Beschreibung

James II. 1685-1688. Silver Medal 1688, 46.48 g. Birth of Prince James. Unsigned. Aglauros opening basket and discovering Erichthonius with his dragon tail, roses and thistles on the ground. INFANTEMQUE VIDENT, APPORRECTUMQUE DRACONEM. Rv. A withering rose with two flowers, a sucker growing to the left. TAMEN NASCATUR OPORTET. In exergue: MDCLXXXVIII. Plain edge. 49.5 mm. Eimer -. MI i 631/53. van Loon III, 346. Saunders/Vanhoudt 1688-14. Fast vorzüglich / About Extremely Fine. Feine Patina auf Avers / Nicely toned on obverse.

From the auction Frankfurter Münzhandlung 136, Frankfurt a. Main, May 1991, lot 483.

James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 - 1 January 1766) was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701.

His birth was unexpected, coming five years after his mother's tenth and last pregnancy, none of which produced a child that survived more than a few days. The birth reignited controversies of religion, as the new son would be raised Catholic.

This medal depicts the rumors, that the child was from a woman other than Queen Mary. Pallas committed to the care of the three daughters of Cecrops a basket with a special injunction not to open it. Opened however it was by Aglauros and out rushed Erichthonius a progeny of Vulcan, half man, half monster, not born of woman. The roses and thistles point the application of the fable to Great Britain. The three daughters are England, Scotland, and Ireland. Erichthonius, hideous and deformed, could not be of royal blood, he must be a pretender, and as the Queen was considered incapable of bearing children, he must have been produced without a mother. The rosebush represents the King and Queen who, it was generally believed would never have any children. It was however necessary that one should be born and therefore a young Prince or sucker is seen springing up at such a distance from the parent stock, that it may be doubted from what plant it is produced.