European Medals from 1513 to 1788
Spain. Charles III, pretender. 1700-1713. Medal (Silver, 44mm, 34.24 g 12), on his arrival in Lisbon, escorted by the British and Dutch fleets, by J. Boskam in Nijmegen, 1703. CAROLUS. III.HISPANIAR.INDIAR.REC.CATHOL. Laureate head of Charles III to right; below, I.BOSKAM.F. Rev. LIBERATOR.ET.ULTOR // CAROL.III.HISPAN.REX / BRITAN.BATAVQ.CLAS. / IN LUSIT. PROFICISC. / MDCCIII Eagle with spread wings, holding an olive branch in his beak and a thunderbolt in his talons, above view of the Anglo-Dutch fleet sailing to left. Eimer 403. MI IV p. 251, 42. Van Loon IV, pp. 406-407, ii. Rare. Beautifully toned and lustrous. Virtually as struck. This medal refers to one of the early acts of the War of The Spanish Succession, which lasted from 1701 to 1714 and was caused by the reluctance of the European powers to have either a Habsburg or a French candidate take the Spanish throne on the death of the incapable Charles II. This was because uniting either France and Spain or Austria and Spain would have produced a state of great power. In any case, Charles III, the son of the emperor Leopold II (he later became the emperor Charles VI), was the Habsburg pretender who faced Philip V, the grandson of Louis XIV. On the medal we have Charles’ arrival in Lisbon (actually in 1704): he stayed in Spain until 1711. Philip became the first Bourbon ruler of Spain but to do so, he had to renounce all claim to France.