Erasing a Monarch: An Act of Defiance and Rebellion

In this story, Oisín Mac Conamhna provides insights into a rare coin in the Ulster Museum’s collection which represents a bold and dangerous protest in 15th Century Ireland against the ruling monarchy of the day.

This Cork groat is from a working die where the name EDWARDVS (Edward IV) was overpunched to HENRIC’ (Henry VI) in or around October 1470, when Henry VI was restored briefly to the throne of England during the Wars of the Roses. A specimen in the original name of Edward is in the collection of the National Museums NI; the only other known specimen from the die in its overpunched state is in private hands. These coins are the only ones known in all the coinages of Ireland or Britain from a die where a monarch’s name was changed to that of another while the first monarch was still alive. Six named individuals (John Fannyng et al) were attainted with treason and outlawed by the Irish parliament in 1472 for making these coins.

The earldom of Desmond in which they were made had been amongst the most staunchly Yorkist parts of Ireland until February 1468. Thomas Fitzgerald, the seventh earl, led the Desmond army to victory for the House of York at the battle of Pilltown in 1462, defeating a Lancastrian insurgency led by James Butler of Ormond, in the only battle of the Wars of the Roses fought on Irish soil. For this he was rewarded by appointment to lieutenant deputy of Ireland, a post he held until late in 1467.

His replacement was John Tiptoft, the ‘Bowcher of England’ (Chronicles of London 1470) and the ‘fuigheall mallacht fear nereann’ (the ‘wreck of the curses of the men of Ireland’, Annála Connacht 1470, Annála Ríoghachta Éireann 1470) who beheaded Fitzgerald summarily in Drogheda in February 1468, together with two young children (most likely Fitzgerald’s foster-children) for alleged breaches of the second Statute of Kilkenny. The executions caused deep revulsion in Ireland and were roundly condemned in England also. They transformed Desmond from a largely pacified and aligned province of the English crown, to the theatre of conflict and rebellion it would remain until the IRA campaign there of 1919-23, as a material cause of repeated Desmond rebellions culminating in the catastrophe of the final rebellion of 1579-83, and the Plantation of Munster that was the direct consequence.

This groat from the die where Edward’s name was struck out and overpunched with that of Henry is one of two specimens of the earliest surviving manifestation in local material culture of the drastic impact on Desmond loyalties induced by the executions, which had deep historical significance and lasting impact. In a society without printing presses, coins were the only available medium of mass written communication and of written public statements of political affiliation. Only Cork is known to have issued coins for Henry VI in Ireland in 1470-1, having been strongly Yorkist until the executions; and only Cork of all the mints there ever were of Ireland or Britain, ever publicly erased the name of a living monarch for that of another on their coins, as represented by this specimen.

About the author

Oisín Mac Conamhna was born in Coventry to Irish parents, and raised in the west of Ireland. After a brief career as a theoretical physicist investigating black holes in string and M-theory at Imperial College, he now works in quantitative finance in London, where he lives with his wife and children. Numismatically his interests span all aspects of Irish coinage and related history, especially the periods 1460-83 and 1689-91, on which he has published several research papers. His other interests include guitar-playing, the study of extreme storm waves, promoting and defending the use of the Irish language through Conradh na Gaeilge, messing about in curachs, and supporting the Mayo Gaelic football team, who he expects to win the Sam Maguire cup every year.