Medal - Peace of Breda

Reverse

Pax standing facing; above, hand of God emerging from the clouds holding the shields of England and the Netherlands, and, long ribbon

Script: Latin

Lettering:
IRATO BELLUM PLACATO NUMINE PAX EST
REDIIT.CONCORDIAE.MATER / BREDAE
IUL.31 .Ao.1667.

Translation:
war from an angry divinity, peace from one appeased
Mother Concord has returned at Breda

Engraver: Christoffel Adolfzoon

Edge

Plain with inscription.

Lettering: NUMISMA.POSTERITATI.SACRUM.BELGA.BRITANNOQUE RECONCILIATIS,CUM.PRIVIL:ORDIN:HOLLAND:ET:WEST

Translation: medal consecrated to posterity on the occasion of the Peace between the United Provinces and Great Britain. With the permission of the States of Holland and West Friesland

Comment

MI I, pp. 528-529, 176. Scher, The Proud Republic, 38. TMNK 00740. Van Loon II, pp. 534-536, FNM I. Milford Haven 585

This is one of the most famous of all Dutch medals, but has the dubious distinction of while being struck in honor of the peace treaty that ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667), was actually one of the causes of a subsequent war! The reason for this is that the hag on whom Hollandia treads on the obverse has the epithet Mala Bestia, pernicious beast, which had been used for the English king Charles II by his enemies (and the features of the Hag are similar to those of Charles as well)! Not only that, but the Dutch destruction of the British fleet at Chatham (known as the Battle of Chatham in Dutch sources and the Raid on the Medway in British) appears as well. This remarkable feat, under the Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, led to the Peace Treaty of Breda, which this medal commemorates. However, it was surely not the most diplomatic thing to put on a peace medal; Charles II’s government protested and, in the end, the medal was recalled and its dies destroyed (though the Dutch authorities had previously made sure that everyone who wanted an example, had one!).