The Lovely Lowly Liard

Yes, jbuck, I had a good weekend back in my home town, meeting with old friends again (it wasn't the first reunion of this kind, and they are always a fun experience).

While hoping to soon see tdziemia's double liard, let's continue with some other Low Countries! Next Chapter coming up!

CHAPTER 21: Holy Roman Copper

= Mid 17th Century =

Well, we had holy billon in the 1500s (Chapters 11-12), now in the 1600s it is the more modern holy copper. Joking aside, while the southern Low Countries remained as the Spanish Netherlands and the northern dittos were now the Dutch Republic, there were also a number of Low Countries that did not belong to either. The County of Gronsveld, the Duchy of Cleves, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the County of Reckheim, the Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, the Principality of Thorn, the County of Culemborg, and several others, were directly under the Holy Roman Emperor. They had never been part of the Habsburg Netherlands and for most their status did not change as a result of the Dutch Revolt (although they could be affected by the hostilities during the revolt). A few were eventually absorbed by the Dutch Republic, but most remained until the 1790s, when they fell under the expansionist France. (In the Duchy of Cleves, it was the town of Huissen that issued local coins. In addition, the former free imperial city of Nijmegen, since 1543 belonging to the Spanish Netherlands, used its ancient minting rights to issue local coins during the Dutch Revolt).

The lands I listed above are those that issued liards or oorden. Most of the early ones - late 16th and early 17th century - are hard to find in decent condition, so I will show only two later examples, from two of the lands. If you have any liards/oorden from any of these Holy Roman lands, please do show!

A Different Liard

The two lands I show liards from here are Liège and Stavelot-Malmedy. Both used the Liège liard, or liard liegeois (see Note 1), and before going into the details of the specific coins, the denomination itself is worthy of a few words. Before 1600, the florin liegeois was used. It was divided into 20 patards or aidants or liards (liegeois). At the same time, the exchange rate to the Brabant florin was four florins liegeois to one Brabant florin. In 1600, the standard florin was changed to be the Brabant florin, but to point out that it was a Liège denomination, it was called florin Brabant-Liège. It was divided into 20 patards Brabant-Liège, with each patard divided into four aidants/liards liegeois. Thus the old liards were kept in the new system and with the 1:4 exchange rate for Brabant to Liège florins, resulting in 1 florin (Brabant-Liège) = 80 liards.

Not too confusing, right? Then just let me point out that in addition to this, there was also a sol liegeois (or soz, different spellings abound), of which there were 24 on a liard. Yes, the Liège liard was subdivided into Liège sols, not the other way around. And, 20 sols liegeois equaled 1 livre liegeoise, which means that the liard was worth more than the livre! Fortunately, we can completely ignore that curiosity in the discussion here. (And I haven't even mentioned the gigots, mites, deniers, copes, and brûles which were also part of the system . . .)

"Aidant"?

One thing puzzles me: Why were the Liège liards called "aidants"? In contemporary texts the name is used as a synonym for patard and liard, as if self-evident and without explanation. It translates to "helping" or "helper", but that doesn't help . I have spent several hours searching, without finding a conclusive answer (see Note 2). I also let ChatGPT have a shot at it, which was somewhat amusing (Note 3).

If anyone knows the origin for the term "aidant", please share your knowledge!

Liège

The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was a large enclave in the Spanish Netherlands (see map). It was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire, with its prince-bishop being a full voting member of the Imperial Diet, an important imperial institution which we need not go into what it was here. Since 1583 it was the Archbishop of Cologne who had the seat of Prince-Bishop.


Principality of Liège (in pink), Stavelot-Malmedy and Bouillon (pale pink), in 1789.
Source: SEGEFA-Ulg & Institut Destree, connaitrelawallonie.wallonie.be (cropped).

