Archaios | Medieval Italy LUCCA HENRY III Denar | CRUSADERS | Inv#63.21

__________________________________________

Obverse: Central Circle surrounding "H", IMPERATOR around.

Reverse: Central pellet with circle of text from mint L-U-C-A, and +ENRICVS around border. 

Mint: Lucca, Italy, Holy Roman Empire

Size: 14 mm

Weight: 1.0 g

Inventory:  63.21

Condition:  VF.  Really nice example for type. Well centered on both sides with clear strong legends. As always, Please Use the Picture as your judge as grading is subjective.  

Note:  

Henry III (28 October 1017 – 5 October 1056) was called the Black or the Pious and was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. He was the eldest son of Conrad II of Germany and Gisela of Swabia.  His father made him Duke of Bavaria (as Henry VI) in 1026, after the death of Duke Henry V.  On Easter Day 1028, after his father had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was elected and crowned King of Germany in the cathedral of Aachen by Pilgrim (archbishop of Cologne). After the death of Herman IV, Duke of Swabia in 1038, his father gave him that duchy, as well as the kingdom of Burgundy, which Conrad had inherited in 1033.

In 1036, Henry was married to Gunhilda of Denmark, the daughter of Canute the Great, King of Denmark, England, and Norway , by his wife Emma of Normandy.Upon the death of his father on 4 June 1039, he became sole ruler of the kingdom and was crowned emperor by Pope Clement II in Rome in 1046 . Gunhilda died of one of the many epidemics in 1038.  Henry was remarried n 1043 to Agnes, daughter of duke William V of Aquitaine and Agnes of Burgundy. 

Henry IV (German: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) became King of the Germans in 1056.   From 1084 he was also referred to as the King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperor. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century. His reign was marked by the Investiture Controversy with the Papacy, and he was excommunicated five times by three different popes. Civil wars over his throne took place in both Italy and Germany. He died of illness, soon after defeating his son's army near Visé, in Lorraine, France.

Lucca was a medieval town in Tuscany region of Italy.  Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of an earlier Ligurian settlement in the 3rd century BC called Luk meaning marsh in which the name Lucca originated) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC.  The rectangular grid of its historical centre preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre may still be seen.

The currency of Lucca was highly valued in Europe as a means of exchanges and trade. The Crusaders relied on Lucca’s coins to pay for whatever services they required (equipment, food, logistics, transportation, ransoms, fees, soldiers salaries, rights of passage etc.). The privilege to mint (il privilegio della Zecca) was confirmed by Frederick Barbarossa and by Frederick II Hohenstaufen, and also by the Popes. When Pisa tried to counterfeit Lucca’s coins the Pope issued a terrifying "anathema" against the Pisani and brought them to order. The "mint" privilege was given to Lucca for the reliability of the people and for the "security" of the walls, and the "mint" was the foundation of the "money culture" that eventually resulted in Lucca being the city of some of the most powerful financial and merchant bankers of the 11th, thru 14th century . Trading with the whole of Europe (buying wool from England, fish from France, silver and gold from Spain, selling silk, wool fabric, steel artefacts like swords and cutlery) through the centuries allowed the merchants of Lucca to gather considerable fortunes and the need to invest the money they accumulated. This brought them inevitably brought them into the field of money lending and, eventually, merchant banking and financial banking with the most powerful Royal families of Europe. - (Excerpts From Lorenzo Matteoli)