The Dublin King: The True Story of Lambert Simnel and the Princes in the Tower

by John Ashdown-Hill

  This new coinage was probably originally inspired by the plans made by Edward IV, shortly before his death. However, as actually issued by Richard III, it was not an exact implementation of Edward IV’s indenture of March(?) 1482/83. That indenture had provided for the minting of new pennies and halfpennies. However, the actual ‘three crowns’ coinage consisted only of groats and half groats.36

  Over the years, there were minor variations in the details of both the design and the inscription. In general, the ‘three crowns’ coinage bears the royal arms of France quartering England, together with the first half of the royal title, on the obverse. On the reverse are the three crowns which at this period comprised the arms of Ireland,37 together with the end of the royal title – the part referring to Ireland itself. Coins of the ‘three crowns’ series survive from the mints at Dublin and at Waterford. The coins of the Waterford mint display both the shield bearing the royal arms on the obverse, and the three crowns on the reverse, within tressures (borders of curves, or arches). But such tressures are absent from the coins minted in Dublin.38

  Four types of inscription can be identified on surviving examples of the ‘three crowns’ coins. Some bear the name RICARD., some carry the name HENRICVS (or occasionally HENRIC.), some are inscribed with the name EDWARDVS, and some are anonymous. Thus one example is simply inscribed between the arms of the long crosses front and back:

  obverse: REX A / NGLIE / FRAN / CIE

  reverse: :ET / REX: / HYB / ERNIE

  The inclusion of a small rose in this reverse inscription possibly suggests (but does not prove) a Yorkist context in the case of this specimen,39 and in fact some of these anonymous coins are among those generally attributed to the Dublin King.40 Interestingly, a subgroup of this anonymous coinage comprises specimens where the royal arms on the obverse are flanked by tiny shields bearing the cross saltire of the Fitzgerald coat of arms.

  In terms of rarity, the most numerous ‘three crowns’ coins are the various HENRICVS issues, and the anonymous coins. RICARD. specimens are rarer. The rarest examples are those inscribed EDWARDVS.41 Until the 1960s it had been generally assumed that the existence of ‘three crowns’ coins inscribed EDWARDVS proved that this coinage had actually been introduced at the end of the reign of Edward IV, and that it was therefore the new coinage referred to in Edward’s indenture of 1483. The design and inscription specified in that indenture appeared to fit the ‘three crowns’ coins, for the indenture stipulated that the new coins should carry ‘the king’s arms on one side upon a cross trefoiled on every side and with this scripture Rex Anglie & Francie, and on the other side the arms of Ireland on a like cross with this scripture Dns Hibernie’.42 The obverse of the ‘three crowns’ coins certainly conforms to the description in the indenture, while the reverse design, bearing three crowns one above another, superimposed over a trefoiled cross is one possible interpretation of the wording of the indenture (though the document itself might perhaps have intended that the three crowns would be disposed upon a shield, two above and one below, as on the Irish copper farthings of Edward IV).

  However, Dolley and others have pointed out that the indenture of 1483 spoke of coins of different values to those actually minted. The indenture refers to pennies and halfpennies, whereas the actual ‘three crowns’ coinage comprises half groats and groats only. Dolley therefore concluded:

  All the documentary evidence in fact shows is that at the very end of the reign [of Edward IV] there was being contemplated a new coinage for Ireland, and that the type specified was one very similar to, but not identical with, one eventually used by Richard III, though with the important distinction that Edward seems to have envisaged an ‘English standard’ coinage of pence and halfpence, whereas Richard was content to continue with new types an ‘Irish standard’ coinage of groats, half groats and pennies.43

  In general, Dolley’s conclusion in respect of the documentary evidence is correct (though his statement that the coinage type envisioned by the indenture was ‘not identical with’ that introduced by Richard III contains an element of assumption on his part). Nevertheless the discrepancies between the specifications of the indenture and the coinage later issued by Richard III do not in themselves disprove the notion that Richard was intending to implement Edward’s indenture. We have previously noted other, similar discrepancies between documentary evidence and actual coinage.

  While ‘three crowns’ groats and half groats which bear the names RICARD. and HENRICVS are generally assumed to belong to the reigns of Richard III and Henry VII respectively, once it had been decided that coins of this series bearing the royal name EDWARDVS could not be attributed to Edward IV it obviously became necessary to account for them in some other way. It was therefore proposed that the explanation must lie in the events of 1487. In other words, coin collectors and researchers concluded that the ‘three crowns’ coins inscribed EDWARDVS must have been issued in the name of the Dublin King.44 Since it is now certain that the Dublin King reigned as ‘Edward VI’, this conclusion seems reasonable.

