EUROPEAN COINS & MEDALS
CHOICE COLLECTION OF ENGLISH GOLD COINS
Edward VI, 1547-1553. Sovereign n.d. (1550-1553), London. Third period. EDWARD VI D G AGL FRA Z HIBER REX. Half-length crowned portrait of king right, holding orb and shouldering sword // IHS AVTE TRANCI PER MEDIV ILLOR. Crowned shield of arms with lion and griffin supporters. Fr. 186; North 1927; Spink 2450. 11,08 g.
GOLD. Rare. Good very fine Edward VI was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. Son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, he was England's first monarch raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from Scotland as well as Boulogne-sur-Mer in exchange for peace. The transformation of the Church into a recognisably Protestant body occurred under Edward. Although his father, Henry VIII, had severed the link between the Church of England and Rome, Henry VIII had never permitted the renunciation of Catholic doctrine or ceremony. It was during his reign that Protestantism was established for the first time in England with reforms that included the abolition of clerical celibacy and the Mass and the imposition of compulsory services in English. In February 1553, at age 15, Edward fell ill. When his sickness was discovered to be terminal, he and his Council drew up a "Devise for the Succession," attempting to prevent the country's return to Catholicism. Edward named his first cousin Lady Jane Grey, as his heir and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. However, this decision was disputed following Edward's death, and Jane was deposed by Mary within 13 days. As queen, Mary reversed Edward's Protestant reforms, which nonetheless became the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559.