Notes: Edward IV was the first Yorkist king to sit on the throne. After the defeat of his father's Yorkist forces, he and the earl of Warwick rallied their forces, marched
on London where Edward was declared king by Parliament, and then defeated Henry VI's forces at Towton. Unlike Henry, Edward proved to be a strong military leader and an able
administrator. He reversed the crown's finances, such that it was solvent for the first time in many reigns. His personal life, on the other hand, caused him to exacerbated his
falling-out with Warwick, upon whom Edward owed his throne. Eventually, Warwick fomented rebellion against Edward. The first rebellion was a short-lived success, and the two
came to a tentative reconciliation. Another rebellion fomented by Warwick was soon to follow, but this time Warwick had switched to the Lancastrian side. Realizing his weak
position, Edward fled to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy. Henry VI was released from the Tower of London and reinstated. The following year, Edward returned to England,
and proved his ability as a military commander: Though outnumbered three-to-one, his forces soundly defeated Warwick at Barnet, killing the earl and his brother. Henry's
powerful queen, Margaret of Anjou, attempted to rescue the situation, but again Edward defeated them at Tewkesbury, and Henry's only son was killed. The same evening, Henry was
murdered in the Tower. Edward's second reign saw the end of his reforms which resulted in a sound government and finances (which relieved much of the tax burden on the populace).
His attempt to recapture England's former lands in France failed, but without severe consequences. Unfortunately, his private life proved to be his ultimate undoing. He loved
food and his great feasts severely affected his health, and he died prematurely at the age of 41 from one of many physical ailments. He was a strong king, and probably would have
been one of England's greatest had he ruled longer.
The Durham and York mints were the primary source of pennies struck during the latter part of Henry VI's reign and the reign of Edward IV. According to Allen's study, in 1460,
John Orwell, a prominent London goldsmith, agreed to rent the mint of Durham for a year. Upon the acceptance of the succession of Edward IV, the dies Orwell had inherited from
the previous mint master were rendered obsolete. Nonetheless, Orwell had been an engraver of dies as the King's engraver in London from 1431 to 1445, so he either made or
commissioned new dies for Edward's coinage. Though technically "unofficial" dies, they were accepted for use in striking offical currency. These unoffical dies were used to
strike a huge quantity of coins until 1462/3 when the mint was apparently closed. The mint resumed operation in 1464, at which time it received its first offical dies of Edward's
reign. This period of closure was probably due to the revocation of the temporalities of the bishop by the king (7 December 1462-17 April 1464), but it also coincides with a
general shortage of silver in England. Allen's analysis of the mint, synthesizing a wide array of contemporary records, conclusively debunks the earlier analysis of Blunt and
Whitton, who thought that official dies were used until the revokation of the bishop's temporalities, and the local dies were used until his restoration of in 1464. Thus, this
issue is not a 'king's receiver' coinage, as it did not occur while the king held the bishop's temporalities, but rather during a period in which the mint was rented to a
mintmaster under the bishop's authority.
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