1699 Jacobite Medal, Sola Luce Fugat

Item Description

1699 Jacobite Uprising, Prince James Edward Francis Stuart silver medal (Eimer 381, Woolf 15:1). Obverse: left-facing armoured bust, 'IAC: WALLIÆ · PRINCEPS ·' around with 'N·R' below for Norbert Roettiers. Reverse: sunburst over the sea with bats, demons or clouds, '* SOLA · LVCE · FVGAT' above and the date (1699) below. Weight: 5.5g. Diameter: 26.5mm. Grade: nF - near Fine.

Jacobite Propaganda

This medal promotes the claim to the throne of James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), the eldest surviving son of King James II and VII. James Francis was created Prince of Wales in July 1688. By December of the same year, his father would be deposed and exiled, the result of the Glorious Revolution.

Brought up on the continent, the younger James was regarded as the heir to the English and Scottish thrones by the French and other European Catholic monarchs, in opposition to James II's protestant daughter, Mary II, and her husband, William III of Orange. This political ideology is known as Jacobitism and advocates the restoration of a Catholic monarchy to the British Isles.

Jacobite Medal Design

The obverse of the medal shows a bust of the young James, later known as the Old Pretender, wearing armour. The inscription declares him the rightful Prince of Wales.

The artist behind this political medal is Norbert Roettiers, from the noted Roettiers family of medallists and die-makers. Norbert had worked for the Royal Mint at the Tower of London but left England in the 1690s to join the exiled court based at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The Château had been provided to James II and his family by King Louis XIV.

The influence of the Sun King on Jacobite propaganda is apparent on the reverse of this medal which shows a sun rising above a calm sea. Tiny winged beasts fleeing the light are variously identified as owls, bats or demons. The inscription above reads '* SOLA · LVCE · FVGAT' ('He has flown by the only light'). The design is intended to indicate that while the young Prince has left, his return would cause the sun to rise again, dispelling the storm clouds and restoring peace.

These medals may have been given to adherants to James II and his son who visited the exiled court in France. The dies are in the collection of the British Museum.

On his father's death in 1701, his son would take up the Jacobite cause, participating in various failed landings with later attempts, including the 1745 Rising, fronted by his own son, Charles Edward Stuart, better known as the Young Pretender or Bonny Prince Charlie.

References

Farquhar, Helen. 'Patterns And Medals Bearing The Legend Iacobvs III. Or Iacobvs VIII.' British Numismatic Journal (1906): 229-270.

Guthrie, Neil. The Material Culture Of The Jacobites. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Guthrie, Neil. 'Unica Salus (1721): A Jacobite Medal And Its Context.' The Georgian Group Journal (2006): 88-120.

Woolf, Noel. The Medallic Record Of The Jacobite Movement. Spink, 1988.