NAM.1978-02-21-1

A General Discharge or the Darling Angel’s Finishing Stroke. Coloured etching by and after Thomas Rowlandson. Published by Thomas Tegg, London. Print depicts a woman sitting astride a cannon hammering a spike into it while Frederick Duke of York kneels to the right. Inscribed as title and in speech bubbles, ‘A Wise General shoud [sic] make good in Retreat’ ‘Alas! Alas for ever ruined and Undone / See see she has spiked my great Gun’. As Commander in Chief of the Army Frederick Duke of York had considerable powers to appoint and promote officers. In 1809 a Parliamentary enquiry established that his mistress, Mary Anne Clarke, had been accepting money for promising to use her influence with him to promote various individuals. There was no evidence that the Duke was involved in these transactions, but the scandal forced him to resign temporarily as Commander in Chief.