England and Spain during the Reign of King Æthelred the Unready

Abstract

Abstract: This paper focuses attention on a small group of silver pennies of Æthelred II, king of England, minted c. 990, found at Roncesvalles in northern Spain, and a silver dírham of the caliph Hisham II of Córdoba, minted c. 1000, found on the site of an important abbey which fl ourished at the same time in south-western England. No direct connection can be made between the two fi nds; but their signifi cance is explored here as evidence for contact of some kind between England and Spain in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.

Keywords: Æthelred the Unready, Ælfr ic of Cerne, Hisham II, Córdoba, Anglo-Spanish relations, pilgrimage, coinage.