425, Lot: 696. Estimate $300. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Provincial. Maine (comté). Hugues II. Circa 939/955-991. AR Denier (21mm, 1.26 g, 6h). Immobilized type of Charles le Simple (the Simple), as Charles IV, King of West Francia, 898-922. Cinomans (Le Mans) mint. + CrΛTΛ D–I rEX, karolus monogram / + CIN◊MΛNS CIVITΛS, cross pattée. Legros 553; Fécamp 8310; Duplessy, Féodales –; Poey d'Avant –; Roberts –. Good VF, toned. Extremely rare.

From the BRN Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 377 (29 June 2016), lot 616.

Little is known of the reign of Hugues II as count of Maine. Like his father, Hugues I, he was an early vassal of Hugues the Great, but upon the latter’s death, he aligned himself with Fulk II of Anjou and Theobald I of Blois in an attempt to exert independence from the Robertian dukes. This was apparently successful, as evidenced by the amount of independent charters thereafter in which Hugues II took part without any mention of Hugh Capet. Thus, Hugues II’s actions, like those of Fulk and Theobald, allowed the establishment of a strong dynasty of independent lordships over his county, which resisted a strong central authority under the last Carolingian and early Capetian rulers.