ABSTRACT
The appearance of the ominous party-label ‘Cavalier at this point in Bartholomew’s story reminds us that, even as the church bells were ringing out over Dean Prior, storm clouds were gathering over the three Stuart kingdoms. Just as Devon had declared itself for Parliament at the start of the Civil War, so Cornwall had declared itself for the king, and throughout early 1643, fighting raged back and forth across the Tamar. Numismatists have long been aware of this medal and the proud legend which it bears has helped to ensure that – after the passage of almost three and a half centuries – the name of Bartholomew Gidley retains a lingering resonance in the world, when the names of all but a handful of the hundreds of other Devon gentlemen who served as officers in the royalist army during the Civil War have been entirely forgotten.
