A Coin Issued for British King Henry VIII, the Second of the Tudors
BillJones
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This is a very lovely Henry VIII two pence, a nice AU with considerable mint luster. This piece was issued early in Henry's reign when he was a young man. Later a grossly overweight, more familiar Henry would appear in a straight-on portrait. I have one of those coins on my want list, but have had a hard time locating and attractive example
Here is the Henry VIII portion of an article I wrote for my local club:
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 !!!
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."
Comments
Thanks for the trip down historical memory lane.
Three things to add about Henry VIII:
EVP
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
If Henry VIII continued to be a Roman Catholic after he broke from the church, he was a very bad one given his persecution of the church personnel and the destruction of church property during his reign. On my trip to England, one of the historical guides, who was obviously an Irish - Catholic, compared Henry to "Crazy Hitler" and concluded that Henry was worse.
Perhaps Henry kept up a Catholic facade in an effort to avoid Purgatory or hell given what he done while he was king. We see the same thing with mob figures who continue to go to church every Sunday and commit "mortal sins" during the rest of the week.
As for the lavish parties, I got an image of how that was during a tour of the Tower of London. The graphic description was, Henry and his party animals would eat and drink to excess, fill up the moat around the Tower with sewage, and move on to another location to let that dissipate and party on! That sounds beyond gross.