State Finances that Began with a King's Ransom
The gold écu, paid as a king's ransom, eventually became a symbol of the crowned king's authority, mobilizing taxes and wealth to end the war. A single coin was at the center of an era when the framework of the modern state was being formed.
A Ransom of Three Million Écus
When the first phase of the Hundred Years' War concluded, a ransom of three million gold écus was demanded for King John II of France. This was an enormous sum, equivalent to several years of the royal family's income. Although it had been negotiated down from an initial four million, even this three million was never paid in full.
Under the peace agreement, the king was to be released upon payment of the first million écus, with the remainder to be paid later while his son remained as a hostage. The very pretext for the war was bought off with gold and territory. However, the nominal amount and the amount actually paid were different.
The Crowned King and the New Écu
As time passed, civil war and treaties arranged for the French throne to pass to the House of England. The Dauphin Charles was derided as the 'King of Bourges'. It was then that Joan of Arc, a farmer's daughter from the village of Domrémy, appeared. Thanks to her efforts, the siege of Orléans was lifted, and once Charles was crowned as Charles VII in the cathedral of Reims, the tide of the war turned.
Charles VI and Charles VII attempted to restore the standards of gold coinage, which had been debased by poor minting. Charles VII, in particular, standardized the gold currency after his coronation by issuing the *écu neuf* (new écu). The "écu d'or à la couronne" (gold écu with a crown) discussed in this article is also a coin of a legitimate, crowned king, minted in such times.
The Tax and Wealth that Ended the War
It was not heroes alone who ended the war. Taxes and the wealth of a single merchant became a major force.
Charles VII established the permanent tax known as the *taille* and created France's first royal standing army, maintained by salaries. Another pillar of support was Jacques Cœur, a great merchant of Bourges. He amassed a vast fortune through Mediterranean trade and provided two hundred thousand écus for the reconquest of Normandy. This one man's wealth supported the final counteroffensive of the war.
However, the king arrested this moneylender on whom he had most relied, on unproven charges, and confiscated his entire fortune. The victor repaid the very wealth that had saved him by taking it all away.
The Mechanism of Taxation Wielded by the King
The framework of modern finance and military was forged in this age of turmoil. The direct tax, the *taille*, made permanent by Charles VII in 1439, became the greatest tool wielded by his son, Louis XI.
Louis XI, who had been in conflict with his father and had taken refuge at the court of the Duke of Burgundy, dismissed his father's chief ministers upon his accession and consolidated finance and administration into the king's hands. This tax exempted the clergy, nobility, and privileged cities, leaving its heavy burden solely on the shoulders of the commoners. Louis XI developed the *taille* into a source of revenue for the standing army and diplomacy, and during his reign, he increased taxation approximately threefold—a figure that sources variously report as between twofold and fourfold.
More in Reading a coin
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The Door Opened by Nominal Currency for the Outflow of Koban
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The Fate of Gold, Divided by Its Use
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Everything in these pieces comes from the material itself.