Portrait medal of Mary I, legend MARIA I REG ANGL FRANC ET HIB FIDEI DEFENSATRIX

Portrait medal of Mary I, legend MARIA I REG ANGL FRANC ET HIB FIDEI DEFENSATRIX

A cast lead portrait medal of Mary I: the queen in profile in a coif and jewelled dress, with a legend giving her royal titles. It is a royal image and title in portable form; the legend ends with the title Defender of the Faith in its feminine form.

Date
1555
Period
Pre-1914
Made by
Medal attributed by the Met to Jacopo Nizzola da Trezzo, portraying Queen Mary I
Country
England
Medium
Object
Issuer type
Individual
Leader
Mary I
Audience
Mixed
Techniques
Transfer
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access), retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights
Public domain (The Met Open Access, CC0; isPublicDomain true in the Met API)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1936 (36.110.22), Open Access

Text on the object

Original (Latin) · read from the image, not independently checked

MARIA·I·REG·ANGL·FRANC·ET·HIB·FIDEI·DEFENSATRIX

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

Mary I, queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.

Read clockwise from the lower left; word-dots are as struck. The abbreviations ANGL(IE), FRANC(IE) and HIB(ERNIE) are expanded in the translation.