Kevin approached me as a best-selling historian to research his discovery.
The crowned golden figure, holding a shimmering orb and sceptre, stands on a spotted antelope, which I recognised immediately as the heraldic beast of the 15th century Lancastrian king Henry VI.
A pious man who suffered bouts of mental illness, Henry’s failed rule had led to the period of civil strife we know as the Wars of the Roses.
He was murdered in 1471 on the orders of his victorious rival, the Yorkist king Edward IV. But Henry VI had a remarkable afterlife.
People decided that, while he had been a bad king, he had been a good man, and declared him a saint. Subsequent “miracles” attested to his power.