedly quip: "Tis a bad year for your enemies". It is almost certain that the geo-political upheaval in the region led to the deposition of the Wicklewood hoard, and with it this very coin.



But what of Dunwich? A town of such prominence in Medieval England, yet one that appears to have all but disappeared from the historical record. Cue a series of natural disasters that quite literally swept this citadel into the sea! Between January 1286 and January 1362, a succession of inland floods and storm surges obliterated the coastal town, removing all eight churches and most of the Franciscan Priory and Leper Hospital. By the mid-19th Century, the town had dwindled to a mere 237 inhabitants. Given its previous status, it retained the right to send two members to Parliament until 1832, with that frequently abused as one of Britain's infamous 'rotten boroughs' of Blackadder fame. In modern parlance, Dunwich has come to be recognised in archaeological circles as 'Britain's Atlantis', an important medieval time capsule part-buried in sand dunes, part washed into the North sea, and part still-standing but ever more eroded by climate change and time. What Roxburgh symbolised for Medieval Scotland, Dunwich certainly resembled for the English. It is a rare opportunity indeed to have the opportunity to obtained such a charged and significant relic from Medieval England.


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Sold for
£950

Starting price
£500