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Coinage of Great Britain. Celtic
to Decimalisation, by Ken Elks.
Part 5, Tudor Coins.
History
During the whole of the medieval
period the economy of England had been growing steadily. Gradually increasing
trade with the Continent and the growth of towns led to a need for a more
extensive coinage, which included the introduction of gold denominations. The
prosperity of England was mainly based on agriculture and animal husbandry,
accompanied by increasing industry, such as wool textiles, and commerce. This
received a setback in the fourteenth century with the advent of the Black
Death, which caused a sharp decline in the population to half of what it had
been previously. More importantly it seemed to have a disproportionate effect
on children and males in particular, with disastrous consequences for the
economy. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the fifteenth century the abatement
in the incidence of plague brought about a recovery. The residual effect was
mainly in higher wages and price levels, which themselves stimulated the demand
for money.
This recovery did not last long
into the fifteenth century and there is strong evidence of a contraction in the
economy. Trade with the Continent fell dramatically as a result of the
successive wars waged by English kings aimed at extending or defending their
possessions in France and in quarrels with Spain and the Hanseatic League. All
this was combined with a continued fall in the population that sent the economy
into a severe recession. The Wars of the Roses and internal strife, coupled
with periodic outbreaks of plague and other diseases, had a similar effect.
By the accession of the first of
the Tudor monarchs, Henry VII in 1485, the economy was in ruins. Although it is
possible that some kind of recovery had already started, the policies of Henry
proved extremely effective in restoring the wealth of the nation.
His first step was to effect a
reconciliation between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists by marrying Elizabeth,
the daughter of Edward IV. The emblem he adopted, the Tudor rose, combined both
the red rose of Lancaster with the white rose of York. Nevertheless his right
to be king was extremely slim and throughout his reign there were numerous
plots to supplant him. The most serious of these was that of Perkin Warbeck,
who claimed to be the son of Edward IV and was supported by both France and the
Netherlands. It was not until near the end of his reign that his throne was
secure from internal threats.
A brief involvement at the
outset in a war between Spain and France convinced Henry that there was a
better way for an impoverished country to conduct its affairs and he quickly
made peace with France. In 1496 he finally persuaded the Netherlands to abandon
the cause of Warbeck, whose final defeat quickly followed, and entered into a
treaty, the Intercursus Magnus, which not only brought peace but also
increased trade between the two countries.
Scotland, too, had supported
Warbeck and it was not until 1499 that a peace treaty was signed, followed by
the marriage of Henry's daughter, Margaret, to the Scottish king, James IV.
Such policies of Henry VII not only kept England out of foreign wars but also,
through a series of commercial treaties, enriched the nation.
Domestically Henry was at pains
to secure as much wealth as possible to free himself from dependence on
Parliament. This was accomplished by a prudent management of finances, greater
efficiency in administration and increasing revenues from, for example, customs
duties by encouraging exports. This was augmented by a ruthless application of
fines and levies. When he died in 1509 he left to his son, Henry VIII, a secure
realm and a large fortune.
Unfortunately, Henry VIII,
notorious for his several wives and the break with the catholic church which
led to the Reformation, deserved greater opprobrium for the ruin that he
brought to the kingdom, which, among other things, necessitated the first
debasement of the English coinage.
Almost immediately Henry VIII
began to make war on France as an ally of Spain. An expedition that landed near
Bayonne ended in failure and the English navy was disastrously defeated at
Brest in April 1513. Undeterred, Henry invaded northern France with a large
army, capturing Tournai. Meanwhile a Scottish invasion as an ally of France was
defeated at Flodden, resulting in the death of the Scottish King, James IV.
The minority of his successor, James V, whose mother and regent was Henry's
sister, Margaret ensured peace for a while. A treaty with France followed in
1514 but a new French king, Francis I, brought about a revival in French
martial prowess and aroused Henry's jealousy by his successes.
England, however, benefited
initially from a new rivalry between Spain and France, both of whom wanted an
alliance to offset the power of the other. In 1520 there came the famous
meeting between France and England in the pageant known as the Field of the
Cloth of Gold, despite which England became a firm ally of Spain and in 1522
joined in a war against France. This culminated in a resounding victory for
Spanish arms in 1525, to which the England involvement was peripheral. In an
effort to curb Spain's growing power, England blundered into allying itself
with France, both countries declaring war on Spain in 1528. The Peace of
Cambrai the following year left England isolated once again.
From 1527 Henry VIII had been
seeking a divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon. This partly contributed
to the rift with Spain and resulted from attempts to incur favour with the Pope
by supporting him in his struggles with the Spanish Emperor, Charles V. By 1530
Henry felt he had waited long enough and began the process that led to the
final break with Rome. The pregnancy of his mistress, Anne Boleyn, added
impetus and by 1534 the transfer of papal power to the king was complete. The
dissolution of the monasteries quickly followed.
