File:De vlugt van 't pausdom uit Engelant (BM 1855,0114.197).jpg

Height: 355 millimetres (plate only)

Width: 393 millimetres

(Text from Antony Griffiths, 'The Print in Stuart Britain', BM 1998, cat. 210) For fertility of invention and variety and volume of production, Romeyn de Hooghe dominates late seventeenth-century etching. He was the most indefatigable propagandist for William of Orange, who rewarded him with the position as Commissioner of Mines for Lingen in Germany. The series of large plates for broadsheets that he made in 1688-90 are one of the high points of his output. None is signed, though all are unmistakeably by him, and they have never been the subject of a proper study, though most have been collected together on pp.213-228 of J.Landwehr, 'Romeyn de Hooghe the etcher', Leiden 1973. They contain a standard cast of characters: Louis XIV, for example, is always Arlequin.

    This print shows James (holding a cross and rosary), Mary and son (with his toy windmill) fleeing England in a carriage pulled by a dog ridden by Father Petre. At the head of the procession, riding a bear, is Louis XIV as Harlequin, who draws his sword against William, the Belgic lion, who is guarding the harp, rose and thistle of the English monarchy. At the rear is the French Dauphin riding a wolf. In the background the Popish chapels are being destroyed by the London mob as a procession of Catholic priests heads for exile. The verse beneath ends with the rousing conclusion, 'James's Monarchy is done'.
    Three different impressions of this print in the British Museum all have different letterpress. This is in Dutch and English; another is in Dutch and French, while the third (the earliest as the plate has not yet been reduced) is in Dutch alone. This is typical of the broadsheets in this group, and the barbarous English of the title shows that this and the others were printed in Holland. There is no reason to think that de Hooghe ever visited England, although he continued making prints for English distribution. Large etchings he made of the Coronation of William and Mary, and of William in Parliament are found with texts in Dutch, French and English (eg.Williamsburg fig.47).