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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Nap, post: 2695546, member: 73099&quot;]My penny of King Stephen:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o582/napoleoniii/stephen-1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>&quot;Watford&quot; type variant without the inner circle around the king&#039;s portrait.&nbsp; Moneyer Sigvert of Lincoln.&nbsp; The legend is nearly impossible to read but I found a die match to identify it.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And here is a coin of Stephen of Blois&#039; older brother Theobald II, count of Champagne:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o582/napoleoniii/thibaut-ii.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Theobald was generally friendly to his younger brother, and campaigned with him when they were young.&nbsp; He was a preferred candidate for king of England by some, but Stephen benefited from good luck; he had a bout of dysentery and missed the famous &quot;White Ship&quot; which took the life of Henry&#039;s son and heir.&nbsp; One of the few times you can really say you were glad to have diarrhea.&nbsp; Later, he was in northern France when Henry I died, and he was able to get to England to make a claim for the throne before his older brother could beat him to the punch.&nbsp; Stephen had enough problems in England and made nice with his brother and they remained on pretty good terms, as far as I can tell.</p><p><br /></p><p>The early 12th century &quot;Anarchy&quot; is a fascinating time period.&nbsp; The irregularity and poor manufacture of the coins only adds to this era&#039;s mystique.&nbsp; It was also a terrible time to be a peasant.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is a confusing time, with warfare and shifting alliances, and to make things more difficult the Normans refused to use more than 4 or 5 names to call themselves themselves, so you get lots of different Williams, Roberts, Eustaces, Theobalds, and of course Matildas.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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