The European Mourners- or, the Emperor's Funeral With Belleisle's Progres to Captivity (BM 1850,1109.42)

Satire on the effect of the death of the Emperor Charles VII on the imperial electors and other protagonists in the War of the Austrian Succession. The scene is divided into two parts: on the left the scene of Marshall de Belle-Isle's arrest beside a crenellated wall, and on the right the interior of a room draped with a curtain in which the corpse of Charles VII lies in a partially open coffin with "Car VII Imp 1745" written on its lid. On the left, Marshall de Belle-Isle on his horse says “I’ll Tallard ‘em”, his brother grasps the horse's tail in order to cut it off, saying "We’ll dock the Han[ove]r Horse Brother". Beside him, Johann Hermann Myer, the arresting officer, says "I am a Bailiff of Consequence"; in the front an English cook remarks "Good English Beef" while behind the horse's head a French cook, holding a spoon to hismouth, says "Soup Maigre Pope's Eyes". Two men stand on top of the wall, one say “He'll serve ye Lyon so". In the interior on the right, Maria Theresa dances to the tune of "Thieue and Cordelier" and the deceased Emperor's son, Maximilian III Josef of Bavaria, "to Short for is Age", shown as a child (although he was actually 17 years old), approaches her, hat in hand, asking "Spare his remains". She replies "Then Vote for ye Grand Duke", referring to her hisband, Francis Stephen. The protagonists are grouped near the coffin: a man smoking a pipe and holding seven arrows in his hand represents the Netherlands and says "Seven to one we are easy"; Frederick the Great, Elector of Brandenburg, asking "Who'll be my Candidate”, beside him Cardinal Tencin whispering "Put up the weakest"; a soldier, the Elector Palatine, Charles VI Theodore, weeps into his handkerchief saying "Damm Bohemia I have lost my Interest"; George II of England, Elector of Hanover, holds a purse saying "I’ll pay my Friend's Expenses"; the Archbishop Elector of Trier, Franz Georg von Schonborn-Buchheim, saying "Drive off ye French”, holds a paper lettered “The Day of Election is -"; the Archbishop Elector of Mainz, Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostern, reading a paper lettered "10000 masses", says "I am quite expos'd"; the Archbishop Elector of Cologne, Clemens Augustus of Bavaria, brandishes a scroll and says "My Brother was a Tool: But he's dead"; a Russian in furs (identified by Stephens as the Empress Elisabeth) says "A Kingdom for an Empire" to an elegant man probably intended for Louis XV; the latter, saying "Monsieur may put up ye poor Pallintine" points towards Charles VI Theodore, and holds the arm of the mournful Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, King of Poland (Stephens transposes the identities of these two men) who is saying "Poland a third time let the Saxon be Emperor"; Francis Stephen seated beside Frederick Augustus holds his hand to his mouth and says "I represent my Wife. . ." Above the coffin is a grotesque face with huge open mouth surmounted by a laurel wreath on top of which are three feathers and a bird, beside the head is a bundle of fasces. Three columns of verse beneath starting "For what have these Gentry these four years been fighting ..." suggest that the war has settled nothing. 1745
Etching and engraving