Early 18th century map celebrating the Hanoverian Ascendency

WILLDEY, George.

To His Sacred and most Excellent Maj.esty George By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France & Ireland &c This Map of Great Britain and Ireland Corrected from the Newest & most Exact Observations is most Humbly Dedicated by Your Majesty's Loyal and most Obedient Subject and Servant, George Willdey. 1715.
London: Willdey, 1715. Original colour refreshed. Two sheets conjoined, total 950 x 655mm.

Trimmed into lateral printed borders, repaired with mss fill, repairs to binding folds.

A large and superbly decorated map of the British Isles, dedicated to George I the year after he succeeded Queen Anne as British monarch.

Although he should have been more than 50th in line for the throne, George (the Elector of Hanover) leapfrogged the catholics barred from the succession. His coronation was not universally popular: Parliament was split between supportive Whigs and the Tories who believed in the hereditary rights of the Stuarts. In 1715 (the year of publication of this map) the Jacobite Rebellion broke out, attempting to reclaim the throne for the Stuarts.

It was in this atmosphere that the map was published, filled with pro-Hanoverian propaganda: a roundel portrait of George, a large and elaborate Royal Crest, and an allegorical vignette of Hercules slaying the many-headed hydra of rebellion.


Stock ID : 20049