La Feste Des fools—Roys, aux Invalides (The Feast of Fools—Kings, at the Invalides)

This Dutch etching satirizes King James II's flight to France following the Glorious Revolution. The composition depicts a chaotic street scene crowded with figures in fool's costumes and royal regalia, their authority rendered absurd through exaggerated gesture and grotesque caricature. The architectural setting—identifiable as the Invalides in Paris—grounds the satire in contemporary exile politics. The print descends from Northern European traditions of political mockery, where etching allowed rapid, widely distributed commentary on dynastic upheaval. Carnival imagery and the inversion of social hierarchy—fools crowned as kings—became stock devices for attacking unpopular rulers. This work exemplifies how the popular print trade transformed political crisis into visual propaganda, establishing visual satire's role as a tool of public opinion before the rise of the modern press.