Following Napoleon’s exile to St. Helena, Louis XVIII was restored to the throne as King of France but with limited power, thanks to shrewd negotiations by Talleyrand, who became prime minister.  Louis was generally believed to be incapable of holding onto the throne without continued support from outside France.  In August of 1815, an ultraroyalist parliament was elected, and Talleyrand was forced to resign as prime minister.  The Duke of Richelieu took over and eventually disbanded parliament until he could engineer election of a more controllable group.  The drawing expresses widespread criticism of the Restoration, taking a shot at all the key players.  It appeared in the midst of a series of articles in the Examiner that expressed dislike of the Bourbons, chagrin at Napoleon’s defeat and exile, horror at the excesses of the ultraroyalists, and resentment that England was still paying to keep Louis XVIII in power. <br><br><p>A rotund Louis XVIII is at the top of the greased pole, supported by (from top to bottom) the Duke of Wellington, King Frederick of Prussia, Tsar Alexander of Russia, and Francis, Emperor of Austria.  Francis kneels on money bags labeled “English subsidies.”  Each ruler carries plans for their own interests, and makes self-serving comments.  The King of Rome, depicted as a miniature Napoleon, implores his mother Marie Louise of Austria to make her father leave everyone alone.  Marie Louise is beyond political action, however, and merely wails at the absence of Napoleon.  Chateaubriand, aligned with the ultraroyalists, is shown in the left foreground, standing on a stack of books and dressed half in military attire and half in cleric’s costume.  He has the look of a madman, and spouts nonsensical support for the Bourbons and the Church.  To the right of Chateaubriend, Talleyrand and Fouché lament their downfall, blaming it on Chateabriand.  The Duc d’Angoulême stands loyally to the right of the pole, ready to assist his uncle the king, while his wife tells him he won’t get onto the throne himself in that way.  (In fact, he did become King of France in 1824.)  To his right, Viscount Castlereagh (English negotiator at the Congress of Vienna) advises the duc de Richelieu, newly named prime minister, to “divide and conquer.”  Behind them, a diminished John Bull holds out a money bag and implores the others to take it.  In the left background, Napoleon dwarfs the island of St. Helena and watches in disgust, noting that he came to power twice with no help from anyone else.  In the right background, a massacre of Protestants is taking place at Nîmes and the Pope has climbed a second pole.  He calls out to Louis XVIII that he should keep going to Heaven, that he’ll accomplish little on earth.  At the base of the Pope’s pole, a man is being burned at the stake while another man watches, waving his hat and shouting “Long live the King.”  A nearby monk holds up a cross, looking towards another murder scene and says “Down with the Protestants.”  These scenes are representative of the White Terror, an anti-Protestant and anti-Jacobin movement in the early years of the Restoration.<br><br>
Reference source: George #12614<br><br><br>
Adapted from a French print (De Vinck #9205), which shows a fat abbé trying to gras the prize, which is jobs and decorations for 1815.<br><br></p>
<ul><li>Subjects (LCSH): Political cartoons; History--Caricatures &amp; cartoons; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821; Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815; Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, 1777-1825; Frederick William III, King of Prussia, 1770-1840; Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852; Louis XVIII, King of France, 1755-1824; Francis I, Emperor of Austria, 1768-1835; Bonaparte, François-Charles-Joseph, Herzog von Reichstadt, 1811-1832; Marie Louise, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1791-1847; Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de, 1768-1848; Talleyrand-Périgord, Augustin Louis, comte de, 1770-1832; Pius VII, Pope, 1742-1823; Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822; Richelieu, Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, duc de, 1766-1822; Angoulême, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, duchesse d', 1778-1851; Angoulême, Louis-Antoine d'Artois, duc d', 1775-1844</li></ul>
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:George_Cruikshank" class="extiw" title="w:en:George Cruikshank"><span title="British caricaturist and book illustrator; (1792-1878)">George Cruikshank</span></a>
</bdi>
1815<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1815-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://content.lib.washington.edu/napoleonweb/index.html">Napoleonic Period Collection</a>