The Royal Mail is to be true to its name by marking the bicentennial year of British and American republican Thomas Paine with the issue of postage stamps honouring 16th century monarchs.
The state mail service will issue 6 new stamps commemorating Tudor dynasty members who ruled England from the late 15th to early 17th century.
Another 4 will feature what the Royal Mail describes as “icons” of the same period.
Even thirty-five years after the death of the last Tudor to be honoured by the Royal Mail, the country they ruled was so lacking in democratic rights that a republican democrat John Lilburne could be flogged and dragged through the streets of London tied to an ox cart. His offences were to import forbidden publications and then insist that he be arraigned in English, not Latin.
The Royal Mail is not expected to honour Paine, Lilburne or any other citizen who struggled for the rights of the people against feudal rulers. In 2007 it also rejected a proposal by artist Steve McQueen that he design stamps to commemorate the British soldiers who had given their lives in the service of their country in Iraq.