  In addition to the named ‘three crowns’ coins, we noted earlier the existence of anonymous specimens, bearing royal titles only. We also noted the fact that some anonymous specimens bear small shields with a cross saltire to the left and right of the royal arms on the obverse, just below the horizontal arm of the long cross. The cross saltire was the main charge on the coat of arms of the Fitzgerald family (the earls of Kildare and their cousins, the earls of Desmond).45 In this instance it has generally been assumed that the Geraldine arms on the coins refer to Gerald, Earl of Kildare and that therefore the anonymous coins were also issued for the Dublin King – possibly either before he returned to Ireland and was crowned, or after he had been defeated at the Battle of Stoke. This is certainly plausible, but the evidence in respect of the anonymous ‘three crowns’ coins is not, and probably never can be, conclusive.

  In addition to the probable issue of coins in the name of Edward VI, documents were also issued in his name. Not many examples of such documents survive. However, the Ormond Papers in the Irish National Library contain what appears to be a letter issued in the name of ‘Edward VI’ by the Earl of Kildare, as governor of Ireland.46 In translation, this reads:

  Edward, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, to all to whom these presents may come, greeting. Know that we have granted to our dear Peter Buttyller ‘gentilman’, otherwise called Peter Buttiller, son of James Buttiller ‘gentilman’, the office of sheriff of our county of Kilkenny, to have and to hold the said office to the aforesaid Peter during our pleasure – saving to us the fines and amercements coming from the said county – receiving from us in that office the accustomed fee.

  In witness whereof, we have had these our letters patent made.

  Witness our very dear cousin, Gerald, Earl of Kildare, our Lieutenant of our kingdom of Ireland, at Dublin, on the 13th day of August in the first year of our reign.

  Dovedalle.

  By writ of Privy seal.

  August 13 [1487]47

  In his note referring to this letter, Curtis observed:

  This curious and puzzling document cannot be of the reign of Edward IV, because in the first year of his reign the Earl of Kildare was not a Gerald. It cannot be of the reign of Edward VI, because before the first year of his reign Sir Piers Butler (Peter Butler, son of James Butler) was dead. There is moreover adequate reason to show that it cannot belong to the reign of Edward V. In the first place the document is dated August 13, and Edward V’s brief reign lasted only from April 9 to June 22, 1483. In the second place it describes the earl of Kildare as Lieutenant, an honour which he never held under any official King of England; and in the third place it styles Ireland a kingdom and Edward, King of England, France and Ireland, a style which was not adopted by any monarch prior to Henry VIII; for up to that time the Kings of England were merely Lords of Ireland.48 The only conclusion left is that the document belongs to the ‘reign’ of Lambert Simnel whom th
e Great Earl had crowned as King Edward, on May 24, 1487. The date of the document (August 13, 1487) seems at first sight to upset this conclusion, for the Battle of Stoke, at which Simnel was captured, was fought on June 16, 1487. But the date is no real objection to its authenticity as a Simnel relic, for as late as October 20, 1487, two months after the suggested date of the document, Henry VII, writing to the citizens of Waterford, records that ‘the said Earl with the supportation of the inhabitants of our said city of Dublin, and others there … will not yet know their seditious opinions, but unto this day uphold and maintain the same’.

  Affixed to the document is a seal which appears to be the Great Seal of England, bearing the effigy of a child king. Possibly this was an authentic seal of Edward V, which had come into the possession of the Yorkist party in Ireland.

  Despite what Curtis says, the design of the seal is not consistent with the usual designs of the great seals of approximately contemporary English sovereigns, such as Edward IV or Richard III. Their great seals do not have a coat of arms on the reverse but an equestrian figure of the king. Moreover, as we have already noted, the very clear depiction of the crown above the royal arms on the reverse of the seal is not English in design. It is an open French crown – with a bordure of eight fleurs-de-lis and no crosses. It is, in fact, identical to the normal crown of a French prince of the blood – such as the Duke of Burgundy. In addition the starting point of the reverse inscription is marked not by a cross or a rose (as might usually be the case in England) but by a fleur-de-lis. The crown worn by the young sovereign on the obverse of the seal also appears to be adorned only with fleurs-de-lis – no crosses. The most likely place for the seal to have been made is therefore somewhere in France or the Flemish lands of the former Dukes of Burgundy. As suggested earlier, since one of the key supporters of the Dublin King was Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, it may well have been Margaret who had the seal made.

