Here is an essay I wrote a couple years ago for my local club. Perhaps you will enjoy it. Henry VII, 1485 - 1509 The Tudor Dynasty began in England in 1485 when forces under the command of Henry Tudor defeated an army led by King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Richard III was killed in that conflict and would be the last British king to die on the battlefield. Henry Tudor's victory marked the end of a 30 year period known as The War of the Roses. During that time the feuding houses of Lancaster and York had fought over the British crown. The "roses" referred to the symbols of the two factions. The House of Lancaster adopted the red rose while the Yorkists fought under the white rose. Henry Tudor, who was a member of the Lancaster faction, declared himself King Henry VII. He immediately began to consolidate his position by marrying Elizabeth of York who was the daughter of King Edward IV (ruled 1461 to 1483) and heiress to the Yorkist cause. Henry's ancestral claim to the crown was tenuous. He was a descendent on the female side of the family of King Edward III's (ruled from 1327 to 1377) fourth son. There were many others who had much stronger bloodlines to the crown, but Henry's army and his political abilities made him a formidable force. Henry VII was a shrewd and resourceful leader. He pulled members from both factions into his government and used force when necessary to hold his position. When a joiner's son, named Lambert Simnel, claimed that he was a nobleman and led an army against Henry's forces to claim the crown, Henry easily defeated the threat. In a show of mercy Henry did not execute the boy, but gave him a job in the palace kitchens. A more serious threat came from another imposter, Perkin Warbeck. Warbeck claimed to be the younger of two young princes who had disappeared while captives in the Tower of London. (They were probably murdered under the orders of Richard III.) Warbeck received military and financial backing from King Charles VIII of France, the Holly Roman Emperor and King James IV of Scotland. Warbeck proclaimed himself King Richard IV and landed in England from France with a small invasion force that gathered some local support. His backers quickly faded away when they were confronted by Henry's royal army. Warbeck confessed to being an impostor and signed a truce. Foolishly Warbeck tried to raise another army a few years later to press his claim once more. This time Henry tossed Warbeck into the Tower of London and had him hanged as a traitor. Despite the fact that Henry's marriage to Elizabeth of York had been a political union, he loved her deeply. They had four children who survived into their teenage years and beyond. Henry named his oldest son Arthur in honor of the mostly mythical King Arthur, of Camelot fame, who had led the Knights of the Roundtable. Henry groomed Arthur as his successor and arranged a strategic marriage for him to Catherine of Aragon who was daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Thanks to Christopher Columbus' rediscovery of the New World, which had been sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella, Spain had become the richest and strongest country in Europe. The marriage of Arthur into the Spanish royal family was a strategic triumph. Arthur's death in 1502 followed by the death of Elizabeth of York in 1503, while giving birth to the couple's fourth daughter, broke Henry's spirit. When he died in 1509 he was a sad and reclusive figure. Despite the disappointments at the end of his life, Henry VII was successful and significant king. His consolidation of the ruling class and his monetary and fiscal policies, which left England financially strong, set the stage for Great Brittan to become a world power. Henry VII medieval style groat or 4 pence Henry VII Renaissance style groat of 4 pence Henry VII's Coins In addition to his financial and political reforms, Henry VII also brought great changes to British coinage. In 1494 Henry appointed a highly skilled die maker from the area of modern Germany to work at the royal mint. In the early 1500s that engraver introduced a new coinage that bore a realistic image of the king. Prior to that the kings of England had been depicted as medieval, cartoonish looking figures wearing a crown. The new coinage was a reflection of the Renaissance which was sweeping Europe. From a political perspective, the new coinage gave to the people of England a realistic view of their king for the first time. King Henry VIII, 1509 - 1547 The death of Arthur made Henry VII's second son, who was also named Henry, the heir apparent. Henry was a well educated, cultured young man. He wrote poetry, played musical instruments and composed music. Legend has it that the tune, Green sleeves, may have been one Henry VIII's compositions that he wrote when he was trying to seduce his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry was a good athlete. He especially enjoyed the sport of jousting where the participants dressed in full armor, mounted on a horse and charged at one another at full speed with a staff and shield. Henry was knocked unconscious during one of these torments and remained immobile for over an hour. When he revived it was claimed that the injuries he sustained altered his metabolism which caused him to gain weight and may have altered his personality for the worse. Whatever one might think of Henry VIII's personal conduct, there is no denying the fact that he was one of the most influential kings in British history. His bold actions and policies would change England and world history forever. Reading the history of his love life and his quest to find a wife who could bear a male heir for him is more interesting than most works of fiction. Following death of his brother, Arthur, Henry was married to Arthur's widow, Catherine of Argon, in 1509. Catherine was a great beauty in her youth and was only five years older than Henry who was 18 when they were wed. Catherine had no trouble getting pregnant, but all of her children, except for a daughter, Mary, were stillborn or died soon after they were born. In the mean time, like most kings, Henry had a mistresses. One of them, Elizabeth Blount, gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Henry Fitzroy. Since he was born out of wedlock, Fitzroy was not eligible to become king, although Henry desperately looked into that possibility at one point. Although Catherine had given Henry a healthy daughter, that was not satisfactory. Previously there had been women who by birth were in line to rule as queen in their own right, but the nobility of the period would not recognize them. The nobles called them "she wolves." A woman could marry a king and become a queen. She could even represent or act for the king when he was absent, but a woman could not rule on her own. Henry believed he had to have a son to keep the crown in the family. Matters came to a head in 1527 when Henry, who was in love with a court beauty, Anne Boleyn, declared that his marriage to Catherine was not valid because she had been married his bother Arthur. Henry wanted a divorce from Catherine, but there was a problem. Marriage was one of the holy sacraments of the