North Yorkshire Moors Collection, Part IV: Coins and Medals

XVI: Later Cromwell Medals, Elizabeth Cromwell, 1641, a cast lead medal, unsigned, bust left, elizabeth wife of o c l p, rev. elizabeth daughter of sr james boucher and date, 37mm, 15.13g (Platt II, p.35, type A; MI I, 410/47). Fine, extremely rare £200-£300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins.

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Provenance: SNC February 1905 (12160); bt Baldwin.

The only other example known is that in the British Musuem. The medallist, origin and background of these medals are unknown. MI postulates that they were made in 1641 and the rest of the obverse legend added later. If so, then a master medal without the Oliver legend would have existed first. The style does not seem to be that of either of the Simon brothers.

Elizabeth Cromwell, née Bourchier (1598-1665), the eldest child of Sir James Bourchier, a city leather magnate, married Oliver Cromwell on 22 August 1620. In later life Elizabeth became the subject of Royalist ridicule and she was accused of what appeared to be baseless acts of drunkenness and adultery. After the restoration of the monarchy she quietly left London, firstly for Wales, and then to live with her son-in-law, John Claypole at Northborough, Northamptonshire