Margaret of Parma, Resignation as Regent of the Netherlands

Commemorative and portrait medals gained popularity during the Renaissance and medal making spread out beyond the Italian peninsula. In the Netherlands, the period of intense economic change and new prosperity of the 17th century coincided with a new interest in medals as a portable, reproducible art form suitable for depicting a wide range of subjects. Some medals depict important people, like rulers, elected officials, naval and military heroes; some show events, such as significant battles, treaties signed, marriages; and others show buildings or institutions that spoke of the United Provinces’ prosperity and commerce, like the town hall and the stock exchange in Amsterdam. When Philip II of Spain left the Netherlands in 1559, he asked Margaret of Austria—the illegitimate daughter of the former Holy Roman Emperor Charles V—to act as regent in his stead. She was later replaced by the Duke of Alba in 1567.