Frances Stewart as Britannia?

[constanius]

To me, the Ashmolean Museum ..... There are still mistakes in sight (Jaffa, instead of Jafna, the myth of Frances Stewart repeated etc.),

Peter

Would you expand on both points Peter, as I am confused re Jaffa instead of Jafna( I used to enjoy the odd Jaffa cake when I was younger) & I am unaware of the "myth of Frances Stewart".  Thanks in advance.


Pat

[constanius]

A coin from Sri Lanka was labelled as struck in Jaffa, which is a town in Israel, rather than Jafna, which is a mint town in Sri Lanka.

Samuel Pepys reported that Frances Stuart had posed for the copper farthings with Britannia. He was wrong. The first proofs date from before she came to London.

Peter

Thanks for the reply Peter, the Jaffa for Jaffna mistake was not clear in the original post.

As I understand it Britannia's first appearance on British coinage was on the farthing in 1672, though earlier pattern versions had appeared in 1665.  She was in London from 1662 for the wedding of Charles II where she participated as maid of honour, then subsequently at court as lady-in-waiting, to Catherine of Braganza.  So to me it seems as if Pepys was correct, or do you have different dates?

Pat

[Figleaf]

I had figured it all out in a heavily footnoted article in Dutch, issued many decades ago. Can't find it now in the mess I call my archive. As far as I remember, the most likely "model" was a Roman coin, not a person. Stewart would have become a credible model only after she became the king's misstress, which was after the first patterns were produced. Pepys probably just repeated contemporary London gossip. This explanation is not controversial, or at least the scientist at the BM I discussed it with found it old hat.

Peter

[constanius]

From: A Biography of Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond & Lennox
by Barbara Ballard;

Rumours ran even more rampant when the Queen developed a high fever in 1663 and was thought to be dying. Would the King marry Frances if the Queen died? However, the Queen eventually recovered, and Frances continued to dally with Charles as his passion for her raged even more strongly.

In 1664, England, at war with the Dutch, won several naval victories. Charles II decided to celebrate by having several medals struck. A figure of Britannia contemplating her victories was to adorn the medals, and the King chose Frances for the model. Thus she secured her place in history by posing for this famous engraving.

Pepys wrote in his diary, "At my goldsmith's did observe the King's new medal, where, in little, there is Mrs. Stewart's face as well done as ever I saw anything in my whole life, I think: and a pretty thing it is, that he should choose her face to represent Britannia by."

(And he knew her) Celebrated diarist Samuel Pepys, a keen observer of women, wrote of Frances' striking looks, "But it was the finest sight to me. . . . . .that ever I did see in all my life. . . . . .Miss Stuart. . . . . .is now the greatest beauty I ever saw, I think, in my life". She became known at court as "La Belle Stuart".

From Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain & Ireland to the Death of George II;

146. Dominion Of The Sea. 1665. Pattern.
Bust of Charles II., I., laureate, in armour. Leg. Carolvs .
A . CAROLO.
Rev. Britannia, seated, I., holding laurel branch and spear; at her side, shield. Leg. Qvatvor . Maria . Vindico. (I claim the four seas.) Ex. Britannia.
1-2. Van Loon, II. 507.
MB. M. M.
A pattern for a halfpenny. The die of the obverse is in the British Museum.
147. Dominion Of The Sea. 1665. Pattern.
Bust of Charles II., I., laureate, hair long, in armour. Leg. Carolvs . A . Carolo. Below, 1665.
Rev. Britannia, seated, I., holding laurel branch, &c.; similar to the preceding.
-95. Van Loon, II. 507. Evelyn, 139.
MB. N. M. M.
In the list of medals by Roettier (Stuart Papers, 'Windsor), it is stated of this piece, " A medal, as it may be called, of K. Charles II., tho' struck for a farthing in the Dutch War during that Dispute for the Dominion of the Sea." These pieces being intended for coins bear various dates.

So by 1663 Charles was already infatuated with Frances & the medals/patterns commemorating the 1664 victories were not struck till 1665.  It still seems that she was in fact the model for Britannia(1665) but which did not actually appear on the British coinage till 1672, on the farthing.

Sorry Peter but you are going to have to dig your article out from your archive to convince me otherwise

Pat

[Figleaf]

That article was a spin-off of a much larger document I did at the end of my studies, some 40 years ago. I also traced the origin of the sovereign of the seas ship design at the time. Some medal for the brother of the king if I remember correctly, which made it more likely that the artist had used coins and medals, rather than a live model. The larger document is of course also somewhere in the same mess, together with the draft of a three part article on the Roetttiers. I never got beyond part I, but at least that was published in the NI bulletin. Again, nobody fought my contention that the lady wasn't Francis.

All the evidence for the Francis myth is that quote from Pepys. People have been quoting it forever. However, look closely and you'll find that the only possible source is the goldsmith, but Pepys doesn't even say the goldsmith says it. It looks more like his own opinion. Furthermore, the face is so small, that whether Pepys knew the lady or not is irrelevant. You can't deduct anything from the design, you'd have to know that the lady posed or you may have heard the gossip.

The final straw is that at least on some of the patterns I have seen pictures of, Britannia was bare-breasted. This is not unusual for the king's lovers. Indeed, there are some fine pictures from several countries of an assortment of kings' lovers in scarce or no clothing. However, these are bedroom decorations, meant to inspire tired old kings enjoying the company of lively ladies, not meant for the general public to gape at. Moreover, the king considered marrying Frances and going without underwear in public would have been a lethal career move for a prospective queen. Yet, no contemporary brings up that argument against her.

Peter