Statue of a Man on a Horse in front of the National Gallery

Across from St. Martin is the National Gallery, and in front of it stands a statue of a man on a horse--George IV himself. The massive columns at the front of the Gallery were scavenged from his home, the palatial Pal Mall residence built when he was still the Prince of Wales. At Carlton House, the notorious royal entertained the Mohawk warrior and leader Thayendenagea (Joseph Brant), whom we might imagine walking between the columns. Leader of loyalist Mohawk warriors who allied with Britain during the American Revolutionary War, Thayendenagea would visit Britain twice, first in 1775 in hopes of persuading George III to address Mohawk land claims in return for their loyalty. He returned in 1785, this time to ask for assistance in defending the Haudenosaunee Confederacy from attack by the Americans. Despite supporting him, the British did not give these assurances, and earlier promises around land claims had also gone unresolved. Thayendenagea relocated his people to lands set aside for them by the British (thus displacing other Indigenous communities) in what is now southern Ontario, in 1784.