Issued as part of a broader British Virgin Islands commemorative program marking the 450th anniversary of the reign of Mary I, this piece connects the young Elizabeth — daughter of Anne Boleyn, declared illegitimate at age two, reinstated to the succession by Henry's own Third Succession Act of 1544 — to the monarch who kept her in the Tower before she became Elizabeth I. The pairing is historically charged: Henry had her mother executed.
Issued as part of a broader British Virgin Islands commemorative program marking the 450th anniversary of the reign of Mary I, this piece connects the young Elizabeth — daughter of Anne Boleyn, declared illegitimate at age two, reinstated to the succession by Henry's own Third Succession Act of 1544 — to the monarch who kept her in the Tower before she became Elizabeth I. The pairing is historically charged: Henry had her mother executed.