medal
- Museum number
- G3,EM.8
- Description
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Gold medal. (whole)
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Ships bombarding various towns on the French coast, under a meridian sun. (reverse)
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William III, habited as a Roman general, holds a fulmen in his right hand. (obverse)
- Production date
- 1694
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 43.000 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Medallic Illustrations 2, published in 1885, states:
This medal was also struck in wood for use as a draughtsman. It commemorates the bombardment of Dunkirk, Calais, and other places along the coast of France, by a squadron under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, which diverted a very large French force, and thereby weakened the main French army. William III is represented as Jupiter in his character of the Thunderer, or punisher of the guilty. On the reverse Louis XIV is the false sun or Phaethon beholding the cities in flames, and unable to bear the heat occasioned by his own bad management. In 1689 Louis burnt and destroyed Worms, Spires, and many other places which he had no longer the power to retain.
The British Museum also holds a silver example (registration no. M.7875) with the following inscription on the edge:
VANGIONVM NEMETVMQVE VRBES VLCISCITVR ANGLVS,
DISCE TIMERE GRAVES NVNC LVDOVICE VICES. (The Briton avenges the cities of Worms and Spires; learn now, Louis, to dread severe vicissitudes.) F. K. (Friedrich Kleinert).
See Van Loon, Gerard, ‘Histoire Métallique des XVII. Provinces des Pays-Bas’, 5 vol. La Haye, 1732-1837 (fol) [There is also an edition in Dutch, but with different paging], IV. 167.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Commemoration of: Bombardment of the French Coast
- Acquisition date
- 1825
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- G3,EM.8
- C&M catalogue number
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MB2 (Medallic Illustrations 2) (98) (323)
