A description of the triumphant reception of His Most Sacred Majesty, King William III. : In his passage through the City of London, to his royal palace, on his return from Flanders, after a final conclusion of peace, September the 20th. N.S. 1697. With a heroick poem on this great and eminent occasion.
1697
Items
Details
Title
A description of the triumphant reception of His Most Sacred Majesty, King William III. : In his passage through the City of London, to his royal palace, on his return from Flanders, after a final conclusion of peace, September the 20th. N.S. 1697. With a heroick poem on this great and eminent occasion.
Created/published
London : Printed; and sold by the booksellers of London, 1697.
Description
1 sheet ([1] p.) : ill. ; (full-sheet).
Note
Verse - ""Illustrious Triumphs now with Joy we sing,".
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271218 (flat)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "Broadside (approximately 490 x 390mm), with a very large single woodcut in the centre (approximately 303 x 382mm), some very minor holes (most notably at the head, just touching the P and T in Description), else in superb complete condition, with edges untrimmed. Contemporary or early inscription ' To Mr Wm Hayward' in ink on verso (small hole affecting text). A very fine large broadside, of which only one other copy - of a different issue - seems to be recorded. William III of England (reigned 1688-1702), a grandson of Charles I via the King's daughter Princess Mary, had come to the throne in the winter of 1688-9 jointly with his wife Mary (James II's daughter), and after her death in December 1694 was the sole ruler of the kingdom. His sovereignty over two territories, Britain and the principality of Orange, as well as his position as Stadtholder of five Dutch provinces, gave him wide. powers and responsibilities on the continent as well as in Britain. He therefore occupied an important position in the Grand Alliance against France during the Nine Years' War, which ended with the Treaty of Ryswick in the autumn of 1697. The peace had the advantage of ending the ruinious expenditure on armies and armaments, and that (from William's perspective) Louis XIV recognised William's rightful claim to the thrones of England and Scotland, but otherwise was more beneficial to French interests than those of their opponents. It was in fact to be only four years before hostilities broke out again: the deaths of Charles II of Spain (in 1700) and James II of England (in 1701) made war almost inevitable. At the time, however, the treaty signed by various parties at the Huis ter Nieuwburg in 20 and 21 September NS, and then further treaties on 9 and 30 October, seemed the cause for national celebration, particularly in the City of London, whose prosperity depended on peace just as much as the power of the navy to enforce trade routes. William had been present in Ryswick for the final ceremonies, and his return to London was treated as the homecoming of a victorious prince: he landed at Greenwich on 15 November and entered London the following day, and was attended all the way through to Whitehall. In Noorthouck's New History of London (1773) it was claimed that plans for triumphal arches were abandoned after the King himself objected, 'from a kind of innate modesty'. The triumphal arches shown here, therefore, may well be imaginary and the size of the occasion an exaggeration: the length and grandeur of the procession gives it the air of a coronation. The woodcut shows the procession going from left to right, through arches at left, centre and right, the only one shown in detail being the middle one. Lines of soldiers with muskets and plumed hats guard the procession; streaming banners show the royal arms; and behind the soldiers are lines of wigged and gowned gentlemen, perhaps representing Lords or prelates or just the merchants of the city. Whatever its true appearance, William's triumphant progress through London actually occurred on 16 November (Old Style), and the date given here refers only to the dates of the principal signature ceremony more than two months earlier (20 September NS was 10 September in Britain). 16 November is in fact the date given on the only other recorded copy of this broadside, now at Harvard, which was bought at the time by Narcissus Luttrell: if the date which Luttrell wrote on it (also 16 November) really is his date of acquisition, then the woodcut must have been executed well in advance of the event itself anyway, and reflects what was anticipated rather than what actually happened. The Harvard copy has other differences from this one: the title begins 'The Triumphant Reception of his most sacred Majesty' (there is no 'A Description of'), the conclusion of peace is described as 'firm' (rather than 'final'), and the title simply concludes 'A Heroick Poem' - that is, the poem is effectively made the point of the broadside, rather than the publication, woodcut and all, being 'with' a poem as here. In all other respects the Harvard copy seems to be exactly the same as this one. The poem itself consists of 23 stanzas of four lines each (92 lines in all) and is largely doggerel: He saw us sinking, and reviv'd our Fate, When first he took on him the Regal State; And to accomplish the main End he sought, In greatest Dangers has our Battles fought ... The poet however emphasises the international nature of the peace, and how widely it is appreciated: Whilst to the Royal Palace he do's ride, Who is not our's alone, but the World's Pride; Whom Moscovy, and Venice do adore, Drawn by his Fame from North and Eastern shoar." From dealer's description (continued): Broadsides like this would no doubt have been pasted or pinned up in houses public or private, and then scrapped (or even, perhaps, painted over) when the event began to fade from the public memory. Their survival today is down to chance, or the unusual tastes and efforts of dedicated collectors like Luttrell. It is just possible that this present example came from a similar collection. An early inscription on the back reads 'To Mr Wm Hayward', which could refer to Sir William Haward (c. 1617-1704), royal servant, MP, antiquary and collector. Haward was learned and had wanted the appointment of Garter King of Arms, but lost out to Sir William Dugdale. By this time of a great age, Haward was apparently still living in London in the late 1690s, although by now he had apparently already sold his manuscript collections. The spelling 'Hayward' is hardly a problem, but the styling of the recipient as 'Mr' would be (he had been knighted in 1646): it might, however, refer to one of his sons (whose names are not recorded - see History of Parliament: 'Nothing is known of his descendants'). Haward's MS volumes found their way into new collections very soon: there are several in the Harley library, and many were bought by the politician Lord Somers, also a major contemporary collector. For a loyal crown servant who was a collector, such a memorial of a great royal occasion would have been worth preserving. Wing T2293aA, locating only the Harvard copy, which is listed by Parks & Havens, The Luttrell File, 2983. (ESTC mistakenly lists three copies, all at Harvard, but the 'holdings details' make it clear that they are all the same one.) The dating in this copy would at first seem to indicate that it predates the Harvard copy, but this is not necessarily so: since the actual event could not have happened, or even be predicted, on 20 September in England, this issue would not have been printed until, at the very least, it was known that the King would have a triumphant progress through London, and perhaps not put on sale until the event was very close to happening. The settings of the text of the poem, and the woodcut itself, do look identical in either copy, so one must precede the other; further work on the relationship between the two issues is needed." Ordered from Christopher Edwards, D 9298, 2019-03-26, email quote of March 12, 2019.