London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal

In the 17th century, the English political landscape became split between the parliamentarians and the royalists. This was a period of great social and political upheaval: King Charles I was executed after refusing to share power with the elected members of Parliament, and the monarchy was dispelled and then restored. After William II of Holland took over as King of England in 1688, a new constitution was drafted, making the crown accountable to Parliament. As the 18th century dawned, parliamentarian Whigs were ascendant. At the time Johnson wrote “London,” Robert Walpole, the leader of the Whigs, became the de facto Prime Minister of England. Not everyone was happy with constitutional monarchy. The royalist Tories, sidelined as Whig power grew, began accusing the Whigs of promoting foreign interests over those of England, since they had helped a Dutch king ascend the English throne. Additionally, the Whigs were seen as partisan opportunists, promoting sycophants and in league with new money and the urban elite, buoyed by the first stirrings of the Industrial Revolution. While increased parliamentary involvement did theoretically mean more participatory rule, in practice the system lent itself to corruption. The Tories, including the deeply conservative Johnson and consisting primarily of landowning old-money nobility, touted their connection to the countryside and cast themselves as patriots supporting British values.