Diameter: 35mm
Provenance: By repute Lady Caroline Thynne (1781-1867)
Gold and enamels. Uniface medallion commemorating George III’s recovery from ‘madness’, with yellow gold bead and red guilloche enamel border encircling a ground of white enamel, with gold and navy blue enamel motto scroll lettered 'Regi Amato Reduci’ (To the beloved King on his return); the crowned centre lettered ‘VIVAT / G III R’ over blue enamel segment dated ‘MART:x MDCCLXXXIX’ Top of medallion holed for suspension ring, and fitted with 45cm length, 1.8mm gauge curb link chain. Contained in an Edwardian easel back display case of Walter Jones, 195-6 Sloane Street, London.
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George III's recovery in 1789 from a serious illness, subsequently diagnosed as porphyria, sparked widespread celebrations. Parliament presented addresses of congratulation to the King on 10 March 1789, the date inscribed on the medallion. The rarest of many other commemorative objects arising from the King’s recovery, the present medallion is thought to have been commissioned by the Queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818), for presentation to selected courtiers (Ref: Laurence Brown in the British Numismatic Society Journal).
Fanny Burney (1752-1840), who served Queen Charlotte as Second Keeper of the Robes from 1786 to 1791, recorded in her diary for March 1789 that Lord Harcourt ‘showed me a new medallion, just presented him by the Queen, with a Latin inscription in honour of the King’s recovery … He called himself master of the order, from receiving the first in the distribution’. The Royal Collection contains the following examples of the present medal: RCIN 65800, acquired by Queen Mary from the collection of Colonel Charles Swaine, and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue ‘George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste’, London, 2004; RCIN 3748, mounted into the gold lid of a tortoiseshell box that was a Christmas gift to King George V from Queen Mary, 1914; and RCIN 3775, inset into a pair of covers to crystal boxes that were given to Queen Victoria by her aunts Princess Augusta (1768-1840) and Princess Sophia (1777-1848) and that were recorded in the Osborne House inventory 1876.
The connection with Princess Sophia is especially of note in relation to the reputed provenance of the present medal, which takes the form of 20th century manuscript label inscribed '10th March 1789 Medal given to Lady Caroline Thynne (Bath Family) who was lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte.’ Princess Sophia was the fifth daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte. Deprived of any opportunities for marriage by her overly protective parents, Sophia was rumoured to have had an illegitimate son by one of the King’s equerries, General Garth, in Weymouth in 1800.
Such was recorded in the journals of Captain Robert Fulke Greville (1751-1824) who first served as equerry to George III, before becoming Groom of the Bedchamber in 1800, on information supplied by the Marchioness of Bath who claimed to have the news on the authority of her daughter Lady Caroline Thynne - ‘who was Mistress of the Robes to the Queen at the time, an honest woman who would have been in a position to know the truth.’
‘It was feared that this distressing news might have a detrimental effect on the King and so he was told that Sophia had dropsy and was then miraculously cured by eating roast beef. The King was almost blind by this time and it is possible that he was unaware of the real state of affairs. Regardless, he seemed to accept what he was told and repeated the story of the miracle cure, saying that it was a “very extraordinary thing”.’ (Ref: https://www.regencyhistory.net/blog/princess-sophia-george-iii-daughter, accessed 26 July 2026.)
Lady Caroline Thynne (1781-1867) was of insufficient age in 1789 to have been a direct recipient of the present medal which is more likely to have passed to her from her mother Elizabeth Thynne, Marchioness of Bath (1735 -1825). From 1761 to 1793, the Marchioness was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. In 1793, as Dowager Marchioness, she became Mistress of the Robes and held that position until the Queen's death in 1818. Lady Caroline however appears to have been close to several of George III’s daughters and a member of the Queen’s inner circle. In 1803, for instance, she was noted alongside Princess Elizabeth (1770-1840) and Princess Mary (1776-1857) as among the best dancers at a series of fashionable balls that year. Despite this she never married and died at her town house in Upper Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, many decades later.