Just weeks after chasing the remaining army of the absolutist pretender to the throne out of Spain and ending the seven-year-long Carlist War (1833-1840), Baldomero Espartero (1793-1879), the commander of the constitutional army and soon to be Regent of the country, was greeted by some 80,000 people as he entered Barcelona on 14 July 1840. That evening, the city council staged a serenade outside the house where he was staying. The songs included Verses about Peace in Spain dedicated to D. Baldomero Espartero, which was sung to the music of the great liberal anthem, the Hymn of Riego.
Accounts of the serenade were later published in at least two different romances. The one shown here is illustrated with Espartero holding a laurel leaf towards Queen Isabel and her mother, the Queen-Regent María Cristina, surrounded by medallions saying 'Peace / Constitution of 1837 / National Independence' and a list of his military victories.
Romances were inexpensive printed flysheets or short pamphlets, often sold in the streets by vendors who hung them from strings, and were a crucial part of Spanish popular culture. This is only one of many that glorified Espartero. The number of such publications and their large, popular audiences gave Spaniards a rare degree of familiarity with Espartero’s appearance. His face was probably the best known in the country and led to other aspects of the Espartero cult in daily life: men copied his signature facial hair, known as a luchana, after his great victory in December 1836; the more affluent could own silver cigar cases with his image on them; and children would be dressed 'Espartero style' for special occasions.
Charles Jameson Grant's 'The Political Drama' is a satirical series critiquing the political and social order of Britain. Titled 'The Five Plagues of the Country', this particular print attacks the moral corruption of the powerful. Grant shows them to be under the influence of the devil ('I have all five'). His critique of the weakness and the impending downfall of the country through these corrupt figures illustrates growing popular frustration with the establishment.
Although not as well known as earlier generations of caricaturists (Gillray, Woodward, Newton, Fores, Cruikshank, and others, Grant was one of the most incisive satirists of his time.
The illustrated pamphlet is a collection of satirical cartoons, targeting the corruption and scandals of the British establishment. Produced by popular cartoonist Charles Jameson Grant, this work is an example of the growing popularity of satirical pamphlets and satirical series in the nineteenth century.
It also draws inspiration from William Hone, who had published his own political alphabet in 1820.
This image of Peterloo turns the event into a medal commemorating the brutality of the yeomanry's response to the crowd. Hone's comment on the left-hand side - 'Am I not a Brother and a Man' - uses a phrase consecrated by Wedgewood's medallion for the antislavery movement in the 1790s.
This poem is a homage to Nicholas Becker’s Rheinlied created during the 1840 Rhine crisis. The poem employed anti-French sentiment to further German nationalist demands and the Rhine as key symbol of 'Germanness' and saw, for a short time, popularity in form of various tunes and adaptations made for it.
The 1840 Rhine Crisis was triggered by frustrated French imperialist advances in the Levant after the dominion of the Ottoman empire had been reduced over these territories. Following this, the political project of extending French frontiers moved closer to home, starting a dispute on French natural borders to Germany. The left bank of the Rhine had been lost to Prussia and other German-speaking states following the Congress of Vienna 1814/5. It was to be re-introduced as ‘natural border’ between France and German-speaking countries. This imperialist advancement in Europe itself was met by huge outcry in German-speaking countries. Such outcry, however, was soon met by satire and cynicism highlighting the little cultural and folk value the Rheinliedbewegung had to offer to Germans and German identity.
This poem was published in the wake of the announcement of Crown Prince Wilhelm post as governor of the Rhine province in 1850. Crown Prince Wilhelm, future Prussian emperor Wilhelm I, had brutally supressed Berlin protestors at the beginning of the March revolution in 1848, upon which he was denounce ‘Kartätschenprinz’ (grapheshot prince). He went into exile to London. The Prussian king had promised the Prussian assembly that he would never be allowed to return to Germany and hold positions of government or royalty. The news of arrival of Crown Prince Wilhelm as military governor in Koblenz, signalled the end of the 1848/9 revolution in the Rhineland, as it was a gross break of promise of the Prussian king to the Germans.
