The distribution of distinctive medals was a key feature of each Stuart coronation. Expensive gold medals were reserved for diplomats and visiting dignitaries, while cheaper silver and copper medals were thrown freely into the crowd. Each medal was designed with the new monarch’s approval and established key aspects of their Stuart iconography. In this film Dr Joseph Hone and Professor Andrew McRae look at the medal designed by Isaac Newton for the coronation of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne.
Key Questions
- What was the impact of party politics and Jacobitism on Stuart iconography?
- How did Stuart iconography feature in partisan propaganda?
- Why did the Stuart monarchs produce coronation medals?
Further Reading
- Joseph Hone, ‘Isaac Newton and the Medals for Queen Anne’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 79 (2016), 119-48.
- Kevin Sharpe, Rebranding Rule: The Restoration and Revolution Monarchy, 1660-1714 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013).
- James Anderson Winn, Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Unless otherwise noted, images in this film are reproduced by courtesy of the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.
