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The Execution of Lord Guildford Dudley on Tower Hill.
George Cruikshank
1840
wood-engraving
8.0 cm high by 7.7 cm wide vignetted
Title-page, William Harrison Ainsworth's The Tower of London. A Historical Romance. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1840.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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As he was about to set forward, a young man pushed through the lines of halberdiers, and threw himself at his feet. It was Cholmondeley. Dudley instantly raised and embraced him. "At least I see one whom I love,"he cried.
"My lord, this interruption must not be," observed the lieutenant. "If you do not retire,"he added, to Cholmondeley, "I shall place you in arrest."
"Farewell, my dear lord," cried the weeping esquire — "farewell!"
"Farewell, for ever!" —returned Dudley, as Cholmondeley was forced back by the guard.
The escort then moved forward, and the lieutenant accompanied the prisoner to the gateway of the Middle Tower, where he delivered him to the sheriffs and their officers, who were waiting there for him with a Franciscan friar, and then returned to fulfil his more painful duty. A vast crowd was collected on Tower Hill, and the strongest commiseration was expressed for Dudley, as he was led to the scaffold, on which Mauger had already taken his station. [Book Two — "Mary the Queen," Chapter 42, "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey," pp. 419-20]
Throughout much of 1840, Ainsworth worked simultaneously on the serial versions of The Tower of London and Guy Fawkes while planning the inaugural number of Ainsworth's Magazine. He published both novels beginning in January 1840 in monthly instalments (thirteen parts). He then published The Tower of London in volume form simultaneously with the appearance of the thirteenth and final instalment in the December 1840 number, while Guy Fawkes continued its serial run until November 1841. Ainsworth celebrated the conclusion of the serial and volume forms of The Tower of London with a grand banquet near the offices of his printers, Bradbury and Evans, at the Sussex Hotel.
Explaining the working relationship of Ainsworth and Cruikshank, Ruari Maclean points out that
author and artist visited the Tower each month to study carefully the scene for the next instalment, and then dined convivially together at Ainsworth's house. It was this arrangement, whereby text and illustrations were produced separately, after discussion, that gave Cruikshank an excuse for exaggerating the nature and importance of his own share in the work. [p. 31]
The title-page vignette combines the two kinds of illustrations Cruikshank made for this novel — (1) the realization of an historical event with (2) its physical setting, Tower Hill, the environs of which Cruikshank sketched extensively throughout 1840 in preparation for the book's fifty-eight wood-engravings. In the vignette, Cruikshank sets up the reader's anticipation of politically-motivated beheadings.
The date at which the book ends and which the illustration depicts is 12 February 1554, when Lady Jane Grey, The Nine Days' Queen, followed her husband to the scaffold at the Tower of London.Queen Mary Tudor, accepting the Privy Council's advice, had condemned Jane Grey and Dudley to death for high treason in November 1553, but she then delayed their executions. However, after Jane's father, Henry Grey, the Duke of Suffolk, joined Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion in January 1554 after Queen Mary's decided to marry King Philip of Spain, Mary and the Privy Council realised that Protestants might rally around Jane. Mary therefore reluctantly agreed to their execution.
Ainsworth does not actually describe how Dudley met his death; rather, the novelist focusses upon his wife's reactions, particularly as she regards his body brought away from the scaffold on Tower Green. Thus, the illustration in this way prepares the reader for a moment left to the reader's imagination in chapter 42. Moreover, since the title-page vignette bears no caption, the reader may well misinterpret the figure about to be executed as the Duke of Northumberland (executed on 22 August 1553) or even Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, executed on 11 April 1554. However, Cruikshank telegraphs which figure is about to be executed by the presence of the Franciscan on the scaffold, although not until chapter 42 will readers receive absolute confirmation of the identity of the lithe young man about to meet his fate on the scaffold.
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Last modified 27 September 2017