William I of Namur ruled the county from 1337 until his death in 1391, a reign that coincided with the most destructive phase of the Hundred Years' War and repeated plague outbreaks that devastated the southern Low Countries. Small billon fractions like this gros division circulated hard in such conditions, filling gaps left by the chronic shortage of good silver that afflicted the region through the mid-fourteenth century. The County of Namur, wedged between more powerful neighbors — Liège, Hainaut, Brabant — relied heavily on its own fractional coinage to sustain local exchange when foreign issues were hoarded or refused.
William I of Namur ruled the county from 1337 until his death in 1391, a reign that coincided with the most destructive phase of the Hundred Years' War and repeated plague outbreaks that devastated the southern Low Countries. Small billon fractions like this gros division circulated hard in such conditions, filling gaps left by the chronic shortage of good silver that afflicted the region through the mid-fourteenth century. The County of Namur, wedged between more powerful neighbors — Liège, Hainaut, Brabant — relied heavily on its own fractional coinage to sustain local exchange when foreign issues were hoarded or refused.