O'Reilly Money - Henry VI, annulet issue, Calais mint, ex Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society

Monetary Crisis in Ireland, as Henry VI struggles with money supply and fiscal control

Introduction: During the reign of Henry VI many parliamentary regulations were made in Ireland, relating to money; but most of these acts, as well as those of the three former reigns, are either lost or destroyed. 1422 By an English statute of his second year, it was enacted, that the ounce of silver should be…

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (died 1641), National Portrait Gallery, London. Wentworth was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632 and his main purpose, openly proclaimed, was to rule Ireland well in order to supply men and money to the King. He would make the country prosperous in order to wring from it abundant taxes for his sovereign; but he aimed at its entire submission and the transference of what remained of Irish soil to English owners. And so well did he succeed that he was able to boast at the end of his term of office that he had left the country prospering, its debts paid, its revenues increased, the army paid and disciplined, the poor relieved, the rich awed, and justice done to all alike. This said, his disdain of the Irish, his ruthless policies in overseeing the new plantations in Ulster, Wexford, and Longford, plus his extension of these into Connacht drove the Irish into open and uncontrolled rebellion in 1642

Timeline 1640: Prologue to Rebellion in Ireland & Civil War in England

Timeline 1640 (Julian dates have been adjusted to modern time frame) The Irish Uprising of 1641 was a long-term result of the “plantation” policy of Tudor and Stuart monarchs under which Ireland was aggressively colonised by Protestant settlers from England and Scotland. From the mid-16th century, Irish landowners were dispossessed to make way for the settlers…