Popery, politics, and play: visual culture in succession crisis England

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article assesses the place of graphic satire in the burgeoning news culture of late seventeenth-century England. It argues that historians who have used visual sources as typical of party positions in a manner similar to modern political posters underestimate the sophistication of their interventions into politics. Graphic satires did not simply distil already existing ideologies into easily digestible images, but made significant contributions to political culture: through the repetition of key images from the Popish Plot (1678–1682) Whig graphic satire created a narrative which asserted control over the interpretation of events in a bitterly contested news culture. In response, Tory satirists developed sophisticated visual strategies to undermine that narrative, and it is argued that the graphic element of graphic satire – the skilful playfulness with which it parodied, commentated upon, or mocked other elements of news culture – was vital to its unleashing biting political commentary.