266, Lot: 550. Estimate $100. Sold for $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TUDOR. Henry VIII. 1509-1547. AR Halfgroat (18mm, 1.27 g, 4h). Second coinage. York mint, under Archbishop Edward Lee; im: key. Struck 1531-1544. Crowned bust right / Coat-of-arms over long cross fourchée; E L across field. North 1807; SCBC 2348. Near VF, toned.

From the Deyo Collection, with an old B.A. Seaby envelope.

Under Henry VIII, England’s northern counties existed in an uneasy peace. Inadequate rule from York weakened the crown’s already tenuous hold on the Marches. The people, upset with the enclosure of common land, were ripe for revolt. By 1536, religious unrest brought matters to a head. The dissolution of monasteries was the last straw for the staunchly Catholic north.

In October, the first riots began in Lincolnshire. Though quickly diffused, the unrest spread to Yorkshire, were it took on a more definite form under the leadership of lawyer Robert Aske. Within weeks the rebels took the city of York. The king’s supporters, unable to raise the forces to repel the mob, were forced to join the Pilgrimage of Grace, as it had become known. Among these supporters was Archbishop Edward Lee, who joined the Pilgrims when they took Pontefract castle, then under the control of Lord Darcy of Templehurst. Aske, realizing that without episcopal support the rebellion could not succeed, hoped the arrival of the archbishop would grant legitimacy to his movement. However, Lee managed to gain promise of safe conduct from the King and, rather than giving the supportive sermon the Pilgrims hoped for, merely cautioned them to behave less like rebels and more like true pilgrims. With the coming of the King and his men, the Pilgrimage of Grace collapsed.