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

Descriptive Outline of the Coinages of Europe 495
plexion which, originally formed under the auspices of
Charles le Chauve, were united about 933 under Rodolph
and incorporated with the German Empire by Otho III.
II.,
a century later. The territory so annexed comprehended a
considerable portion of Switzerland, Franche-Comte, the
duchies of Chablais and the Genevois, the barony
of Faucigny,
the county of Maurienne, Macon, Chalon, Lyon,
Dauphiny, Aries, Forcalquier, Provence, and other provinces.
The duchy (primarily margraviat) of Burgundy, with which
we are more generally acquainted, was a parcel of the ancient
kingdom of Neustria, and was created in 877 by Charles le
Chauve in favour of his brother-in-law, Richard le Justicier.
It enjoyed a duration of almost exactly 600 years, and was
eventually and finally absorbed in 1477-78, after the death of
Charles le Temeraire, by France under Louis XI.
The Burgundian money of what we must term the regal
era was to a large extent of a baronial and episcopal stamp,
and down to the eleventh or twelfth century retained facial
testimony of the survival of German prestige. The instances
where a feudal coinage was authorised by the Kings of
France are found to be extremely few and unimportant ;
and so long as the balance of power remained on the side of
the house of Hohenstaufen, and the empire preserved its
cohesion, this portion of modern France, Switzerland, and
Savoy continued to be Teutonic in a political and proprietary
sense. It was the seigniorial spirit of autonomy which
slowly and surely undermined the central authority and
prepared the way for great
territorial and constitutional
changes.
Of the coinage of the later and independent duchy,
which from comparatively limited possessions at the outset
in the ninth century rose by virtue of manifold agencies to
an equality with first- class European Powers, and successively
acquired the sovereignty over Flanders and many of
the minor fiefs in the Low Countries and the north of
France, we have had occasion to speak in the Catalogues.
The French numismatists usually range the entire Burgundian
series under their own system ;
but this course does