6. COINS OF THE STUARTS |
Note: Strictly
speaking the Stuart kings cover the period between the death of Elizabeth I and
1688, when James II was deposed. For convenience, this section will only
include coins up to 1662 in the reign of Charles II, when the old handmade
hammered coins were produced for the last time, because this marks a
fundamental transition in the history of British coinage.
History
When James VI of
Scotland became king of England as James I, there was renewed conflict between
Catholics and Protestants, culminating in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when Guy
Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament and the king. It was a time of great
religious ferment and an unresolved conflict between the powers of the king and
Parliament that was a hangover from the reign of Elizabeth. The general unrest
was also aggravated by periodic outbreaks of bubonic plague, the worst of which
came in 1625. On the other hand the long drawn out war with Spain had fizzled
to a close in the last years of Elizabeth with the death of Philip II.
Likewise, the war in Ireland, which had been such a heavy drain on the
country's finances, had also ended.
During the reign
of Charles I, which began in 1625, his relationship with Parliament quickly
deteriorated. Charles had inherited the autocratic views of his father, which
found its expression in the "Divine Right of Kings" to rule as they
saw fit. To make his situation worse, the marriage of Charles to a Catholic,
the French princess Henrietta Maria, aroused great suspicion, aggravated when
he became embroiled in a new and unsuccessful war with Spain and was unable to
persuade Parliament to grant him the necessary funds to prolong it. When Parliament
wanted to impeach the Duke of Buckingham, Charles' favourite, after the failure
of a naval expedition against Cadiz, he dissolved Parliament for a second time.
When, in desperation, Charles tried to raise money by imposing forced loans it
was opposed by over 70 of the gentry who refused to contribute. Charles
highhanded response was to have them arrested. He had even less success with
his third Parliament, which sat from March 1628 until dissolved in March 1629.
Charles then attempted to rule the country on his own for the next eleven
years, making an enforced peace with Spain and also France, after an ill-fated
expedition to La Rochelle in support of French Protestants.
During this period
he imposed the so-called Ship Money, aimed at supporting the Royal Navy but
widely opposed and a source of further unrest. In 1639 he found himself at war
with his Scottish subjects over attempts to enforce Protestant reforms onto the
Scottish Church. In the so-called Bishops Wars, Charles found himself
out-manoeuvred and agreed to a truce, only to be defeated when war broke out
again the following year.
When, of
necessity, Charles was forced to recall Parliament in 1640, the scene was set
for confrontation, which culminated in the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. On
22 November 1641 Parliament passed the Grand Remonstrance setting out all the
wrongs committed by the king. When Charles tried to arrest of five members of
Parliament who had opposed him, they escaped and this triggered off a
rebellion. One of the decisive mistakes Charles made was to immediately leave
London in order to find safety with his supporters, leaving Parliament in
control of London and most of the south east of England by default.
For the first
three years the war was only spasmodic, interspersed with abortive attempts at
a peace settlement. In the opening battle, at Edgehill during October 1642, the
Royalists gained the advantage, and the Parliamentary army was forced to
retreat towards London. This was followed by further minor victories for the
Royalists but the situation quickly became confused and the refusal of
hard-liners to negotiate a peace with Parliament eventually rebounded on them.
The battle of Marston Moor in July 1644 brought about a devastating victory for
the Parliamentary forces and the fall of York, which had been under siege.
Further Parliamentary victories at Naseby and Langport in 1645 eventually led
to the surrender of Charles to the Scots, who had allied themselves with
Parliament.
Charles was handed
over to the English and held prisoner while negotiations were conducted with
Parliament about how the situation might be resolved. Then in 1648 came a
second Civil War, with a series of Royalist rebellions and the invasion of a
Scottish army in support of Charles after a series of intrigues. All were
defeated by the strong Parliamentary forces. Angry at what was perceived as
treachery, the army insisted that Charles be put on trial. Having been found
guilty, Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. His son was immediately proclaimed
king by the Scots as Charles II.
During the next
two years Oliver Cromwell, who had emerged as the new leader of the army, was
engaged in putting down rebellions in Scotland and Ireland. He defeated the
Scots army at Dunbar in September 1650 but Charles II had invaded deep into
England and it was to be another year before Cromwell could finally beat him at
the battle of Worcester. Despite being hunted for nearly seven weeks Charles II
finally managed to escape to France.
The period of
Parliamentary rule was termed the Commonwealth. Tensions grew with the army
under Cromwell until he dismissed Parliament and took control himself as Lord
Protector. After his death in 1658, his son Richard ruled instead, with notable
lack of success, and circumstances began to favour a restoration of the
monarchy. Charles II made clear his desire for reconciliation in the
Declaration of Breda, April 1660. In May 1660 Parliament proclaimed Charles II
king and he returned to England a few days later.
The coinage
Coins of James I
fall into three distinct groups, an initial issue 1603-1604, the second
1604-1619 and finally 1619-1625. None of the coins from this reign are dated
and the changes mainly affect the gold series. Most of the coins of the first
issue bear the reverse legend EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI ("Let God
arise and His enemies be scattered"). The gold sovereign was produced on a
large, thin flan and initially had a value of 20 shillings. Those of the second
issue are usually referred to the unite, from the reverse legend FACIAM EOS IN
GENTEM UNAM ("I will make them one nation") referring to the king's
intention for the union of both his kingdoms. Due to a rise in the price of
gold, these coins were revalued in 1612 at 22 shillings. In the third coinage
the unite was replaced with a coin known as the laurel (from the laureate bust
of the king on the obverse), which was lighter and valued at 20 shillings.
