Henry VIII Penny, Sovereign type, Durham, Bishop Tunstall

Henry VIII (1509-47), silver Penny, second coinage (1526-44), Sovereign type, Durham Mint, ecclesiastical issue under Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, facing seated figure of King on throne with orb and sceptre, two pillars of throne visible, Latin legend and beaded border surrounding, initial mark star (1529-44), *h'x D'x G'x ROSA'x SIE'x SPIA', rev. long cross fourchée over quartered shield of arms, C to left, D to right, Latin legend and beaded borders surrounding, xCIVI TAS DVR RAM'x, weight 0.84g (N.1813; S.2354). Lightly toned, a little uneven in shape, good portrait of King, a bold very fine and rare.

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on the obverse "Henry, by the Grace of God, a rose without a thorn" and on the reverse "City of Durham."

Cuthbert Tunstall (c.1474-1559) a former student of Balliol College, Oxford and Scholar of Kings Hall Cambridge, actually graduated from the University of Padua in 1505 as Doctor of Civil Law and Doctor of Canon Law. He was made Chancellor by William Warham the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1511 as well as being appointed Rector of Harrow on the Hill. He became Canon of Lincoln in 1514 and Archdeacon of Chester in 1515 and in subsequent years was sent on diplomatic work overseas by Cardinal Wolsey. He was made Master of the Rolls in 1516, Dean of Salisbury in 1521, Bishop of London in 1522, and was made Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal in May 1523. He helped to arrange the Peace of Cambrai in 1529 which led to his appointment in February 1530 as Bishop of Durham succeeding from Thomas Wolsey. In 1537 he was made first President of the new Council of the North. He acted as one of Queen Catherine's counsellors in her divorce from King Henry and later after some hesitation accepted Henry as the new Head of the Church of England. With a subsequent dislike for the religious policy of the reign of Edward VI Tunstall ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London at the end of 1551 and deprived of his Bishopric in October of 1552. However on the accession of Mary Tudor Tunstall was given his liberty and became the Bishop of Durham once again in April 1554 on restoration of the Bishopric. Now in his eighties it was not long till Elizabeth ascended the throne and he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy or take part in the consecration of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and was deprived again of his diocese and arrested in September of 1559. A prisoner at Lambeth Palace he died within weeks at the age of 85, one of eleven Roman Catholic Bishops to die in captivity at this time.