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TRIBUTE TO JAMES II AND QUEEN MARY
BOWER, George: England, 1685, Lead (cast), 54 mm
Obv: Conjoined Busts (r) IACOBVS.II ET. MARIA. D. G. MAG. BRI. FRAN.
ET. HIB. REX ET REGINA
Rev: Inscription O DIVINI AMBO SI QVID MEA CARMINA POSSVNT
NVLLA DIES VNQVAM ME MORI VOS EXIMET AEVO. DVM TVA BANCHO DOMVS CAPITOLI
IMMOBILE SAXVM EDINI, IMPERIVMQVE PATER STVARTVS HABEBIT. A. P.
(O Pair Divine! for If My Verse Can Give
Immortal Life, Your Fame Shall Ever Live
While Banquo's Line on Edin's Rocky Tower
Shall Dwell, or Stuart Sway Britannnia's Power).
(Archibald Pitcairn).
Signed: GB
Ref: Weiss BW061; M.I. i, 612/21 where it is stated that this medal, which is
composed of two pieces of lead, both cast, may be unique. Unlisted in
Eimer.
James II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1633 -
1701) was the third son to Charles I and Henrietta Maria. During the Civil
War he fled to safety in France. He returned to England and became king
after the death of his brother Charles
II, who had been restored to the
throne after Cromwell's Commonwealth collapsed. Unlike his brother, James
maintained a strong adherence to the Roman Catholic faith. His zealous
piety and his determination to impress Catholicism on his subjects was to
prove his nemesis.
Within days of James' accession, Protestants were rallying around Charles'
son, James, Duke of Monmouth, whom they believed should be king. The
rebellion was easily quashed and Monmouth was beheaded. Continuing his
religious campaign, James had Catholics promoted to high-status positions
while he appointed the 'Bloody Assizes' to execute, torture or enslave
Protestant rebels. The Declaration of Indulgence (1687) granted tolerance
of Catholics and non-conformists. In response, both Tories and Whigs
turned against the king. The Protestant Parliament allied themselves with
James' Protestant daughter Mary (Mary was the daughter of James' first
wife Anne Hyde, a Protestant who raised her daughter in the same faith),
and her husband William of Orange, who eventually took the throne of
England as William and Mary. James died an exile in Saint-Germain. (from
BBC History)
Mary (of Modena) Beatrice (1658-1718), the second wife and queen consort of James II
of England, was the only daughter of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena. In 1673
she married James, then duke of York, later James II of England, the
marriage having been brought about through the influence of
Louis XIV of
France. Mary was a devout Roman Catholic, who supported her husband's
pro-Catholic policies and dedicated herself to the conversion of England
to Catholicism, thereby making her unpopular in Protestant England. When
she bore a son in 1688, James Francis Edward Stuart (the
Elder
Pretender), it was widely rumored that this Catholic heir to the
throne was a changeling, and fear of a Catholic succession precipitated
the so-called Glorious Revolution that overthrew James II and led to the
invitation of William of Orange to England. Mary fled to France with her
son and worked tirelessly to advance his claims to the English throne.
(from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2001)
The inscription on the reverse of the medal is a parody of Virgil (Aen.ix. 446-9) and
is a poem written by Archibald Pitcairn, a physician, who was a loyal
adherent of the Stuarts, and with whom he joined in exile.
LINK to
Portrait
of James II (from Wikipedia)
LINK to
Mary
of Modena (from Wikipedia)
Link to the
Declaration
of Indulgence of King James II (from the Jacobite Heritage by Noel S.
McFerran)
LINK to the
Glorious
Revolution (from Wikipedia)
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