King Henry VIII -Reformation

 

 

28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547

 

 

This is on the edge between Henry VII and Henry VIII.  A museum expert told the seller that it was likely Henry VIII, but I prefer to just let it rest on the edge.

 

 

Here is an Archbishop Cranmer hammered half groat of Henry VIII

Here is what I have read about it.  The TC on the reverse suggests that it is from the Thomas Cranmer period, though the author thought the early part of it.  Cranmer was in power from 1532 to 1547.  At least this coin falls firmly in Henry's reign where the upper coin is a little "iffy".  This coin is somewhat bent, but so much better to look at and on the date, that is is worth it.

 

 found at: Petworth ,West Sussex

 

How did the old Rhyme go? 

 

Divorced... Beheaded... Died...

Divorced... Beheaded... Survived.

 

Catherine (Sonless)...

Anne Boleyn (Sonless and accused of incest)...

Jane Seymour (Died after childbirth)...

Anne of Cleaves (Ugly)...

Catherine Howard (Adulteress)...

Catherine Parr (his nurse in old age)

 

Many people think only of Henry's six wives when his name comes up, but Henry was REMARKABLE in many ways.  Certainly he was self centered, but perhaps that is a by-product of being king.  He was handsome and athletic in youth.  Jousting, wrestling...tall, athletic...a defender of Catholicism, a religious scholar, a poet and song writer.  Greensleeves was his most famous song.

When he had no son to carry on his second generation dynasty, he could not live without...he plunged the country into religious chaos over the Divorce from Catherine of Aragon, his brother Arthur's widow and the Aunt of King Philip of Spain,(Philip was the Holy Roman Emperor and had the ear and the fear of the Pope at the time) and eventually converted the country to Protestantism, just to get into Anne Boleyn's pants...surely there were some nice Catholic girls hanging about. 

He could have waited out Catherine, as she did not live very many years after this.

In later years he disbanded and looted the monasteries and abbeys.

He had his only son by Jane Seymour(who was supposedly dumb as a post, but the only one he loved), Edward VI, but he did not survive long.  Thus in the end Mary, his first child, inherited anyway...and when she died after a counter Protestant reign with plenty of heretic burnings, Elizabeth I was next...She was: His One Great Accomplishment...the greatest Ruler of England, and of her age.   In the end, his dynasty ended, and the Stuarts...all in all, a disastrous bunch...succeeded the short lived Tudor dynasty.