Arthur III came to the Breton ducal throne in 1457 after a career more military than administrative — he had served as Constable of France and played a direct role in expelling the English from Normandy and Guyenne during the final campaigns of the Hundred Years' War. His reign lasted barely two years before his death in 1458, making issues struck under his authority among the shortest-lived in the ducal sequence. The billon content of these deniers reflects the chronic silver shortage that plagued French and Breton minting throughout the mid-fifteenth century.
Arthur III came to the Breton ducal throne in 1457 after a career more military than administrative — he had served as Constable of France and played a direct role in expelling the English from Normandy and Guyenne during the final campaigns of the Hundred Years' War. His reign lasted barely two years before his death in 1458, making issues struck under his authority among the shortest-lived in the ducal sequence. The billon content of these deniers reflects the chronic silver shortage that plagued French and Breton minting throughout the mid-fifteenth century.