The Crown was greatly enriched
by the proceeds from confiscation of Church assets as well as, for eight years,
the prudent administration of Thomas Cromwell, but five years of upheaval took
their toll. With the downfall of Cromwell, Henry took the reigns of government
on himself and almost immediately got embroiled in Continental politics again.
A new war with Scotland began in 1542 and ended with a rout of a Scottish army
that led to the death of their king but left the pro-French faction in control.
Any gain was temporary, as Henry's bungled attempts at diplomacy afterwards
revived Scottish nationalism to the extent that hostilities again broke out and
continued virtually to the end of the reign.
Mistakenly thinking that the
northern crisis had been resolved, Henry declared war on France in alliance
with Spain. Having captured Boulogne, the English advance petered out and after
three years and the collapse of the alliance Henry had to make peace. The war
cost over £2 million, a horrendously large sum at the time, and for little
gain. The escalation of taxes to pay for it led to rapid inflation. To pay for
this, large amounts of crown land were sold, and loans incurred abroad at
exorbitant rates of interest and in 1544 the coinage was debased. The effect of
the final years of Henry VIII was to destroy the English economy and undermine
its prosperity for several decades.
The brief reign (1547-1553) of
the boy king, Edward VI, was marred by a renewed war with Scotland and large
scale unrest in England, notably Ket's rebellion of 1549. The faction led by
the Earl of Northumberland following the ousting of the Lord protector, the
Earl of Somerset began some reform of government without success, but when
Edward died prematurely, Northumberland's attempt to install Lady Jane Grey on
the throne ended in failure and his (and Lady Jane's) execution. The equally
brief reign of Edward's sister Mary, known as "Bloody Mary" for her
persecution of Protestants, was noted for its futile attempt to restore the
Catholic faith and a war which led to the loss of Calais, the final English
possession in France. In 1554 she married Philip II of Spain, a move which
proved equally unpopular with her people.
When Mary died of cancer in
1558, her sister Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII's only
surviving child, became queen. Her reign ushered in a new era of prosperity and
greatness that laid the foundation which finally established England on the
world stage.
For the first years of her
reign, the country was at peace while Elizabeth struggled to establish herself,
treating the Catholics with moderation, which gradually won them over. The
intransigence of the Puritans compelled her to take action against them and
forced them into a degree of conformity, but in 1567 Mary, Queen of Scots,
herself a great granddaughter of Henry VII, was driven from Scotland and became
the focus of Catholic plots to supplant Elizabeth. Although imprisoned by
Elizabeth the thoughtless intrigues of Mary and her supporters eventually led
to her execution.
The central themes of
Elizabeth's policies were good government at home and sound finances.
Throughout she maintained an uneasy alliance with Philip II of Spain that
served both rulers well, but the strains proved too much. The main cause of the
break was growing rivalry between Spain and England in the newly discovered
Americas, aggravated by Spanish involvement in the many plots against the Queen
and their support of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the fomentation of rebellion in
Scotland against the Anglophile regents. Successive crises and minor skirmishes
brought open conflict with Spain in 1585 which was to last to the end of
Elizabeth's reign. The greatest danger was the Spanish Armada of 1588, which
was to link up with Spanish forces in the Netherlands and invade England.
Although this was defeated there were several more attempts afterwards which
met with a similar lack of success. As a prelude, Mary, Queen of Scots, was
executed in 1587 for approving yet another plot against Elizabeth that had
already been betrayed to Walsingham, the head of Elizabeth's secret service.
With some startling successes
and quite a few failures the war dragged on and was further complicated in 1595
by a rebellion in Ireland which embroiled Elizabeth's armies and became a
constant drag on the royal purse until finally suppressed in 1600. Yet at the
same time, English merchants began to open up new trade routes, colonies were
established in America and, for the most part, the English navy began to rule
the sea lanes.
Just before Elizabeth died in
1603, she named the Scottish King, James VI, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, as
her successor. By that time, the war with Spain had virtually faded away after
the death of Philip in 1598.
The coinage
The early coinage of Henry VII
continued that of previous reigns, consisting of the groat, half-groat, penny
and halfpenny in silver with their traditional facing portraits. In gold, there
was the ryal of ten shillings, the angel valued at six shillings and eight
pence and a half angel of three shillings and fourpence. All the gold
denominations are scarce.
Henry VII early groat, continuing
the designs of previous reigns 1485-1505
Tower mint - mintmark: Crowned leopard's
head
In 1489 Henry replaced the ryal
with the sovereign, valued at 20 shillings, a large gold coin based on the real
d'or of the Netherlands. In silver he introduced a new coin the shilling or
testoon, probably in 1505.
The major innovation of his
reign was the introduction in 1502 of a realistic profile portrait of the king
on the obverse of the groat and half-groat and also the new testoon when that
was first minted. This replaced the stylised facing portrait of previous reigns
and was the work of Alexander Brugsal, a German appointed as engraver to the
mint in 1494. The obverse legend was expanded to give the king's name as HENRIC
VII, a practice continued by his successors. The design of the penny was also
changed, to show the king seated on a throne, from which it became known as the
"sovereign penny".