William, in the following years, became much more liberal and popular among the inhabitants of Koblenz due to the influence of his wife Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who by implication was profoundly disliked at the Berlin court. This poem highlights the tense relationship between the Rhineprovince and the Prussian monarchy, which would continue beyond the immediate 1848/9 aftermath.
Written by William Lovett on behalf of the London Working Men’s Association and first published in early 1838, the People’s Charter begins by setting out the six demands that would come to define Chartism, including most notably the universal male franchise and the secret ballot. The full Charter, however, includes a longer address 'to the radical reformers of Great Britain and Ireland' and the full text of a draft parliamentary Bill to turn the six points into law. Priced at 4d, the Charter was widely circulated in draft form and went through several versions. The edition shown here was published at some point in early 1839, before the first Chartist petition was presented to Parliament. Although the Charter would evolve over the next 20 years, the six points – already at the core of radical demands for the previous half century – remained a touchstone of Chartist politics.
This National Charter Association membership card is in the collection of Mark Crail, and was exhibited at St Mark’s Church, Kennington on 28 April 2018 for Malcolm Chase’s Kennington Chartist Project talk. Mark Crail writes:
'The National Charter Association was founded at a conference in Manchester in February 1840.
It became not just the first mass working class political party, but the first ever national political party in Britain. At its peak, the NCA had 400 branches and 50,000 members.
The front of this membership card includes a rich mix of messages, both direct and symbolic. Below the name of the organisation, which signals its aspiration to nationwide status, are the six points of the Charter, and the motto 'Truth is our guide'. There then follows a reminder of the stark fact that just 800,000 men out of an adult male population of seven million were entitled to vote.
It is also worth noting the images that appear on the card: a cap of liberty; a bee hive and a bushel of corn representing industrial and agricultural workers; decoration surrounding the motto denoting the different parts of the country, including an Irish shamrock and Scottish thistle; and finally what appears to be a fasces (although it lacks the usual axe head), symbolising collective power and governance.
Thousands of cards must have been issued, but currently only this one, and two others are known to exist in collections.'
Josef Görres (1776, Koblenz - 1848, Munich) was a writer, teacher, philosopher, and theologian. He directly witnessed several political currents during his lifetime, always enthusiastically embracing them only to later discard and criticise them in his magniloquent, complex, polemical writings. Caught between the extremes of French revolutionary ideals, German unification, Prussian militarism, and Hapsburg restoration, he aimed to strike a balance between upholding rights, truth, and freedom (Fink-Lang, 2013: 7-9).
A cunning polemicist, Görres polarised public opinion through several publications of various political orientations, always calling out arbitrary despotism, whether during the French occupation, the Congress of Vienna, or the Prussian rule of the Rhineland. His writings in the Rheinischer Merkur (1814-1816) and his pamphlet Teutschland und die Revolution (1819) made him one of the earliest and ardent champions of German unification and nationalism. Additionally, Athansasius (1838) is considered the foundation for political Catholicism during the Vormärz.
A key figure to establish acceptance of the Prussians among the Rhinelanders, he rose to Director of Public Schooling in the Rhineland. However, when his hopes were disappointed by restorative measures of the Prussian King who failed to deliver a constitution as promised in article 13 of the Bundesakte (German Federal Act), he became openly subversive in his writing and his opinion. His controversial anti-Prussian tract Teutschland und die Revolution (1819) triggered his prosecution by the Prussians, forcing him to flee to France and later settle in Munich - never to return.
The statue is situated on the left bank of the Rhine in Görres home-town Koblenz. Plans for such a commemorative statue existed since the 1840s, but only came to fruition during French military government in the 1920s, mostly due to Prussian political repression of such plans.
The painting by French realist Honoré Daumier depicts a scene of revolutionary resistance, a crowd of protestors seemingly led by the man in white. It is probable that the scene is a depiction of the 1848 Revolution in Paris, as Daumier was residing in the capital during the violent clashes of the June popular uprising (lasting from 23 to 26 June).
