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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 6416292, member: 110504&quot;]Since it’s still Monday in this part of the world, there’s this convergence of still recent acquisitions --although one of them has already been posted.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1254032[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1254033[/ATTACH]</p><p>Picardie (now in Belgium); jeton of Tournai, c. 1415-1497.&nbsp; ‘Found in Suffolk;’ the background of the dealer’s pics is cool: a repro of a page from the Luttrell Psalter; English, c. earier 14th c.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1254034[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1254035[/ATTACH]</p><p>England, Henry VIII, halfgroat of York.&nbsp; First coinage; star mintmark, c. 1514-1526.&nbsp; Issued under Archbishop /Cardinal Wolsey.&nbsp; Papal keys in left and right fields, cardinal’s hat below.&nbsp; Spink (all I’m looking at, for this minute) 2326.</p><p>The last titled, never mind practicing knight in my direct line of descent was Lionel Dymoke, who accompanied Henry VIII on his invasion of France in 1513.&nbsp; Although predicated on a tangle of continental diplomatic obligations, the campaign can be (and was) seen as a continuation of the Hundred Years’ War, which had ended in French victory sixty years before.&nbsp; (Witness Henry&#039;s continuing claim to the throne of France, at the end of the obverse legend, and the arms of England, still quartering the arms of England with those of France.)&nbsp; From Calais (the only remaining English possession in France), the army advanced eastward across Flanders, razing Therouanne, routing the French at the Battle of the Spurs, and capturing Tournai.&nbsp; Despite the auspicious beginning, however, the logistics of a permanent occupation proved too much.&nbsp; The costs of the campaign --including conspicuous displays both of early artillery, and of Henry’s more generalized extravagance-- proved unsustainable, and the army withdrew.&nbsp; Henry formally ceded Tournai back to Francis I in 1518.&nbsp; As Charles Cruikshank summarizes, ‘the most that can be said about the campaign is that Henry achieved his personal objective.&nbsp; ....[In light of the preceding century, and Henry’s own chivalric aspirations, h]onour was satisfied – at a staggering price.’&nbsp; (Henry VIII and the Invasion of France.&nbsp; 1990 / 1991, p. 163.)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Back home in northern England, within earshot of more pressing hostilities along the Scottish border, a note of ambivalence might be heard in Lionel’s will, drawn up on 15 April of the preceding year.</p><p>“I leon Dymoke [...] being of good and hoole mynde make and ordigne my testament and Last will in forme following [....&nbsp; F]orasmoch as no man is certein of the houre of dethe nor what place he shall die and nothyng so certein as dethe[,] and for as moch as I by the kynges pleasure shall goo in hys warrys in the parties be yond the see[:] Therefore my body to be buryed where it shall please almyghty god [....]</p><p>(From an extract of the will quoted by James Conway Walter, as ‘a good speciment of the orthography of the period,’ in his History of Horncastle (Horncastle [Lincs.]: Morton, 1908), p. 184.&nbsp; On Google Books, in full view: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/28dkudo" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://tinyurl.com/28dkudo" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/28dkudo</a>.)</p><p>Here’s what’s left of Lionel’s less than flattering monumental brass, in the parish church of Hornsby, Cumbria, a little southwest of Carlisle.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1254037[/ATTACH]</p><p>This is a Victorian rendition of the entire brass, with the full inscriptions (in late medieval Latin), and the shield in the upper right corner, the coat of arms of the office of ‘King’s Champion.’&nbsp; This was the guy who, on the eve of the king’s coronation, would show up in the banqueting hall, in full armor, on horseback, and challenge anyone who would contest the royal succession.&nbsp; Lionel, being a younger brother, saw fit to include it on his brass anyway.&nbsp; ...The sheer profusion of coats of arms, through maternal as well as paternal descent, presages the profusion of heraldic ‘quartering’ (1/16-ing, etc.) which would shortly ensue, signalling the full arrival of heraldry into its modern, some might suggest more decadent phase.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1254039[/ATTACH]</p><p>...Yipes.&nbsp; For people in other time zones, this is equal parts freaking early, and freaking late.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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