[A Map and Views of the State of England; a comparison of the English and Bohemian Civil Wars]

Untitled engraved map, first state, surrounded by sixteen vignettes, descriptive verse below the image, central vertical fold, overall size 360 x 480mm, [c.1643].

Wenceslaus Hollar’s faith in maps as a medium to convey information is demonstrated in his bold choice of a map to express his anguish at the outbreak of the English Civil War while the Thirty Years War was still raging on the continent. The English Civil War took place alongside the end of the longer, more widespread and bloodier conflict in mainland Europe: the Bohemian Civil War (or Hussite Wars) of 1619-1634. A Bohemian Protestant himself, Hollar was in Prague and the illustrative panels recount the events that unleashed war in his native and adopted countries from a Protestant perspective. Britain is shown filled with troops, while on the continent he depicts the victory of the Catholic German Emperor, Ferdinand II, over the Bohemian Protestants at the Battle of the White Mountain outside Prague in November 1620. Hollar draws the scenes together through the clever use of the double-headed Imperial eagle – half in the British Isles, half in the scene of Prague.

The central images are surrounded by seventeen vignette scenes of historical events corresponding to the rhyming couplets beneath the illustration. Among these are a scene showing Jenny Geddes throwing her stool at Mr Hannay, the Dean of St Giles, Edinburgh, when he began to read from the new prayer book [C]; the King dissolving his fourth Parliament in 1640 (F) and also confronting Speaker Lenthall as he attempts to arrest five members (I); peaceful bucolic scenes reflecting on life before the wars (O; P); Emperor Matthias making Ferdinand King of Hungary (T); the citizens of Prague presenting Frederick of the Palatinate with the crown of Bohemia (V); the Defenestration of Prague when the Barons’ secretary was ejected from a castle window, and remarkably survived (W); the execution of Protestant prisoners after the Battle of the White Mountain (Z). In the centre of these columns in a roundel (M), captioned “Twas a Curst Cow, kickt down ye Milk shee gave: Let us old Englands Lawes and Freedome have”. The cow kicking over milk-pail had become an emblem of civil war.

Hollar offers a contemporary political commentary – the reference to historical events draws certain parallels with contemporary ones. As Hollar comments (XY) ‘Warre’s sweet before ‘tis try’d’. The Latin inscription is taken from Virgil’s Eclogue 1. A scarce allegorical map.

[BM Satires, 145; Shirley, 529; Pennington 543]