Richard III / Edward V AD 1485-1485 Silver Groat London Boars head

Richard III / Edward V AD 1485-1485 Silver Groat

mintmark Boars head 1

struck using altered dies in name of Edward V, very rare.

London.

S2155; 25mm, 2.28g

with old collection label stating ex ‘Shirley Fox bequest’.

Lower grade but any examples of this type are very rare and seldom offered.

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Richard III was the younger brother of Edward IV and one of the principal Yorkists during the War of the Roses. Created Duke of Gloucester when Edward became king he was an able administrator and was responsible for governing much of northern England during the reign of his brother. When Edward died suddenly in AD 1483 Richard was nominated Lord Protector. Conflict with the Woodvilles resulted in Richard imprisoning the two sons of Edward IV in the Tower. When a bishop then declared that the princes were illegitimate Richard claimed the throne and was crowned in place of Edward V in July AD 1483.
A rebellion by the Duke of Buckingham in the autumn of AD 1483 was quickly put down however in the summer of AD 1485 Henry Tudor landed in Wales with an army raised in France. The 2 armies met at Bosworth Fields where Richard was defeated and killed. Richard’s body has recently been found beneath a car park and has now been reburied in Leicester Cathedral. Richard was the last English king to be killed in battle and is also the last of the last of the Plantagenets.

 

Edward V was the eldest son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and is perhaps better known as one of the Princes in the Tower. When Edward IV died suddenly in AD 1483 Edward V was only 12 years old. His uncle Richard Duke of Gloucester effectively became Protector. Conflict between Richard and the Woodvilles quickly resulted in Richard taking possession of the two sons of Edward IV and imprisoning them in the Tower of London. After a while both princes disappeared. Meanwhile when a bishop declared that the princes were illegitimate Richard connived to claim the throne and was crowned in July AD 1483.
It is believed that Richard arranged to have the princes murdered however there is a theory that both princes survived only to be murdered after Henry VII became king in AD 1485. Another theory claims that the princes escaped the Tower to reappear a few years later as the Pretenders Lambert Simmel and Perkin Warbeck.