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Auction: 7010 - Ancient, English & Foreign Coins & Comm Medals
Lot: 283

Low Countries, Siege of Leiden, Siege and Relief of the City 1574, silver gilt medal, 47mm., the Angel of Death destroying the army of Sennacherib, rev. view of the siegeworks before the city (van Loon I, 195), marks on edge from a mount, very fine Estimate £ 100-150 The second attempt by the Spanish, unde the Duke of Alva, against the city of Leiden, eventually ended in failure in October 1574. The Spanish were thwarted by a combination of heroic bravery on the part of the Dutch and the floods caused by the autumn storms which eventually soaked the besiegers after the Dutch opened the dykes to the south. The relief of the city was seen as an act of God similar to the biblical account of the defeat of the Assyrian army of Sennacherib, later immortalised by Lord Byron in his poem The Destruction of Sennacherib written in 1815.

Sold for
£200