Treaty for King and Country July Ist 1816

[constanius]

 

Médaille commémorative de l'installation des États provinciaux du Hainaut.

 

Obv. PRO REGE ET PATRIA CONCORDES H. SIMON. G. P. DU ROI. l'exergue : PRIMA JULII MDCCCXVI.

(Treaty for King and Country July Ist 1816)

 

Cute, the heart formed by the lions tails. Notice another plowshare (see Elverno's earlier posting LINK)

 

Rev. Dans le champ :REGI WILHELMO PRINC-OPT.COMITIA HANNONIAE RESTAURATA PRAESIDE DE BOUSIES DICANT.

(To the rule of William, the best of princes, the people of Hainaut restored by the committee of Bousies decree.)

Engraved by Jean Henri Simon engaver to the King(William 1st)

 

 

Though the Prince of Orange had become the first king of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, this medal(1816) shows that the southern provinces had not all signed up to the plan. The northern provinces were dutch speaking and mainly protestant, whereas the southern provinces were waloons(mainly french speaking) & flemish and mainly catholic. The south had a lot in common with the French, being ruled by them for the previous 10 years, and in fact when Napoleon was heading to Waterloo there was a lot of support for him still.

 

These differences in language & religion (& the dutch domination in politics etc) eventually lead to the belgian revolution 1n 1830 and the establishment of new kingdom of Belgium. But that was all in the future, when this medal was struck all looked good on paper.

[grivna1726]

Historically interesting and beautiful medal, thank you for posting it.

[grivna1726]

Historically interesting and beautiful medal, thank you for posting it.

[De Orc]

It is a very lovely looking medal