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The Tudors 1485 -1603 1270 s 1812 Henry VIII 1509 -47 Henry VII 1485 -1509 Edward VI 1547 -1553 Mary I 1553 -58 Elizabeth I 1558 -1603
What was life like in Tudor times?
Mint Street Key question What was life like for people at the Mint?
Mint Street and Mint buildings A Map of London showing the Tower around 1561 The Tower of London was surrounded by the River Thames, a moat and thick stone walls. A few Mint officials had lodgings at the Tower. Most workers lived in nearby country villages outside the walls of the City of London.
B Halfpound (gold) Made at the Mint between 155978 Coin designs were engraved onto the face of metal dies. The dies were then used to strike coins. Engravers used sharp metal punches and a hammer to mark the face of the dies. In 1560 Queen Elizabeth I ordered all the country’s old coins be melted down and remade with her portrait. Mint workers had to report immediately to the Tower.
Assaying was a way of testing the purity of gold or silver found in coins and metals. Metal was melted using fires and furnaces. C Woodcut illustration of the assaying process This man is making a powerful acid to separate pure gold from other metals. These men are making pottery.
Coin-shaped circles were carefully cut from flat pieces of metal. These coin blanks needed to be the perfect weight. To add the coin design, blanks were hammer struck between two dies which had the design engraved on them. Work at the Mint happened during daylight hours. Summer was preferred to winter for making coins. F Minting the new coinage of 156061
This incident involving William Foxley was first reported and written about in Tudor times. William Foxley was a maker of melting pots at the Mint in the 1540 s. In April 1547 he was discovered asleep at his post. All attempts to wake him failed and he remained asleep for 14 days and 15 nights. Even pricking him with needles and inflicting small burns did not cause him to stir. King Henry VIII‘s doctors could offer no explanation and Henry himself even had a look at the Mint’s curious sleeping beauty. The event did not have lasting effects after Foxley finally woke. He continued to live and work at the Tower for another 40 years until 1587. D Modern description of the story of William Foxley Even today, it is still not certain why Foxley fell asleep. However, pottery dug up at the Tower of London in 2011 showed evidence of lead and arsenic, both substances that could cause heavy metal poisoning.
The only women recorded at the Mint were family members, wives or daughters of Mint workers who lived at the Tower. Often, Mint workers were from the same family. Boys in a Mint family would become an apprentice at a young age and work with older generations of their family. Name Job Wage Richard Ferre Porter £ 10 pa Thomas Glenton Finer £ 20 pa John Lawrence Under-graver £ 10 pa Henry Basse Chief graver £ 30 pa Sir John Godsalve Comptroller £ 100 pa Sir Edmund Peckham High Treasurer £ 200 pa George Tisbury Labourer £ 10 pa William Foxley Potmaker £ 10 pa Thomas Symond Melter £ 12 pa pa = per annum (per year) E Selection of Mint workers’ wages, 1547 -8
Create a role play ‘A day in the life of the Mint at the Tower’
- Slides: 11