EARLY HISTORY 37 



equally great victory over the Spaniards oft' Winchelsea (" Les 

 Espagnols sur Mer " ), commanding the fleet in person on each 



occasion. 



It appears to have been in connection with the former 

 victory that Edward coined his famous gold noble, in which 



Fig. I. Edward's Noble. 



the obverse bears the effigy of the king, crowned, standing in a 

 ship with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, while 

 the reverse bears the legend from St Luke, Jesus autem 

 transiens per medium eorum ibat, "but Jesus, passing through 

 the midst of them, went his way," which Nicolas thinks was 

 meant to indicate the action of the king in passing through the 

 French fleet at the battle of Sluys. The impress on the obverse 

 has been usually regarded as symbolic of Edward's power and 

 sovereignty on the sea. The unknown author of The Libelle 

 of Englyske Polycye, written some ninety years later, makes 

 frequent reference to Edward's noble, 



" Ffor iiii thynges our noble aheueth to me, 

 Kyng, shype, and swerde, and pouer of the see," 2 



and it is always mentioned by the English writers on the 

 sovereignty of the sea as evidence that Edward exercised 



1 Nicolas, op. '-it., ii. 49, 106. 



2 Political Poem, ii. 157. The author states that it was coined after Edward 

 captured Calais, when 



"The see was kepte, anil thereof he waa lorde, 

 Thus made he nobles coigned of recorde. ' 



But Edward did not take Calais till 1347, while the noble was issued in July 1344. 

 Nicolas, loc. cit. 