As mentioned above, Liège had its own monetary system, and it had a fairly rich coinage with denominations from tiny copper fractions to gold florins. Liards were minted more or less continually. Here is one from 1643:

Liard "aidant", Liège 1643, Ferdinand of Bavaria, Hasselt (Loon). Copper. 3.02 g, 24.5 mm.



Obverse: FERDINAND D G E[P LEO] (Ferdinandus Dei Gratia Episcopus Leodiensis / Ferdinand by Grace of God Bishop of Liège). Coat of arms of Bavaria-Palatinate, heart shield with arms of the Duchy of Bouillon, crowned with electoral hat.
Reverse: [DV]X BVL MAR FRANCHI CO LO (Dux Bulloniensis Marchionus Franchimontis Comes Lossensis / Duke of Bouillon, Marquis of Franchimont, Count of Loon). F B in field (Ferdinandus Bavariensis / Ferdinand of Bavaria). Electoral hat and perron of Liège.

This coin is minted in the "other" Hasselt (the "first" being the Hasselt in Overijssel, where one of the oorden in Chapter 13 was minted). This Hasselt was located in the County of Loon, north of Liège and subordinated to its bishop (who was, in fact, Count of Loon himself, as the inscription points out). Ferdinand minted liards of this type in Hasselt, Liège, and Maaseik, and the way to tell them apart is by the presence or absence of bullets and rosettes and minor differences in the inscription.

Parts of the inscription are gone, but the "F B" for Ferdinand of Bavaria has been pretty resistant to wear. Before saying more about him, let's spend a moment with that perron between the two big letters. At least I had to look up what a perron is (in Swedish it means train platform, and that's definitely not it!). There is a Wikipedia article about "Perron (columnar monument)", which is precisely what it is. It is apparently a (province of) Liège thing, with roots in Medieval times, symbolizing freedom and autonomy of the town where it was erected. Only the "Good Cities" (French Bonnes Villes, Dutch Goede Steden), towns important enough to be represented in the States of Liège, were allowed to have a perron. There were 23 such towns in 1651, including Hasselt and Maaseik, and Liège, of course. The perron shown on these coins looks very similar regardless of mint, and it is thought to always be the perron of Liège that is shown. A symbol of great significance, important enough to still be on Liège's city arms as well as being stylized in its official logo:


Liège city modern coat of arms and official logo.
Source: Wikimedia commons. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (coat of arms) respectively Public domain (logo).

And it still stands - rebuilt after having been knocked over by a violent storm in 1693 - at the Place du Marche:


The Liège perron today.
Source: Wikimedia commons, photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Now over to Ferdie! Born into the House of Wittelsbach, with plenty of royal blood in his veins, he had a life filled with titular duties: Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Prince-Bishop of Liège, Hildesheim, Münster and Paderborn, Prince-Provost of Berchtesgaden, Prince-Abbot of Stavelot and Malmedy, Archchancellor of Italy, Duke of Westphalia, Marquis of Franchimont, Count of Logne, of Loon and of Horne, and a few others. He used the title Duke of Bavaria as well, although that belonged to his brother Maximilian. Duke of Bouillon was a hereditary claim, since technically the duchy was subject to the Principality of Liège, but in 1492 the title had been claimed by Robert de la Marck, brother of Liège bishop erard de la Marck. When Ferdinand became "Duke of Bouillon" in 1612, the duchy was held by Duke Henry de La Tour d'Auvergne (a liard of his will show up in Chapter 23). Elector was one of the highest positions in the Empire; there were only seven appointed, and their role was to elect a new emperor, when needed. As shown on both sides of the coin, that required a special hat! One can see better what it looks like in the picture below.


Electoral hat from the 18th century.
Source: Detail of a 1781 painting by Brandt of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Despite the many ecclesiastical titles, Ferdinand was never ordained, and he appointed auxiliary bishops to carry out the religious duties. As for being the abbot of the Stavelot and Malmedy monasteries, he was one in a series of absent abbots, and it is unknown whether he ever visited his "workplace".


