Wy ryden naar St. Omer. - 18th Century engraved caricature.

Caricature - [Batavian Revolt - Democracy - Orangists - William V of Orange - Court jesters] Wy ryden naar St. Omer. Northern Nederlands, (1787). Plate size: ca. 25 x 18.5 cm; Sheet size: ca. 32 x 26 cm. Engraved political caricature depicting the defeated Patriots as 3 court fools riding on donkeys to St. Omer in France.


Fine and rare engraved political print, a caricature by the Orangists on the flight of the defeated Dutch Patriots to St. Omer, France in 1787. The Patriots, a revolutionary democratic movement, also in favour of the American Independence, challenged from about 1780 more and more the authority of the Stadtholder William V of Orange. In 1785 Wiliam even had to move his court to the Southern Netherlands. But his more energetic wife, sister of Frederik Wilhelm II of Prussia, tried to force the issue by travelling to The Hague. After she was stopped at Goejanverwellesluis by the Patriots of Gouda, she made her brother raid the Northern Netherlands. It marked the end of the Dutch Patriot movement and the return of William V to The Hague. The Patriots had to wait until the French Revolution for democratic reforms.

Good copy of an amusing political print with broad, (the full original) blank margins. -
Muller, Historieplaten, 5026; Atlas van Stolk 4056; Grijzenhout, F. (a.o.), Voor Vaderland en Vrijheid. De revolutie van de patriotten, p. 168; Compare with the copy in the Rijksmuseum: inv. nr: RP-P-OB-85.964 -.