The Church and Currency
On the northern edges of the relatively recent Holy Roman Empire, with its roots in Charlemagne's conquests about two hundred years prior to Sweyn's time, Sweyn Farkbeard had coins made with an image in his likeness. The Latin inscription on the coins read, "ZVEN REX DÆNOR", which translates as "Sven, king of Danes".
Sweyn's father, Harald Bluetooth, was the first of the Scandinavian kings to accept Christianity officially, in the early or mid-960s. According to Adam of Bremen, an 11th-century historian, Harald's son Sweyn was baptised Otto, in tribute to the German king Otto I, who was the first Holy Roman Emperor. Farkbeard is never known to have officially made use of this Christian name. He did not use it on the coins he proudly sent forth, and when he was given the English crown by the Witenagemot of Anglo-Saxon nobles, in 1013, he took the crown as king Sweyn.
Read more about this topic: Sweyn Forkbeard
Famous quotes containing the words church and/or currency:
“Isn’t this your life? That ancient kiss
still burning out your eyes? Isn’t this defeat
so accurate, the church bell simply seems
a pure announcement: ring and no one comes?”
—Richard Hugo (1923–1982)
“There is no legislation—I care not what it is—tariff, railroads, corporations, or of a general political character, that all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the National Monetary Commission plan.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)