At Northampton there was an important Castle where parliament was sometimes held; It was the first major Norman Castle a day’s ride from London. The favourite castle of King John, who visited 30 times, he moved his royal treasury to the Castle in 1205, and the Castle was associated with a mint. Henry III undertook major works at Northampton Castle from 1248. So great was the disruption during the improvements that it became inconvenient to hold the great tournaments until the work was almost completed in 1265-6. Simon de Montfort seized Northampton in 1264, and lost it again. He was finally defeated and slain at the Battle of Evesham in August 1265. This was a disruptive time and Henry was enraged at the behaviour of the University students in Northampton, and forced their return to Oxford decreeing that ‘no scholars (are) permitted to reside in Northampton’. 

​Northampton is a fairly common provincial mint for the voided long cross pennies, with 888 coins documented in the Brussels hoard. Moneyers were Lucas Parmentarius, Philip the son of Robert, Thomas Rinne, and William of Gangy.  Output of all the moneyers was fairly even, when considering both major hoards.   Northampton was amongst the earliest provincial mints to issue coins, and 10 specimens of class 2b1 are known from the Brussels hoard. Equally scarce are coins of class 3ab2.  Note that no coins of class 3a2 were found in the Brussels hoard.