Equestrian Statue of James II.
by William (Willem) Larson.
Set up in front of the Town's Chambers on the Sandhill, Newcastle upon Tyne - Bronze - en levade (standing on back legs) - thrown into the river Tyne
in1688 by the people of Newcastle after the Glorious Revolution - William
Larson -
Early in 1686, following the example of a number of bodies in the country, the Newcastle Common Council decided to show their loyalty to James II by erecting 'His Ma:ties Statue'. On 12th April 1686 a contract was duly drawn up stipulating that William Larson of London was to be the sculptor and that the overall cost was not to exceed £800 nor to take more than five months. 'William Larson shall and will at his owne costs and charges according to such direccion and advice as shall be given him by Sir Christopher Wren (his Majestyes Surveyour generall) make and cast the ffigure of his majesty King James the Second in good Cannon Brass in moderne habitt on a Capering Horse as large as that of his late Majesty King Charles the First at Charing Cross on a Pedestall of Black and White Marble of equall height and Magnitude to the said ffigure...' .
However, despite these stipulations, the statue, it seems, took longer than the five months allowed, the last payment being made to Larson on 4th September 1688. Larson, it is now thought, was probably helped with the modelling of the horse by John Wyck who was renowned at the time for his painting of equestrian subjects. The completed statue enjoyed an exceedingly short life. There had always been those who saw its erection as papist propaganda and, following the Glorious Revolution, it was pulled down by an unruly mob on the 11th May 1689.
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There is a bronze statuette height 64 cms in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Purchased in 1902.
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Engraving above by Joseph Barber, Humbles Buildings, Newcastle - 1742
Engraving of the Equestrian Statue of James II by William Larson
From - A
historical and descriptive account of All Saints church in Newcastle. Written
1826
In 1696
the five old bells in the steeple were taken down and six new bells cast and
hung in the new frames by Christopher Hodson of London for which he received
over One Hundred and Eighty Two pounds.
The old
bells weighed 58 cwt 1 qr 21 lbs and the new ones 58 cwt 3 qrs 18.5 lbs.
On the petition of the Churchwardens, the
Corporation granted them “The metal that was left of the Horse part” of the
Statue of King James the Second, which formerly stood on the Sandhill, but “in
the conclusion of the year 1688 was by Some officers and soldiers pulled down
and defaced. (Thrown into the
river) William Creagh organised this
statue of King James II.
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The Larson Statue of James II was Commissioned in April 1686 and set up August September 1688 (Esdaile)
The last statue of James II to be erected was this fine equestrian one ' in moderne Habitt' which was set up in August or September 1688. The sculptor, Larson, was the artist whom Pepys visited in 1668/9 to have his face cast. Unhappily, it was pulled down in May 1689, thus encountering a worse fate than the Kings Lynn statue of James II, which can have been only partially damaged.
A bronze Model is in the National Gallery of Ireland. Height 64 cms.
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" C. UNKNOWN SCULPTOR. KING'S LYNN
This statue is also in need of being rescued from oblivion. In Vertue's Note· books there Occurs the following jotting among the passages dealing with his tour of the East of England in (739 : , at Lynn a very large market Place the statue of King James 2d standing on a Pedestal-King Charles 2d at the Custom House Key King Charles I in Kingstoffyard:"
Benjamin Mackerell's History and Antiquities . .. if King's Lynn (1738) contains a detailed narrative of the circumstances attending the erection of the statue .
• An Account of King JAMES the lId's Statue and the Rejoycings at the Setting up the Statue if him in the Market.
On the 13th [sic] Day of April, 1686 which was the Anniversary of their Majesties Coronations the same was kept with all due Solemnity; the Mayor, Aldermen, and the rest of the Body, meeting in their Formalities in the Guildhall, after Divine Service at the Church, proceeded from thence, attended with Musiek, to the Great Market-Place; in the Middle whereof, by the Gentlemen, and other Loyal Inhabitants of the Corporation, was then erected the Effigies of his Sacred Majesty upon a Pedestal, with several Carvings and Embellishments, inclosed with a Pallisade of Iron, under it thus inscribed,
Non lmmemor Qantum Divinis Invictiss. Principis
JACOBI II
Virtutibus debeat
Hanc Regiae Majestatis Effigiem
AEternum Fidei & Obsequii
Monumentum, Erexit
S.P.Q.L.
Anno Salutis 1686.
' A translation of the inscription follows, and then we learn:
'N.B. The King, Queen, and the rest of the Royal Family's Healths were drank; and the Day was concluded with Ringing of Bells, Bonfires, all Sorts of loud Musick, Fireworks, discharging the Great Guns, with all other Demonstrations of joy and Loyalty.''
'' Unfortunately the borough records are silent about the sculptor of the statue and the amount paid to him. The only references are the following entries in the Corporation Hall Book No. 10 :
19th April, 1686. On Friday next being the anniversary day of His Majesty's Coronation. A statue the effigy of his sacred Majesty being that day intended to be set up in the Market place at the comon charge of many of the Loyal Inhabitants of this Burgh. Order the said day be solomnized with ringing bells, this house here meeting in their formalities to attend divine service and from thence with the town music to the uncovering of the said statue and the day to be ended with bonfires and fireworks.
