128 



On a Hoard of Gold Nobles 



The following notices from contemporary chronicles are interesting 

 as giving the place and date of the first issue of gold nobles, about 

 four years after the great naval victory off Sluys, and stating that 

 they were called nobles because they were handsome in appearance 

 and of pure gold. 



[A.D. 1343.] 



"Hoc anno apud turrim Londoniarum jussit rex florenos fieri ; scilicet de- 

 narium, obolum, et quadrantem." * 



"Circa idem tern pus ordinavit rex primo florenos aureos pro moneta ad cur- 

 rendum in Anglia ; quod parum duravit, quia parum profuit." f 



[A.D. 1344.] 



" Circa festum Assumptions beatae Mariae, dominus rex ad utilitatem regni 

 sui prohibuit antiquam monetam florenorum, et ordinavit novam ; scilicet majorem 

 florenum de dimidia marca ; minorem de tribus solidis, quatuor denariis ; et mi- 

 nimam de viginti denariis ; et vocantur nobiles, et digne, quia nobiles sunt 

 pulchri et puri." f 



Provision was made two years afterwards for coining these nobles 

 in Flanders as well as in England, but the Flemish coinage was first 

 established in close alliance and co-operation with our Edward III., 

 and was as much under his authority and control as the English 

 coinage. 1 This great king in his struggle with France was fully 

 alive to the importance of a close connection with Flanders, com- 

 mercially, politically, and strategically. He used every means to 

 cultivate this connexion, and in many of his efforts he was successful ; 

 but upon some points of intrigue he was outmanoeuvred by France, 

 as in his attempt in 1347 to marry his daughter Isabella to Louis 

 de Male, the young Count of Flanders, and afterwards, in 1364, 

 his son Edmund of Langley to Margaret, the heiress presumptive 

 of Flanders. 2 In the coinage of nobles he made a great advance 

 towards establishing an international currency between England and 

 Flanders. 



* " Chron. Angl Mon. S. Alb," MRS. 

 t «' Ad. Mur. Chron.," E H S. 

 1 See Appendix B. 

 Froissart's " Chron." and Walsingham's " Hist. Angl." 



