Geuzen medals, Beggars' or Sea Beggars' medals were minted early in the Dutch Revolt and during the first half of the 16th-century Eighty Years' War. During that period, many medals, tokens and jetons with a political message were minted. The earliest Geuzen medals (or tokens) date from the mid-16th century to 1577. In Dutch, geus (plural geuzen) is a familiar term for the people who revolted in the 16th century against the Spanish king Philip II. The revolt began with the nobility, spreading to the gentry and the common prole. Years later, when war broke out, the title geus (or watergeus) was given to the irregular force of rebels fighting and living in the estuaries of large rivers; the name bosgeus ("forest geus") was given to those living in the woods. Geus is derived from the French word for beggar, hence the translation of watergeus as "sea beggar". The term "sea beggar" is also used for a land-bound geus.
Background The Holy Roman Empire was still at war with France when Philip II of Spain succeeded his father, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1555. After peace was made, Philip II appointed his half-sister Margaret of Parma as viceroy of the Low Countries and left for Spain. The real power was invested in the three permanent members of the Council of State: Cardinal Granvelle, Viglius and Berlaymont. Nobility such as William of Orange (or William the Silent, stadtholder [steward] of Holland, Zealand and Utrecht) and Lamoral, Count of Egmont, (stadthouder of Flandres) were members of the council, but were unhappy with their loss of power to Granvelle and because Spanish troops remained in the Low Countries after the peace with France. Following a French example, they instituted a Ligue: a coalition of the high nobility. The Ligue's activity resulted in the departure of Spanish troops in 1564 and, shortly thereafter, Granvelle's retirement. Members of the lower nobility, who had been impoverished in previous decades (like the common people in the southern parts of the Low Countries) united in the 1565 Compromis; their political program sought relief from the Counter-Reformation. In early April 1566, 400 members of the Compromis united in Brussels. On April 5, led by Hendrick van Brederode and Ludwig of Nassau, they presented a petition to Margaret (who was alarmed by the large gathering). Berlaymont is reputed to have whispered to her, "Ce ne sont que de gueux" ("They're just beggars"). Three days later, during a banquet at the palace of the earl of Culemborg, the pejorative geus was chosen as a badge of honour for their group. They decided to adopt a costume incorporating mendicant symbols, such as beggars' bowls and flagons. This was less an eccentricity of the low nobility than the popular tradition in reversing roles, as at carnival time. A dress code, with beggars' bowls and flagons and a silver (or gilt) token on a ribbon around the neck indicated their independence and dominance; mockery of the church may also have been a factor. The lower 16th-century Flemish nobility could be described as successful criminals. When Charles V first visited Spain in 1517 and did not land at the pre-selected spot because of stormy weather, disappointed Flemish nobles marauded and murdered innocent people (according to Alonso de Santa Cruz) and officials withheld the news from Charles. In 1572 William de la Marck, Lord of Lumey (also lower Flemish nobility) took Den Briel for William the Silent; nineteen Catholic clerics were brought to him in Den Briel. After they were tortured, they were hanged; William of Orange had requested leniency toward Catholic clergy. During the 16th century, beggars frequently required permission from a local municipality or lordship. Permission was sometimes granted only if they wore a small tin (or copper) token, the possible origin of the Geuzen medals.
Probable first political medal Letters between Granvelle (in Madrid) and his secretary, Morillon (in Brussels) indicate that Jacques Jonghelinck – a master medal maker with a workshop in a buildings in the palace complex in Brussels – made a mould for a small medal in the spring of 1566. Jonghelinck cast medals in lead, tin, copper, silver and gold; tin and copper specimens are now lost, and only a few questionable lead specimens exist). On June 15 Morillon sent a lead specimen to Granvelle, saying that more medals were cast in lead then in the other metals; a medal for poor people "affin peult-estre gue les Geutz demeurent en leur qualité" ("perhaps the quality [of the medals] is in line with the standing of the Geuzen").
The medal is described in part I of Gerard van Loon's book, Beschrijving der Nederlandse Historipenningen ... (1713–1731), and has the collectors reference vL.I 85/84.5. It is classified as rare to very rare. The medal is small, only 1 inch (25 mm) (not counting the eyelet). It shows the bust of Philip II, with "1566" on its cut and the text "EN TOVT FIDELLES AV ROY" ("In everything loyal to the king"); on the reverse side is a beggar's sack, hands and the text, "IVSQVES A PORTER LA BESACE" ("even condemned to a beggar's level"). The medal was worn on the breast with a ribbon around the neck. Morillon notes that Jonghelinck's neighbouring tourneur (a master furniture maker) turned small wooden bowls which women hung from their ears; original specimens are now unknown. Pictures sometimes show the nobility wearing model beggar's bowls and flasks, fastened to the same ribbon. On the reverse side of the medal, some wear is visible due to contact with breast armour. Of this type of medal, about half the known specimens' eyelets are broken off. This is due to a late 17th- and 18th-century fashion in which a medal with an eyelet was considered less attractive in a collector's cabinet. Early in the 17th century, when it became clear that the Dutch would win the Eighty Years' War, there was a growing demand for Geuzen medals. Jonghelinck's medal was copied in silver, slightly larger and sometimes with attached beggar's bowls and flasks.
Early political medal by unknown medallist Morillon wrote to Granvelle on July 7, 1566, that he got angry at Jonghelinck "because he had broken his first Geuzen medal" (Jonghelinck had probably broken his mould), but he thought that Jonghelinck could reproduce his mould (although he made only a small profit on his first version). The maker of the cast silver, gilt Geuzen medal with collectors reference vL.I 85/84.4 and the qualification "very rare" is unknown.
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