The phrase raises an obvious question: which king? For some time the arms on the plaque were attributed to Edward VI, but more recent research has corrected that reading, identifying them instead as the royal arms of Henry VIII.

The fragment is the lower right-hand, or dexter, portion of what was once a full armorial plaque, measuring roughly 65 centimetres high by 46 centimetres wide at its surviving extent. The quartered shield it displays combines the three lions passant gardant of England with the three fleur-de-lis of France, topped by an arched crown. Heraldic plaques of this kind typically featured supporters on either side of the shield, figures that flank and, in a sense, hold it upright. Here, the surviving supporter is a dragon regardant, that is, a dragon with its head turned to look backward over its shoulder. The dragon is a telling detail: only Henry VII and Henry VIII used a dragon as a supporter in the royal arms. The companion figure on the missing left side would have been the white greyhound associated with the Beaufort family, from whom Henry VII descended through his mother, Margaret Beaufort. Together the two supporters would have made the dynastic statement unmistakable. The church itself, dedicated originally to St John the Baptist, is a medieval structure whose walls have accumulated layers of material from successive centuries of use, and this fragment, broken and displaced as it is, belongs to the period of Tudor authority over an Irish town still enclosed within its medieval walls.