Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

14

MIONEY.

age, in 1177, had been declared by his father "Lord of Ireland,"
a title which seems to have invested him with regal power, as was
manifest from his using a great seal, and striking money with his
name and title impressed upon it. This title was most probably
derived from a Bull of Pope Adrian IV., in which he gave permission
to Henry II., in 1155, to subdue Ireland, and made use of the words
"Et illius terreo populus te recipiat, et sicut Dominum veneretur"
(Matthew Paris). On his accession to the crown of England, he
had impressed the title of king on the coins he issued from the
Irish mints, though on his great seal he continued the title of Dominus
Hibernime. This title continued to be used by the English monarchs
till the year 1541, when Henry VIII. assumed the title of king. His
pennies and halfpennies have, on the obverse, his bust within' a
triangle, with Johannes or Johannes Rex only; on the reverse, a
crescent and blazing star (perhaps intended for the sun and moon),
besides a small star in each of the angles of the triangle. In order
to discover coins deficient in weight, there was in his reign issued
from his mint office a penny-poize, wanting one-eighth of a penny,
to be delivered to any person who desired to have it, to be used until
Easter in the next year.
King John attempted to exact by force from his people the same
heavy contributions as his father. His cruelty and oppression of
the Jews almost exceed belief. He failed in his object, and was
compelled to surrender the glory of his crown to the Pope,' and the
power of it to the Barons, who, at Runnymede in 1215, wrested from
'king John the Magna Charta. The ratification of this charter has in
successive reigns been confirmed at thirty different times.
Henry III., 12i6-1272, was nine years old when his father died.
On his accession, the greater part of his kingdom was in the possession
of his enemies, and the royal treasury was exhausted.
In Grafton's Chronicle, it is recorded that in 1227, about this time
a Parliament was holden in London, in which it was ordered, that
' The English grote should be coyned at a certain weighte, and of the
one side the IKing's picture, and on the other side a cross, as large fully
as the grote to advoyd clippying." So greatly had the old coinage
been lessened by clipping, that scarcely 20 shillings of the new coins
could be gotten in exchange for 30 shillings of the old money.
The payment of tenths to the Pope of Rome was now exacted with
so great severity, that people were compelled to borrow money of the
usurers, who came over with Stephen,) the Pope's Nuncio, at "the
rate of one noble for the loane of 20 by the moneth," which was at
the rate of 60 per cent. per annum. These usurers were banished
about 1240, but being the Pope's money-changers, they were suffered
to return in 1250, and were again expelled a short time afterwards.
1250. The king at this time extorted money from the Jews without
mercy. Matthew Paris remarks, "that though he could make them
wretched, he could not make them poor."
1257. The 41st year of Henry III. is remarkable for the first gold
1 In a subsequent reign, the Parliament unanimously declared, "that the
grant of the kingdom by king John to the Pope was null and void; that it was
made without the concurrence of Parliament, and in violation of his Coronation
oath," and they determined that'if the Pope should attempt, by process or
otherwise, to maintain such usurpation, they would resist and withstand him
with all their power.