Catholic Church. A marriage between a baptized couple could not be dissolved except by death or a special dispensation from the Pope. Rumors, perhaps planted by Henry, swirled around the count that Catherine had to be a witch because there was no other logical reason for the king to be acting that way. The king had been under an evil spell. At first Pope Clement VII seemed open to Henry's requests for an annulment, but then Catherine's royal Spanish relatives and the Holy Roman Emperor interceded on her behalf. The Pope denied Henry's request for the annulment, and Henry took matters into his own hands. Henry created a new Protestant religion, the Church of England, and placed himself at the head of it. After six years, Henry secretly married Anne, and four months later the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Crammer, granted Henry his divorce. Henry's break with the Catholic Church was complete. Working in concert with Archbishop Crammer and his Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, Henry shut down all of the Catholic abbeys and monasteries and seized their lands and assets. He required every adult male to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne and to recognize her daughter, Elizabeth, and any future children as heirs to the throne. At the same time Henry declared Catherine's daughter, Mary, to be illegitimate. Parliament declared Henry to be, "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England," and made it an act of treason to oppose that edict. Under this law Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher were executed. In the mean time things were not going well between Henry and Queen Anne. Like Catherine, Anne had produced another disappointment, a daughter. After a miscarriage and the birth of stillborn baby boy, Henry accused her of adultery. Henry's wondering eye had spotted another woman who was more to his liking, Jane Seymour, who had been a lady in waiting to both Catherine and Anne. In a trumped up trail presided over by her uncle, Anne was convicted of treason. The only concession Henry gave to his former wife, was to hire a French swordsman who was noted for the quality of his blade and his skill as an executioner. Anne Boleyn was beheaded in the privacy of the courtyard at the Tower of London on May 19, 1536. Jane Seymour finally gave the king what he had long wanted, a son who would live beyond infancy. Prince Edward was born on October 12, 1537 at Hampton Court Palace to great celebration. Sadly Jane died only 12 days after giving birth from a post-natal fever. The grief stricken king buried her at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. When the king died in 1547 he was laid beside her. The king wore black for three months after Jane's death and did not marry again for three years. His next wife was Anne of Cleves, a German princess. The match was based upon political considerations, but it was said that the king was smitten with her when he saw her portrait. Unfortunately the king was sorely disappointed when he met Anne in person. He described her as "the Flanders mare," which in less polite terms met that, to the king, she had the face of a horse. Despite his initial disappointment Henry said his vows to Anne, but the king was unable to consummate the marriage, much to his embarrassment. In less than six months Henry obtained an annulment, and Anne was allowed to live as one of the ladies of the court for the remainder of her days. Less than three weeks after the annulment of Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves, he married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Henry was 49 years old and grossly overweight. Catherine was 19 years old, beautiful and buxom. Catherine, who was a cousin of Anne Boleyn, should have known better. At first the king appeared to be happy, but then rumors began to swirl that Catherine had had affairs before she had married the king and had probably been seeing other men after their marriage. With the backing of Parliament a bill was passed that it was an act of treason for an "unchaste" woman to marry a king. The result was, you guessed it, another beheading. Henry's sixth wife was Catherine Parr who was 31 years old. Parr had been twice widowed and had had a great deal of experience dealing with men during their last illnesses. By this time Henry weighted over 300 pounds, was suffering from diabetes and gout, and had an ulcer on his leg that would not heal. Catherine would be more of a nurse than a wife. Catherine was a good stepmother to Henry's three children and saw to their education. She was also partially responsible for restoring good relations between the king and his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Henry welcomed them back into the family and returned to them their full rights as his offspring. King Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547 thus ending a most eventful life and a reign that had transformed England. His successor was his much beloved son, Edward, who was nine years old. Today students from grade school to college have used this little limerick to recall the fates of Henry's six wives: Divorced, executed, died - Divorced, executed, survived !!! Young Henry VIII Two Pence Old Henry VIII Groat Henry VIII's Coins Henry VIII's portrait coins can be divided into two broad classes. The first depict Henry as a handsome young man. The later pieces show him in is old age, broad faced and much overweight. In his later years, Henry debased the English silver coinage by putting more copper in the alloy. When in circulation these pieces often toned brown on their highest points, thus giving Henry's latter coinage the derogatory term "old copper nose." To be continued ...
In Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I Hotspur jokes with his wife with an anachronistic line that makes sport of Henry VIII's poor quality coins due to too much copper. "We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns, And pass them current too.—Gods me, my horse!—"
Thanks for the history lesson, that is the primary reason for my collections, that and heritage (collect English, Wales, and German coins).
If Henry VIII debased his English silver issues in later years, his Irish coinage was even worse. Here is a half groat struck in London for Ireland, with on the reverse a crowned h and crowned A (= Anne Boleyn). Given Anne's short reign as Queen, these are not so common. Henry and Anne formally married on 25 January 1533, after a secret wedding on 14 November 1532. She was crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533. She was arrested on 2 May 1536, found guilty on 15 May and beheaded on 19 May. The silver content is 0.842. Edward VI's government introduced a new high quality coinage after Henry VIII's death. However, before they did so they issued one final round of debased groats to help finance their new coinage in Henry's name. Here is an example of this posthumous coinage struck for Ireland in Dublin with an official value of Sixpence rather than Four pence:
Hank 8-Ball IRELAND Henry VIII 1509-1547 AR Groat 25mm 2.5g hЄnRIC VIII DI GR RЄX - RΛnCIЄ ЄT hIBЄRnIЄ harp H & R London SCBI 22 Copenhagen, Ex: @Mat
