4

HISTORY OF

[HENRY VIII. TO CHARLES I.

an Order of Knighthood, but as tokens of favour, both to their own subjectsand to ambassadors or envoys, sent to their Courts on public affairs. 1

Those distinctions were certainly worn on the person; and in the fifteenthand sixteenth centuries it was as usual to place Chains and Medals in the hat orbonnet, as to suspend, them from the neck. The Medals, in most cases, borea representation of the Sovereign or other Royal personage who gave them; andthere are still extant several oval ornaments containing the effigies of King Henrythe Eighth, of Queen Elizabeth, 2 and King James, and of King Charles theFirst, with his Queen, Henrietta Maria, on the reverse, within wreaths of flowersor laurel, which were evidently attached to Chains or Ribbands, and borne asmarks of the Royal favour. 3

There are, however, also many silver oval Medals of the reigns of two ofthose monarchs which seem to have been given for Naval achievements. Onone side is the head of the Sovereign, and on the other the Ark on the sea,under the symbol of Divine Providence, those of Queen Elizabeth beinginscribed saevas tranquilla per undas , 4 and those of King James, stetsalvus in undis. 5 But so little is known on the subject, and there is so muchdifficulty in determining whether Medals struck on particular occasions wereactually worn as military decorations, that no earlier proof can be adduced ofMedals being conferred in England for services in the field, than in the reignof King Charles the First.

In May 1643, King Charles established a Badge to reward such soldiersas might distinguish themselves in “ Forlorn-hopes,” containing the effigies of

1 See the History of the Order of the Garter, pp. 348, 349, and of the Thistle, p. 14.Rot. Pari. vol. III. pp. 313, 428, 477; IV. 214, et seq.; Retrospective Review, vol. II. p. 500, etseq.; Stothard’s “Monumental Effigies,” &c.; and Foedera, vol. IX. p. 275, X. 200, 387. KingJames the First gave gold Chains varying from £66 to £200 in value, and Medals worth from10 to 20 nobles, with his effigy, to various Foreigners, and to some of his own subjects. PellRecords, pp. 245, 250, et passim, and Nichols’ Progresses of King James, vol. I. pp. 600, 601, 607.II. 608. In July 1628, King Charles the First gave “ a Chain and a Medal of His Majesty’s picture,”of the value of £150, to David de Solemne, a Dutchman, who came to England with letters from thePrince of Orange, and who presented the King with “ the models of the Prince of Orange’s camp, anddivers other rare inventions of his own.”

2 On the reverse of that Medal of Queen Elizabeth, is a Phoenix under the Crown, with a mono-gram of the Queen’s name, and a long legend. It is engraved in the “ Medallick History of England.”

3 Several of those ornaments are now in the British Museum, and engravings of some of them willbe found in the “ Medallick History of England to the Revolution,” 4to. Plate vii.

4 This Medal has a ring attached to it. It is engraved in the “Medallick History of England,”

Plate vii. 5 Ibid. Plates xi. xn.