Ferdinand of Bavaria. Copperplate engraving, 1642.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

You may, by the way, remember the name Wittelsbach from Chapter 18, where there was a Maximilian II Emanuel of the House of Wittelsbach. He was the grandson of Ferdinand's brother Maximilian I.

Stavelot-Malmedy

The Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, founded in the 7th century and bordering the much larger Prince-Bishopric of Liège, was also an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It had the same imperial status as its "big brother" Liège and was, although remembered by few today, not an unimportant entity in its time. Not a bad advancement in the 1,000 years since the establishment of a monastery in the Ardennes Forest, at "a place of horror and solitary isolation which abounds with wild beasts" according to contemporary sources.

The abbey's coinage was not very extensive, but liards were minted 1643-1650.

Liard "aidant", Stavelot-Malmedy 1643-1650, Ferdinand of Bavaria, Louveigne? Copper. 4.50 g, 24 mm.



Obverse: FERDI D G E[LEC COL PRI STA] (Ferdinandus Dei Gratia Elector Coloniensis Princeps Stabulensis / Ferdinand by Grace of God Elector of Cologne, Prince of Stavelot). Coat of arms of Bavaria-Palatinate, heart shield with arms of Stavelot (wolf), crowned with electoral hat.
Reverse: EPISCO L[EO MAR FRANC CO]M LO[N] (Episcopus Leodiensis Marchionis Franchimontis Comes Longianus / Bishop of Liège, Marquis of Franchimont, Count of Logne). F B in field (Ferdinandus Bavariensis / Ferdinand of Bavaria). Electoral hat and Medusa head (symbol for the County of Logne, mintmark for Louveigne?).

It has had a rough life, this liard, with some hard hits along the way (literally, as it looks). The bishop of Liège was by default also abbot of Stavelot-Malmedy, so again we find Ferdinand's name and selected titles on this coin (which also looks almost identical to its Liège counterpart).

The Stavelot-Malmedy coin production was distinctly intermittent. The need for coinage was likely covered by using the coins of Liège, which looked very similar and had the same denominations. When Ferdinand acceded to his posts in 1612, a range of somewhat larger denominations were issued for Stavelot-Malmedy, in small numbers. After that, no more coins were issued until the liards of 1643. They, on the other hand, were minted in large numbers (yet, they are difficult to find in anything but lousy condition). An additional mint was opened in Louveigne, besides the "regular" one in the town of Stavelot. Besides the liards featuring the Medusa head, there are others with a perron. It is a theory that the Medusa head is a mintmark for Louveigne (situated in the County of Logne, which has the Medusa head as a symbol) and the perron is a mintmark for Stavelot (where there is a perron, albeit not looking like the one on the coins, that one looks more like the perron of Liège).

Next time: More from Liège

We are not quite done with the Holy Roman Low Countries. One more coin to show, also from the Bishopric of Liège, but a 100 years later. It is in fact one of the last coins minted there.

Notes

Note 1. Liege, Liege, or Liège? The use of an accent in Liège has changed over time and may cause confusion when looking at documents from different time periods. Before the 18th century, the normal spelling was Liege (no accent). Then the spelling Liege (acute accent) began to be used and in 1880 it became the official spelling. In 1946 that was changed to Liège (grave accent), which remains the modern spelling. Liegeois(e) ("from Liège", ends with -e for things of feminine gender) is a different matter, there the accent is acute, never grave (and in older texts often absent). I will consistently write Liège and liegeois(e) in this text, even if that strictly speaking leads to some anachronisms.

Note 2. I tried many combinations of Internet search terms and found lots of interesting information, but not the answer I was looking for. I found good works about the numismatics of Liège by Frère from the 1960s and by de Chestret from the 19th century, I found an online version of a Traite Historique et Methodique . . . des Anciennes Monnoies by a notary of Liège from 1758 (the Internet is fantastic!). They all use the term "aidant" but none tries to explain it. The work by de Chestret quotes original edicts about coinage from the 16th century, in which the term was used as if self-evident already then.
I reached out to CCF, but no one (at that time) seemed to have an idea. But I got the suggestion to contact the experts at the Belgian auction firm Jean Elsen, who specializes in Low Countries coinage, and I did, but their kind reply was that they unfortunately had no information about the origin of the term.

