Molehills Into Mountains: An Unusual London Statue

On the face of it, the statue of William III in St James’s Square looks fairly standard. Plinth: tick, horse: tick, King dressed as a Roman: tick.

Look closely however and you will notice something strange under the horse’s back-left hoof… a odd mound.

It has been speculated that this unusual feature represents the molehill that lead to the King’s untimely demise.

King William III

Firstly, a quick introduction to King William III.

William was born in 1650, the son of Prince William of Holland, the stadtholder (de facto head of state) of the Dutch republic. His mother was Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I. In 1677 he married Mary II, daughter of future King James II.

William was a staunch Protestant, well known for fighting the Catholic Louis XIV of France. James II became King in 1685 and was a Catholic. Fearing a return of Catholicism under James, significant religious and political figures, helped William ‘invade’ England and depose James. This event was known as the ‘Glorious Revolution’.

William ruled England, Scotland and Ireland as King alongside his wife Queen Mary II from 1689-1694, until Mary’s death, from which point he reigned alone until 1702.

The Curious Statue

A statue of William was first proposed in 1697, during the King’s lifetime, to be erected in St James’s Square: the home of many of his most stalwart supporters.

The statue was funded in the will of an MP, Samuel Travers, who died in 1725. However, nothing was commissioned until 1794 when the job was given to John Bacon, the most well known sculptor of the day. Bacon died before it could be finished and it was passed to his son John Bacon Junior.

It was finally completed in 1808 and was based on a statue in Queen’s Square in Bristol by John Michael Rysbrack, erected 1736 (pictured below).

As you can see it depicts William III in Roman dress; a style of statue popularised by the Stuart monarchs.

He is riding a ‘spirited’ horse and beneath the back-left hoof; the molehill. Or is it?

“The Little Gentleman in Velvet”

In 1702 William III fell from his horse at Hampton Court Palace and broke his collarbone. It is thought that the horse tripped on a molehill, therefore throwing the King to the ground.

Not long after, he died from pneumonia, due to complications from the event.

A toast popular amongst Jacobites (supporters of the deposed James II) after his death, was to “the little gentleman in velvet”, aka the mole!

The Molehill

Is it really a molehill? Here is my twopence on the matter:

Statues of this nature that include horses seem to usually only have one hoof unattached to the ground, presumably for stability.

If a second hoof is off the ground then there is something underneath it to attach it to the base. For example, Charles I’s statue in Trafalgar Square- it has a very small hill under the ‘raised’ back-left hoof.

There is no evidence to suggest it was an intentional element to the either the Bristol or London statue of William. The mound, however, in the London example is more pronounced than that in the Bristol one.

As the London statue was produced well after the death of the King himself, therefore unlikely to upset anyone, perhaps it was enlarged as a subtle reference to the molehill. It is certainly unusual in how pronounced it is.

Either way, it makes for a good story and something to look out for on your London traverses. What do you think? Molehill, mountain or a load of moonshine? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading, more of London’s quirky history below…