History of the English penny (1154–1485) that inscription, while ones produced by the London and Calais mints were inscribed . During the post-treaty period the Durham and York mints became "ecclesiastical mints", under the authority of the local bishop or archbishop, and thus a source of money for the Church. Typical inscriptions of this period are – "Edward King of England and France". Edward III's son, the Black Prince died in 1376, a year before his father, which meant that the next king was Edward's eleven-year-old grandson Richard II (1377–1399). England continued to lay claim to France, and remained at war until 1396; high taxation to
John of Gaunt scale and organisation to that of a monarch. He owned land in almost every county in England, a patrimony that produced a net income of between £8,000 and £10,000 a year. After the death in 1376 of his older brother Edward of Woodstock (also known as the "Black Prince"), John of Gaunt contrived to protect the religious reformer John Wycliffe, possibly to counteract the growing secular power of the church. However, John's ascendancy to political power coincided with widespread resentment of his influence. At a time when English forces encountered setbacks in the Hundred Years' War against France, and Edward