Jeffery Hudson, 1644

Date1789

MediumInk on paper, engraving

DimensionsFRAMED: 17 × 13 in. (43.2 × 33 cm)
MATTED: 16 × 11 in. (40.6 × 27.9 cm)
SHEET: 10 × 6 1/4 in. (25.4 × 15.9 cm)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineTibbals Circus Collection

Object numberht8000288

Few people have life stories as exciting as that of Jeffrey Hudson. Born in 1619, Hudson stood only 18 inches tall by the age of seven when he was presented to England’s Queen Henrietta Maria. Dressed in a miniature suit of armor, he rose out of a pie during a royal banquet. Hudson travelled with the queen and was appointed a “Captain of Horse” at the outset of the conflict between Royalists and Parliamentarians in 1642. Next, he joined the queen in exile in France, but was soon expelled from court, having killed another courtier in a duel in 1644. Shortly after leaving France, Hudson was on a ship captured by Barbary pirates and spent 25 years enslaved in North Africa. At some time in the 1660s, Hudson was rescued by an English mission to ransom captives. Upon his return it was noted that Hudson had grown to a final height of 45 inches. By 1676 he was back in London, where he was imprisoned for four years as part of the anti-Catholic movement of the time. He died about two years later.

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