The Marriage of King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza
John Roettiers (1631- London 1703)
Category
Coins and medals
Date
1662
Materials
Copper
Measurements
357 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773266
Summary
Copper, medal commemorating the marriage of King Charles II (1630-85) and Catherine of Braganza 1638-1705), by John Roettiers (1631-1703), London, United Kingdom, 1662. A copper medal by John Roettiers commemorating the marriage of King Charles II with Catherine of Braganza, daughter of John IV, king of Portugal, which took place on 21 May 1662 in Portsmouth. The obverse shows the king in profile facing right, wearing a laurel wreath in his hair, the bust uncovered. The Latin legend translates as ‘Charles II by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland.’ The reverse with a portrait of Catherine facing right, her hair decorated with plain fillet and tied into a bun at the back, the inscription ‘Catherine, by the Grace of God, Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland.’
Full description
On Charles II’s restoration, the need to procure a suitable marriage for the new monarch was a pressing concern from the start. Whilst a number of candidates for marriage were considered, the choice eventually settled on Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of John, 8th Duke of Braganza, later King John IV of Portugal. As part of the marriage settlement, Portugal, engaged in a struggle to maintain her independence from her neighbour Spain, won permission to enlist English troops for her defence, and offered in return an enormous dowry of some £300,000, as well as Tangier in North Africa and Bombay (today’s Mumbai) in India. By opening up the Portuguese trade routes to English merchants, the marriage was an important step in the expansion of English mercantile interests beyond Europe. The treaty for the marriage was signed on 23 June 1661. The medal is one of a number made to commemorate the marriage of Charles with Catherine of Braganza (for others in the collection at Osterley Park, see NT 7732665 and 773267). The couple were formally married in Portsmouth, on 21 May 1662, the day after Catherine’s arrival in England. They formally entered London on 30 September 1662. Charles had never seen Catherine before her arrival at Portsmouth; she wore Portuguese costume for their first meeting, which may have prompted the apocryphal comment attributed to the King, that he had been brought a bat rather than a woman. However, when he actually met Catherine, Charles wrote to Lord Clarendon that ‘her face is not so exact as to be called a beauty, though her eyes are excellent good, and not anything in her face that in the least can shock one. On the contrary, she has as much agreeableness in her looks altogether, as ever I saw… if I am skilled in physiognomy, which I think I am, she must be as good a woman as ever was born.’ John Roettiers’ portrait of Catherine in this medal emphasises the innocent youth of the 23 year-old bride. The conception is simpler than in another medal he made to commemorate the marriage (NT 773265), in which both king and queen are conceived in an all’antica style, the portrait of Catherine in particular recalling the form of a sculpted classical bust. Whereas in that medal Charles is shown in armour, here the bust is uncovered, emphasising classical concepts of noble virtue. Coming from the quiet and strictly Catholic court of Portugal, Catherine of Braganza was quite unprepared for what she found in London, especially the King’s many mistresses, among whom Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine (1640-1709) reigned supreme at the time of Charles’s marriage. In the early days of their marriage, Charles was often cruelly cold to his new bride, obsessed with Barbara Villiers who, between 1661 and 1665, gave birth to five children by the king. Catherine on the other hand suffered several miscarriages but no successful births. It became ever clearer that the queen, whose Catholic faith made her an unpopular figure among her British subjects, would never provide an heir. Despite his many dalliances, the king’s relationship with his wife remained on the whole respectful and, towards the end of his life, increasingly close. Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Given to the National Trust in 1993 by George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998).
Marks and inscriptions
Obverse, legend: CAROLVS. II. D.G. MAG. BRIT. FRAN. ET. HIB. REX Reverse, legend: CATHER. D.G. MAG. BRIT. FRAN. ET. HIB. REGINA.
Makers and roles
John Roettiers (1631- London 1703), medallist
References
Hawkins, Franks and Grueber 1885: Edward Hawkins, Augustus W. Franks and Herbert A. Grueber (eds.), Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the death of George II, 2 vols., London 1885, vol. I, pp. 488-489, no. 109.