Lot 297
Great Britain. Rose-Ryal of 30 Shillings, ND. S-2613; N-2079. 13.76 grams. James I, 1603-1625. Second Coinage (1604-1619). James enthroned facing, throne back with scrolling. Reverse: Shield on rose. Rose mintmark (1605-1606). A marvelous example of this rarity, on a full, broad flan with a crisp strike showing the tiniest details exquisitely, the important centers (normally weak even on the finest pieces) being sharply defined. Rare, moreso in this remarkable quality. NGC graded MS-64.
The son of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Stewart, both of the Tudor line from Henry VII, James ascended the Scottish throne as a minor after the abdication of his mother (who was later executed by Elizabeth I of England after a long imprisonment). His years in the Scottish court strongly marked his personality. Murder and intrigue plagued the reigns of both his mother and his grandfather, and so James grew into a guarded, very reserved individual, with an easily understood tendency towards paranoia. He was thrilled to be designated by Elizabeth as heir to England's throne and thus to be away from Scotland, but was quite unprepared for the task of being England's monarch, and an attempt on his life at a hunting lodge early in his English reign further isolated him from his nobles.
The societal and religious tensions that Elizabeth had worked to manage and soothe had not gone away, and remained an impediment to whatever success his rule might have had. James was witty and well-read, but adamant about the divine right of kingship (his own especially), and saw little use for Parliament. His extravagant spending habits, bungled foreign policies, lavishing of peerages on supporters (in essence, bribery), his homosexual attachment to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (another peerage James created), and the nonchalant ignoring of the nobility's grievances all aggravated to create a constant friction between him and Parliament. This behavior of James would be repeated (to his undoing) by Charles, James's second son. King James died of a stroke in 1625, after ruling England for twenty-two years.
Estimated Value $20,000 - 25,000.
Ex Dr Jacob Y. Terner Collection (by private treaty to the Millennia Collection).
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| Realized $55,200 |