'Friday, 1St March, 1689. Order publication be made of 40S reward to any person that shall make discovery of the disorderly persons that of late broke the statue in the market place. (foot notes 70 and 71)
The absence of any record of payment to the sculptor in the Corporation books suggests that the matter was transacted by a private individual. A possible clue to the identity of the artist does, however, occur to me (K. A. Esdaile). The statue of Charles II on the Custom House mentioned by Vertue was the gift in 1683 of Alderman Sir john Turner. From the similarity of the style of this Charles II with that of the work of Caius Gabriel Cibber (the likeness between the shield of arms below the statue and the one which Cibber executed for the Steelyard, the headquarters of the Hanseatic League in London, now in the Guildhall Museum, should be particularly noticed), I would suggest that it may be by Cibber.
(Notes 70 and 71) - We are greatly indebted to the Town Clerk of Lynn, Mr. Frank Reeves, for help most readily given, and for permission to quote these extracts, which he has had transcribed for us).
""Moreover, we know from a letter preserved among the Rutland
MSS. that Cibber visited Lynn in 1682 in connexion with the Rutland monuments
upon which he was engaged for Bottesford Church.
It seems not unlikely that the
sculptor employed by Turner would also have been employed by the gentlemen of
Lynn; so that if Cibber did indeed do the Charles II, he may likewise have been
responsible for the James II.
Judging by the tiny representation of the statue
which occurs in William Rastrick's map of Lynn 1725, (Below) " James was
portrayed as a Roman soldier; a baton is clearly visible. The market cross
(1710) before which it stood was taken down in 1831, about which time a new
market house was built on the site of the neighbouring Angel Inn.
It seems
probable that the statue was removed at this date, but no record appears to
exist of this or of what became of it; it may possibly be lurking somewhere in
Lynn or its vicinity even now for it is hard to believe that it was
deliberately destroyed." To-day the James II is confused with the statue
of Charles I which (George) Vertue noted in 1739 :14 this stands in a niche on the front
of the House of Excise in King Staithe Square, and is described as James I in
some histories of Lynn ; hence, perhaps, the mistake".
The statue of James II on a pedestal in the market place at
King’s Lynn was seen by George Vertue
see - G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXVI, 1938, V, p
122.
Bibliography - see -
article - The University College Statue of James II by KA Esdaile and MR Toynbee.
Article - Pepys Plaisterer, KA Edaile Times Literary Supplement 2 October 1943, page 480.
Article - A Statuette of James II MR Toynbee, Country Life, 29 September 1950. p. 1007.
Article -The
Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture
for Gardens and Painters' Studios - Frits
Scholten in Simiolus:
Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art .Vol. 31,
No. 1/2 (2004 - 2005), pp. 54-89.
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A
standing figure of Charles II in Roman tunic, without mantle or toga, holding a
baton signifying authority in his right hand and resting his left hand on his
hip.
The statue was installed by the Newcastle
Common Council in a niche on the south front of the Magazine Gate of the
medieval Tyne Bridge 'soon after the restoration' of 1660.(1) There it was one
of the most prominent pieces of public sculpture in the region and for a time
had a decidedly political character: witness the motto it bore, 'Adventus Regis
solamen gregis' ('the coming of the king is the comfort of the people'). The
statue of the first Stuart king, James I, had previously occupied this key site
but had been removed by Parliament in 1651 to make way for the arms of the
Commonwealth (motto, 'True Liberty takes away no man's right, or hinders no
man's right').
Unlike William Larson's equestrian statue of James II (TWNEA09
q.v.) the statue of Charles II survived the aftermath of the Glorious
Revolution. It was moved to its present position inside the Guildhall when
eventually the Magazine Gate was demolished in 1770 so that the north entrance
to the bridge could be widened. However, according to one writer it was already
in a poor state by the 1730s. '[The statue] was wont to look exceedingly
beautiful, and in coming along the Bridge from the South, was a very worthy and
conspicuous Ornament to the Town; but of late it is pretty much obscur'd with
Dust, if not defac'd with the Weather, through the Want of being put into a
little Order and Regularity.'(2) It has been suggested on stylistic grounds
that the statue may be by William Larson.(3)
Charles II (1630 -85) was 'restored' to
the throne in 1660 after having spent much of his youth in exile on the
Continent. As king he favoured absolutism, toleration for Catholics and war
with Holland, but unlike other members of the Stuart family he was astute
enough to back down when faced with determined opposition. Accordingly, in 1673
he agreed to the Test Act excluding Catholics from office and in 1674 made
peace with Holland. Eventually thanks to secret subsidies from Louis XIV in
France he was able to fulfil his political ambitions by dispensing with
Parliament and at his death he left the throne to his openly Catholic brother,
James, Duke of York.
Inscriptions - incised
on base in Roman letters painted black: CAROLUS.II.REX
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19.1 x 16.7 cms image size
'Pubd.
May 13 1701 by N Smith No18 Gt Mays Buildings'. 4th state - Plate from John Thomas
Smith's 'Antiquities of London' (1791).
