James (III) Stuart, The Elder Pretender: Jacobite Appeal Against The House of Hanover
by Giovanni Hamerani

In order to understand the significance of this medal, which is discussed in more detail several pages down, and which is important to further our understanding of the competition between Catholics and Protestants for the throne of England, a little more background may be helpful.

The dispute between Catholics and Protestants for control of the monarchy began in earnest in England during the reign of Henry VIII (King of England 1509-1547) and continued for more than a century.  Henry, a Catholic, married Catherine of Aragon, also a Catholic.  Unfortunately for Catherine she could not conceive the son that Henry craved to be heir to the throne, so Henry determined to divorce her.  The Pope, however, forbade the divorce.  Accordingly, Henry broke with the church in Rome, established the Church of England with himself as its head, divorced Catherine and, as is well known, had five more wives, who bore him future monarchs.

The medal of Henry VIII by the Genevan medallist Jean Dassier (Figure 18) exemplifies Henry’s anti-catholic policy.  The reverse of this medal depicts a bas-relief of the king as Hercules, club in hand, within a temple destroying the Papal tiara and keys which have been placed on an alter. Behind is a fire to which Henry consigned those Roman Catholics who refused to acknowledge his supremacy.



Henry VIII is a major figure in English history, not so much for his having had six wives, but rather for the fact that during his reign Henry presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation.  He is particularly remembered for his break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries. On Henry’s death, his only son, Edward VI (the son of Henry and Jane Seymour), succeeded to the throne.  Edward was a devout Protestant, who died after only six years of reign, but not before willing the crown to Lady Jane Gray, in order to exclude, unsuccessfully, his Catholic half-sister, Mary I (Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon), from the throne.  

Dassier’s medal of Edward VI (Figure 19), like that of Henry VIII, provides another example of religious bigotry in medals.  In this case the reverse of the medal of Edward VI depicts a  bas-relief showing the king as an infant Hercules strangling a dragon, symbolizing the papacy, in imitation of the fable of Hercules strangling the serpent.

As noted by Eisler, such anti-Catholic references are to be expected by the Genevan medallist Jean Dassier.  However  his subsequent medal of Mary I (Figure 20) shows his evenhandedness in this matter.               



Mary I, a devoted Catholic, determined to reestablish papal authority and  restore Catholicism to England. She revived heresy laws and  ordered the murder of many citizens who had converted to Protestantism, earning her the appellation ‘Bloody Mary’.

Dassier’s medal of Mary I (Figure 20) depicts another example of religious persecution, but in this case it is the Catholics who are tyrannizing the Protestants.  The reverse of the medal of Mary I shows the figure of Religion (Popery) with Papal tiara seated before a monument; on one side of the monument is a fire for burning heretics, and on the other side a column on which is hung a medallion engraved with a portrait of Pope Paul IV surrounded by arms and implements of torture.