The Funeral procession of Mary II

Object Type
This print is an engraving and etching. An etching is produced by biting lines in a metal plate with acid. An engraving is made by cutting lines into a plate with a special tool. Here the printmaker has used both methods on a single piece of metal. The lines were then filled with ink and printed onto paper to produce the image.

Subject Depicted
Queen Mary's funeral took place on the 15 March 1695, several months after her death on 28 December. A grand and solemn ceremony was arranged despite her wishes to the contrary. It was an occasion for the nation to express its grief at the loss of a much-loved monarch, but also an opportunity for Mary's husband, William, to reinforce his position as the rightful monarch. This was important to counter any claim to the throne by the exiled Roman Catholic ruler, James II.

Unlike other prints of funeral processions of the period, this one places the event in context. The artist shows the funeral cortège snaking away from the spectator towards the entrance of Westminster Abbey, London, where the Queen was to be buried. He gives a sense of the crowds of citizens that witnessed the event and indicates the season by the leafless tress in the top right-hand corner.

Ownership & Use
The spectacle of a royal figure being carried to the grave has always had great power. Printmakers and publishers responded rapidly to the demand for prints of such a solemn event. This example was intended for a Dutch market. Mary had spent her early adulthood at the Dutch court in The Hague. She had been a popular figure and the citizens of Holland would have been keen to obtain images of her funeral.