Money Monday - Charles I Silver Siege Shilling (1645)

Obverse: CR / XII [Charles Regnum]

Reverse: OBS / NEWARKE / 1645[6?]

Charles I is one of our most infamous kings. A firm believer in his divine right to rule, he refused to submit to the power of parliament. His increasingly authoritarian rule, slight lurch toward Catholicism and levying of taxeswithout parliamentary approval led first to a war with Scotland and then a war within England itself, eventually leading to his capture, trial and execution. The execution of a king is no small thing, and Charles I remains the only British monarch to have been killed as an official act of government.

This also resulted in Britain’s only republic in 1649, the Commonwealth of England, which lasted a full four years before the leader of the parliamentary forces, William Cromwell, made himself Lord Protector. Britain’s experiment in republicanism was finally killed off by the crowning of Charles II after Cromwell’s death in 1660, but with the monarchy’s powers significantly reduced.

This particular coin is a silver shilling, where you can just make out OBS NEWARKE 1645[6?] on the reverse. This firmly places the coin at the siege of Newark in that year, minted by the Governor Lord John Belasyse who overcame the shortage of coinage in that town by minting these siege coins from donated silver. They came in Sixpence, Ninepence, Shilling and Halfcrown denominations, all signified by Roman numerals (VI, IX, XII, XXX).

The winter of the siege was a hard one, with the River Trent encased in thick ice. Bellasyse was aggressive in his defense of the town, harrying the Roundhead army with sallies from his garrison. In early 1646 the parliamentarians surrounded the town with siege works and batteries, while plague struck the inhabitants of Newark. Despite all of this, including the build-up of 16,000 besieging troops, the garrison refused to surrender. Even when they heard that King Charles I himself had surrendered the garrison would not submit, until the King gave them a direct order to do so.

It was the surrender of Newark that signaled the end of the English Civil War, and this coin which remains as a token of their bloody-headed refusal to give up the monarchy’s cause in the face of overwhelming odds. The English Civil War remains one of the bloodiest the British Isles has ever experienced, with England losing roughly 3.7% of its population, Scotland 6%, and Ireland a staggering 41% (and it’s no wonder why the Irish still curse Cromwell’s name).

Coins featured in Money Monday are a part of the University of Reading’s Stenton Coin Collection. For more information or to view the collection, please contact us: specialcollections@reading.ac.uk

