Philip V's Flight from the Spanish Court

This Dutch engraving satirizes King Philip V of Spain during the War of Spanish Succession, depicting him fleeing his palace in panic. The composition—with ornate architectural framing, Latin inscriptions, and paired texts in Dutch and French—typifies early eighteenth-century political prints that circulated across Northern Europe. The figure's exaggerated posture and undignified retreat mock his authority and resolve. Such engravings descended from the Reformation broadsheet tradition and prefigured Hogarth's moral narratives. As propaganda against the Bourbon succession, it demonstrates how prints shaped international opinion before newspapers, employing visual caricature and multilingual texts to reach educated audiences across competing states.