Vis Nulla Resolvet

A lovely print I've just stumbled across in the VD-16 electronic library, while looking for something else. It was made to celebrate the 1685 union of Maximilian Emmanuel of Bavaria and Maria Antonia of Austria. I like the underlying suggestion that love is more effective at achieving consensus and peace than force. Although this marriage was successful in producing a possible male heir to succeed the Habsburg king of Spain Charles II, the Infante Joseph Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, died in 1699 at the age of seven.

The marriage was unhappy, to say the least, and did not live up to the words spoken by the two in this engraving: 'Whatever happiness I will find comes with him/ her.' A great image, though, which can be downloaded here.

Smite Him Dead! The Day of Justice Will not Ask your Reasons!

Another beautiful representation of a treaty, this time on a bronze medal struck in Germany in 1915 designed by Karl Goetz from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's an allegorical depiction of the Pact of London of 1915, in which Italy left the Triple Alliance (with Germany and Austro-Hungary being the other members) and joined the Triple Entente (France, Russia and Britain.)

It depicts a chimera-like creature, with several heads representing the allies of the Triple Entente: a cockerel and a bear representing France and Russia, two lions representing Britain and Belgium, a dragon representing Japan and the snake for Serbia. Italy is represented by the small boy suckling at its teats below. The legend reads PACT OF MALICE. 

The obverse shows god in judgement, surveying flames on earth below. The inscription is a quotation from the German writer Heinrich von Kleist's Germania an ihre Kinder: "Strike him dead! The Day of Judgement will not ask your reasons!"

See it at the V&A site here. There's a link to a site that catalogues the work of Goetz above, which is really worth a look as this medal is only one of several connected to particular treaties or truces. You can read von Kleist's poem here. Brace yourself, it's hardly a barrel of laughs. As you'd expect, really, from a German writing in 1811 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars who shot himself later that year...

Treaty of Madrid 1526

Another beautiful visual depiction of an early modern peace treaty this time to illustrate for  the Treaty of Madrid in 1526. This treaty was coerced from Francis I during his "Spanish Captivity" after he was taken prisoner at the Battle of PAvia in 1525. Immediately upon his release he renounced its terms - as he had done in private to his own councillors before swearing to its terms.

The cover depicts the imperial and French arms (above); the second page shows a stylised meeting of the two sovereigns. One interpretation that comes to mind immediately could be that it shows the emperor on the left, offering his hand to Francis, who simply looks at it, unwilling to be reconciled. I'll have to think on the matter more. It could be, after all, a woodcut the printer had that seemed appropriate to be reused to illustrate the text of the treaty.

Follow this link for full access to this pamphlet at the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek.

Treaty of Crépy 1544

An allegorical print of the treaty of Crépy from the collection of the British Museum. This agreement, signed on the 20th September 1544, was between the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis I, King of France. The treaty itself is in Dumont (IV-2, pp.279ff) and can often be found referred to as the treaty of Crépy-en-Laonnois or as Crespy. I'll try to post a link to a summary of its terms later or write one myself as I can't find one right now. For now, I'll just say that I find this interesting as, unlike several other treaties of the period, Crépy was not commemorated very much in print in France, probably because - as this suggests - its terms were incredibly divisive, particularly as it gave a right to the younger son of Francis, Charles, duc d'Orleans, to either Milan or Burgundy. His elder son, Henry (the future Henry II), repudiated it straight away. The imperial eagle grips the French cockerel in its right claw, making it vomit out several Fleur-de-Lys. Is this a reference to this division, or is it to the fortresses that the treaty tranferred to imperial control? I'm not sure on first reflection...

NAHC