B E Z 



360 



B E Z 



of Malmosbury My* expressly. ' Constantmopolis primum 



Byzantium dicta. Formani antiijui rocabuli pnoferunt ini- 



peratorii nummi Bizanlini vocati.' (Script, pott Bul-im. 



s.iville, fol. 76 b.) This coin was called Byzant, Be- 



Bvzantus, Byzantius. Byzantinus, Byzanteus, and 



Hixantius; and from tin; ninth to the fourteenth century 



was the chief gold coin in currency through Europe. 



The Moors of Spain stamped also a gold coin called By- 

 zantius Massarautinus. There was likewise- the Byznntius 

 Saraccnatus, or Saracenicus, struck by the sultans of Ico- 

 nium in Lesser Asia ; and Byzantii Melecbini, so called 

 from being coined at Malines in Flanders. 



These Bezants were not always of the same weight, fine- 

 ness, or value, since we find them described as aurei By- 

 zantii ; iiurei boni Byzuntii ; and uuri optimi Byzaiitti. 

 Ducange quotes this last expression from a charter of the 

 year 915. (Amid Ughellum, torn. i. pp. 853, 960.) 



Bysantii aloi, sett argenlei, white or silver Bezants, also 

 occur in the Constitutiones Odonis If gat i Apost. in Cypro, 

 an. l - 248. Ducange quotes a charter of 1399, which speaks 

 of white Bezants of Cyprus. They likewise occur in a 

 bull of Pope Gregory 'IX. (Apud Ughellum, torn. viL 

 p. 60.) 



The Moorish Bezants arc sometimes called in old writers 

 Marabotini, or Maurabotini. They are mentioned by this 

 name in Matthew Paris, A.D. 1176. (Hist. Major, edit. 

 1634, p. 110.) Sec also Ralph de Diceto under the year 

 1177. (Script, x. Twysd. col. 598.) From Ducange we 

 learn that ' Morabotini boni Alfonsini, auri fini et ponderis 

 recti,' frequently occur in Aragonese charters towards the 

 close of the thirteenth century. 



Camden, in his Remains concerning Britain (edit. 8vo. 

 Loud. 1674, p. 235), noticing the coined and other money in 

 use among our Saxon ancestors, says, 'Gold they had also, 

 which was not of their own coin, but outlandish, which they 

 called in Latin Bizantini, as coined at Constantinople 

 sometimes caUed Bizantium, and not at Besancon in Bur- 

 gundy. This coin is not now known, but Dunstan, arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury (as it is in the authentical deed), pur- 

 chased Hendon in Middlesex of King Edgar to West- 

 minster for two hundred Bizantincs. Of what value they 

 were was utterly forgotten in the time of King Edward III.; 

 for, whereas the bishop of Norwich was condemned to pay a 

 Bizantine of gold to the abbot of St. Edmundsbury for en- 

 croaching upon his liberty (as it was enacted by parliament 

 in the time of the Conqueror), no man then living could tell 

 bow much that was, so as it was referred to the king to rate 

 how much bo should pay.' 



In Domesday Book no mention whatever occurs of the 

 Bezant ; but it occurs twice as a denomination of money in 

 fbe Winton Domesday of the year 11-18, and several times 

 in the Boldon Book, a survey of the palatinate of Durham 

 made in 1 183 ; both printed among the Supplementary Re- 

 cords to the Great Domesday. The monks of Oseney, in con- 

 sideration of the manor of Hampton-Gay in Oxfordshire, in 

 the 6th of King Stephen, gave ten marks of silver to Robert 

 de Gait, and one Bezantine to his wife. (Kennel's I'nrn- 

 cfiial Antiquities of Oxfordshire, edit. 1 695, p. 97.) Madox, 

 in his History of the Exchequer, says, that in Henry II.'s 

 time, Cressalin, the Jew of Winchester, was amerced one 

 hundred marks, and he paid, instead thereof, one hundred 

 Bezants, which were accepted by the king, mera ; 

 ( \I iy. Rot. Henry II. rot. 1 0, art. Sudhantescira.') Madox 

 also says (History of the Exchequer, p. 711), that in the 

 17th year of King John, 10*. of Venetian money, and two 

 Bezants, were used at the Exchequer for counters : the 

 Venetian shillings valued at 15s. and the two Bezants at 

 3i. 6d. These of course were silver bezants. From the 

 narrative of William de Braose's treasons (recorded in the 

 Black and Red Book of the Exchequer) against King 

 John, it is clear that silver Bezants were in use in that 

 reign i for when Maud, Braose's wife, was to make the 

 flrut payment of a fine of 40,000 marks, which she and 

 .msband had consented to pay on being restored to 

 the king's favour, she told the justiciary, and the rest who 

 were sent to distrain upon their goods, that they must ex- 

 pect nothing, she having no more money in her purse than 



v four marks of silver, twenty- four shillings of I! 

 and fifteen ounces of gold. (See Dugdale's Baron, I...IM. i. 

 pp.416, 417.) John of Glaston in his Chronicle (vol. i. 

 p. 224) informs us that Michael, abbot of Glastonhury, dying 

 A.I>. l-'53, Ml to his successor ' quadrapinta Bisancios et 

 Ttginti libra* sterlingorum.' Chaucer names the ' Besaunt' 



in the Romaunf of the Rose (Works, edit. 1 :, 12. fol. oxxxiii.), 

 and Wickliffe. in his translation of the N-ie Testament 

 (Luke, chap. xv. v. 8, 9), uses the term ' Bosuuntis ' for the 

 ten pieces of money in the parable. 



