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973-1066 AD This section includes Anglo-Saxon post-Reform coins, as well as Cnut and Harthacnut coins from England but not Scandinavia. |
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A reform of the coinage was put in place at a national level at some date not very far from the end of Edgar's reign, either in 973, or just a little later. The result was a coinage of Reform Small Cross type, in which all the coins struck throughout Edgar's kingdom were of a uniform design carrying the king's name and bust on the obverse, and a small cross in the centre of the reverse surrounded by an inscription which provided the name of every coin's moneyer and mint. Design uniformity was further enforced by a new administrative framework under which coin dies were manufactured centrally, initially perhaps at Winchester only. The issue of coins of this Reform Small Cross type continued under Edward the Martyr and into the first years of the reign of Æthelred II, Please note that I have not yet adopted the current woke practise of abandoning the term "Anglo-Saxon" ! |
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Aethelred
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Æthelred, "the Unready", was King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death in 1016.
Æthelred was the son of King Edgar the Peaceful and Queen Ælfthryth. He came to the throne at about the age of 12, following the assassination of his older half-brother, King Edward the Martyr. The chief characteristic of Æthelred's reign was conflict with the Danes. After several decades of relative peace, Danish raids on English territory began again in earnest in the 980s, becoming markedly more serious in the early 990s. |
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| Sweyn Forkbeard - first Danish king of the English but only for 5 weeks from December 1013 to his death in January 2014. He was the father of King Harald II of Denmark, King Cnut the Great, and Queen Estrid Svendsdatter. No English coins known. | |||||||||
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| Cnut became king of England when he defeated and killed Eadmund Ironside, son of Aethelred the Unready in 1016. In 1017 he married Aethelred's widow Emma to secure his position in England. In 1019 he succeeded to the throne of Denmark and in 1028 he was recognised as King of Norway. Cnut brought an end to years of Viking raids by his control of Denmark and Norway and by maintaining a standing army and navy in England. | |||||||||
| Cnut died on 12 November 1035 but his son, Harthacnut was unable to leave Denmark to claim his English throne. As a result, Harold, Harthacnut's half-brother and illegitimate son of Cnut, was appointed regent, with Queen Emma holding Wessex for Harthacnut. Harold drove Emma out of the country in 1037, he became Harold I and she returned to Normandy where her brother was the Duke. | |||||||||