The Kings and Queens: An Irreverent Cartoon History of the British Monarchy
Ray Boston examines two books on cartoons and caricatures.
- The Kings and Queens: An Irreverent Cartoon History of the British Monarchy by Kenneth Baker (Thames and Hudson 192 pp.)
- The Age of Caricature: Satirical Prints in the Reign of George III by Diana Donald (Yale University Press vii + 248 pp.)
When Oliver Cromwell forced Charles I to accept a final solution to his unauthorised debt problem, the world was outraged and horrified. But when 'mad' George III pressured his exquisite eldest son into marriage with an ugly, German princess to settle his gambling debts and beget an heir, the world was merely embarrassed.
The regicide of 1649 had seemed to many at the time to signal the end of civilisation as they knew it. But the eccentricity of George III in 1785 shocked nobody. It simply illustrated the sorry decline of monarchism and the growing need for a return to republicanism. It also released a new British art form in political cartooning which very soon became an integral part of most newspaper journalism and has remained so ever since.
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