26.08 g. 41mm. Appealing exemplar with perfect relief details and light nice patina.
Medalier: Georg Hautsch (H on obverse truncation).
Delzanno (SKM) 175a; Hildebrand 109.
Rare.
Variant with edge inscription:
QVO IVSTIOR ALTER NEC PIETATE FVIT, NEC BELLO MAIOR ET ARMIS. VIRG.
(No other was more just, nor greater in devotion, war, and arms. Virgil).
Obv.: Bust of Charles XII right, bareheaded and cuirassed, with draped mantle.
Inscription around:
CAROLVS XII D·G·REX SVECIAE·
(Charles XII, by the Grace of God, King of Sweden).
Rev.: Lion standing left in a landscape, one forepaw resting upon the crowned greater royal arms.
Inscription around:
PAR ANIMO ROBVR
(Equal in courage and strength).
This medal commemorates the victories won by Charles XII between 1700 and 1706 in the opening phase of the Great Northern War. During these years Sweden fought against Russia, Saxony-Poland, and their allies, and the campaign brought a succession of major Swedish successes that firmly established the young king’s reputation as one of Europe’s most formidable military rulers. The victories celebrated in this context include Narva, now in Estonia; the operations around Riga and Dünamünde, in present-day Latvia; the campaigns in Poland, including Warsaw, Cracow, and Thorn - present-day Toruń - as well as the later advance into Saxony. Together, these successes marked the height of Swedish military power on the continent before the king turned eastward again in 1707.
The triumph at Narva in 1700, won against a much larger Russian army, became one of the most celebrated Swedish victories of the entire war. The subsequent campaigns secured Sweden’s position in the eastern Baltic and extended its military influence deep into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and into Saxony, culminating in the Peace of Altranstädt in 1706, which forced Augustus II to renounce the Polish crown. These operations demonstrated not only Charles XII’s aggressiveness in the field, but also the strategic reach of the Swedish Empire across the Baltic world, from present-day Sweden and Finland to territories now belonging to Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany, and Russia. At this stage of the conflict, Sweden still appeared capable of preserving its status as the dominant power in Northern Europe, and medals of this kind were intended to present the king’s victories as proof of both military valor and princely authority.
Withdrawn