The probability seems to be that the Bezant of gold was 

 current in England, if not from the ninth certainly, from 

 the tenth century till the time of Edward III., when the 

 coinage of the English noble drove it out of 



The Constantinopolitan Bezant was the coin which we 

 still see in our rabinets 111 gold, in the form of an umbo or 

 hollow dish, frequently bearing the portrait of our Sau<>ur. 

 The weight of one of those of Alexius Comnemis I., who 

 reigned from 1081 to 1118, is seventy grains. The Moorish 

 Bezants were Hat. The Constantinopolitan Bezant > 

 to have been generally of about the value of a ducat, or 

 nine shillings. The name was probably given in the middle 

 ages to the gold coins of most countries. Cotgrave says 

 that Henry II. of France coined Bezants. 



The white, or silver Bezant, in the 16th year of Stephen, 

 according to an instrument quoted in Kennel's Parochial 

 Antiquities, edit. 1695, p. 10, was of the value of 2*. No 

 silver bezant is at present known t'> exist, at least under 

 that denomination, in the cabinets of our collectors : but 

 Constantinopolitan coins of silver, of tlia same size and 

 form with the gold bezttnts, are found in cabinets, of the 

 twelfth and later centuries : they usually weigh about forty 

 or forty-three grains. 



Banduri and other writers call both the gold and silver 

 coins of Constantinople which we have described, Nummi 

 Scyphati. 



Camden (Remains, p. 236) says, that in the court of Eng- 

 land, the piece of gold valued at ].'>/., which the king was 

 ontienlly accustomed to oner on high festival da\s, was 

 called a Bizantine : 'which, antiently, was a piece of gold 

 coined by the emperors of Constantinople ; but, afterward, 

 there were two,' probably meaning bars, ' purposely made 

 for the king and queen, with the resemblance of the Trinity, 

 inscribed, " In honorem sanctro Trinitatis," and on the other 

 side the picture of the Virgin Mary, with " In Inn: 

 sanctoo Murice Virginis ;" and this was used till th. 

 year of King James, who, upon just reason, caused two to 

 be new cast, the one for himself, having on the one side the 

 picture of a kin;; kneeling before an altar, with four crowns 

 before him, implying his four kingdoms, and in the circum- 

 scription, " Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus qua- tri- 

 buit mini ?" On the other side a lamb lying by a lion, with 

 " Cor contritum et humiliatura non dcspiciet Deus." And 

 in another for the queen, a crown protected by a cherubim, 

 over that an eye, and " Deus " in a cloud, with " Tegct 

 alii summus ;" on the reverse a queen kneeling before an 

 altar, with this circumscription, " Piis precibus fervente fide 

 humili obsequio." ' 



By the treaty for the deliverance of the French kiiiL' St. 

 Louis, and the other prisoners made at the battle of Man- 

 soura and elsewhere, between the commissioners of his ma- 

 jesty and the sultan of Babylon, it was airreed that the kin^ 

 should pay to the sultan 10,000 gold Bezants, which 

 then worth, according to the recital of the Sieur dc Joinville, 

 500,000 livres. The sultan afterwards reduced his demand 

 to 800 Saracen gold Bezants. (See Johnes's Mrni". 

 John Lord de Joinville, vol. ii. Dissert, xx. p. Ifi7.) 



BEZANT represents in heraldry the round pieces of gold 

 already described, by which the stipends of the higln 

 diers of the army in the holy wars are supposed to h;t\u 

 been paid. They are, with us, always emblazoned gold, 

 but the foreign heralds make them both pold and silver. 



BEZIERS. or HKJSIKKS, a town in France in the de- 

 partment of Herault. It stands on a hill at the I 

 which Hows the river Orb, which is joined close to the town 

 by the great Canal du Midi or du Laiiguedoc. It is 480 

 miles S. or 8. by E. "t I'ari> through dormant, Mende, 

 Anduze, and Montpcllicr; in 43" 21' N. lat. and 3" 13' E. 

 long, from Greenwich. 



This town existed at the time of the Roman dominion in 

 the south of France, and was one of the early colonies of 

 that people. The veterans of the seventh legion 

 settled here ; and hence, in addition to its own name, which 

 is \ariou>ly written Ktrlrrrrr, Hrtcrrtr, Hitrrrrr, it acquired 

 the IP < f Stpiimanonm. Upon the downfall of 



the V, npirc in the fifth century it fell into the 



hands of the Visigoths, by whom il wa> much injured. It 

 r"\n<cl, however, and was retained by them till the over- 

 throw of their kingdom. When tho Saracens overran the 