  Notes

  Abbreviations

  CPR

  Calendar of Patent Rolls

  ODNB

  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

  PROME

  Parliament Rolls of Medieval England

  1. Cavell, Heralds’ Memoir, pp. 109–10.

  2. Cavell, Heralds’ Memoir, p. 110.

  3. Cavell, Heralds’ Memoir, pp. 110–11.

  4. Raine, York Civic Records, pp. 10–11 (original records, Book 6, fol. 84).

  5. Raine, York Civic Records, pp. 13–14 (original records, Book 6, fol. 88).

  6. Raine, York Civic Records, p. 16 (original records, Book 6, fol. 91b).

  7. J.O Halliwell, ed., Letters of the Kings of England, 2 vols, London 1848, vol. 1, p. 171.

  8. Hayden, ‘Lambert Simnel’, p. 628.

  9. Hayden, ‘Lambert Simnel’, p. 630.

  10. Cited in Hayden, ‘Lambert Simnel’, p. 627.

  11. Hayden, ‘Lambert Simnel’, p. 627; Bennett, Lambert Simnel, p. 6.

  12. Darcy, who had briefly studied at Lincoln’s Inn in 1485, was later vice-treasurer of Ireland and held a knighthood. He was aged about 27 at the time of the Dublin coronation. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Darcy_(died_1540), accessed December 2013.

  13. Hayden, ‘Lambert Simnel’, p. 629.

  14. Hayden, ‘Lambert Simnel’, p. 627.

  15. I published a paper on the coins attributed to the Yorkist pretenders five years ago (J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘Coins attributed to the Yorkist Pretenders, 1487–1498’, Ricardian, 19 (2009), pp. 63–83). The evidence I then produced fairly firmly undermined the suggestion that coins and tokens were later issued in the name of the second Yorkist pretender, Perkin Warbeck/Richard of England. That evidence and conclusion still hold good. However, my earlier conclusion in respect of the alleged coinage of the Dublin King was simply that further research was required. In particular, I argued that it was necessary to seek to clarify the royal name and numeral employed by and for him. Since the present study has now come to the firm conclusion that the boy crowned in Dublin did indeed use the royal identity of ‘King Edward VI’, and since very clear evidence in support of that conclusion has been presented here, my earlier views regarding the alleged coinage of ‘Edward VI’ do now need to be updated somewhat.

  16. A. de Longpérier, ‘Perkin Werbecque’, Revue Numismatique (1860), pp. 384–95; H. Symonds, ‘The Irish Silver Coinage of Edward IV’, Numismatic Chronicle, series 5, n. 1 (1921), pp. 108–25; C.N. Schmall, ‘Note on the “Perkin Warbeck Groat” dated 1494’, Numismatist, 41 (1928), pp. 219–20; R. Carlyon-Britton, ‘On the Irish Coinage of Lambert Simnel as Edward VI’, Numismatic Chronicle, 6th series, 1 (1941), pp. 133–5; C.E. Blunt, ‘The Medallic Jetton of Perkin Warbeck’, British Numismatic Journal, vol. 26 (1949–51), pp. 215–16; M. Dolley, ‘Tre Kronor – Trí Choróin, a note on the date of the “three crown” coinage of Ireland’, Numismatiska Meddelanden, 30 (1965), pp. 103–12; P. Power, ‘The History and Coins of Lambert Simnal [sic] and Perkin Warbeck’, Seaby’s Coin and Medal Bulletin, n. 615 (November 1969), pp. 376–8; M. Dolley, ‘Simnel and Warbeck – some recent misconceptions’, Seaby’s Coin and Medal Bulletin, n. 616 (December 1969), pp. 424–5; G. Brady and C. Gallagher, ‘The Lambert Simnel Coinage: An enquiry’, Spink Numismatic Circular, 103, no. 8 (October 1995), pp. 301–2.

