Denier - Rudolph III Lyon mint, temple

Rudolph III, the last independent king of Burgundy, clung to a throne that had been steadily hollowed out by the nobility around him. By the time these deniers were being struck at Lyon, he had already made Henry II of Germany his heir — a 1006 concession that effectively signed the kingdom's death warrant. When Rudolph died in 1032, the Kingdom of Arles passed to Conrad II exactly as arranged, absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire without military contest. The Lyon mint was one of the few royal prerogatives Rudolph retained with any consistency during this period of erosion.