Billon Blanc
Struck: 1429
Mint: Tours
Size: 26mm
Weight: 2.72g
Die Axis: ~180°
Grade: VF
Ref: Duplessy 470. Rare.
Obv: + KAROLVS: FRANCORVM: REX *. Three lilies placed side by side under a crown.
Rev: + SIT: NOME: DNI: BENEDICTV:. Short cross with lilies and crowns in opposing quadrants.
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Charles VII the Victorious was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of England and the duke of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father, Charles VI, had disinherited him in 1420 at the Treaty of Troyes and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs and the Burgundian party, which was allied to the English.
With his court removed to Bourges, south of the Loire River, Charles was disparagingly called the "King of Bourges", this city being one of the few remaining regions left to him. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a spiritual leader in France. Joan and other charismatic figures led French troops to lift the sieges of Orléans and other strategic cities on the Loire river, and to crush the English at the battle of Patay. With the local English troops dispersed, the people of Reims switched allegiance and opened their gates, which enabled the coronation of Charles VII at Reims Cathedral in 1429. Six years later, he ended the English-Burgundian alliance by signing the Treaty of Arras with Burgundy, followed by the recovery of Paris in 1436 and the steady re-conquest of Normandy in the 1440s using a newly organized professional army and advanced siege cannons. Following the battle of Castillon in 1453, the French expelled the English from all their continental possessions except the Pale of Calais.
The last years of Charles VII were marked by conflicts with his turbulent son, the future Louis XI of France and by debilitating infections perhaps due to diabetes. He died on 22 July 1461, and was buried, at his request, beside his parents in Saint-Denis.
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