The Expelled Ban-Lord of Beyeren

This Dutch satirical engraving depicts a mounted figure in chaotic flight, labeled as the Ban-Lord of Beyeren (Bavaria), driven from his seat as Captain of the Ban-Arrière-Ban during the War of Spanish Succession. The composition—a single dramatic scene rendered in fine-line etching—continues the Northern European tradition of political prints that shaped later comic satire. The figure's undignified pose, the tumbling chaos of his retinue, and the triumphant inscriptions mock military defeat through bodily humiliation. Published in 1706 during anti-French/anti-Bavarian sentiment in the Dutch Republic, this print exemplifies how engraved satire communicated partisan politics to the literate public—a direct ancestor to the editorial cartoon and comic narrative tradition.