The Silent Witness: Charles VI’s Écu Amid France’s Collapse > 자유게시판

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As the 14th century gave way to the 15th

France struggled through the turmoil of the Hundred Years’ War and internal political chaos,

the écu of Charles VI emerged as an unspoken testament to national endurance amid collapse.

Charles VI, known later as Charles the Mad

ascended to power as a boy and governed through France’s most fractured epoch.

His reign was marked by bouts of severe mental illness that left the kingdom vulnerable to factional struggles between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs.

Even as France burned from within and without,

authorities kept turning out the écu,

a tradition dating back to the reign of Saint Louis.

This silver coin featured the king, regal and upright, sheltered by a canopy, clutching both the royal scepter and the sacred fleur de lys,

symbols of divine right and royal authority.

The reverse side displayed a radiant cross, each arm tipped with fleurs de lys, encircled by the Latin legend: "Carolus Dei gratia Francorum rex".

This imagery was carefully crafted, refined, and intended to convey order and アンティーク コイン permanence despite the kingdom’s unraveling.

With the war’s relentless toll, the coin’s purchasing power grew erratic,

rising prices, deliberate alloying of the metal, and territorial losses to England forced minters to cut the silver purity.

The portrait of Charles VI persisted, a steadfast symbol in a landscape of betrayal and fractured oaths.

Traders, farmers, and foot soldiers passed these coins from hand to hand,

each one carrying the weight of a king’s madness and a nation’s endurance.

At the moment of Charles VI’s death in 1422, France was no longer a unified realm.

The Treaty of Troyes stripped Charles VII of his birthright, naming Henry V of England as heir.

But even as the English claimed the French crown, the écu continued to circulate.

its image of the French king still familiar to the people who had lived under his rule.

Modern numismatists treasure the few remaining écus of Charles VI as rare and invaluable artifacts.

Yet their true significance lies beyond coinage—they are relics of a society clinging to ritual and image amid collapse.

This is not a tale of victory, but of quiet endurance.

the steadfast dignity of subjects who honored the coin, though their king had lost his mind