Afonso II inherited a kingdom already minting billon coinage but quickly became the first Portuguese king to issue coins bearing his own name explicitly — a deliberate assertion of royal authority against the powerful ecclesiastical interests he spent much of his reign fighting. His conflicts with the bishops and his own sisters over property and jurisdiction led to a papal interdict against Portugal in 1220, temporarily placing the entire kingdom outside the Church. Coins struck during that interdict period circulated in a country technically banned from receiving sacraments.
Afonso II inherited a kingdom already minting billon coinage but quickly became the first Portuguese king to issue coins bearing his own name explicitly — a deliberate assertion of royal authority against the powerful ecclesiastical interests he spent much of his reign fighting. His conflicts with the bishops and his own sisters over property and jurisdiction led to a papal interdict against Portugal in 1220, temporarily placing the entire kingdom outside the Church. Coins struck during that interdict period circulated in a country technically banned from receiving sacraments.