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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
425, Lot: 690. Estimate $100.
Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Provincial. Champagne. Henri II. 1181-1197. AR Denier (19mm, 1.06 g, 11h). Troyes mint. + HENRI COMES, cross pattée; annulets in 2nd and 3rd quarters / + TRECAS CIVITAS, monogram of Thibaut. Poey d' Avant 5951; Boudeau –; Roberts 4142. Good VF, toned.


From the BRN Collection, purchased from Andy Singer, January 2008.

Henri II was the maternal grandson of King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He actually ruled in Champagne for a very brief time, from 1187-1190. Although he became count upon the death of his father, Henri I, in 1181, he was a minor, so his mother ruled as regent until 1187. In 1190, he left for the east to take part in the Third Crusade with his uncles, King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England. Arriving first, he was one of the leaders at the siege of Acre, where he is thought to have been wounded in battle. His other exploits during the first two years of the Crusade are uncertain, but in 1192 Henri wed the recently widowed Queen Isabella of Jerusalem, becoming King Henry I of Jerusalem. As the Crusade failed to recapture Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom was removed to Acre, from where Henri and Isabella held court. Tragically, in 1197 Henry died in an accidental fall from a window at their palace, probably the result of a lattice or railing giving way. No account of the incident relates concern over foul play.