Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins of Edward the Fourth. 39 



" T. In 1483, Thomas Galmole, Gentleman, Master and Worker of the 

 Money of Silver, and Keeper of the Exchanges in the cities of Devylyn (Dublin) 

 and Waterford, was bound by indenture to make two sorts of monies ; one called 

 a penny, with the king's arms on one side, upon a cross trefoyled on every end, 

 and with this inscription, eex anglie et francie ; and on the other side, the 

 arms 0/ Ireland, upon a cross, with this scripture, dns hibeenie.* 



" Some device must, therefore, have been as fully established as the arms of 

 Ireland, as the fleur de lis and the lions were established as the king's arms. 

 What were these arms, if they were not the three crowns ? 



" If we admit that the three crowns were the arms of Ireland, we have no 

 difficulty about this indenture, and this coinage. If we deny it, the frequent 

 appearance of the crowns on the Irish coins is still to be accounted for ; we have 

 to seek for the arms of Ireland, and to wonder at the total loss of all coins, in a 

 rich and singularly varied coinage, which bear the stamp of the national heraldic 

 bearings. 



" The three crowns were relinquished as the arms of Ireland by Henry the 

 Eighth, probably because they were mistaken for the Papal arms ; and supported 

 the vulgar notion, that the Pope was the sovereign of Ireland, and the king of 

 England merely the lord under him. That such an opinion prevailed, appears 

 from a letter of the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland to Henry the Eighth, 

 in 1540 : ' And we thinke that they that be of the Irisherie wolde more gladder 

 obey your Highnes by the name of King of this your lande, than by the name 

 of Lorde thereof ; having had heretofore a folisshe opinyon amonges them, that 

 the Bisshope of Rome should he King of the same, for extirpating whereof we 

 think it write under your Highness pardon, that by authority of Parliament, it 

 shulde be ordeyned that your Majisty, your heirs, and successors, shulde be 

 named Kings of this lande.' "f 



• Ruding's Annals, vol. ii. p. 376, 2nd edit. 



•j" State Papers, Ireland, No. cccxxxi. vol. iii. part iii. page 278. 



Mr. Butler's original remarks on this interesting subject were first published in 1837, in the 

 Numismatic Journal, vol. ii. p. 70, and additional evidence was given by him in Mr. Lindsay's " View 

 of the Coinage, p. 46. His opinions appear to derive some support from Sir James Ware's account 

 of the three crowns, as denoting the three kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland ; for if we 

 take into consideration the devices on both sides of the coins, we find the arms of England and 



