This medal is a part of my French medals offer
Visit my
page with the offers, please.
You will find many interesting items related to this subject.
If you are
interested in other medals, related to this subject, click here, please.
This contemporary medal has been minted in France to commemorate the quadruple pistole, minted upon the Dutch Prince, Frederick Henry of Orange, 1584 - 1647.
This medal
has been minted in 500 pieces (100 in silver, 500 in bronze).
This one has the number 113/500 on the rim.
Frederick Henry, or Frederik Hendrik in Dutch (29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647),
was the sovereign Prince of
Orange and stadtholder of
Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel from 1625 to 1647.
As the leading soldier in the Dutch wars against Spain, his main achievement was the successful Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629, It was the main Spanish base and a well-fortified city protected by an experienced Spanish garrison and by formidable water defenses. His strategy was the successful neutralization of the threat of inundation of the area around 's-Hertogenbosch and his capture of the Spanish storehouse at Wesel.
diameter – 62 mm, (ca
2⅜”)
weight – 126.60 gr, (4.47
oz)
metal – bronze, authentic patina
Frederick Henry was born on 29 January 1584 in Delft, Holland, Dutch Republic. He was the
youngest child of William the Silent and Louise de Coligny. His father
William was stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland. His mother
Louise was daughter of the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, and was the
fourth wife of his father. He was thus the half brother of his predecessor Maurice of Orange, deceased in 1625.
Frederick Henry was born six months before his father's assassination on 10 July 1584.
The boy was trained to arms by his elder brother Maurice, one of
the finest generals of his age. After Maurice threatened to legimitize his
illegitimate children if he did not marry, Frederick Henry married Amalia of Solms-Braunfels in 1625. His
illegitimate son by Margaretha Catharina Bruyns (1595–1625), Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein was born
in 1624 before his marriage. This son later became the governor of the young William III of England for seven years.
On the death of Maurice in 1625 without legitimate issue,
Frederick Henry succeeded him in his paternal dignities and estates, and also
in the stadtholderates of the
five provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overijssel and Guelders, and in
the important posts of captain and admiral-general of the Union
(commander-in-chief of the Dutch
States Army and of the Dutch navy).
Frederick Henry proved himself almost as good a general
as his brother, and a far more capable statesman and politician. For twenty-two
years he remained at the head of government in the United Provinces, and in his
time the power of the stadtholderate reached its highest point. The
"Period of Frederick Henry," as it is usually styled by Dutch
writers, is generally accounted the golden age of the
republic. It was marked by great military and naval triumphs, by worldwide
maritime and commercial expansion, and by a wonderful outburst of activity in
the domains of art and literature.
The chief military exploits of Frederick Henry were the
sieges and captures of Grol in 1627, 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629, of Maastricht in 1632,
of Breda in 1637, of Sas van
Gent in 1644, and of Hulst in 1645.
During the greater part of his administration the alliance with France against
Spain had been the pivot of Frederick Henry's foreign policy, but in his last
years he sacrificed the French alliance for the sake of concluding a separate
peace with Spain, by which the United Provinces obtained from that power all
the advantages they had been seeking for eighty years.
Frederick Henry built the country
houses Huis Honselaarsdijk, Huis ter Nieuwburg, and for his wife Huis ten Bosch, and he renovated
the Noordeinde
Palace in The Hague. Huis
Honselaarsdijk and Huis ter Nieuwburg are now demolished.
Frederick Henry died on 14 March 1647 in The Hague, Holland,
Dutch Republic. He left a wife, a son William II, Prince of Orange, four
daughters, and the illegitimate son Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein.
On Frederick Henry's death, he was buried with great pomp
beside his father and brother at Delft. The treaty of Munster, ending the long
struggle between the Dutch and the Spaniards, was not actually signed until 30
January 1648, the illness and death of the stadtholder having caused a delay in
the negotiations. Frederick Henry left an account of his campaigns in his Mémoires
de Frédéric Henri (Amsterdam, 1743). See Cambridge Mod. Hist. vol.
iv. chap. 24.