ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE & PRINCESS ANNE AT LEEUWARDEN

HOLTZHEY, Martin: The Netherlands, 1734, Silver, 29 mm
Obv: Conjoined busts of William of Orange and Princess Anne    W.C.H.F. PRINC. AVR. ET ANNA MAG. BRIT
Rev: Prince and Princess in naval car drawn by two sea horses, on one of which is seated Cupid holding a conch and a trident     ADVENTVS PRINCIPVM AVRIAC (The Arrival of the Prince and Princess of Orange).
Exergue:  EX ANGL. IN ERIS. MDCCXXXIV. (From England to Friesland, 1734).
Signed:  HOLTZHEY FEC
Rare
Ref: M.I. 510/61; Van Loon Suppl IX 91

William, Prince of Orange, (The Stadtholder, William IV) was elected a Knight of the Garter in 1733 and was invested at the Hague. He married Princess Anne, the eldest daughter of George II, in March, 1734, after the marriage had to be postponed for several months because the Prince was attacked with pleurisy. The Prince and Princess of Orange sailed from England on the 25th of April and landed at Rotterdam on the 27th. The next day they proceeded to Leeuwarden, the event depicted on this medal.
William died in 1751 and his widow, Anne, was appointed Regent of the kingdom of Holland.
Leeuwarden is the capital of the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Among its noteworthy buildings is the great church of St. Jacob, once the church of the Jacobins, and the largest monastic church in the Netherlands.

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