'An expressive kind of history' : Anti-Jacobite prints and the 1745 rebellion

Dowley, Emma Louise (2019) 'An expressive kind of history' : Anti-Jacobite prints and the 1745 rebellion. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

Following the removal of James II from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689, the last meaningful attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty was made in 1745, when Charles Stuart, grandson of James II, landed in Scotland, his makeshift army managing to get within one hundred and twenty miles of London. This thesis explores the printed visual imagery expressing the Hanoverian viewpoint on the momentous events of the mid-1740s. This imagery addressed the broad religious, political, social and economic debates of the period, seeking to discredit the Jacobite agenda, the leader of the rebellion and its supporters. Graphic satire proved to be an especially important medium for presenting the arguments in favour of George II, as part of a wider debate carried on in the press, pamphlets and elsewhere. The Hanoverian cause was bolstered by the communication of ideas in the form of these images, incorporating a sophisticated array of visual languages and strategies, in addition to engaging extensively with other media. Whilst William Hogarth may have been the eighteenth-century master of imagery involving a wealth of graphic detail and multiple layers of inter-related meaning in his prints, those lesser artists involved in producing antiJacobite imagery were also capable of employing such tactics with skill. This thesis provides an analytical survey of the anti-Jacobite imagery produced at the time of the 1745 rebellion which has, hitherto, been given little attention. My aim is to establish the full extent of the pro-Hanoverian printed imagery of the years 1743-7 and to evaluate its content, market and influence. Of particular concern are the strategies used to address a diverse audience with varying degrees of visual and textual literacy skills and the extent to which anti-Jacobite prints may be classed as ‘propaganda’.

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