MARIE DE MÉDICIS wife of Henri IV - Lot 496

MARIE DE MÉDICIS wife of Henri IV Single-sided pewter medal dated 1624 (197.32 g; 100 mm). Mirror legend. Obverse of the medal whose reverse depicts the queen, princes and princesses in a ship. ♦ Mazerolle 696; cf TNG V,6 Engraver: Guillaume Dupré. Suspension hole. Later cast. Retouched flan. High relief. T.B. Undated bronze uniface medal (1615). Obverse with bust in widow's costume of the medal whose reverse depicts a ship with the banner of France (43.64 g; Ø 58 mm). ♦ TNG V,4 Engraver: Guillaume Dupré. Beautiful patina and chasing. Two holes at 12 o'clock. distorted blank. T.B. Two medals (one pewter and one bronze). T.B. Marie de Médicis was born in 1575. She was the daughter of Francesco, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his wife Johanna, Archduchess of Austria. In 1600, she married Henri IV of France and Navarre. Her life was eventful and difficult: she had problems with her royal husband's mistresses and, after his assassination in 1610 when she became queen regent for the young Louis XIII, she came under the influence of Italian advisors. She established a pro-Spanish and pro-Habsburg policy that was reversed by her son as soon as he took the throne in 1617. He then exiled his mother and appointed Richelieu chief minister. She led an unsuccessful revolt in 1619, but reconciled with Louis and joined the royal council in 1621. She attempted another coup d'état in 1630 and was again exiled, but fled abroad in 1631, remaining outside France until her death in Cologne in 1642. This medal by Guillaume Dupré shows her as a mature woman of great presence. The curious way in which the legend is given upside down was done so that it could be read in a mirror, to symbolize the fact that her glory was reflected in that of her son!