Note 3. I asked ChatGPT why patards/liards were also called "aidants" in 16th century Liège, to see if it knew anything about the subject. I got a speculative answer about the liards probably being called "helpers", since small change like that helped facilitate daily transactions. Perhaps there is some truth to it, in that this small denomination was what helped the poor through their day. But then why wasn't the even smaller brûle called "aidant"?
When asking in French - thinking any documents concerning the subject and which ChatGPT has been trained on, would likely be in French - I got a more interesting, if not so truthful, "answer" (translated from French): In the 16th century, the term "aidant" was used to refer to the patard or liard in Liège because of its role in the art of pyrotechnics. The liard in Liège was used as a primer to ignite gunpowder. The fact that it "helped" light the gunpowder probably led to its nickname "helper".

Thanks jbuck! Yes, it was a rather long post, next chapter will be more brief.

Brief indeed, but still interesting and a nice example.

Very nice!

CHAPTER 23: First French Coppers

= Early 17th Century =

The Low Countries were first with pure copper coins for the small denominations, in its corner of Europe. The very smallest (duiten and double mites) came already in the beginning of the 16th century, and liards/oorden in the 1570s. In the French area, it was the Principality of Dombes that was first with copper: its deniers and double deniers saw the light of day in 1576. France itself followed the year after with the same denominations. For liards, the French feudality Arches-Charleville was first, in 1607, and soon after followed Sedan and Château-Regnault. All three were close to, or bordering, Liège and the Spanish Netherlands, and were no doubt inspired by the coinage from those countries. I show a liard from each of these three.

Arches-Charleville

The Principality of Arches was created in beginning of the 17th century, around its newly established capital Charleville. It was a "spin-off" from the larger Duchy of Rethel and was ruled by the same duke, Charles I Gonzaga. A mint was built in the new town, and almost immediately Charles began to mint coins of all denominations, from deniers to gold ecus. The mint used modern equipment with milling and mechanical presses (balanciers), so the quality of the coins was good. The first engraver's artistic skill, however, had obvious limitations (you can see an example of his work here). He was soon replaced by Nicolas Briot, who was also employed as royal engraver in Paris, and then the duke's portrait left nothing to be desired. Just have a look at this lovely liard:

Liard (3 deniers tournois), Arches-Charleville 1609, Charles I Gonzaga, Charleville. Copper. 4.03 g, 25 mm. C2G 280.



Obverse: CAR GONZ D NIV ET RETH (Carolus Gonzaga Dux Niver et Rethel / Charles Gonzaga Duke of Nevers and Rethel). Armored bust of Charles Gonzaga.
Reverse: SVP PRINCEPS ARCHENSIS (Supremus Princeps Archensis / Supreme Prince of Arches). Crowned coat of arms of Charles Gonzaga.

The main arms is for the Duchy of Mantua (where the Gonzagas were dukes; the title was held by Charles's cousin Vincenzo at this time): Four eagles parted by a Mantuan cross (or cross pattee). The heart shield in the middle shows the ancient and new arms for Gonzaga.

Charles had good connections with the French royalty. He was a relative of French king Henry IV, was born in Paris by wealthy parents, and received an excellent education. He seems to have been a fan of laces, judging from his coin portrait and even more from this one:


Charles I Gonzaga.
Source: Painting by Daniel Dumonstier, ca 1620. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Coining money was a new thing for the duke, so he had to look for inspiration. It is close at hand to think he glanced at the liards from the neighboring Spanish Netherlands and at small coppers from France. The Tournai liard and the French double denier (which does not belong in this thread, but France hadn't started with copper liards yet) show the similarities in design.


