1697 Fortunes of the Old Pretender, Prince of Wales (Treaty of Ryswick) Medal
1697 Fortunes of the Old Pretender, Prince of Wales (Treaty of Ryswick) Historical Medallion by N Roettier
25mm (Woolf 14:3; MI II, 193/501; E 374).
Very Fine condition.
The Peace of Ryswick, or Rijswijk, was a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Rijswijk between 20 September and 30 October 1697. They ended the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War between France and the Grand Alliance, which included the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire.
One of a series of wars fought by Louis XIV of France between 1666 and 1714, neither side was able to make significant territorial gains. By 1695, the huge financial costs, coupled with widespread famine and economic dislocation, meant both sides needed peace. Negotiations were delayed by the question of who would inherit the Spanish Empire from the childless and terminally ill Charles II of Spain, the closest heirs being Louis and Emperor Leopold I.
Since Louis could not impose his preferred solution, he refused to discuss the issue, while Leopold refused to sign without its inclusion. He finally did so with great reluctance on 30 October 1697, but the Peace was generally viewed as a truce; Charles' death in 1700 led to the War of the Spanish Succession.
In Europe and North America, the terms essentially restored the position prevailing before the war, though Spain recognized French control of the island of Tortuga and the western portion of Hispaniola (Saint-Domingue). In Europe, France evacuated several territories it had occupied since the 1679 Treaty of Nijmegen, including Freiburg, Breisach and the Duchy of Lorraine; conversely, it retained Strasbourg.
