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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 2503030, member: 76194&quot;]Yay, after adding some medieval Islamic coins that would have circulated in Spain, I finally acquired my first medieval Spanish Christian coin. It is an AR Cornado minted beetween 1284 and 1295 AD in the Cuenca Mint, which was located in central Spain in the northwest of Castille.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]531390[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Sancho IV “The Brave” 1284-1295.</p><p>AR Cornado.</p><p>Cuenca mint.</p><p>SANCII REX, Crowned bust left. /</p><p>CASTELLE LEGIONIS, Castle, bowl to left and star to right.</p><p>Cayon 1185</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin is of a king with a cool nickname. Sancho El Bravo (the brave). So How did Sancho IV become Sancho El Bravo? It&#039;s a neat story. Sancho&#039;s brother Juan, Lord of Valencia de Campos, was not thrilled that Sancho had staged a coup at the time of their father&#039;s death. This uprising resulted in the usurpation of the crown from their young nephew, Alfonso de la Cerda, who was the rightful heir to the throne.</p><p><br /></p><p>Juan was so displeased that he rounded some lords and decided to stage a civil war to defend his nephew&#039;s rights. Unfortunately for Juan, Sancho proved to be a ruthless king and executed 4,400 followers of their nephew Alfonso, and lobbed a few nobles&#039; heads off. However, Sancho pardoned his treacherous brother Juan and let him go in peace.</p><p><br /></p><p>But Juan was still fuming over the usurpation of his nephew&#039;s crown by his brother Sancho, and went to North Africa and called on the Marinid Dynasty in Northern Morocco to invade Iberia. Together with the Sultan of the Marinids, Juan marched at the head of an Islamic army into Iberia and laid siege to the city of Tarifa. Sancho responded by raising his own army and soundly defeating the Islamic invaders. King Sancho proved himself brave and skilled in battle, and drove the invaders all the way to the sea...and his brother Juan had to swallow his pride and take a permanent vacation outside of Spain until Sancho&#039;s death.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]531393[/ATTACH]</p><p>Contemporary manuscript illustration of Sancho IV.</p><p><br /></p><p>So after defeating the invading Islamic army, and with the newly acquired awesome nickname of Sancho El Bravo (Sancho the Brave), Sancho IV made big plans to unify the Reconquista and drive the rest of the Muslims out of Spain. However, he caught tuberculosis instead and died. The crown passed to his son Ferdinand IV, who was a bit of a tyrant, but whom also proved skillful at war against the Moors like his father before him.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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