Coronation medal of Queen Anne
John Croker (1670 - 1741)
Category
Coins and medals
Date
1702
Materials
Copper
Measurements
347 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773294
Summary
Copper, Coronation medal of Queen Anne (1665-1714), by John Croker (1670-1741) and Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), struck London, United Kingdom, 1702. A struck copper medal by John Croker issued to commemorate the coronation of Queen Anne (1665-1714), which took place in Westminster Abbey on St George’s Day, 23 April 1702. The obverse depicts Anne in the form of a bust portrait in profile facing left, her hair gathered up with a ribbon, her dress with a fastening at the front. The Latin legend reads: Anne by the Grace of God, Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland. On the reverse, Queen Anne is depicted as the goddess Pallas Athena, in armour and with a shield, holding aloft a thunderbolt and confronting a reclining monstrous figure with two heads, four arms and legs that end in multiple snake heads, and which threatens the goddess with clubs and stones. The Latin legend translates as: ‘She is Vice-Regent of the Thunderer’ and, in the exergue, ‘Crowned on 23 April 1702’. The monster on the reverse is intended to represent France, its twin heads king Louis XIV and the exiled Pretender Prince James. Thus the design, by Sir Isaac Newton, symbolises Anne’s stated intention, on her accession, to continue William III’s policy of deterring French aggression as well as the legitimist claims of the Jacobite faction. Britain was with its allies to declare war on France just a few weeks after the Coronation, beginning the conflict known as the War of the Spanish Succession.
Full description
Queen Anne was the last Stuart monarch on the throne of Great Britain. She was the fourth child and second daughter of the brother of king Charles II, James, Duke of York, who would become King James II of England and James VII of Scotland and who converted to Catholicism in the 1670s. Anne’s elder sister was Princess Mary. The birth in June 1688 of a male heir, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, to King James II/VII and his wife Mary of Modena, precipitated the political crisis which led to the invasion of Prince William of Orange, husband of Princess Mary, and the flight of King James to France. The so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 led to the accession of Anne’s elder sister Mary (1662-94) who, as Queen Mary II, reigned jointly with her husband King William III. Anne succeeded to the throne in February 1702, on the death of William III. Prone to ill health throughout her life, on the day of her Coronation, 23 April 1702, she was suffering from gout, so had to be carried to Westminster Abbey in a sedan chair open at the back, to allow her train to flow out behind her. On arriving at the Abbey, she descended and walked down the aisle to the altar, for the sake of propriety and in order to be closer to her subjects. A lengthy description of the proceedings was recorded by Celia Fiennes, who was present in the Abbey (The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, London 1947, pp. 296-304). The Royal accounts include a payment of £100 to Sir Francis Child (1642-1713), banker and goldsmith and ancestor of the Earls of Jersey, ‘For the loan of Jewells for her Maties use at the Coronation.’ (Winn, Queen Anne, pp. 286-93). The medal was the official medal issued for distribution at the Coronation by the Treasurer of the Household. At the ceremony, no fewer than 1,200 silver examples were ‘thrown about’ Westminster Abbey, whilst 300 gold examples were given to peers on their swearing allegiance to the new monarch. Copper examples were presumably available more widely for sale to the general public. The Dresden-born medallist John Croker came to England in 1691 and by 1702 was working effectively as chief engraver at the Royal Mint. For the obverse of the medal, Croker used as his model a portrait by Sir Godfrey Keller. It is notable for its distinctive informality, with the Queen’s hair pulled back and tied with a ribbon, the dress serpentine in form with a sort of bow at the front. The same portrait was used for the coinage produced for the start of Anne’s reign. The reverse of the medal, showing a warlike Pallas Athena about to throw a thunderbolt at the grotesque monster that represents France, reflects the troubled political situation in Europe at the time of Anne’s accession to the throne. Following the death of Charles II in Spain in 1700, hostility between France and the other European powers began to grow again and was to result in the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13). Indeed, Britain declared war on France in May 1702, just a few weeks after the Coronation. From the start of her reign, Anne indicated her determination to continue William’s anti-French policy, as when she addressed her Council on the day after the death of William: "I think it proper upon this occasion of my first speaking to you, to declare my own opinion of the importance of carrying on all preparations we are making to oppose the great power of France, and I shall lose no time in giving our Allies all assurances that nothing shall be wanting on my part to pursue the true interest of England, together with theirs, for the support of the common cause." The reverse has recently been discovered to have been designed by Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), who was Warden of the Royal Mint from 1696 and Master from 1699 until his death in 1727. In his notes for the design, Newton described the monster as symbolic of ‘any Enemy with which Her Majesty hath or may have War’. Thus its two heads represent the French King Louis XIV and the pretender Prince James, in exile in France at Saint Germain. 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: ANNA. D. G. MAG. BR. FR. ET. HIB. REGINA. Reverse, legend: VICEM. GERIT. ILLA. TONANTIS. Reverse, exergue: INAVGVRAT. XXIII. AP./ MDCCII
Makers and roles
John Croker (1670 - 1741), medallist Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727), designer
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. pp. 228-29, no. 4. Wollaston 1978: Henry Wollaston, The Commemorative Collectors Guide to British Official Medals for Coronations and Jubilees, Nottingham 1978, p. 8, no. 9. Mitchiner 1988-2007: Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets and Tokens, 4 vols., London 1988-2007, vol. III (British Isles circa 1588 to 1830), 1998, p. 1707, no. 84.1 (4966) Eimer 2010: Christopher Eimer, British Commemorative Medals and their Values, London 2010, p. 75, no. 390, Pl. 48. Anderson Winn 2014: James Anderson Winn, Queen Anne. Patroness of Arts, Oxford 2014, pp. 290-91. Hone 2016: Joseph Hone, ‘Isaac Newton and the Medals for Queen Anne’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 79.1 (Spring 2016), pp. 119-148., pp. 126-29, fig. 1.