Medals and Medallists connected with Ireland, 5 



branch. On the banner appended to the trumpet there is a small harp, the 

 arms of Ireland, and were not that sufficient to appropriate this medal as belong- 

 ing to our series, the inscription provincia connagh, decides the matter. Now 

 it is well known that Charles was married to Catherine of Braganza by Sheldon, 

 Bishop of London, May 21st, 1662; but many think the ceremony was pre- 

 viously performed by a Roman Catholic priest to satisfy the scruples of the 

 concealed as well as the avowed Romanist. This priest may have come from 

 Connaught, and it is not improbable that this piece was struck, that at least som» 

 obscure evidence might remain of the event. 



The Roettiers, the celebrated Dutch medallists, worked for Ireland ; but 

 their skill was, I believe, less exercised to commemorate the heroic achieve- 

 ments of her sons, than to promote the purposes of their unfortunate master ; 

 and those pieces generally known as the gun money of James II. are sup- 

 posed to have been struck from dies executed by John Roettier. However 

 base the materials of these coins, their neatness and execution afford reasonable 

 grounds for attributing them to such a devoted follower as he was knovra to be 

 of the exiled king. I should here observe that James Simon, the author of an 

 essay on Irish coins, has engraved, Plate VII. No. 154, and described a silver 

 medal, which he conceives alludes to the landing of James in Ireland, and his 

 reception by his Irish subjects at Kinsale, March 12th, 1689. The obverse 

 represents the king crowned, and in his royal robes, holding a baton in his hand. 

 Behind him a ship, and before him a crowd hailing his approach, the legend 

 JACOBUS • II. DEI • GRATIA. The rcvcrsc, two sceptres in saltire behind a crown, 

 with the motto intemerata, and the legend mag. br. fra. et . hib. rex. 1689- 

 Simon saw only a drawing of this medal, which was sent to him by Mr. Charles 

 Smith of Dungarven ; I have not been so fortunate as to meet with it myself, 

 nor can I find any further record concerning it; but Simon is too accurate to 

 allow me to doubt its existence in his day. 



When William III. came to fight the battles for our liberty and his own 

 sovereignty in this kingdom, his various victories were commemorated in Hol- 

 land by his own countrymen, and so many medals were struck with the intent of 

 perpetuating his renown, that it would be tedious here to enumerate them. The 

 engravings and descriptions published by Van Loon inform us, that neither the 

 Boyne nor Aughrim, nor Galway, nor Limerick, were considered undeserving 

 of commemoration by those who were most conversant with the events which 



