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Catholic emancipation and British print cultures, 1821-9

During the course of the Parliamentary debates about Catholic emancipation in 1829, around 120 original, single sheet prints were published in London on the topic of Catholic Relief, at which point it was almost the sole subject of visual satire. This was the first time in living memory that a debate around toleration and the relationship between temporal and spiritual authority had been conducted on such a wide reaching scale. On 3 February 1829 the King, George IV, the head of the Anglican Church, had introduced Roman Catholic Relief in his speech for the opening of the 1829 Parliamentary session. By 13 April 1829 an Act to grant Roman Catholics civil liberty was given Royal Assent, revoking laws that prevented non-Anglicans from holding public office. This had followed four failed attempts to introduce Catholic Relief in the 1820s which had also prompted satirical image making, but never on the same scale. This thesis analyses for the first time the extensive body of prints produced in 1821-9 that relate to debates around Relief and addresses the questions: why were images produced, why were they predominately single sheet etchings, and who was so interested in Catholic emancipation as to be buying them in such quantities?

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:690826
Date January 2016
CreatorsHegenbarth, Carly Louise
PublisherUniversity of Birmingham
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6857/

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