Mark Noble

“ As the medal of gold here exhibited struck to commemorate the nativity of prince Charles, who became a great monarch, is finely preserved, and is, I presume, an unique, it is extremely valuable, for it probably was one of the very few issued, and those that were, it may be justly supposed, presented only to some few select: personages, for king Charles I. was never a rich sovereign; his majesty had always more taste than wealth. ”

“ The ministers of king Henry VI. having given the duke of York her husband the government of France and Normandy, taught him how to command, not to obey; this was tempting him beyond the power of forbearance, his just rights aiding his ambition: nothing but success, or destruction, could be expected; his rashness only prevented the former, and though he fell, his acknowledged claim naturally vested in his son, who established it upon the ruin of the reigning branch of the Plantagenets. ”

“ Of the Poles I must remark, that our peerages do not tell us whether Sir Richard Pole, who married Margaret countess of Salisbury, daughter of George duke of Clarence, was in any way related to John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, the husband of Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Cecily duchess of York. Of the Poles who intermarried with the Clarence branch of the royal Plantagenets, there were a cardinal archbishop of Canterbury, a baron Montague, and a knight of the Garter. ”

“ Fabian says, that in February 1470, when the nobility strove to make up the breach between king Edward IV. and Clarence, these royal brothers met for that purpose at Baynard Castle, where the duchess, their mother, then lay.
She opposed the marriage of her eldest son king Edward IV. with his subject Elizabeth, widow of Sir Richard Widvile, knight, as highly impolitic, and injurious to his dignity and interest. But love was a more powerful passion than duty, or even his own security. ”

“ Upon the reverse is a shield of the royal arms; in the first and fourth quarters France and England quarterly; in the second Scotland, and in the third Ireland; the bars of the shield extend to the extremities of the coin, and terminate in ornaments. Round the piece is the king's usual motto upon his silver money. christo avspice regno. Over the shield is in smaller letters ebor, and the mint-mark upon both sides is a lion passant guardant. ”

“ It must be remarked that it is not unfrequent in modern times to strike from fine dyes pieces of money in different metals from what they are designed to be made current in; these are given to the friends of such as are favoured by the persons in office in the mint ”

“ These baronies were possessed by different branches of this house, Nevil, Furnival, Talbot, Ferrers of Oversley, Seymour, Latimer, and Abergavenny, now erected into an earldom; and many of the females by marriage became baronesses. ”

“ He was extremely pleased in diversifying the type or fashion of his coins, and he excelled all our monarchs in the number and variety of his medals, which he continued occasionally to strike until the unhappy civil wars ”

“ II. Some Observations upon the Life of Cecily Duchess of York, Daughter of Ralph de Nevil, Earl of Westmorland and of Richmond, by Joan, natural Daughter of John Duke of Lancaster.Communicated by the Reverend Mark Noble, F.S.A.
Read April 14, 1796.
VERY few persons have lived to see such great revolutions in their family as Cecily duchess of York. Her father, from a baron, became a great and puissant earl; and no less than nine of his sons were, by descent, marriage, or creation, peers of the realm, his daughters matched suitably with the first nobility or gentry. ”