‘William, the Princely Youth’: The Duke of Cumberland and Anti-Jacobite Visual Strategy, 1745–46

Abstract

This article examines the strategic representation of William, Duke of Cumberland, during and immediately after the Jacobite uprising of 1745–46. The duke, whose victories over the Jacobite army ensured his heroic status, was presented in print and related media as both a demotic Protestant figurehead and as a representative of royalty; easing tensions between English anti-Jacobite, anti-Catholic sentiment and the unpopularity of George II and the post-Walpole Whig administration. This mode of representing Cumberland offered the public an opportunity to engage in extra-Parliamentary political debate through consumption and dissemination of visual and material culture.

Keywords:

• eighteenth-century
• British
• English
• Jacobite
• prints
• portraiture
• ceramics
• medals
• Duke of Cumberland

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my colleagues at the Victoria and Albert Museum, especially Dr Marjorie Trusted and Dr Tessa Murdoch, and the anonymous reviewers at Visual Culture in Britain, for their helpful suggestions while this article was being written. I also thank Philip Attwood, Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum, for providing valuable information on items in the collection.

Notes

1 The terminology of Jacobitism is a sensitive and contested area – e.g. ‘rebellion’ versus ‘restoration’. For the purposes of this article, I have used terms that reflect the outlook of the Hanoverian loyalists whose consumption is analysed here.

2 On the use of ‘middling’ as eighteenth-century class terminology, see Hunt, The Middling Sort.

3 Langford, A Polite and Commercial People, 201, 209–11.

4 Wilson, The Sense of the People, 140–44.

5 Pingo medal: British Museum (BM) inv. no. M.8516. Yeo medal: Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) inv.no. 1918-1877 (bronze); Royal Collection inv. no. 443227 (gold).

6 BM inv. no. BMSat2609.

7 Clayton, The English Print 1688-1802, 149.

8 For comparative images see Carington Bowles’ engravings after Laguerre’s paintings of the Duke of Marlborough’s victories (BM inv. nos. 1854,0812.359 to 1854,0812.364); or contemporary Dutch representations of the Battle of the Boyne (BM inv. no. 1871,0812.5242).

9 Speck, ‘William Augustus, Prince, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765)’.

10 BM inv. no. 1862,1213.4

11 Clayton, The English Print, 118.

12 For example, the personal expenses of the master of a family ‘in the middling station of life’ were estimated at 4s per week. Johnson, Madam Johnson’s Present.

13 Clayton, The English Print, 97.

14 Eimer, ‘The Society’s Concern With the Medallic Art’, 753.

15 Eimer, The Pingo Family, 8.

16 V&A inv. no. 1820-1877 (bronze); V&A inv. no. 668-1906 (lead).

17 V&A inv. no. 1771-1877.

18 V&A inv. no. T.205-1959.

19 Wilson, The Sense of the People, 49–51.

20 On the effect of the Carteret ministry’s push to enter the War of the Austrian Succession on the public popularity of George II, see Black, George II, 181–84.

21 BM inv. no. 1868,0808.3793.

22 BM inv. no. 1874,0711.156.

23 Haydon, Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England, 118.

24 Ibid., 120, 127.

25 Untitled portraits: BM inv. nos. 1919,1111.33 and 1850,1014.242. The Highlander’s Medley: Lewis Walpole Library inv. no. 746.00.00.25+.

26 Hallett, ‘The Medley Print’.

27 BM inv. no. M.8542.

28 On toasting and masculinity, see Hoock, ‘From Beefsteak to Turtle’. For a wider European analysis, see Morrison, ‘Making Degenerates into Men’.

29 Ludington, The Politics of Wine in Britain, 106–13.

30 Harvey, ‘Barbarity in a Teacup?’, 207.

31 Harvey, ‘Barbarity in a Teacup’, 207. See also Richards, Eighteenth-Century Ceramics, 155; Vickery, Behind Closed Doors, 222.

32 V&A inv. no. 3850-1901.

33 Harris, Politics and the Nation, 6–7.

34 Anon., English Prologues and Epilogues, 82–83.

35 Wagner, Reading Iconotexts, 24.

36 V&A inv. no. 1917–1877.

37 V&A inv. no 1918–1877 (bronze); Royal Collection inv. no. 443227 (gold).

38 BM inv. nos. MG.1479 (bronze version) and MG.1478 (silver version).

39 BM inv. no. 1868,0808.3794.

40 Golby, ‘Arne, Thomas Augustine (1710–1778)’.

41 The earliest reference to Cumberland as ‘the Butcher’ is dated to May 1746. See Speck.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danielle Thom

Dr Danielle Thom is Assistant Curator of Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She researches the intersections between eighteenth-century sculpture and print culture, and is preparing a book on the sculptor Joseph Nollekens.