Other gold coins reflecting similar value and weight revisions were the half
sovereign (later called the double crown and then half-laurel), the crown
(later the quarter-laurel) and the halfcrown. In
parallel with the gold issues, both the crown and halfcrown
were also produced in silver, depicting the king on horseback
James I gold
unite - Second coinage 1604-1619
James I gold laurel - Third coinage 1619-1625 with
value mark XX (20 shillings)
Photo courtesy of Mike Vosper
Occupying what
was, by now, an anachronistic position, were the gold ryal of 30 shillings
(value mark XXX) and the half or spur ryal of 15 shillings (marked XV),
together with the gold angel and half angel. Except for the angel, which
survived until 1643, these were the final issues of these denominations.
James I also produced
shillings, sixpences, half groats, pennies and halfpennies in silver. An
important step was the introduction of the copper farthing. Hitherto English
monarchs had refused to countenance the idea of a base metal coinage but James,
with his experience of such coins in Scotland, licensed Lord Harrington to
produce them. Later this licence passed to the Duke of Lennox. The first
Harrington issues were on a small flan and given a surface coating of tin,
possibly to continue the fiction of a silver coinage. His later farthings and
the Lennox issues were on a larger flan and omitted the tin surface.
This practice
continued into the reign of Charles I. The Duke of Lennox became the Duke of
Richmond shortly before he died and the patent passed to his widow. These coins
are known as the Richmond or Royal issues. From 1634 farthings were minted
under a licence sold to Lord Maltravers. Due to the large number of copies that
began to circulate the design was changed to include a small brass plug which
made them almost impossible to forge. These plugged coins are known as the Rose
farthings.
Charles I
farthing - Richmond issue 1625-1634
The reign of
Charles I is probably the most interesting, numismatically, of all the English
coins. This is mostly because of the changes in design, a new gold denomination
(the triple unite), the experiments with a milled coinage by Nicholas Briot and the provincial mints that were
opened during the Civil War. To these must be added the various siege issues,
most of which consisted of pieces of metal cut from silver tableware and
stamped with their value, most notably the diamond shaped "coins" of
Newark with OBS NEWARKE in 1645-1646.
Coins of Charles I
fall into two periods, 1625-1642 and those during the Civil War 1642-1648. In
the early period the gold denominations consisted of the unite of 20 shillings
(marked XX), double crown (X) and crown (V), besides the angels mentioned
previously.
Charles I gold
crown - 1632-1641
Tower
mint - mintmark: Crown
Silver coins
consisted of the crown and halfcrown, both showing
the king on horseback, shilling (value mark XII), sixpence (VI), halfgroat (II), penny and halfpenny, all produced at the
Tower Mint in London. When a new mint was opened in Aberystwyth in 1638 to
exploit the output from Welsh silver mines, it produced shillings, sixpences,
threepences, halfgroats, pennies and halfpennies,
plus groats, all bearing the three ostrich plumes emblem of the Prince of Wales
as a mintmark.
Charles I halfcrown 1625-1642
Tower
mint
Charles I shilling
1635-1639
Tower
mint - mintmark: star
When, in 1642, the
Civil War broke out, the Tower mint fell into the hands of Parliament who
continued to issue coins in the name of Charles I bearing
his portrait and using the same reverse designs. Charles was forced to open a
mints in Shrewsbury and Oxford from which he issued the gold triple unite
(value mark III) with the reverse design consisting of what is known as the
Declaration - RELIG PROT LEG ANG LIBER PAR ("The religion of the
Protestants the laws of England and the liberty of Parliament"). Other
denominations from these two mints included the large silver pound, halfpound, crown and halfcrown,
with similar reverse and value marks of XX, X, V and 2.6 respectively.
Production at Oxford continued until 1646 and included other denominations.
Other Royalist mints were opened at York, from 1643 until its capture by
Parliament in 1644, Bristol (1643-1645, Exeter (1645-1646), Truro (1642-1643),
Worcester (1643-1644) and Chester (1644). Siege issues included Carlisle (1644-1645),
Newark and Scarborough, the latter excessively rare.
Charles I halfcrown
minted at York
Mintmark:
EBOR
Coins referred to
as the Late Declaration issues, were minted during 1645 and 1646. These have
been variously attributed but may have been made at a travelling mint. They
bear the mintmark A or B and at one time were thought to have been struck on
Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. This has now been discarded in favour of
Ashby de La Zouch in Leicestershire and Bridgnorth, Worcestershire. During
1648-1649 a mint was operated at the Aberystwyth silver mills, because the
castle, where the original mint had been sited, had been destroyed. This is
referred to as the Aberystwyth Furnace mint.
Commonwealth shilling 1651
During the
Commonwealth a standard design was used on all coins, consisting of an obverse
showing the shield of St George within a wreath and the legend THE COMMONWEALTH
OF ENGLAND and reverse with date, value mark and legend GOD WITH VS with two
shields, that of St George and that of Ireland (the smaller denominations, two
pence, penny and halfpenny omitted the date and legends). The conjoined shields
on the reverse led to these coins being called "Breeches money". They
were struck in most years from 1649 to 1660. In gold these consisted of the
unite, double crown and crown, and in silver, the crown, halfcrown,
shilling, sixpence, halfgroat, penny and halfpenny.
At the same time Blondeau and others conducted experiments in a milled coinage, including a series of patterns with
the portrait of Oliver Cromwell.
After the
restoration hammered coins were only produced for the first years of Charles
II, ceasing in 1662. The denominations were the same as those of the
Commonwealth with the addition of a groat and a threepence. Thereafter
only machine made milled coins were minted.
Appendix 1
The Stuarts
James I
1603-1625
Charles I 1625-1649
Charles II
1660-1685
James II 1685-1688
The
Commonwealth 1649-1660 (including Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector 1656-1658)