Liard, Tournai, Philip II. For full description, see Chapter 15.


Double denier, France 1603, Henry IV.

Château-Regnault

An hours bike ride north of Charleville lies Château-Regnault. The time on horseback in the early 1600s may have been something similar. With the horse stabled, you would then enter the castle on top of the hill in the river bend. The Lord of the Castle, François de Bourbon-Conti, bids you welcome and offers you to share his evening meal, before showing you his collection of liards from the nearby feudalities and Spanish provinces.


Château-Regnault 1640.
Source: From Description du royaume de France by Gaston d'Orleans. Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

If you arrive by bike 400 years later, not many traces remain of the castle. It was torn down towards the end of the 17th century and today there is a grassy field on the hill top.

Here is what the lord's own liards look like:

Liard (3 deniers tournois), Château-Regnault 1614, François de Bourbon, Château-Regnault. Copper. 4.34 g, 25 mm. C2G 294.



Obverse: FRANCOIS DE BOVRBON. Draped and cuirassed bust of François de Bourbon.
Reverse: P DE CONTI S DE CH RNAV (Prince de Conti Souverain de Château Renaud / Prince of Conti, Sovereign of Château Regnault). Crowned coat of arms of François de Bourbon.

François is a Bourbon prince, so just like the Bourbon kings, he uses three fleurs-de-lis in his coat of arms. The slanted bar signifies cadency, that is, he does not belong to the main line of Bourbons.

The coin does look a lot like the Arches-Charleville liard. That is not just inspiration, it is also made by the same engraver, Nicolas Briot (who keeps himself busy these days).

A final remark: On the coin, the castle is named "R(e)nau", and spellings like Renaud or Renault occur, not least in descriptions of coins from the feudality. The official spelling today is Regnault, and it is useful to be aware that there are a number of other castles all over France named Château Renaud (none of which has minted).

Sedan

If you instead go eastwards from Charleville, one hour by bike - or horse - brings you to the Principality of Sedan. In the beginning of the 17th century, it was ruled by Prince Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne (he also ruled the nearby Duchy of Bouillon and a couple of other small lands). He too minted liards with his portrait and coat of arms, confusingly similar to those of Arches-Charleville and Château-Regnault (and yes, it was Nicolas Briot who cut the dies here too). However nice looking they are, I think this one is more interesting:

Liard (3 deniers tournois), Sedan 1615, Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Sedan. Copper. 3.12 g, 24 mm. C2G 326.



Obverse: HENRI DE LA TOVR DVC DE BVILLON (Henri de La Tour Duc de Buillon / Henri de La Tour Duke of Bouillon). Tower and two crowned fleurs-de-lis. Rose on top, mintmark for mint master Didier Briot.
Reverse: LIARD TOVRNOIS. Crowned H for Henri.

The tower and fleurs-de-lis are part of Henri de La Tour's (= tower) coat of arms.

The interesting thing about this liard is that it is the first coin, anywhere as far as I know, that has the name "LIARD" on it. The reason for the radical design change was that French king Louis XIII had grown tired of the recurring low quality copies (and outright forgeries) that emanated from Sedan and the other feudalities, so in 1614 he forbade their use in France. This was mainly aimed at the higher denominations, for which all three feudalities mentioned here were involved in forging underweight silver and gold coins, but the liards and deniers were affected too. Following the design change, the liards were allowed in France again, but apparently without much success, as they were minted only during 1615.

Finally, to get an idea of the size of these small principalities on the northern edge of France, here is a contemporary map. I have added (approximate) distance scales for miles and kilometers and underlined the towns of Sedan (in the center) and Charleville (top left). Sedan was not a big domain.


Map of the Principality of Sedan, etc, in the 1630s.
Source: From a 1636 map by Jan Jansson, Amsterdam (with additions by me). Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Next Chapter: Vive Le Roi!

There will be more liards from the French feudalities in Chapter 25, but first, we make a detour to France proper to see how they catch up on the copper trend.