ABSTRACT
The struggle against republican France became an iconographical contest as well, one which sought to identify the best way to symbolize the national values for which Britons sacrificed, fought and died. But at a deeper level, this struggle tended to highlight what it meant to be British, and was a significant background factor in the emergence of a new, more modern version of the collective national identity. Artists experimented with several different figures, but ultimately, John Bull emerged as the most popular symbol of the nation, marking the growing importance of middle-class public opinion. The increasing use of John Bull as a national symbol in caricature was preceded by a change in the way one of Britain's oldest national icons was used. Britannia, who had symbolized the British Isles since Roman times, was used during the reign of James I to stress the union of Scotland and England under one crown.
