British King "Bullest Book, Henry VI, 1422 - 1461, October 1470 - April 1471
BillJones
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Henry VI Groat (4 Pence), S-1859
• Henry VI lacked the mental capacity to be an effective king. A pious man, it has been suggested that he would have been better suited to be a monk in a monastery. He suffered from debilitating bouts of mental illness, which may have been porphyria, the inherited disease that decimated George III in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Henry inherited the British throne at nine months of age, which made him the youngest of all the kings.
• Henry was crowned the king of both France and England, but that did not last long.
• Things unraveled for Henry in France, and the French won their independence from England by armed rebellion, aided at one point lead by Joan of Arc.
• Henry’s wife, Queen Margaret, was power behind the throne.
• The War of the Roses, as it would later be called, resulted in Henry’s removal from the throne. Edward IV replaced him.
• He would regain the crown for a brief period after the Duke of Warwick set him up as a figurehead king. After eight months he was removed again. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London where he was quietly executed. This was a fate that many deposed kings met as a way to get them out of the political picture.
Comments
It looks like the quality of the artwork is advancing rapidly at this point. Both the portrait and the lettering are much improved.
I wonder how many groats they had to pay the headsman?
I am not sure if it is the quality of the initial minting process or the fact that coins from this king are fairly common and easy to find. This was one of the first higher grade hammered pieces that I bought, and I have seen many other examples that were quite nice.