- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3383
- Title
- Object: Les Monarches Tombants
- Description
-
A Dutch broadside satirising James II and Louis XIV with an etching by de Hooghe. On the right, a Dutchman wearing a fur hat (1) with a clyster labelled "1674" administers an enema to Louis XIV (2) who is seated on a globe with Ireland at the top; he wears a turban decorated with the sun, holds in his hand a burning brand lettered "Heidelberg", and evacuates towns which he had previously captured and was later forced to relinquish, including Pforzheim, Wimpfen and Duisburg. Louis turns towards an English peer (3) who tells him of William III's success. On the left, James II (4), Maria of Modena (5), and the Prince of Wales (6) are about to fall from a bucking unicorn (7); James is dressed in armour, but is blindfold and has ass's ears. The unicorn tramples on the decrees of the Council of Trent and with its horn attacks owls dressed as monks and a snake with a Jesuit cap who flee among scattered Catholic paraphernalia; it defecates on a monk who lies on the ground beneath its hind legs while other monks and Catholic clergy (9) run away carrying banners referring to the Gunpowder Plot ("R. P. Gartner", i.e. Henry Garnet), Balthasar Gerard, assassin of William the Silent, François Ravaillac, assassin of Henri IV and Jacques Clément, assassin of Henri III. Iin the centre background, William III (10) is held aloft on a shield, and acclaimed by as king by a group of Englishmen. At the top, on the left, the town of Heidelberg (11) is in flames; on the right, a group of Englishmen on horseback greet William at the gate of a town; in the centre, distant figures possibly representing Africans and Turks. Latin and Dutch inscriptions and numbering 1-14 within the image; French engraved title, and Dutch letterpress verses, including legend, in three columns. (n.p.:[1689])
- Production date
- 1689
- Dimensions
-
Height: 365 millimetres (etching; title and margin overlapping with letterpress)
-
Height: 524 millimetres (printed area)
-
Width: 390 millimetres (etching)
-
Width: 390 millimetres (printed area)
- Curator's comments
- For curatorial comment on De Hooghe’s full broadsides’ sequence relating to the Glorious Revolution, see 1868,0808.3380.
For another impression, see 1855,0114.196
Here, James II and Louix XIV are falling from their positions of power. James II on the left, falls from the back of the English unicorn, as Mary of Modena (5) and James Stuart (6) also lose their balance as the unicorn bucks. Louis XIV on the right, falls from the top of the world while a Dutchman with a wheel of cheese on top of his head gives an enema to the king to retrieve the Dutch and German territories taken by the French. A figure of the English Parliament (3), leans in from the right and presents an orange to the King as a remedy, a reference to William III, Prince of Orange. William III, triumphant and newly proclaimed king of England, appears in the background (10).
Lit.
Wolfgang Cilleßen (ed.) Krieg der Bilder, 1997, F.III.2 (p.276-277)
Henk van Nierop, The Life of Romeyn de Hooghe, 2018, p.217-240
Meredith Hale, The Birth of Modern Political Satire, 2020, p.94-99
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Glorious Revolution 1688-1689
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3383
