CHARLES LE CHAUVE* June 20, 840 - October 6, 877 - Lot 64

CHARLES LE CHAUVE* June 20, 840 - October 6, 877 + GRATIA D (dash) I R (four dots) EX. Carolingian monogram KAROLVS within a grenetis. R/. SCI ΔIONVSI (dot) I M (dotted). Cross within a grenetis. ♦ Depeyrot 896; Prou 342 Silver denarius from the Abbey of Saint Denis (Seine). (1,54 g) Rare workshop. Very fine. Under the Carolingians, the Saint-Denis Abbey's privileged links with Merovingian royalty were strengthened. The abbey's "vocation as historiographer and guardian of Frankish Christian traditions" was born. Charles Martel entrusted the education of his sons to the Sandionysian monks, and his funeral in 741 inaugurated a second series of royal burials in the basilica. During the reign of Charles the Bald, the abbey suffered several attacks from the Vikings, who laid siege to Paris in December 856. In 867, Charles le Chauve assumed the title of abbot of Saint Denis, and in 869 fortified the monastery. *Charles the Bald, son of Louis the Pious, grandson of Charlemagne. His nickname derives from the day of his consecration by Pope John VIII of the collegiate church of Sainte-Marie, future abbey of Saint-Corneille de Compiègne, where he is said to have had his head shaved as a sign of submission to the Church, despite Frankish custom requiring a king to have long hair.