  17. Edward I had briefly issued a groat, but later abandoned it.

  18. Further major changes to the English coinage were introduced by Henry VII from 1489 onwards.

  19. For purposes of comparison with the fluctuating weight of the Irish coinage under Edward IV, the reformed ‘light’ English coinage of the same monarch had a groat weighing 48 grains (reduced from the groat of 60 grains of the earlier ‘heavy’ coinage).

  20. As the author and others have argued previously, there is no evidence that the so-called ‘red rose of Lancaster’ was really used by any of the Lancastrian monarchs. Roses had been used as punctuation marks in the Marian inscription (MARIA MATER GRACIE) of an Anglo-Gallic jetton of Henry VI, but never as part of the main design of a coin: see M. Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets and Tokens, vol. 1, The Medieval Period and Nuremberg, London 1988, p. 190. Much earlier, a rose had figured at the neck of the tunic of Edward I on some of his English and Irish silver pennies: S. Mitchell and B. Reeds, eds., Standard Catalogue of British Coins, vol. 1, Coins of England and the United Kingdom, 26th edition, London 1990, p. 97, and P. Seaby and P.F. Purvey, eds., Standard Catalogue of British Coins, vol. 2, Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands, 1st edition, London 1984, p. 111.

  21. Dating was only introduced to English coins in the reign of Edward VI (son of Henry VIII), in the sixteenth century.

  22. The initial plans were actually made by the Lancastrian government of Henry VI.

  23. The following summary of legislation from 1461 to 1470 (inclusive) is derived from Symonds, ‘Irish Silver Coinage of Edward IV’, p. 114.

  24. In the event most of the coins seem to have been struck in Dublin. Examples are known from Waterford, but none of the other named mints is represented among the surviving specimens.

  25. This was Edward IV’s second ‘crown’ coinage (1463–65).

  26. At this date the weight of the English groat was still 60 grains.

  27. Reflecting the fact that the English groat had by now been reduced to a weight of 48 grains. On this occasion, and at the time of all subsequent weight changes, earlier Irish coins were withdrawn from circulation to enforce the new standard.

  28. Seaby, Catalogue, p. 116. However, some would assign the cross on rose coinage to the 1470s.

  29. Coins may have been issued by all the named mints, but because with each reissue of the coinage, old coins were recalled and melted down, few Irish coins of this period survive, so it is difficult to be sure. There are extant examples of the fourth coinage minted at Dublin, at Drogheda and at Trim.

  30. Abbreviated to REX.ANGL.DNS.HYB.

  31. Dolley, ‘Tre Kronor – Trí Choróin’, p. 105, citing J. Simon, An Essay towards a
n Historical Account of Irish Coins, Dublin 1749 and 1810, p. 29. The original text of the statute was no longer extant in 1965.

  32. Seaby, Catalogue, p. 122.

  33. We may also note that Dolley suggests that the rare Irish copper farthing (¼d) of Edward IV, displaying a shield of arms bearing three crowns on the obverse and a rose-en-soleil on the reverse probably dates from about the same period. Dolley, ‘Tre Kronor – Trí Choróin’, p. 104. Seaby (Catalogue, p. 123) would date this coin somewhat earlier (1467–70).

  34. Society of Antiquaries MSS 116. The text is published in Symonds, ‘The Irish Silver Coinages of Edward IV’, pp. 122–3, though Dolley, ‘Tre Kronor – Trí Choróin’, pp. 109–10 offers some corrections and demonstrates that the marginal drawings of a penny and half groat of the ‘three crowns’ issue which now accompanies the manuscript text of the indenture is a nineteenth-century interpolation.

  35. ‘Introduction to the coinage of Edward IV – Three Crowns Issue 1483–1485’, http://www.irishcoinage.com/HAMMERED.HTM, accessed October 2008.

  36. On this point see Dolley, ‘Tre Kronor – Trí Choróin’, pp. 109–10. As we have seen, such discrepancies between legislation and implementation are not unknown.

  37. The well-known Irish harp was a later invention, which we owe to Henry VIII: ‘The Arms of Ireland’, http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/ireland.htm, accessed October 2008. ‘As late as 1536 the Great Seal of Ireland preserves the three crowns as the arms of Ireland’, Dolley, ‘Tre Kronor – Trí Choróin’, p. 103, n. 2, citing Archaeologia, 85 (1935), plate XCI, 3.

  38. One other minor design feature which varies is the form of the trefoils at the end of the arms of the long crosses. On some specimens these are formed by pellets, on others by annulets. The former are believed to be earlier in the series than the latter.