100797 | GREAT BRITAIN. England. Pope Julius III bronze Medal.

100797 | GREAT BRITAIN. England. Pope Julius III bronze Medal. Dated RY 5 (1554), though a 19th century restrike. Commemorating the brief restitution of Anglo Popery (46mm, 54.00 g, 12h). After G. Cavino.

 

IVLIVS TERTIVS PONT MAX A V, bust right, wearing zucchetto and mantum / ANGLIA RESVRGES (England, though shall rise again...), Pope Julius standing left, raising personification of England kneeling right, casting aside bow and quiver; in background, Cardinal Reginald Pole and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V standing facing; to right, Philip and Mary standing facing one another; in three lines in exergue, VT NVNC / NOVISSIMO / DIE (...as now, at the last day). Edge: Plain.

 

Cf. MI 70/15 (for prototype); Eimer 31c; Mazio –; cf. Lincoln 553-5 (same). Choice Mint State. Deep glossy brown surfaces with a sharp strike and intense luster. A seldom seen restrike of this rare and historically interesting type.

 

On account of Henry VIII's quarrel with Rome and Pope Clemens VII, Henry was excommunicated and thus, installed himself as the head of the newly established Anglican Church. When Mary (Henry's daughter by his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon) became queen, she wished to restore the religion of her mother and cousin, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (Carlos I of Spain), returning the Catholic Church to England. That very act is represented on this restrike medal, with Pope Julius III raising up the kneeling personification of England, while he is surrounded Reginald Pole (the final Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury), Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor and Mary's first cousin), Philip (Mary's husband and first cousin once removed), and Mary herself, clutching her seemingly swollen stomach in the hope of producing an heir. In the end, the pregnancy would be false and Mary would fail to have issue. Meanwhile, her reign–and the restoration of Catholicism to England–would end just a few years later in 1558 with her death at the age of 42 and the accession of her Anglican half-sister, Elizabeth I, who would return the primacy of the Church of England.

 

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