Dr. Smith on the Irish Coins 0/ Edward the Fourth. 43 



Henry the Seventh's money, which are still extant, and from the fact that In 1483, 

 'the profits of the mint' were ' granted to the Earl of Klldare, in consideration 

 of the charges he is at in the government, during the time he continues in 

 it.'* It is to be inferred that there was, at that time, almost a constant coinage 

 in Dublin, and if any money was coined in Dublin in the latter part of 1486, 

 or in the beginning of 1487, it was Lambert Simnel's money, and bore his titles. 



" It is extremely probable that he did coin money, for from his arrival in Ire- 

 land, he had at his command all the usual resources of the Irish Mint, and after 

 the landing of the Earl of Lincoln, if from the first he was not supplied with 

 money from Flanders, it was an obvious and easy method of multiplying his 

 Flemish Groats, to melt them down and debase them to the Irish standard ; a 

 method not strange to the Irish Mint Master ; and although Martin Swartz and 

 his Almaines, would probably require to be paid in the pure grosses of Charles 

 the Bold, some of which are still picked up in this country, and in the north of 

 England, his Irish followers would be satisfied with money of the alloy, to which 

 they were accustomed. 



" Now, as it appears from the joy manifested by the Irish, at the passing of 

 the Act proclaiming Henry the Eighth King of Ireland,! from the jibe of 

 Henry the Seventh to the Irish lords at Greenwich, 'that if he did not come 

 over soon they would crown apes,' and from other notices, that the Irish of that 

 day were animated by an instinctive love of royalty, is it not probable that, too 

 wise not to know the power of names and titles, the crafty counsellors of this 

 mock king, the only English king ever crowned in Ireland, would not neglect 

 to flatter the vanity of the Irish, on whose enthusiasm in his behalf they chiefly 

 depended, by the cheap expedient of giving on Simnel's money, which was to 

 circulate amongst them, in addition to his other imperial titles, the title of King 

 of Ireland, thereby gratifying the national pride by nominally restoring Ireland 

 to its ancient dignity as a kingdom, and obliterating a mark of vassalage, and 

 of foreign domination. 



" It is then probable that Lambert Simnel coined money in Dublin, and that 

 on it he bore the title of King of Ireland, and it is not probable that that title 



* Simon, Appendix, No. XVIII. 



t State Papers, Ireland, vol. iii. part. iii. No, CCCXL. p. 304. 



. /2 



