The political constellation of the personal union between England and Hanover lasted for 123 years. The figure of a foreign king became a determining factor and was in itself a historical condition for the emergence and the development of caricatures in England after the Glorious Revolution. The contributors of the volume show that, as a political weapon of the opposition and as an institution of public opinion, the caricatures affected the establishment. Is the visual criticism of the rulers more than a loyal subversion of their subjects?

Elisabeth Reich is Scientific Assistant at the Wilhelm Busch - Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst in Hanover, Germany. Anorthe Kremers is Vice Head of the Conferences & Symposia department at the Volkswagen Foundation, based in Hanover.