Styles of sovereignty: the relevance of Louis XIV to English royal iconography, 1689-1714

Thesis

This thesis explores the influence of French royal image-making on English monarchies at the turn of the eighteenth century. It investigates the relevance of Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) to English royal iconography during the reigns of William III (r. 1689-1702) and Queen Anne (r. 1702-1714) across a wide range of source material – from panegyric and portraiture, to medals, sculpture, and architecture. In doing so, it foregrounds the intricate interplay between political communication and different forms of artistic imagination in the early modern period.

The thesis conceptualises the relation between post-revolutionary English monarchical image-making and its French counterpart as one of contest with and emancipation from French influence. The specific political circumstances add a particular poignancy to the investigation of this narrative, as the almost continual crises which the English monarchy suffered at the time stand in sharp contrast with the (dynastic) stability of the French monarchy and its highly influential court culture. Despite these elements of rupture and contrast, however, the story of seventeenth-century English monarchical image-making is one of continuity in respect of its gradual disengagement from the French model. In contrast to his immediate predecessors, I contend, William's image-making presents him as Louis's competitor, rather than his imitator. In the course of William's reign, Louis's monarchical model thus turns from model to foil. This development evolves further in Queen Anne's reign, culminating in Louis's mort avant la lettre, as Anne's image-making dispenses with the Ludovican model both as model and as foil. English post-revolutionary image-making, I argue, not only mirrored, but actively contributed to the decline of the Ludovican model, whilst maintaining the figure of the monarch as central to public political discourse. Through the lens of monarchical image-making, therefore, this thesis offers a critical outlook onto late seventeenth-century Anglo-French political and artistic relations.

Authors: Wilewski, S

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Subjects: English literature; Politics and literature; Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715; Anne, Queen of Great Britain, 1665-1714; Cultural History; History, 17th-18th C; Royal Image-Making; French literature; William, King of England, 1650-1702