| Product
Code |
: |
PUD NO_792-1-1 AE |
| Subject | : | Cornwallis - Defeat of Tipu Sultan |
| Size | : | 48 mm |
| Metal | : | Copper |
| Year | : | 1792 |
| Description | : | obv. Uniformed bust, bare head of Cornwallis, left. Encircled by : CAR – MARCHIO CORNWALLIS STRATEGUS ACERRMIUS (Charles, Marquis Cornwallis, a most sagacious general). Signed : C.H. Kuchler. FEC, rev. Cornwallis and aides greeting two sons of Tipu Sultan delivered by Vakil Ghulam Ali Khan, around border at top : FAS SIT PARCERE HOSTI (Let it be right to spare an enemy). In exergue : SULTANO TIPPOO DEVIETO. OBSIDES RECIPIT. MDCCXCII (Tipu Sultan defeated. Hostages received 1792). Signed : C.H.K. Fecit.
Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General of Bengal, went south to take charge personally of the Third Mysore War. He took Bangalore in 1791 and advanced on Seringapatam. Finding Tipu Sultan strongly entrenched in what seemed almost impregnable positions and faced with a failure in his own supplies and the loss of most transport cattle, he fell back to Bangalore to refit his army. In early 1792, he set out with the strongest force the EIC had yet put in the field in India. He attacked quickly, forced entry into the city, and Tipu withdrew into the fortress. When Company reinforcements arrived, Tipu asked for terms. Half his lands, a huge indemnity and two of his sons as hostages were the terms. Tipu was eventually killed in 1799 in the Third Mysore War. |
