The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress

by Mason Jackson

I have already made the remark that the military atrocities of recent times were equalled, if not exceeded, during the Civil War in England and Ireland. In a tract of 1644, containing various items of news, the following woodcut is given as an illustration of recent events. The same woodcut is found in another tract entitled ‘Terrible and bloody Newes from the disloyall Army in the North:’—‘The proceedings of the Scots and Irish appears more visible and inhumane than formerly; their actions are tyrannical, their ways most insufferable, and executeth nothing but blood thirstinesse and cruelty tending only to utter ruin and desolation; they have burned down divers stately buildings in these parts, executed some of my Lord Wharton’s tenants, and threatens others, which causeth the Country to rise and joyn with Lieu. Gen. Cromwell, insomuch that there will be a sudden engagement.’

The sect called the ‘Levellers’ is thus alluded to in the same tract:—‘Colonel Martin’s approach with his Levellers in these parts hath alarmed the Country and put themselves into a posture to receive them, and for preservation of their ancient rights and liberties against their new design of levelling, who by their strange, politick, and subtill delusions have wrought into the hearts of divers people to ingage with them, especially among those who are of a desperate fortune, and mean condition, the basest and vilest of men resorting to them. They rob and plunder exceedingly wheresoever they come, saying they will levell all sorts of people, even from the highest to the lowest, and that he that hath the most shall be equall with him that hath the least.’

CRUELTIES OF THE CAVALIERS, 1644.

In a pamphlet relating to the events of Charles I.’s reign there are some of the etchings previously noticed, together with nine others illustrating the history of the same period. They are:—1. The Court of High Commission and Star Chamber. 2. The Execution on Tower Hill of Sir Alexander Carew, Sir John Hotham, Captain Hotham, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. 3. The King’s Escape from Oxford. 4. The Execution of the Duke of Hamilton, Earl of Cambridge, Earl of Holland, and Arthur Lord Capel. 5. The Coronation of Charles II. in Scotland, 1650. 6. A Meeting of Cavaliers. 7. A Seapiece illustrating Charles II.’s Escape from England after the Battle of Worcester. 8. Reading the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, 1651. 9. The House of Commons in Session. The full title of the pamphlet is as follows:—‘A Brief Review of the most material Parliamentary Proceedings of this present Parliament, and their Armies, in their civil and Martial Affairs, which Parliament began the third of November, 1640, and the remarkable Transactions are continued untill the Act of Oblivion February 24, 1652. Published as a Breviary, leading all along successively, as they fell out in their several years. So that if any man will be informed of any remarkable passage, he may turne to the year and so see in some measure in what Moneth thereof it was accomplished. And for information of such as are altogether ignorant of the rise and progress of these times, which things are brought to pass that former ages have not heard of and after ages will admire. A work worthy to be kept in Record, and communicated to Posterity. London: Printed for Tho. Jenner at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange.’ From the above I have copied the etching of the escape of Charles I. from Oxford.

ESCAPE OF CHARLES I. FROM OXFORD, 1646.

It is stated by Hume that when the King escaped from Oxford he was accompanied by two persons only—Dr. Hudson and Mr. Ashburnham—and that he rode before a portmanteau and called himself Ashburnham’s servant. The engraving scarcely corresponds with this account; but the scene represented is evidently outside the city of Oxford, and other persons may then have joined the King’s party.

The city of Oxford surrendered to the Parliament on June 24, 1646, the King having signed a warrant for the surrender fourteen days previously. This event is recorded in a pamphlet entitled ‘Good Newes from Oxford of the Treaty for the Surrender thereof, and how they are packing up to march away on Thursday next, June 18, 1646.’ The ‘march away,’ however, was not accomplished till the 24th. Amongst those who left the place were Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, and the King’s second son, James, the young Duke of York. The illustration to this pamphlet has no relation to the event, and was used on other occasions.

The funeral of the Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary General, who died in 1646, was made the occasion of a great display of pomp and ceremonial magnificence, which was duly chronicled and illustrated by the journalists of the time. ‘The true manner and forme of the proceeding to the Funerall of Devereux, Earl of Essex,’ contains, besides a copperplate portrait of the Earl, numerous woodcuts of banners, and the funeral canopy. Several illustrated broadsides relating to this event were also published. In looking over the old newspapers we are frequently reminded of the truth of the saying that ‘history repeats itself.’ The Duke of Wellington’s funeral in 1852 was a repetition, on a much more splendid scale, of the funeral of the Earl of Essex in 1646, with such differences as arose from the taste and circumstances of the time. Portraits of the Earl of Essex are of frequent occurrence in the pamphlets of this period.

In the pamphlet containing the escape of the King from Oxford there is an etching of the burning of the Book of Sports on the site of Cheapside Cross, which is thus described:—‘10 of May the Booke of Sportes upon the Lords Day was burned by the Hangman in the place where the Crosse stoode and at Exchange.’ There is also in the same pamphlet a representation of breaking the Great Seal:—‘The Great Seale broken before the Lords and Commons, on Tuesday, the 11 of August, 1646.’ Some authorities say the Great Seal was not broken till January, 1649, new style.