1642 Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex Military Reward Badge

Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, 1642, a cast and chased silver military reward, unsigned [probably by T. Rawlins], armoured bust almost facing, hand from heaven holding sword horizontally above head, the sword of the lord and of gydeon, rev. in the mvltitvde of covncellors there is peace, view of both Houses of Parliament, with King and Speaker, 39 x 31mm(Platt II, pp.81-2, type D; MI I, 297/115). 

Essex became Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War before being displaced in 1645. Badges of several types and varieties bearing his image were presented to various ranks in the army. The grandson of Francis Walsingham, the Principal Secretary and 'spymaster' of Elizabeth I, as well as the son of Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Devereux figured prominently in the First English Civil War. At its outset, he became the first Captain-General or Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army, known as the 'Roundheads.' However, unable and unwilling to defeat the Royalist forces during the Lostwithiel Campaign in 1644, Devereux became overshadowed by the ascending Oliver Cromwell and, less than six months after resigning from his commission, died without an heir in 1646.