Medal promoting Prince James and the legitimacy of the Jacobite Succession
Norbert Roettiers (1665–1727)
Category
Coins and medals
Date
1699
Materials
Silver
Measurements
263 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773293
Summary
Silver, medal promoting Prince James (1688-1766) and the legitimacy of the Jacobite Succession, by Norbert Roettiers (1665-1727), struck France, 1699. A silver medal by Norbert Roettiers issued in 1699 to promote the claim to the succession of the English and Scottish thrones of Prince James (James III/VIII; The Old Pretender). The obverse has a portrait bust in profile of the prince, wearing armour and facing left, with the inscription ‘James, Prince of Wales’. The artist’s initials ‘N.R.’ are in the truncation. On the reverse, above a calm sea with shipping, a radiating sun disperses clouds and fleeing demons. The Latin legend reads in translation ‘He disperses them by his light alone.’ The date, 1699, in the exergue.
Full description
Norbert Roettiers was a member of the Roettiers family of medallists and die-makers. They originated from Antwerp, but many members of the family spent part or most of their careers in England. Norbert was one of the three sons of John Roettiers (1633-1701), who came to England to work in the Royal Mint in 1631. He trained with his father at the Royal Mint but, a committed supporter of the Jacobite cause, he left England for France in c. 1695, attaching himself to the exiled court at Saint Germain and soon finding employment at the French Mint, where he was appointed Engraver-general of the French coins. Roettiers remained in France for the remainder of his life, becoming a naturalised French citizen, whilst his son James (IV) Roettiers became goldsmith to King Louis XVI. The Elder Pretender, styled by his supporters King James VIII of Scotland and III of England, appointed Norbert Roettiers “Engraver of the Mint”. Roettiers made a number of medals and coins for the exiled court, which all proclaimed the legitimacy of the claim of the exiled Stuarts to the thrones of England and Scotland. The present medal is a typical example, naming Prince James, son of king James II/VII, as the Prince of Wales, thus the legitimate heir to the throne. The implication of the reverse is that peace and prosperity would be restored to the realm through a Jacobite succession, under which the Protestant Williamite ‘devils’ would be driven away. These images are no doubt intended as a response to anti-Catholic propaganda, such as a Dutch broadside in which King James II was shown in bed vomiting small monsters wearing crowns and cardinals’ hats (Noel Woolf, The Medallic Record of the Jacobite Movement, London 1988, p. 10). The medal is one of a number of similar subject issued in the same year. No event is known to have occurred in 1699 to which the medals can be related, so it seems probable that they were made as part of a continuing campaign to keep alive the claims of James II/VII and his son to the British throne. The medals were no doubt distributed as gifts to Jacobite supporters, who visited the exiled court at Saint Germain in large numbers. The dies for this medal are in the British Museum. 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 : IAC: WALLIÆ. PRINCEPS. Obverse, below truncation: N.R. Reverse, legend: SOLA. LVCE. FVGAT. Reverse, exergue: 1699
Makers and roles
Norbert Roettiers (1665–1727), 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. II, p. 204, no. 519 Cochran-Patrick 1884: Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Medals of Scotland from the earliest period to the present time, Edinburgh 1884, p. 60, no. 31, Pl. XI, Fig. 1. Skeet 1930: Francis John Angus Skeet, Stuart Papers, Pictures, Relics, Medals and Books in the Collection of Miss Maria Widdrington, Leeds 1930, p. 72. Woolf 1988: Noel Woolf, The Medallic Record of the Jacobite Movement, London 1988, p. 47, no. 15:1. Mitchiner 1988-2007: Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets and Tokens, 4 vols., London 1988-2007, vol. III (British Isles circa 1588 to 1830), 1998, p. 1705, no. 83 (4960). Eimer 2010: Christopher Eimer, British Commemorative Medals and their Values, London 2010, p. 74, no. 381. Guthrie 2013: Neil Guthrie, The Material Culture of the Jacobites, Cambridge 2013, pp. 69-72, fig. 10.