Lot 1980

Description

Scotland, James VI, (1567-1625), a revaluation of 1578 of 36 Shillings, 9 Pence, by a thistle countermark on the reverse, the countermark of revaluation applied to a 1566 silver ryal of Mary and Henry Darnley (1565-1567), (29.89 g), obv. crowned Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland, flanked by thistles, around .MARIA . &. HENRIC'. DEI. GRA. R. &. R. SCOTORV, rev. tortoise climbs a crowned palm tree dividing date, scroll at centre, around .EXVRGAT. DEVS. & DISSIPENTR. INIMICI. EI'. thistle around, 15 66 across (S.5425 and Spink p.70 for countermarking). Some corrosion on the obverse legend, weakness resulting from the countermark and slightly uneven in the legends, but mostly sharp and with surface marks, otherwise nearly very fine and rare.

Ex Alan Jordan Collection.

'The Scottish situation was complicated by the arrival from France in 1560 of Queen Mary on the death of her young husband, Francis II. Mary, beautiful and charming yet without any political skill, moved from inexperience through attempts at religious inclusiveness and conciliation to exceptional political incompetence, alienating Protestant politicians who had done their best to remain loyal to her. Her errors of judgment included tolerating the murder of her second husband-Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley-and marrying his murderer, a third husband-James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. The ensuing civil war resulted in a series of Protestant and mostly pro-English regimes. From 1567 they ruled in the name of James VI, Mary's infant son by Darnley, after she fled to the reluctant and embarrassed hospitality of Queen Elizabeth in England. Mary remained alive as an English prisoner for the next twenty years, heir presumptive to the English throne, and so a destabilising element in the politics of both England and Scotland'. (extract from Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation, Viking, 2003)