β: This is a Beta release of the Fitzwilliam Museum's potential new website.
We want to co-design
our Virtual Museum presence with you.
You can return to our current site at any time.
Following the Government announcement yesterday, museums and galleries in Cambridge will be closed to the public as part of a period of national/local restrictions. So, with great sadness, we will not be able to reopen as planned on 2 January 2021.
The major dynastic, political and cultural changes that occurred in England under the Tudors and Stuarts are traced in this exhibition. The money and medals of this 250-year period provide a fascinating insight into broader developments in artistic expression, monarchy, nationhood, and trade in a rapidly expanding world.
Coins and medals acted as powerful agents in conveying the official image of the king or queen and commemorating the important events of the day. They also reveal the changing role of money and economic experience through periods of religious conflict, civil war, exploration and the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland.