Supreme Head of the Church of England
A Highly Important Medal of Henry VIII

312, Lot: 25. Estimate $75000. Sold for $45000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TUDOR. Henry VIII. 1509-1547. AR Medal (50mm, 54.68 g, 12h). Commemorating the King’s Assumption of the Title “Supreme Head of the Church of England”. By Henry Bayse (or Basse), chief engraver. Dated 1545. HENRICVS OCTA ANGLIÆ FRAN CI ET HIB REX FIDEI DEFENSOR ET/IN TERR ECCLE ANGLI ET HI BE SVB CHRIST CAPVT SVPREMVM (Henry, eighth king of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, and on Earth, supreme head of the Church of England and Ireland under Christ), bust right, wearing a jeweled cap, ermine robe and jeweled collar; crowned Tudor rose above; crowned harp to left; crowned portcullis to right; crowned lis below; quadrate stops in legend / H R/האינריכוש/שמיני ג מלך באמונה/גוז ובעדת אנגליאי/וחיבירניאי מתחת משיח/ראש עליוז/ΕΝΡΙΚΟΣ ΟϘTΔΟΟΣ TPIΣ/ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ • ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ ΠΡΟ= /ΣΤΑΤΗΣ • ΕΝ ΤΗ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑ/ΤΗΣ ΑΓΓΛΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΙΒΕΡΝΙ-/ΑΣ • ΥΠΟ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ • ΑΚΡΗ/• (rosette) Η ΚΕΦΑΛΗ • (lis) •/• Londini 1545 • in thirteen lines; rosette and lis flanking ראש עליוז. MI (Hawkins) 44 and pl. III, 6; G. F. Hill, “The medal of Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church,” NC (1916), pp. 194-195; R. Bishop, “Hebraica Veritas,” Spink Auction Insider (Winter 2009-2010), pp. 18-21 = Eimer 26 and note and pl. I, 26a (this medal referenced and illustrated). VF, toned, some minor marks, very light smoothing on obverse. An original striking with a fine late portrait of Henry VIII. The first coronation medal in the English series. Extremely rare.

From the Clearwater Collection. Ex Spink and Son, London.

This is considered to be the first medal to have been made in England and is also the first English medal of the Renaissance. The explosion of learning that began under Henry VIII included the study of both Greek and Hebrew, which had been hitherto little known. This learning, with its interest in the original form of the Bible, and the need for a male heir, led to Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his break with Rome – the king’s “Great Matter.” Henry was formally proclaimed Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1535; and some ten years later this medal was struck to commemorate that event. Very soon after it was produced it was seen by a Corfiote scholar, Andronico Nunzio, who was traveling in the suite of the Emperor Charles V’s ambassador. He then published comments about it in the journal of his travels, written in the late 1540s in classical Greek (the commentary was translated into English in 1841).