W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

Descriptive Outline of the Coinages of E^^,rope 489
Laon
Autun
Noyon
Cambrai
Apt
Metz
Avignon
Saint - Paul - Trois
Chateaux
Valence and Die
Gap
Toul
Amiens
Lodeve
Viviers
St. Martin de Tours
Javouls )
Bergues St. Winoc Gorze
Mende j
St. Andre de Clermont
Albi
Cahors
St. Martial
Benedictine Abbey of
Abbeys
Massay
Cluny
Corbie
Tournus
Saint - Medard de
Soissons
St. Etienne de Dijon
Priory
St. Oyen de Joux or Souvigny-le-Vieux
St. Claude
St. Florent de Saumur Monastery
Over a community so distributed and so organised,
independently of the towns, where a certain share of municipal
freedom gradually prevailed, the Kings of France
claimed and exerted an authority fettered not by constitutional
but by customary limitations, which were jealously
guarded and often successfully enforced. In the main, so
the Crown and its more
long as internal affairs were tranquil,
or less immediate dependents maintained an amicable
understanding, however and the restrictions and burdens
;
were chiefly reserved for the bourgeoisie and allodial tenants
or tillers of the soil ;
and among other interests in common
the aristocracy enjoyed undisturbed possession of the honour
and emolument arising from the universal title to strike
money. The schedule, which is found above, shews that,
whether temporal or spiritual peer, whether duke, seigneur,
or chdtelain, prelate, prior, or abbot, the same indulgence or
and even assisted in
concession belonged to the position,
supporting The it. profits of the local mints entered into
the annual accounts ;
the freer the alloy compatibly with the
maintenance of a nominal standard, the higher, of course,
was the scale of advantage and the sole condition
;
imposed
by the regal authorities appears to have been that the types
should not be a direct counterpart of those employed by the
king.
In studying this or any other similarly extensive series, we