Henry VII silver groat with
lifelike profile portrait
It was first used on trial pieces in
1502 and adopted in 1505
The first issues of Henry VIII
were practically identical to those of his father but reading HENRIC VIII, with
little change until 1525. However, in 1526 the rising value of gold led to a
revaluation of the gold coins so that the sovereign became worth twenty-two
shillings. Other gold coins showed similar increases. In order to preserve the
standard 6 shillings and 8 pence unit of accountancy a new gold coin with
that value, the George noble which showed St George spearing a dragon, was
introduced to replace the angel, now worth 7s. 6d. Neither that coin, nor two
others, the half-George of 3s 4d and the rose crown of 4s 6d, proved to be
popular and were quickly discontinued. They were replaced by a gold crown of
five shillings and half crown of 2s 6d.
*Image*
Henry VIII silver groat with new profile portrait introduced in 1526
On the silver groat and half
groat from 1526 onwards a new portrait was introduced of the young Henry VIII.
In his third coinage 1544-1547, the state of the nation's finances necessitated
some drastic changes. The gold coinage reverted to the original values but was
reduced in weight to compensate. Sovereigns of twenty shillings,
half-sovereigns, angels (though of the same value as the George noble at 6s 8d
the design went back to the former standing figure of St Michael killing a
dragon), crown, half angel and half crown. The testoon or shilling made a
reappearance, now with a bearded facing portrait of the king, which was also
used on the groat and half groat. These silver issues were heavily debased, and
as a result the king was referred to as "Old Copper Nose", because
the king's nose turned copper-coloured when the coin began to wear.
The earliest coins of Edward VI
were posthumous issues for his father, continued until 1550 together with base
silver coins for Edward himself. Among these base silver coins were shillings
which were the first English coins to bear a date, shown in Roman numerals,
MDXLIX for 1549, MDL for 1550 and MDLI for 1551. During 1551, as part of
Northumberland's reforms, these were replaced by a coinage of good quality
silver, which included two new denominations, the sixpence and the threepence.
All three coins bore value marks in Latin numerals, XII, VI and III pence, the
first ever used on English coins.
Edward VI fine silver shilling
1551-1553
The sixpence and threepence were of a
similar design
As part of the reforms there was
a gold sovereign valued at thirty shillings with obverse of a seated facing
figure of the king enthroned, but this was soon replaced with a lighter coin of
twenty shillings depicting a three-quarter length bust of the king. Other gold
denominations included the half sovereign, initially fifteen shillings then a
ten shilling coin similar to the sovereign, the crown and half crown, both with
proportionate values. The fine silver issues from 1551 onwards included crowns
and half crowns with an obverse showing the king on horseback, a design that
continued until the Commonwealth.
The coinage of Mary divides
naturally into two parts, first as queen in her own right and then those coins
issued after her marriage in 1554 to Philip of Spain. Among the early issues
was a fine gold sovereign with a high degree of workmanship valued at thirty
shillings together a ryal, by that time something of an anachronism, angels and
half-angels. In silver there were no crowns, half crowns or shillings but
plentiful quantities of groats, rare half groats and a few pennies. The
shilling and sixpence were reintroduced after 1554 for the coinage bearing
facing portraits of Philip and Mary
*Image*
Mary groat from the period prior to her marriage, 1553-1554
Tower mint - mintmark: pomegranate
After her succession, Elizabeth
took the courageous and costly step of recalling all the base silver coins
which were still in circulation and replacing them with coins of a high silver
content. As a first step some of the base silver coins were devalued and
countermarked. Coins of Edward VI exhibiting a greyhound countermark were part
of this process.
The long reign of Elizabeth
brought many changes to the coinage and a wide range of denominations. It also
saw the tentative beginnings of the change to a milled coinage. The gold
denominations consisted of the fine sovereign of thirty shillings, the pound,
half pound, crown and half crown of twenty, ten, five shillings and 2s 6d
respectively. Occupying a slightly anomalous position were the series of
angels, half angels and quarter angels, all with the same values as the half
pound, crown and half crown. The initial series of silver coins included the
shilling (now firmly established as a major denomination), groat, half groat
and penny.
Elizabeth I shilling of her second
coinage1560-61
mintmark: crosslet
In her third coinage, from 1561
onwards, these were supplemented by the reintroduced sixpence, threepence and
two new and short-lived denominations, the three half pence and three
farthings, all of which bear the date of mintage above the shield on the
reverse.
Elizabeth I sixpence dated 1565
Halfpence were struck towards
the end of the reign. During the last two years two beautiful coins, silver
crowns and half crowns, were issued bearing a half-length bust of the queen
holding an orb and sceptre. These bear the dates in the form of a 1 or a 2,
which stood for 1601 and 1602.
*Image*
Elizabeth I silver threepence of 1571
Appendix 1
Tudor monarchs
Henry VII 1485-1509
Henry VIII 1509-1547
Edward VI 1547-1553
Mary 1553-1558
Elizabeth I 1558-1603
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