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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Nap, post: 2935313, member: 73099&quot;]Apparently Ecgberht the Archbishop and Bede the monk were buddies.&nbsp; However, the former lived in York and the latter in Jarrow (near modern day Newcastle-upon-Tyne), a decent distance away for the medieval traveler, so I imagine they didn&#039;t get to hang out all that much.&nbsp; But I&#039;m sure Ecgberht made sure to come by every now and then to catch up on eccliastic matters and of course to drink Bede&#039;s Venerable Newcastle Brown Ale.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ecgberht was the brother of King Eadberht, and presumably their relationship allowed church and state to work together well.&nbsp; After a long reign, Eadberht decided to abdicate in favor of his son, and spend the rest of his days kicking it in the monastary at York with his brother.&nbsp; With civil and church matters seemingly settled, and a son to succeed him, Eadberht could reasonably look forward to the smooth continuation of the dynasty in the form of his son Oswulf, or in the event of some calamity, his other son Oswine.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately it was not to be.&nbsp; Within a year of abandoning the throne in favor of reading books and brewing beer, Eadberht saw his world collapse when a usurper named Aethelwald Moll murdered Oswulf, took over the throne, and then knocked off Oswine when the latter tried to rebel.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is usually where you hear the continuation &quot;there was a purge of the rest of the family and all relatives of the old dynasty were hunted down and put to death or exiled&quot;.&nbsp; But strangely, this was not to be.&nbsp; Eadberht lived out his days in the monastery for nearly another decade, and Ecgberht remained archbishop of York throughout Aethelwald&#039;s reign.&nbsp; In addition, when Aethelwald&#039;s reign came to an end just 6 years later, he was deposed and sent to a monastary (not killed), his son was allowed to live (and would eventually become king himself), and a member of Eadberht&#039;s family named Alchred took over rulership in Northumbria.</p><p><br /></p><p>This suprising leniency may be illuminating in its own right.&nbsp; While Aethelwald may not have been a member of Ecgberht&#039;s family, he could have been nobility as well.&nbsp; Northumbria was created from the combination of two even older kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia.&nbsp; There is some evidence that these two regions remained somewhat different even after the combining of the kingdom.&nbsp; Eadberht was of Bernician descent, Aethelwald could have been Deiran, and possibly had a reasonable claim to the throne.&nbsp; However, since Eadberht had been a long ruling and possibly popular monarch, it would not do to just knock off the old guy and the rest of his family, especially if Aethelwald was trying to make a case for his new dynasty, as it would appear he was trying to do through his coinage.&nbsp; Aethelwald issued a coin with both he and his son&#039;s names on it.&nbsp; Sadly only two examples are known.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back to the coins- Ecgberht issued joint coinage with Eadberht, Aethelwald, and Alchred.&nbsp; Of these, the first is the most interesting, featuring a full length picture of the archbishop himself.&nbsp; I have one, though the quality is not the greatest and I&#039;m probably going to try to upgrade it next year:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]713658[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Ecgberht also issued coins with Aethelwald Moll, and though the latter&#039;s reign was some 6 years according to the chronicle, coinage is minimal.&nbsp; There are a mere three coins known of Aethelwald/Ecgberht.&nbsp; The finest one just sold in a DNW auction (I did not buy it).&nbsp; Here is my example, the lowest grade of the three known:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]713659[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And then the Alchred/Ecgberht was the third type, which I posted earlier in the thread.&nbsp; Somewhat more common than the Aethelwald, but far rarer than Eadberht.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I have a Danelaw imitation of Alfred&#039;s famous &quot;Londonia&quot; type, produced some itme after retaking London from the Vikings.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t realize it was an imitation when I bought it, but I have no doubt in my mind that it is indeed an imitation.&nbsp; No matter, it&#039;s still rare and the value is about the same.&nbsp; But I would still like to get an &quot;official&quot; coin of Alfred the Great.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]713660[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Your sceat appears to be a series BII, presumably of Kentish origin, belonging to the primary phase, with a date of around 710.</p><p><br /></p><p>For further reading, feel free to jump into this detailed article:</p><p><a href="https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1960_BNJ_30_4.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1960_BNJ_30_4.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1960_BNJ_30_4.pdf</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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