Watch List notes:

STUART (ORANGE). temp. William III. 1694-1702. AR Medal (43mm, 29.44 g, 12h). Assassination Plot Against William. Possibly by C. Wermuth. Dated 1696. HERODES ATQVE PILATVS • (Herod and Pilate), jugate busts of King Louis XIV of France (as Herod) and claimant King James II (as Pilate) right; in exergue, ACTOR · IV · 26 (Acts 4:26) above three stars / IRRITA CONSPIRATIO (the fruitless conspiracy), Louis and James standing with Father Petre within netted enclosure, the first two each holding sword, and together holding purse inscribed CM/PISTO (100,000 pistoles) in two lines; in foreground to right, the young pretender riding backwards upon a lobster; in the background, a group of armed men in a clearing, and a fleet of ships upon the sea on the horizon; GENESIS · XLIX · 5 · 6 · (Genesis 49:5-6) below; in three lines in exergue, ADVERS' · GVLIELMVM · III/ANGLIÆ REGEM ·/3 · MART · 1696 · (against William III, the King of England, on the 3rd of March). MI 151/414; Eimer 369; Woolf 13:2; van Loon IV, p. 165. Good VF, toned. Rare.


This medal presents an interesting allusion, comparing Louis and James to Herod and Pilate – united against a common enemy in the form of William III and the Church of England. Furthering the religious significance of this iconography is the reference to Acts 4:26, reading '...the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.' On the reverse, the purse represents the funds necessary to conduct their insidious plot, and the reference to Genesis 49:5-6 likens the Catholic monarch and former-monarch to Simeon and Levi, the warlike sons of Jacob.