In the run up to the 1832 Reform Act, the conflict between the House of Commons and the House of Lords was represented in this cartoon as one between 'democracy' and 'aristocracy' - but its depiction of 'democracy' is also a set of implicit references to the French Revolution of 1830. Moreover, the contrast between aristocracy and democracy would also have been a recognisable reference to the French Revolution of 1789. In the struggle to pass the Reform Bill in 1832, the House of Lords was initially deeply resistant, as was the King. This provoked a series of riots across England with those in Bristol being especially destructive.
Pin, spelling "W Pio, L'Italia e A Dio" (Long live [Pope] Pius, Italy and to God). This object brings together the themes of military action, national pride, and religion. Pope Pius IX was crucial in the initial decades of the Risorgimento, as he supported more liberal reforms of the Church.
Epistemologically, that Italians would have been able to wear this openly indicates a sense of camaraderie and public belonging.
The Great Chartist gathering on Kennington Common on 10 April 1848 was the first time a large outdoor political crowd was captured on camera.In April 2018, to mark the 170th anniversary of the event, Richard Galpin of the Kennington Chartist Project engaged actor Tom Collins to read a transcript of Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor’s speech in which he appealed to the crowd to disperse.It was the toughest speech of his political career as he was a seriously ill old man effectively conceding defeat that day. Listen for the emotion in his voice imploring his audience to continue the struggle for the charter.
Truncheon used by Special Constable on 10 April 1848 on the occasion of the Great Chartist Gathering on Kennington Common, South London.
Around 80,000 special constables were sworn-in, most conscripted by their employers to guard their places of work. This might have had the side effect of preventing them from attending the gathering had they so wished. Some refused and lost their jobs as a result.
Some were even recompensed financially for the loss of a day’s pay - Thames 'Coal Whippers' (dock workers) were one such example. Most were workers and craftsmen but some were middle-class volunteers, including allegedly Charles Dickens and the future Napoleon III of France.
Few, if any truncheons were actually used as the meeting was much smaller than anticipated and entirely peaceful. Many kept them and decorated them as souvenirs later which is how this example probably came to be so clearly marked.
The Rheinischer Merkur was a German newspaper published by Josef Görres every two days between 1814 and 1816. It was the most popular and wide-spread German publication during these years, stimulating intellectual debate among the middle classes across continental Europe.
The RM introduced a journalistic novelty, the Leitartikel, a longer piece of reading covering the first few pages of the paper that often scrutinised current news and developments and shaped public opinion by aiming to provide balanced and truthful reporting. Content includes increasingly pro-Prussian tracts against Metternich’s restorative tactics at the congress of Vienna. It sketches out demands for a German union under a constitution with an army, a common foreign policy and tax system, and justice and trade under a dynastic, Catholic ruler reinstating the estates destroyed by the French. As these demands were not met during the Congress nor in its treatise, Görres became increasingly subversive and anti-Prussian as he saw that promises of a constitution would fail to be met by 1815.
The newspaper, ultimately, was banned by the King in early 1816 with grave consequences for Görres’ status within the Prussian officialdom and among the Prussian government.
A Yeovil ‘Riot Jug’ awarded to all members of the Mudford Yeomanry Cavalry for ‘their manly and forbearing character’ in facing and forcibly dispersing the crowd.
Inscription: 'Presented By The Inhabitants of Yeovil & it's vicinity in testimony of their approval of the conduct of the Mudford Troop Of Yeomanry Cavalry during the Riots in that Town in 1831. To Mr Wm Marden'
The cause of the October 1831 riot arose from the defeat of William Ponsonby, the Whig Reform candidate, by Lord Ashley in a Dorset Parliamentary election at Blandford. There were allegations that Lord Ashley’s agents had behaved corruptly in the election, and the protests led to rioting in Blandford and Sherborne.
The worst injury incurred on the day was when one of the Yeomanry shot himself in the leg.
