Lot 555
JACOBITE SILVER MEDALLION - PRINCESS CLEMENTINA ESCAPE FROM INNSBRUCK
OTTONE HAMERANI (1694 - 1764), STRUCK 1719
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts
Auction: 15 August 2018 at 11:00 BST
Description
Obverse; bust of Princess Clementina with legend CLEMENTINA. M. BRITIAN. FR. ET. HIB. REGINA. Reverse; Princess hurriedly escaping in a horse and carriage with Rome in the distance with legend FORTVNAM. CAV. SAMQVE. SEQVOR and in exergue DECEPTIS. CVSTODIBVIS. MDCCXIX
Dimensions
48mm across, 47.8g
Footnote
Note: As the last in line to the Stuart throne it was important for King James to marry and marry well giving him further 'rights' and power in the continental Royal courts. He sent Charles Wogan to scour the courts of Europe for an appropriate bride. By 1718 he had arrived at the Sobieski Court in Ohlau and an agreement was made that Clementina would become his bride.
The now betrothed Clementina travelled incognito to meet James in Bologna with her mother accompanied by James Murray. However, word had likely reached King George of the planned union and he was rightly worried this signalled the future of the Stuart line, meaning the marriage had to be stopped from taking place. To this end he ordered Emperor Charles VI to hold the wedding party at Innsbruck; a ruler who felt compelled to obey, surely down to reasons of state and his own protection. By September both Clementina and her mother were being held prisoner in Innsbruck by which time James had arrived in Bologna to meet them. On hearing the news, in October, he sent Charles Wogan to rescue his bride and bring her to him so they could be married.
In cavalier style Wogan saved the Princess, substituting her for a maid servant and leaving her mother to explain all when the plot would be discovered the day after. They both fled to Bologna to meet James, who by this time had left as there was hope of support from Spain. Clementina was married to James in Bologna by proxy with James Murray standing in his stead before they left to unite James with his bride.
It has been said that this medal was ordered by Pope Innocent XI as the Sobieski's were staunch Catholics, with the hope that when James and Clementina married they would secure the Catholic Stuarts a place back on the throne.