CNG 108, Lot: 1054. Estimate $300. Sold for $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DUTCH REVOLT (Nederlandse Opstand), Low Countries. Kamerijk (Cambrai). Besieged by the Spanish, 1581. PB 10 Patard Klippe (30x31mm, 16.50 g). Later strike. Dated 1581. City coat-of-arms; I58I above, around below, CAMBRAY in banner decorated with quadrilobe at each end; all within circular pearl border; to left and right, X and P stamps (mark of value); numeral 5 retrograde / Blank. Cf. Van Loon I, p. 294 (for official issue); cf. Robert, Cambrai 3 (same); cf. Maillet 2 (same); Lasser –; CNM –. In NGC encapsulation, 42128841-002, graded MS 61.

Ex Archer M. Huntington Collection, ANS 1001.1.18680 (Numismatica Genevensis SA VII, 27 November 2012), lot 579.

After much political wrangling, Willem was able to get the States-General to appoint the Duc d’Anjou as Sovereign Prince and Lord of the Netherlands. By doing so, the Dutch hoped that France would intervene against the Dutch. Although Anjou did not openly declare war on the Spanish, he did provide the Dutch with assistance in the form of 17,000 men. This force was then deployed at Kamerijk, located in the territory of the Habsburg Netherlands (now part of modern France). Alessandro Farnese, the future Duke of Parma and Governor General of the Netherlands soon after laid siege to the city. For almost a year, the citizens and French soldiers suffered terrible privations until Parma, in mid August, was forced to break the siege with the arrival of the Duc d’Anjou and his forces.